3 replies to this topic

[focuspark]

I’m new to MWO (just joined with the Open Beta starting) and while I couldn’t find anything exactly like this on the forum, I apologize if this has been covered before. Additional apologies if this is somewhat bizzard as it’s just something that hit me while I was on my lunch break and I thought I’d get it out here before I forgot about it.

Anyways, after playing a couple dozen matches (and dying quickly in my COM-1D) I realized that MWO is a fun spectator game. Some of the players are really amazing to watch and the game’s pace (twitch but not spastic) lend itself very well to spectating. Additionally the game requires not only in match skill, but team work and forethought as well (Mech design, especially as a cohesive team); which means if a commentator were doing voice over they’d have a lot to talk about.

Simply put Piranha and/or Infinite should push to make MWO an e-sport. Yes this means a little more work for Piranha: official tournament mechanics would be needed, persistent teams, support for tournament specific rules, methods for commentators to obtain all players’ feeds, establishing official tournament rules, etc. Even with the added cost/work it would be completely worth it for Piranha/Infinite to establish an e-sport culture around MWO.

YouTube commentators can be pretty good. Some of them are quite excellent actually and they work for very little. Many of them will do all the work, commenting, editing, and whatever to have official access to the feeds. They live of the views on their YouTube site so would need very little from Piranha or Infinite. This acts as free, or near free, perpetual advertisement for MWO. Throw in some obligatory ads and suddenly Piranha and Infinite have a very low cost channel for advertising any other properties they want. The really nice part is if the e-sport gets traction, NVIDIA (the Way It Is Meant to be Played partner) would likely pony up decent (out of game) prizes for winning contestants.

Given that setting up MWO as an e-sport and pulling in YouTube commentators is a good way to get the content into the public’s hands, I have a few suggestions on how to make the whole system work.

First, establish a season along with a timeline of events. Just like any sport, e-sports need to have a predictable schedule and rules. I recommend the first season be short and something like 4 to 6 months, with following seasons being annual. Teams should be established prior to the season starting with basic rules like players cannot be on more than one team, teams can consists of up to 16 players (full match team + alternates). Honestly, even though I likely won’t be a subscriber to MWO (agreement with wife to not subscribe to MMOs), if I were Piranha or Infinite I’d limit team membership to subscribers only; it makes economic sense and you want the most committed players only because too lopsided matches are boring.

Second, standard season should be setup such that teams play and equal number of matches at a predictable frequency. Perhaps something like one match a month per team (with the potential for off-months due to odd numbers of teams). This doesn’t mean matches only happen once per month because with multiple teams matches can happen on full rotation of weekly, daily, or whatever frequency works best for the given number of teams.

Third, matches should be scored similar to how C-Bill and XP awards are handed out now. Team should accumulate points as the season progresses and relative rankings should be kept and made public by Piranha/Infinite Since this is an e-sport and not a standard match, matches should be locked in at something like 30 minutes with victories resetting the map but not the clock. At the end of the season the top 8, 16, or 32 teams (depending on the size of the league) should be sent into a single elimination ladder; all culminating in a championship match between the two remaining teams.

Fourth, rewards should be nominal but very cool, perhaps something like an Urbanmech for all members of the championship team. Urbanmechs are complete crap, but would be very cool to see one on the field and just know that the mechwarrior is a serious badass. One reward I would seriously push for is that all teams which are invited to participate in the single elimination ladder should be allowed to submit their own logo to be added to the game (the logo should also appear on their mechs, of course). Additional rewards for all participators league could also be given out, most just for fun. Things like cockpit items are always a nice to have.

[Sulf]

There was a arena tournament in previous games that sounds similar to what you're describing. I think it'd be worth adding later in the games life, once all the core mechanics are in and maybe after the clan invasion.

[Staplebeater]

I twitted Russ about it and they like the idea. the main things that need to be added are replays/observers (within mech and 3rd person view) and then you need some type of custom match system where teams can be formed and maps selected. With that youtube casters would be able to run a tournament easily. That is all there is in Starcraft and they have a thriving Esports scene

[focuspark]

Staplebeater, on 12 November 2012 - 01:45 PM, said:

I twitted Russ about it and they like the idea. the main things that need to be added are replays/observers (within mech and 3rd person view) and then you need some type of custom match system where teams can be formed and maps selected. With that youtube casters would be able to run a tournament easily. That is all there is in Starcraft and they have a thriving Esports scene

Agreed. The mechanism for replay is already built into the game (that's how the current spectator format works). The new mechanic would be a way to spool the play into a file, collate multiple playbacks, and add an interface for commentators to jump between views. Honestly, I don't know that a 3rd party camera is needed, so long as the commentator could have a scaled up map which could toggle between showing red, blue, and all teams' positions during play back.

Hell the commentator UI would be pretty basic. Add an element with the map, make the mech positions clickable and when clicked they jump to the POV of the mech clicked on. Give a key combination to return the overview map. Maybe add some realtime scoring in an overlay and to the overview map screen.