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I want the excitement and thrill of a match to make me want to hit that "play again" button! I want a fair fight vs. other pilots in a properly organized match setup. I want the FUN back in this game when it comes to your lackluster Faction War feature, which at the moment feels incomplete at best, or worse, broken and just fluff.
To date, I have 21+ years of experience as a PvP gamer. I've seen a lot on what works, doesn't work, etc. when it comes to playing games like MWO. So, in an effort to improve the player experience within the MWO universe, here are some feature suggestions/feedback:
1. Guild Wars 1 was the only MMORPH that I've played to-date that understood the VERY necessity of separating the organized from the random. Unfortunately, ANET changed course with GW2, and its never been the same since... It's simple: PUG vs PUG / Guild vs Guild / Faction vs Faction. Such a simple concept, and yet time and time again, on-line games get this wrong w/o much concern for how much it hurts the potential revenue and player base as a result of their ignorance to the gamer's desire for risk vs. reward vs. fun aspect.
There is absolutely NOTHING FUN or REWARDING about a PUG group being matched up against an organized Guild/Clan group. It's over. It's already decided before first blood is drawn. The PUG group, 9/10, is going to be obliterated regardless of player skill pool talent. It is absolutely imperative that a game, such as MWO, embrace separating the PUGS from the ORGANIZED if there is EVER the hope to achieve a greater success in player retention vs. player churn.
2. Expanding on point #1, you break matches down into 3 possible scenarios:
- PUG vs PUG - truly a random vs random players que; you que solo; your team is comprised of other solo players, and you are fighting OTHER solo players on the opposing team. Sounds straight-forward, and it is, but what about pilot rank? The player pool can have constraint mechanics on the server end, for example: it'll auto-balance player rank so that each team has an equal # of players from a specific rank pool. If the player rank pool is large enough, then the match will be comprised of players from "XYZ" rank pool (i.e. 12 random rank three pilots will vs. 12 random rank three pilots). However, when the player rank pool is not large enough, then the server auto-calculates the pilot rank by "weight" (i.e. Team A has 2 pilots that are rank 1; therefore, Team B has 3-4 pilots that are rank 2). Designing matches with such factors in mind has the additional benefit of ensuring players of ALL rank have an available match to jump into, at practically any given time of day/night. (i.e. A random team could look something like this: 5x rank three; 3x rank four; 2 rank two; 2 rank one pilots.).
- You que up as a guild/clan/unit and face off against another guild/clan/unit. Also know as Guild vs Guild, or Team vs. Team. This type of match setup requires the teams to be pre-made, or be the sum of multiple pre-made groups (i.e. 12 pre-made vs. 12 pre-made; 4 pre-made + 4 pre-made + 4 pre-made vs. 6 pre-made + 4 pre-made + 2 pre-made). End result is that the que is based on a pre-made pool of players that are organized into their own pre-made teams prior to queing for a match. This can be adjusted and controlled by size to ensure team balance (i.e. if Team A is comprised of 12 players that are in a pre-made group prior to queuing for a match, then the match making system will attempt to find a similar group of similar size. If it cannot find 12 pre-made players to vs. 12 pre-made players, then it will construct the match based on accumulated size. Thus, that same 12 pre-made player group will face another group comprised of a "XYZ" pre-made groups (i.e. 6 pre-made + 4 pre-made + 2 pre-made = 12 pre-made team). This type of team vs team style is especially popular among guilds and friends, whom have that innate desire to wanna stick together.
- Faction vs Faction. In MWO, this would be Clan vs. IS. And, like the above, this could be broken into either PUG vs PUG or Team vs. Team.
4. The faction play area of the game needs re-worked. The map is certainly a nice visual, but what exactly is the player supposed to do with it? Ok, there is a conflict over there, but what are my rewards for assisting with that planets capture, defense, or scouting objectives? Expand upon your idea/feature in place. If a player clicks on a planet that's eligible for contention, then have a window pop up that outlines the rewards for participation in that planets defense or capture. Set a value for participation requirements (i.e. you must play "x" amount and/or win "y" amount) to obtain planetary objective rewards. Outlining that the planet is worth "X" MC for a clan unit tells me nothing about what my personal gain will be and feels empty; there is no upfront incentive of interest to the player.
When a game, such as MWO, embraces PVP match variety, it becomes a win-win for everyone. The game becomes more sophisticated, more refined, and it improves the community as a whole. The new/casual player wins because they can jump into a "Quick Play" match, and play against another team of similar structure. Their time isn't being wasted in matches where they're getting steamrolled/decimated/obliterated by pre-made guild/unit teams. Likewise, the dedicated guild/clan/unit player wins because now they can actually face off against another team of similar construction, which will afford them an engaging challenge vs. lop-sided victory w/o much effort or risk on their part. And, PGI wins as player retention increases while player churn decreases, which ultimately equals profit.
No one likes a lop-sided match where one team steamrolls the other, except perhaps the players that just won an easy match. However, even that ultimately ends up feeling empty and worthless after awhile due to lack of challenge vs. risk vs. reward. Why play a game if the result is you always win with ease? Or, you always lose? When a gaming company refuses to acknowledge the necessity of separating the PvP matches as suggested above, its only a matter of time before the veteran players get bored (from lack of challenge), the new players call it quits before ever really experiencing the potential value of the game, and the casual player just moves on to something more fun. Once a game frustrates and/or discourages its players (i.e. pre-mades steamrolling pugs over and over again), it becomes only a matter of time before it succumbs to its own ignorance.
PGI, just hire me already - as an employee or outside contracted consultant. We'll build a better MWO game experience together.
Kind Regards,
Syric
Edited by Syric Malvayis, 12 November 2017 - 04:14 AM.
