Team Queue, Ladder, Streaming and Tournaments (BattleFy)
philogl
Join Date: 2012-10-24 Member: 163529Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Silver, WC 2013 - Silver
Join Date: 2012-10-24 Member: 163529Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Silver, WC 2013 - Silver
<div class="IPBDescription">esports lol</div>I know this has already been suggested a few times, but being able to queue with your friends fixes two issues. No one likes being stomped by a stacked team and not many people enjoy stomping pubs with a stacked team. It’s a team game and people want to play with their friends without having to wait in the ready room for enough people to join the opposing team. Secondly, you create an entirely new set of balance data based on organised team play.
I understand that at the moment the public games suggest the balance is 50/50, which is great as it means balance does not have to be the number one concern right now, this doesn’t necessarily mean I agree that balance exists, however it means that we can prioritise unifying the community and solidifying a strong player base that is motivated to continue to push the limits of their individual and team play. At the moment, there is no incentive to do this. Public players will say “well, that was fun†and stop playing it after a few months, max. A team based game with a purely versus mode is purchased by players interested in competition. The players who aren’t interested in competition are going to stop playing it after a short time regardless.
If we look at what all the top competitive games at the moment have in common, League of Legends, Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft (Arena) and Dota 2, all have some form of in-game ladder or ranking system. A ladder and ranking system is to the competitive player as achievements are to the single player gamer. Creating, playing and tracking the progress of your team on a ladder gives you incentive to keep playing, try new strategies and become better players.
Teams compete and practice on ladder in an environment where they can try new strategies and push the boundaries of the game. This is where balance kicks in and this is where competitive meta game shifts occur, more importantly, this is when competitive matches become infinitely more interesting as a viewer.
On that note, stream your NS2 gameplay live! As far as I know there are only one or two players that even have video footage of their scrims on YouTube let alone live streaming matches. Using services like twitch.tv and Own3d is an extremely cost effective way to keep NS2 in the public arena and increase current and ongoing sales. Seriously, if you like NS2 and want to help the community, stream it!
Tournaments are great, and I love that UWE have embraced this by partnering with BattleFy. The more teams we see competing on an official ladder means the more teams that will be signing up to tournaments. The more teams signing up to tournaments, the more interesting the tournaments become to watch. It would be fantastic to see Battlefy (or something like it) integrated into the game itself. Players could see a list of upcoming tournaments, based on their ladder rank, relevant to their region. Links to live tournament streams, dev/player interviews and player generated content IN-GAME would also be a great way to build a positive gaming community. The live twitter feed in the games menus is a great resource and yet another tool that can be used to promote regional and global tournaments and streams.
This isn’t an unrealistic goal. I really think most e-sports type games would really benefit from things that unify the community rather than pull it apart with different organisations running different tournaments/ladders that some people might not even know exist. I’ve seen enough niche competitive communities die to know that the next few weeks/months are crucial. I’ve also seen my fair share of poorly run launch tournaments put off new players and kill a game before it even had a chance. Don’t let this happen to NS2 (if it hasn’t already)!
If you guys are happy to leave it be a satisfying and immersive marine/alien frolic that the non-competitively minded players enjoy for a few weeks, then ignore this thread and I’ll go back to my dead niche community.
<b>TL;DR Create a ranked, team based, ladder and tournament system nested within the game itself. Encourage live stream and tournament stream content, make it accessible within the game and promoted using the menu twitter feed.</b>
I understand that at the moment the public games suggest the balance is 50/50, which is great as it means balance does not have to be the number one concern right now, this doesn’t necessarily mean I agree that balance exists, however it means that we can prioritise unifying the community and solidifying a strong player base that is motivated to continue to push the limits of their individual and team play. At the moment, there is no incentive to do this. Public players will say “well, that was fun†and stop playing it after a few months, max. A team based game with a purely versus mode is purchased by players interested in competition. The players who aren’t interested in competition are going to stop playing it after a short time regardless.
If we look at what all the top competitive games at the moment have in common, League of Legends, Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft (Arena) and Dota 2, all have some form of in-game ladder or ranking system. A ladder and ranking system is to the competitive player as achievements are to the single player gamer. Creating, playing and tracking the progress of your team on a ladder gives you incentive to keep playing, try new strategies and become better players.
Teams compete and practice on ladder in an environment where they can try new strategies and push the boundaries of the game. This is where balance kicks in and this is where competitive meta game shifts occur, more importantly, this is when competitive matches become infinitely more interesting as a viewer.
On that note, stream your NS2 gameplay live! As far as I know there are only one or two players that even have video footage of their scrims on YouTube let alone live streaming matches. Using services like twitch.tv and Own3d is an extremely cost effective way to keep NS2 in the public arena and increase current and ongoing sales. Seriously, if you like NS2 and want to help the community, stream it!
Tournaments are great, and I love that UWE have embraced this by partnering with BattleFy. The more teams we see competing on an official ladder means the more teams that will be signing up to tournaments. The more teams signing up to tournaments, the more interesting the tournaments become to watch. It would be fantastic to see Battlefy (or something like it) integrated into the game itself. Players could see a list of upcoming tournaments, based on their ladder rank, relevant to their region. Links to live tournament streams, dev/player interviews and player generated content IN-GAME would also be a great way to build a positive gaming community. The live twitter feed in the games menus is a great resource and yet another tool that can be used to promote regional and global tournaments and streams.
This isn’t an unrealistic goal. I really think most e-sports type games would really benefit from things that unify the community rather than pull it apart with different organisations running different tournaments/ladders that some people might not even know exist. I’ve seen enough niche competitive communities die to know that the next few weeks/months are crucial. I’ve also seen my fair share of poorly run launch tournaments put off new players and kill a game before it even had a chance. Don’t let this happen to NS2 (if it hasn’t already)!
If you guys are happy to leave it be a satisfying and immersive marine/alien frolic that the non-competitively minded players enjoy for a few weeks, then ignore this thread and I’ll go back to my dead niche community.
<b>TL;DR Create a ranked, team based, ladder and tournament system nested within the game itself. Encourage live stream and tournament stream content, make it accessible within the game and promoted using the menu twitter feed.</b>
Comments
There's already a score system in-game, but it feels like every third or fourth thread in the suggestions forum is asking for the scoring to be re-worked. Really the root of the problem is is that it's difficult to put a 'score' on team-play and strategy. Now if you meant strictly a team-based ladder that keeps track only of a teams/clans win/loss ratio, I suppose that could work out. But anything else would be very difficult, and I doubt anyone would ever be 100% happy with it.
But yeah, what I'm proposing is a matchmaking system similar to WoW/LoL/SC2 where friends can create a team and queue for matches working their way up a ladder based on a matchmaking rating etc. This reinforces positive competition in a pure organised Team vs Team environment and gives people a reason to keep playing.
Balancing the game based upon 24/18/16 slot public server statistics is difficult and unreliable. Statistics from organised matches will show true discrepancies in the balance.
An Elo system is good enough. The rank system could be for teams only, and let PUGs be left for public servers without any rankings.
While I agree that the scoring system isn't always terribly relevant to the actual game at hand, I can't see it being removed from public servers at the very least and to be honest, even competitive players check the scoreboard despite how inaccurately it may portray the match.
This game doesnt need anything like unlocks or perks etc - the gameplay is already very good but it needs something for players to strive for.
I'm pretty ###### at MOBAs but I will keep going back to play to get my rating higher because it is indication of both my skill level and represents a pay off for my hours of play. It's the saem concept as achievement whoring for single player games.
I know this is an indie game but given bar it has set for itself already, the OP's request is definately within the realm of possibility.
I understand that at the moment the public games suggest the balance is 50/50, which is great as it means balance does not have to be the number one concern right now, this doesn’t necessarily mean I agree that balance exists, however it means that we can prioritise unifying the community and solidifying a strong player base that is motivated to continue to push the limits of their individual and team play. At the moment, there is no incentive to do this. Public players will say “well, that was fun†and stop playing it after a few months, max. A team based game with a purely versus mode is purchased by players interested in competition. The players who aren’t interested in competition are going to stop playing it after a short time regardless.
If we look at what all the top competitive games at the moment have in common, League of Legends, Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft (Arena) and Dota 2, all have some form of in-game ladder or ranking system. A ladder and ranking system is to the competitive player as achievements are to the single player gamer. Creating, playing and tracking the progress of your team on a ladder gives you incentive to keep playing, try new strategies and become better players.
Teams compete and practice on ladder in an environment where they can try new strategies and push the boundaries of the game. This is where balance kicks in and this is where competitive meta game shifts occur, more importantly, this is when competitive matches become infinitely more interesting as a viewer.
On that note, stream your NS2 gameplay live! As far as I know there are only one or two players that even have video footage of their scrims on YouTube let alone live streaming matches. Using services like twitch.tv and Own3d is an extremely cost effective way to keep NS2 in the public arena and increase current and ongoing sales. Seriously, if you like NS2 and want to help the community, stream it!
Tournaments are great, and I love that UWE have embraced this by partnering with BattleFy. The more teams we see competing on an official ladder means the more teams that will be signing up to tournaments. The more teams signing up to tournaments, the more interesting the tournaments become to watch. It would be fantastic to see Battlefy (or something like it) integrated into the game itself. Players could see a list of upcoming tournaments, based on their ladder rank, relevant to their region. Links to live tournament streams, dev/player interviews and player generated content IN-GAME would also be a great way to build a positive gaming community. The live twitter feed in the games menus is a great resource and yet another tool that can be used to promote regional and global tournaments and streams.
This isn’t an unrealistic goal. I really think most e-sports type games would really benefit from things that unify the community rather than pull it apart with different organisations running different tournaments/ladders that some people might not even know exist. I’ve seen enough niche competitive communities die to know that the next few weeks/months are crucial. I’ve also seen my fair share of poorly run launch tournaments put off new players and kill a game before it even had a chance. Don’t let this happen to NS2 (if it hasn’t already)!
If you guys are happy to leave it be a satisfying and immersive marine/alien frolic that the non-competitively minded players enjoy for a few weeks, then ignore this thread and I’ll go back to my dead niche community.
<b>TL;DR Create a ranked, team based, ladder and tournament system nested within the game itself. Encourage live stream and tournament stream content, make it accessible within the game and promoted using the menu twitter feed.</b><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Those games you talked about are actually complete, and have the ability to make a league/ladder. It's also my understanding that comp games aren't really 50/50 at the moment, either. Every game should really have a livestream thing like Tribes Ascend has that lists all the games streaming (at least I think they need to have it).