Article about skill in gaming

Pretty much preaching to the choir here, but good/true read nonetheless (except the part at the end recommending extra perks for the losing player, anyway).

With the way things are going right now, the only types of games that can seem to keep a genuine "competitive" scene to it without it being completely butchered by the mainstream/sales aspect are:

- RTS genre, but any RTS not created by Blizz will probably fail.

- Fighting games. Tekken, Street Fighter, Soul Calibur, etc. all have enough of a fanbase that they don't need to dumb it down. Unfortunately, adopting a "let the loser gain some huge ambiguous advantage" seems to be the popular thing here, whether it's by a Revenge meter, a super Bloodlust 100%+ more damage at 1 hp, etc. Super Smash could have another great competitive fighter besides Melee if Nintendo isn't stupid and "LOLCASUAL" with their next game, or if they release SSBM HD Remix and re-balance every character, add a VERY GOOD online (something Nintendo is incapable of), etc. Of course, online may actually ruin the Smash community cause its unique in that it's large yet all matches are done offline.

Sorry, FPS will probably stay as a "meh" genre for good now. Advanced movement just doesn't sell too well. It's like a 89 degree learning curve for newer players and, as evidenced by HL2DM, most people will shy away from such games.

22g Mac
says:
February 27, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Havent got MW2 but I really understand wot you’re sayin here……. I liked the first modern warfare cos it was a good acurate rep of real combat with weps I knew about and stuff like that…….. But i really didnt realise why I was so crap at it . you’ve opened my eyes. its cos I wasnt unlockin enough stuff and was more interested in the tactics…… which I found nobody else wanted to look at.. hence me just goin back to the Singleplayer mode and enjoying the game that way.

question…… can players get unlocks from the single player and take them wi them to the multiplayer game


a fine example of the MP noobs that play the MW series.

If i want to grind all day to get good stuff, i'll get on the dancefloor.

.... I mean i'll get WoW.

That is a Pretty interesting thread , I started getting all into it and does bring many real facts that we have experienced also.

I, also, was all getting into your post and how like, interesting it is/was w/e.

Good quality site, bookmarked. I also agree with most of the stuff you said in that article, but I think instead of giving newer players perks, I think they should do-away with perks once and for all.

lol...Its not my site and I didnt write the article. I saw the link for it posted on the Steam forums and since I thought it was interesting, and it mentions HL2DM, I thought I would post it here and share

Perks belong only as cosmetics when it comes to competitive games. And Blizzard should seriously consider making ultra-hard 5-mans or a permanent non-tourney Arena realm with pre-fixed gear and all classes available or something.

woo.

Wonder banana from 22g?

He used to post on here iirc.

Walking Target wrote:Wonder banana from 22g?

He used to post on here iirc.

Yessir it's the nana

That article summarises what I have been thinking for a quite some time now U_U.
People don't want to play skilled games, they just wanna be able to do stuff fast and easily, that's why games like cs/css are so famous...

i don't think css is that easy of a game.

tf2, fits into that category more than anything else.

If CSS were easy the CGS might still exist, CGS was a damn good idea but the people watching wanted to be there, the people watching weren't new to gaming either and the CGS did nothing to attract curious people to the scene.

The people that did watch thought "hey I can do that" and soon found out they could not, many of them continued to practice though until DTV pulled the plug on the CGS leaving them, as we say here "sitting shitty". There are a lot of people cheating after the CGS died, many more than before. I don't consider this a coincidence be it the guy that couldn't get good or the guy who could in time but said fuck this.

Currently, valve has to make the biggest choice they ever have. Do they make CSS 2 a "current trend title" or stick to the roots with better graphics, the only reason valve is taking their time on this is because at the moment, valve has a new team of fresh developers who are highly inexperienced in this field regardless of their education, they learned in class how to make a game popular through hype and marketing plus a gimmick or two, not how to optimize and learn from the past titles, you can see how inexperienced they are first hand from TF2 because they are doing the grunt work for it, and learning invaluable experience while doing it.

The one thing valve has is the fanbase, the fanbase that knows CSS and expects it from sequels, most developers these days have thrown that away and make their games accordingly.

----

whatever happened to css moving to the ob engine?

just wondering

Valve will do whatever it thinks will make them the most money. If thats another CSS, they will do that. If its L4D3, they will do that. If its something completely new......you get the point.

Blasphemy wrote:i don't think css is that easy of a game.

tf2, fits into that category more than anything else.

I've played css with some of the best on my country, and I know that on a high level, with coordinated teams using tactics and stuff, it's not easy. What I meant by easy is that you can be new to all the online gaming experience, and just join a game and kill anybody, from the guy with 2 hours like you, to the other one that has around 3 years. Even if the other person has some time and is skilled, maybe you just hold fire on your m4 and suddenly one of the shots decided to hit on the other guys head even when you weren't properly aiming him and you got your frag, and so, even if you are bad, you will get your kills here and there, be happy about it, and keep playing until you (maybe) get to a decently high level and better understanding of the dynamics of the game.
Now, if you join a quake game for example (or some other deathmatch game) with people that know, there isn't gonna be much insta-gib chances for you, and the most probable thing is that you will get demolished. That will surely get you down and make you quti the game.
TF2 is pretty balanced in the sense of what a player can do by himself. It's not that hard to kill someone better (or die to someone less experienced than you).A charged headshot is a kill, a backstab is a kill, a kritzkrieg surely gets you a couple of kills, and so on... but the effect the teamplay has on a high level is ridiculous. It practically defines matches. On css maybe your team fucked up and you are all alone by yourself against 4 other guys and you might be able to win the round anyway. On TF2 if your team fucked up and you gotta win a 4v1 I see it pretty hard. Sure, there are exceptions, but those aren't very frequent ...
I have already seen several skeptic cs players trying tf2, joining a pub, and crying about the sniper rifle not killing players on a bodyshot, thinking they have an awp in their hands, and later going back to their game without seeing much more about tf2 :/

The effect good teamplay has on the outcome of matches in any of these "emphasis on teamwork" games is ridiculous, for obvious reasons; tf2 is hardly unique there. The teamwork is just more pronouced due to the fact that compared to the character in cs/quake/hl2dm etc, tf2 classes individually have a very low skill ceiling and the depth of a puddle- as mentioned, you wont be 1v4ing the enemy team down on a regular basis, even if you have the best execution in the game and the enemies are completely average.