cRPG

cRPG => General Discussion => Topic started by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 11, 2014, 03:57:43 pm

Title: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 11, 2014, 03:57:43 pm
And if so, will the donkey crew capitalise on it?
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: _GTX_ on May 11, 2014, 04:00:39 pm
I don't believe it has, even though that would be amazing. I just dont see it collecting a big enough playerbase to actually support a decent competitive scene. I do however believe that the very game, as a concept has potential, because i expect the skill roof to be pretty high.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Teeth on May 11, 2014, 04:09:53 pm
The game can probably get a strong competitive scene if it is designed right, but it is probably going to be small. I have no clue where the distinction between an 'E-sport' and a competitive games lies, but the game caters to somewhat of a niche audience and won't be super accessible.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 11, 2014, 04:13:50 pm
What do the most popular esports have in common? Koreans!
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: [ptx] on May 11, 2014, 04:15:17 pm
As i see it, whatever is super popular is an e-sport. Unless this gets steam top-played game, i doubt it will get e-sport status :/
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 11, 2014, 04:42:43 pm
I would say some important points would be skill floor for entry, and also either matchmaking, or some other way of getting people who are crap to play other crap people and not get stomped repeatedly. People get put off by being stomped all the time. Inb4 "that compromises the depth of the gameplay", yes, I considered that. But look at the popularity of DTV when it first came out. Inb4 "twas broken"... errr... nope I've got nothing.

Anyhow, I think there is a chance the game could become an esport due to the following features present so far in cRPG:

Melee system is "Easy to learn, hard to master"

So far there is a wave of melee system games, yet none have had the same impact as Warband, so I believe there is still a niche for someone to add to the formula of melee+multiplayer = success. Could be melee + multiplayer + ranking + matchmaking + steam + workshop + twitch + global dedicated servers + localisation = success. (Wouldn't be very expensive at all either :P)

Lots of vanity and cosmetic variety

Edit: basically have your core competitive modes, and a couple of fun modes, allow community input and assets for those fun modes, and make it free to play, with an optional singleplayer campaign that people can buy.
Simples!
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: [ptx] on May 11, 2014, 04:48:06 pm
No, really, "e-sports" are all about popularity, not skill. Popularity = big money involved. That's about it. That's how CoD becomes an e-sport.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 11, 2014, 04:53:26 pm
Good point. I think Melee: Battlegrounds has the the potential to become popular though. Assuming a solid game achieving chadz's expections of the gameplay, the right people just needed to be directed to the game. Tonnes of games reviewers make their living by reviewing games, and tonnes of people buy games based on their opinions. They can be contacted. I think you are right about the popularity aspect. I just think it's entirely possible for Melee: Battlegrounds to be up there.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Osiris on May 11, 2014, 05:04:33 pm
it might get a decent competitive scene like native but i dont think it will be massive.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Grumbs on May 11, 2014, 05:15:00 pm
Games need to be casual first and foremost in order to work at a competitive level. Sounds contradictory but games like M&B won't get enough players for there to be a vibrant competitive scene.

Either you have ranking systems that put players of a similar skill together or you have low skill ceilings, which kind of defeats the object of having a competitive game. Otherwise you just don't get enough people playing because the top 20% drive the rest of the playerbase away as they can't compete and have fun
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tore on May 11, 2014, 05:18:31 pm
What do the most popular esports have in common? Koreans!

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: cmp on May 11, 2014, 05:26:55 pm
Games need to be casual first and foremost in order to work at a competitive level.

Not at all, or there wouldn't be games like Starcraft high in the list of esports.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Grumbs on May 11, 2014, 05:31:18 pm
Not at all, or there wouldn't be games like Starcraft high in the list of esports.

Starcraft matches you by rank right? It puts bad players against bad players etc

What I should say is that that is the current trend anyway. LoL is super casual but is the world leader atm, and the majority who play it are low ranked. They wouldn't even play if they had to compete against top ranked players, like will happen in Battlegrounds. The best players will make the game hard to play for the average players
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Jarlek on May 11, 2014, 05:39:18 pm
Not at all, or there wouldn't be games like Starcraft high in the list of esports.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLooJOgo-8bToEW-PRePfc0q2P8RqbTpev
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: cmp on May 11, 2014, 05:47:10 pm
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLooJOgo-8bToEW-PRePfc0q2P8RqbTpev

Your point being? Starcraft is a casual game because it's also played by non-pro players? Does that mean every game is casual?
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Jarlek on May 11, 2014, 05:49:45 pm
Your point being? Starcraft is a casual game because it's also played by non-pro players? Does that mean every game is casual?
Nope, but it shows how the game can be fun even when it's not good players playing, aka it's still fun for casuals.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 11, 2014, 05:50:08 pm
Interesting. from the battlegrounds website says you guys want to allow levelling up to diversify people's combat styles. However, I think it would be better if persistent levelling only added more cosmetic potential, or at best gear *diversity* (not quality) and gameplay levelling was instance based. I think the melee concept has the whole depth potential (just down to the hard work of you devs :P ) but I believe there are other meta elements which would make the difference between a good game and a really popular, good game.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Joseph Porta on May 11, 2014, 06:01:22 pm
Not at all, or there wouldn't be games like Starcraft high in the list of esports.

Starcraft is a bad example imo as it started with an already "large" player base that of warcraft 1, these players had already optimized the gameplay.. I guess for a game to be e-sport viable it needs to first appeal to everyone from lesser to hardcore gamers. Then look further to in game mechanics, make it so that players can put thought in what they do with their characters and what tactics they use. Furthermore it should be balanced good, class A should be able to counter class B with a certain tactic.

I do not think it will be very e-sport viable tbh, due to the combat actually being bound to weapon sorts, instead of spells and skills.. The e-sport scene would be kind of stale, with most people using the same set up and not alot of variation in gameplay(works for WoT though, those streams are boring AF) it will be very much skill-bound though, he who is the best in blocking/all other game mechanics will reign supreme.

It all depends on the popularity with games like these(mb:warband like) if M:BG actually manages to bring a game in this style with succes to a FUCKING BIG audience then im sure it could turn out viable for e-sports.


Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Life on May 11, 2014, 06:14:10 pm
nah its gonna flop, become a $15 steam game with just a couple thousand players.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: cmp on May 11, 2014, 06:21:02 pm
Nope, but it shows how the game can be fun even when it's not good players playing, aka it's still fun for casuals.

I think it's just that we have a different definition of casual gaming: I differentiate between pros, gamers and casuals, while you seem to put the last two in the same category.

However, I think it would be better if persistent levelling only added more cosmetic potential, or at best gear *diversity* (not quality) and gameplay levelling was instance based.

I prefer a combination of the two: instance leveling or no leveling for competitive play, persistent leveling for regular play.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Corsair831 on May 11, 2014, 06:21:12 pm
not a chance, will be poorly balanced
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 11, 2014, 06:26:17 pm
Ah genius. Delivering both the crack-like addiction of persistent levelling AND the sobriety of an even playing ground.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Leshma on May 11, 2014, 06:30:13 pm
It can become major e-sport game, if chadz & co. find a way how to get in touch with Tencent and persuade them to distribute M:BG in China. They managed to turn god awful game like CrossFire into major competitive game. They are also the reason why Dota 2 is being pushed aside in favor of LoL.

Or make it popular in Korea (easier said than done). Americans worship every single popular Korean game. After they embrace it, Europeans will follow. But if you're depending strictly on EU crowd, chances are quite slim. There are examples like Trackmania and Shootmania success in France, but that's about it.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tydeus on May 11, 2014, 06:52:41 pm
not a chance, will be poorly balanced
There isn't actually any correlation between successful e-sports games and well balanced games. I've seen well balanced games fail, and unbalanced games succeed. The thing to remember, is that not every e-sports scene is the same as the next, they're often comprised of players with completely different expectations. You've got games like Super Smash Bros(no offense San), League of Legends and Call of Duty at the same events as Street Fighter, Dota, and Counter-Strike. The depth and balance of these two categories is completely different, yet each game is quite successful. Hell, even WoW, which has some of the worst balance you can find, has(or had) an e-sports scene.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Corsair831 on May 11, 2014, 06:53:43 pm
There isn't actually any correlation between successful e-sports games and well balanced games. I've seen well balanced games fail, and unbalanced games succeed. The thing to remember, is that not every e-sports scene is the same as the next, they're often comprised of players with completely different expectations. You've got games like Super Smash Bros(no offense San), League of Legends and Call of Duty at the same events as Street Fighter, Dota, and Counter-Strike. The depth and balance of these two categories is completely different, yet each game is quite successful. Hell, even WoW, which has some of the worst balance you can find, has(or had) an e-sports scene.

yeah but

starcraft, counterstrike, dota
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: MURDERTRON on May 11, 2014, 06:54:43 pm
My guess is you won't get a lot of traction, based on the graphics alone.  Yes, even esports players are shallow.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Falka on May 11, 2014, 06:58:35 pm
Nope, but it shows how the game can be fun even when it's not good players playing, aka it's still fun for casuals.

Warband/Melee can be fun for casual players as well; as long as they don't have to play against pros. What Grumbs said:

(click to show/hide)

But I think that games like Warband and Melee have great potential to expand, they just need better advertisement. And better graphics. Hopefully Banerlord will deiliver what it promises and will be great hit, providing better recognition for the genre.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tydeus on May 11, 2014, 07:24:16 pm
yeah but

starcraft, counterstrike, dota
And League of Legends has a larger e-sports scene than dota, yet suffers from significantly worse balance and shallow gameplay.

As far as "types" of gamers go, I think most people don't really break them up enough. The way I see it, there are two classes which differentiate solely based upon the amount of time they spend in game. Then you have the mindset, that is, what they get the most enjoyment from. So you've got "Casual" players, who only play for short durations and "Hardcore" gamers, who often spend a significant amount of time in game(I really hate this term, but it's used far too often to not use here). Then you also have what I've seen as three different mindsets. "Casual", "Hardcore", and "Competitive".

Casual gamers tend to desires instant gratification. "Hardcore" gamers are something like the pseudo-intellectual, they don't really make the full commitment to become the best and they tend to not care the most about absolute balance, unless they're on the losing side, they seem to make up the bulk of the e-sports scene. Finally, "Competitive" gamers, I see them often referred to as "Elitist", these people take balance extremely serious, demanding all parties begin a match on an even playing field, they pour everything into becoming the "best" often doing their own tests to discover the intricate workings of game mechanics so they can utilize them to their fullest potential, they get the most enjoyment out of challenging/deep gameplay.

The important thing for preparing a game to have a strong e-sports scene, seems to be building your game in such a way that it fully embraces either the "Hardcore" mindset, or the "competitive" mindset, not both. That's assuming you can't bank on having a large playerbase due to previous installments. Also, Just because you build your game around the "competitive" type of player, that doesn't mean you can't/won't have any players from the other groups. CS 1.6 is a pretty good example of high balance, depth and fairness, while still maintaining a large casual/hardcore playerbase. I'm not sure if anyone played in CAL back in the day, but there was a massive difference between cal-o and cal-i/p players, yet both made up the CS e-sports scene.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Corsair831 on May 11, 2014, 07:48:00 pm
problem is, crpg devs randomly break mechanics and refuse to ever fix them (kick, nudge, stabs, 1h right swing)

 competitive play can't have things this broken this frequently, and it seems unlikely devs will stop breaking things in the future (it's understandable, you put work into something, you dont want to remove it just because it's not very good, but it still kinda sucks for the players)
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Leshma on May 11, 2014, 07:48:37 pm
My guess is you won't get a lot of traction, based on the graphics alone.  Yes, even esports players are shallow.

M&B graphics are already far better than any other major competitive game out there. Don't forget it is still work in progress, but even in current stage it greatly surpasses eye candy of CS, Dota 2, LoL, StarCraft. Only thing those games got going for them are colors everywhere (except Counter Strike of course) and some overdone special effects. But other than that, those game are turds in graphical sense.

Quote
problem is, crpg devs randomly break mechanics and refuse to ever fix them (kick, nudge, stabs, 1h right swing)

 competitive play can't have things this broken this frequently, and it seems unlikely devs will stop breaking things in the future (it's understandable, you put work into something, you dont want to remove it just because it's not very good, but it still kinda sucks for the players)

cRPG is an experiment, M:BG is a game meant to be sold for money and will hold much higher standards (if they want to succeed). You really can't compare cRPG to M:BG, because first is a fun mod where you can't force devs to do anything because they are doing it in their free time while second is commercial product.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Corsair831 on May 11, 2014, 07:49:35 pm
M&B graphics are already far better than any other major competitive game out there. Don't forget it is still work in progress, but even in current stage it greatly surpasses eye candy of CS, Dota 2, LoL, StarCraft. Only thing those games got going for them are colors everywhere (except Counter Strike of course) and some overdone special effects. But other than that, those game are turds in graphical sense.

well that's just not true, starcraft 2 is beautiful
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Leshma on May 11, 2014, 07:55:38 pm
For me, pretty graphics means realistic graphics. StarCraft, just like other Blizzard games is designed in a different manner and art style is what makes it beautiful for someone (or not). For me that look they've been forcing since World of Warcraft is terrible. I singlehandedly blame Samwise Didier for it.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: cmp on May 11, 2014, 07:56:03 pm
problem is, crpg devs randomly break mechanics and refuse to ever fix them (kick, nudge, stabs, 1h right swing)

The "I don't like it therefore it's broken" argument comes up after every patch in Dota, but it doesn't seem to be that big of a problem.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Osiris on May 11, 2014, 08:00:32 pm
will the devs get involved with making a competitive  scene or leave it to the player base to sort everything out?
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 11, 2014, 08:04:00 pm
it would be in their best interests to come up with an integrated solution. I'm betting it's on a list, somewhere after getting the core gameplay mechanics working.  :P
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tydeus on May 11, 2014, 08:04:50 pm
problem is, crpg devs randomly break mechanics and refuse to ever fix them (kick, nudge, stabs, 1h right swing)

 competitive play can't have things this broken this frequently, and it seems unlikely devs will stop breaking things in the future (it's understandable, you put work into something, you dont want to remove it just because it's not very good, but it still kinda sucks for the players)
cRPG is an experiment, M:BG is a game meant to be sold for money and will hold much higher standards (if they want to succeed). You really can't compare cRPG to M:BG, because first is a fun mod where you can't force devs to do anything because they are doing it in their free time while second is commercial product.
Exactly. I have no interest in going into the gaming industry. I'm a cRPG "Dev" because I enjoy playing and (sometimes) improving the mod, not because I think of it as a stepping stone. Mods are completely different than full games. Therefore holding a mod up to the same expectations, or trying to infer the success of a commercial product based upon specific actions/tendencies within a mod, is stupid. You don't expect a hobbyist (American)football player to perform under the same requirements/same settings as a professional(many would literally die), why do this with a mod?
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 11, 2014, 08:06:42 pm
Truesay. I think after you guys release M:BG you put cRPG up on Github.  :lol:
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Corsair831 on May 11, 2014, 08:19:03 pm
Exactly. I have no interest in going into the gaming industry. I'm a cRPG "Dev" because I enjoy playing and (sometimes) improving the mod, not because I think of it as a stepping stone. Mods are completely different than full games. Therefore holding a mod up to the same expectations, or trying to infer the success of a commercial product based upon specific actions/tendencies within a mod, is stupid. You don't expect a hobbyist (American)football player to perform under the same requirements/same settings as a professional(many would literally die), why do this with a mod?

"A leopard can't change his shorts" - Terry Pratchett
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Nessaj on May 11, 2014, 08:19:11 pm
problem is, crpg devs randomly break mechanics and refuse to ever fix them (kick, nudge, stabs, 1h right swing)

 competitive play can't have things this broken this frequently, and it seems unlikely devs will stop breaking things in the future (it's understandable, you put work into something, you dont want to remove it just because it's not very good, but it still kinda sucks for the players)

It should be mentioned that a lot of those of us who work on MBG never did any development on cRPG, so comparing the development of the mod to MBG is silly in more than one way :P

Mod is mostly run by the community really, tons of different people pitching in, few taking the lead usually. Some join in for a while and do some changes, then disappear. If anything, cRPG where it is now, is truly the product of the community.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Grumbs on May 11, 2014, 08:27:14 pm
I guess you just need to make the game fun to play whatever skill level people are at.

If you play in a team  you can still win if your team mates carry you regardless of how bad you are. You can have weapons that are powerful as a newbie but other equipment should surpass them when you get good. Like in cRPG spamming is quite a good tactic when you're new until you fight someone able to counter it

Its a shame to have to have it, but ranged is a great way for bad players to get some experience and feel like they are taking part in the game. In terms of cRPG though the ranged weapons don't get worse as you get good at the game, they are good all the way through the skill levels and complement a good player while inflating a bad player's score. Ideally the ranged weapons should be things you ditch as you get past needing that crutch

Other things to add are more support classes like hoplites that have good defence while having good team fight presence

I'm sure Donkey can come up with more ways to let newbies and bad/average players still have fun. But at the same time you have to consider how frustrating it could be for good players to get "cheesed" by newbie classes/tactics. There needs to be a desire for people to actually get competitive, that won't happen if its too newbie friendly, everyone will just be lazy and use that gear/class
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 11, 2014, 08:29:03 pm
Imagine how much less people would care about ranged in cRPG if you could deflect projectiles with any melee weapon.

Edit: please allow collisions of projectiles and melee weapons in M:BG!
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 11, 2014, 08:33:06 pm
Double post: If you do want to add some kind of Strategus successor, I suggest looking at March of War.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: San on May 11, 2014, 08:39:23 pm
A competitive game doesn't really have to appeal to the top %. They'll find their own strategies to give them the edge even if it wasn't specifically designed that way in most cases. The base gameplay only needs to be robust and things will naturally fall into place, even if competitive play only has a few viable strategies. As long as the game is popular and fun to watch, I think it has a chance. I think that something like melee: battlegrounds can appeal to a casual audience. All you need to do is left click and hope to cleave some fools in two.

I must say that I vastly overestimated how "fun" warband is to watch. Whenever I tried to show people, they were just overwhelmed with everything happening on the screen. I think that's a hurdle that M:BG probably should address, since it probably won't offer the scale/"awe" of other medieval-themed games of developers with larger budgets, regardless of its final quality.

There isn't actually any correlation between successful e-sports games and well balanced games. I've seen well balanced games fail, and unbalanced games succeed. The thing to remember, is that not every e-sports scene is the same as the next, they're often comprised of players with completely different expectations. You've got games like Super Smash Bros(no offense San), League of Legends and Call of Duty at the same events as Street Fighter, Dota, and Counter-Strike. The depth and balance of these two categories is completely different, yet each game is quite successful. Hell, even WoW, which has some of the worst balance you can find, has(or had) an e-sports scene.
I agree with most other than SF being deeper than smash of course (both aren't *that* deep, or at least SF4). I was a casual player for smash from 2002-2006, was referred to a venue ~2005 (since it's never really fun to beat friends who don't own the game) that I went to occasionally, but didn't really start actively going to until 2008 when the next game came out. One thing usually leads to another most of the time, since most start out playing casually until they find worth in improving even more and playing with those of similar skill level.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Falka on May 11, 2014, 09:06:38 pm
As long as the game is popular and fun to watch, I think it has a chance.

On this ground Warband alike games beats Dota & Starcraft hands down. I think videos from warband/cRPG are much more enjoyable to watch for casuals than those made in Dota e.g. And I don't say it exclusively from my current perspective - after a few thousands hours which I've spent here; I've bought warband after watching Reapy's videos cause game looked so cool.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Sandersson Jankins on May 11, 2014, 09:14:03 pm
"A leopard can't change his shorts" - Terry Pratchett

But a leopard CAN change his shorts.

Also I've been going hard in the discworld series lately, motherfucking terry pratchett is gr8.

pls can we literature circlejerk now?
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: San on May 11, 2014, 09:30:34 pm
On this ground Warband alike games beats Dota & Starcraft hands down. I think videos from warband/cRPG are much more enjoyable to watch for casuals than those made in Dota e.g. And I don't say it exclusively from my current perspective - after a few thousands hours which I've spent here; I've bought warband after watching Reapy's videos cause game looked so cool.

Didn't show them the tutorial video, mostly just gameplay vids. That might've been the problem.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Kafein on May 11, 2014, 11:17:18 pm
One very common characteristic of "e-sport" games is player being ranked by skill and matchmaking.

When players are constantly pitched in more or less balanced matches, skills tend to improve quickly. The game remains popular to bads and newbies, attracting new players while at the same time encouraging an elitist culture at the top. Bad players have time to learn the game against equally bad players. Against middle-ranked players they would most likely GTX away, but they don't meet the middle skill players all that much. Good players do not lose time and interest crushing noobs but instead keep on receiving opportunities for improvement as they keep on meeting better players.

This is why the level in cRPG is getting stale in my opinion. The playerbase is too small to be split into skill tiers, so the good players have no real reason to improve, and the noobs don't stay.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Grumbs on May 12, 2014, 10:32:02 am
One very common characteristic of "e-sport" games is player being ranked by skill and matchmaking.

When players are constantly pitched in more or less balanced matches, skills tend to improve quickly. The game remains popular to bads and newbies, attracting new players while at the same time encouraging an elitist culture at the top. Bad players have time to learn the game against equally bad players. Against middle-ranked players they would most likely GTX away, but they don't meet the middle skill players all that much. Good players do not lose time and interest crushing noobs but instead keep on receiving opportunities for improvement as they keep on meeting better players.

This is why the level in cRPG is getting stale in my opinion. The playerbase is too small to be split into skill tiers, so the good players have no real reason to improve, and the noobs don't stay.

This is pretty much what I was trying to say. Games that are designed to be competitive from the ground up need to think about how the average and bad players are still going to enjoy the game in a public server. If you look at a game like cRPG you can have 20% of the players on the server getting 80% of the kills. For every person that has more than a 1:1 kD ratio thats potentially another player thats not having fun because he can't kill stuff. The goal of game designers now is for people to roughly get 1:1 KPD, that means everyone is having fun. It sucks because to do that in public FPS games they try to bring the skill ceiling down while bringing the skill floor up. So good players don't really dominate and bad players still have options to do well. You have random deaths with nades flying everywhere, airstrikes, random headshots, rock-paper-scissors, RPG elements, levelling up, thoughtless run&gunning etc.

Games like CS managed to succeed as newbie friendly games and as competitive games because they have a unique design. You have your newbies running & gunning or crouch spraying and getting random headshots which can defeat even the best players depending on random chance, and the best players learn techniques that overcomes the randomness and allow you to force headshots. No matter how good you are you will still die to random sprayed headshots, this allows newbies and average players to still have fun on public servers

Hopefully Donkey crew can do something similar without making the game too frustrating to play. They need to remember to make sure the newbie friendly stuff isn't still used by good players though. Like in cRPG we have xbows. By themselves xbows might be a legitimate way to allow bad players to have some fun, but the way they're implemented means the best players can exploit them by being good in melee and having no downsides in that part of the gameplay. Good players just get a newbie friendly weapon alongside their normal melee capability. Really you should have next to no melee capability if you want to go the newbie friendly route, so that you transition out of that gameplay as you get better
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Prpavi on May 12, 2014, 12:10:09 pm
My answer to the Op question is: no

Why? Because dev involvement into a future "league" or tournaments is needed, sure a community can carry it to a degree but a game with a limited player base like this game will have, by that I mean not milions like mobas or FPS can't carry independent leagues, tournaments. Hell even Dota is backed by Valve and now has a ridiculous prize pool thanks to the the playerbase and the dev combined.

Seems to me that the dev team of M:BG is going in the other direction, an improved strategus direction (M:E) and I feel most energy beyond polishing and balancing will go into that so no league for us I'm afraid.

To me the "golden" times of cRPG were Fallen tourneys betheen strat 1 and 2, the mod just felt so alive, imagine if we had dev backing with loompoints or gold. Even Panos 1v1 tourney produced more interesting moments gameplay and skill wise than strat ever did for me personally.

Bottom line it seems that this game is going for something else and if some kind of a league happens good (honestly doubt it), if not devs will shed no tears.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: jtobiasm on May 12, 2014, 12:19:21 pm
@Prpavi.    I'm pretty sure chadz said he would give gold out to the winners of the clan league. 2Million in total.   Yet clans can't seem to be arsed with it.  The league was successful in the first season.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Prpavi on May 12, 2014, 12:23:19 pm
It's kind of late now is it

I was thinking of backing the tourneys back then, like 2011
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: jtobiasm on May 12, 2014, 12:25:23 pm
Ahh well that wast before my time :)
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Joseph Porta on May 12, 2014, 12:32:40 pm
Plus it was barely fun, back then there where elitist clans, other clans didnt stand a chance.

Its not so bad now, but mod is ded.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Prpavi on May 12, 2014, 01:20:29 pm
I hardly ever considered my old friends/Bandits an elitist clan yet we finished 3rd in one of the tourneys, but yeah I agree there were only a handful of contenders for he forst spot but with time it would have gotten better.

Still better than what strat brought, massive clan recruiting, back then there were many fun smaller clans not huge blocks like today.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Molly on May 12, 2014, 01:45:24 pm
Agree with Prips.
What he said.

Tueten's events were awesome. Especially the all-out friendly atmosphere. No stupid animosities between people, no try-hard, just pure fun and laughter.
Panos' tournament was great. I was merely a referee but I enjoyed every match I managed to rule/watch. Granted, the execution was... not perfect... but that's experience we lacked but have now.

We might see a few tournaments in M:BG but only with time and probably community driven, most likely by this community and not necessarily by the whole M:BG community.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: _GTX_ on May 12, 2014, 02:02:27 pm
My answer to the Op question is: no

To me the "golden" times of cRPG were Fallen tourneys betheen strat 1 and 2, the mod just felt so alive, imagine if we had dev backing with loompoints or gold.
The most fun i ever had in cRPG, by far. Those fallen tournaments was just amazing, and it was so much fun to go to them with the original Risen clan. Something like that really creates a spark in the activity of a clan, and there has not been any other tournaments like it since, in my opinion.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: chadz on May 12, 2014, 03:41:12 pm
Truth to be told, I always hoped that competitions and stuff come from the community, not from us devs. I feel it's a good thing when game development and competition development is completely separated (with bidirectional influences, of course).

However, since that clearly did not work out :wink:, we will take special care of creating a healthy competition system for M:BG. If it's enough for esports, we can't say yet, no one can. We hope it is, of course.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Herezy92 on May 12, 2014, 03:45:06 pm
(click to show/hide)

Good to know.
At least, one of the crpg's fail, is going to help/improve the next game.  :)

FrenchKiss
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Molly on May 12, 2014, 03:53:18 pm
It would be great to have a server tool for managing this kind of stuff.
An admin logs onto the server while it's running, can access a mask where he sets the mode (5vs5) and then can click together the team, sets the time limit and the map.
Those chosen by the admin can join the server/team and get automatically sorted into the proper team according to the mask entries. Everyone else is stuck in spectator and can't spawn...

Along this line, some online-ingame tool/mask which helps to manage those kind of tournaments... can't be that hard to program, I imagine.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Herezy92 on May 12, 2014, 03:58:59 pm
(click to show/hide)
The molly's idea is interesting.
Having a server with "moderators" (instead of admins, they have a bit less rights, and its dedicated/aimed to manage events on the unique dedicated server)
The rank "moderator" would be much easier to reach, and do not require special tasks like admins does.
Of course the rank "moderator" must exist only on this dedicated server in order to manage the events.

What do you think?

FrenchKiss
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Angantyr on May 12, 2014, 04:01:04 pm
Exposition aside, breathing life into a competitive atmosphere is having some community member semi-official do a lot of groundwork, organizing things for a scene to even rise, much like Captain Lust did in Native, before and after being hired by Taleworlds.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Grumbs on May 12, 2014, 04:06:56 pm
Truth to be told, I always hoped that competitions and stuff come from the community, not from us devs. I feel it's a good thing when game development and competition development is completely separated (with bidirectional influences, of course).

However, since that clearly did not work out :wink:, we will take special care of creating a healthy competition system for M:BG. If it's enough for esports, we can't say yet, no one can. We hope it is, of course.

Doubt most people even know about the events when they happen. A good place to start would be to increase the visibility by making it a main forum area than sub forum, or let people talk about events in GD. Could even have upcoming events on the main site rather than the forum
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tydeus on May 12, 2014, 04:08:01 pm
Exposition aside, breathing life into a competitive atmosphere is having some community member semi-official do a lot of groundwork, organizing things for a scene to even rise, much like Captain Lust did in Native, before and after being hired by Taleworlds.
chadz, give me EU Admin Rank 10(For unique item rewards) and forum moderator status (So Events can get properly organized as well as moved outside of General Discussion)!  :twisted:

Edit:
Doubt most people even know about the events when they happen. A good place to start would be to increase the visibility by making it a main forum area than sub forum, or let people talk about events in GD. Could even have upcoming events on the main site rather than the forum
More proof that it needs better organization!
 
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Cyber on May 12, 2014, 10:46:04 pm
I would love to see a Warband style game becoming a e-sport but realistically I can't see how M:BG has any chance at becoming one.

It doesn't have the potential to pull in a massive amount of players, even IF the game will be good, especially with more M&B style games being released these days. It doesn't have a big company like for example Riot or Valve behind it who could fund the competitive scene, I can't see a way to pull in any sponsors. I just don't see how it has anything going for it in regards to becoming a e-sport at all even though I really want to. It might have a small competitive community around it like native but that's about it.

Also, having 8v8 or 10v10 teams be the competitive standard would be a problem for any game trying to become a e-sport.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 12, 2014, 10:48:49 pm
The thing is, there could be any number of people on a team, and even duels have the potential to be quite interesting.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: //saxon on May 12, 2014, 10:52:30 pm
get melee green lit on steam and i think it has a good chance of getting near the top.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 12, 2014, 11:13:49 pm
Greenlight does tend to attract more buzz as well. Could pre-emptively grow a community (aside from the selected M:BG sirs and scholars  :evil:).

P.S.
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Sniger on May 12, 2014, 11:16:25 pm
after reading the preface i doubt the novelle itself will be any different, eventhough its just a preface. it still shows the core idea or mindset if you will, in what direction devs would like the game to go. crpg is old and yes many changes have seen the daylight, but the base idea is the same, havent changed since day 1. not from my perspective anyway.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 12, 2014, 11:26:31 pm
Well a new beginning (and not tied to being a mod) does change things imo.

Also, integrated clan support would be good. Trying to imagine how cRPG 2010 would have been with the website as it is now, the official clan entries vs badly formatted forum posts that dragged on (and turned into gif soup - not naming any names...) That's not a stab at the devs, the mod developed over time. But there used to be a lot more clan activity, and I think maintaining them got a bit too much for some people.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Nessaj on May 12, 2014, 11:30:04 pm
Major League Gaming.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Grumpy_Nic on May 12, 2014, 11:35:53 pm
please no esport shit
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 12, 2014, 11:39:40 pm
please no esport shit

What do you mean? And why?
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Sniger on May 12, 2014, 11:40:41 pm
clan activity slowly die(d) because as mentioned, mass-recruiting form-ed/ing huge clans, pushing the new and small clans out. mass-recruiting is a natural follow of 1) strat and 2) banner balance. this is far from new thing and i hate to keep bringing it up, but its just the root to far most of the issues i think there is in crpg, issues that i fear will be inherited by mbg. for this reason im not going to act testdummy again for another 2 years :)
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 12, 2014, 11:44:58 pm
I don't know about M:BG server plans, but perhaps the option of private servers would alleviate the effect of having massive clans. Like if dedicated public servers didn't have clan stacking (or purposefully broke up clans) and clans could host their own servers for scrims etc, and official Clan v Clan servers were separate from public servers, I think you wouldn't get this problem of steamrolling non-clan people.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Sniger on May 12, 2014, 11:52:30 pm
why wouldnt devs want to make pubstomp game when the mod was this... shall we call it successfull?

pubstomp may be fun, its just not a sport (only to the stompers :p) and wont ever become a sport because it is not competitive (even/fair) and it doesnt encourage personal progress.

perhaps if there was 2 stomp servers, then the two stomp teams could compeat on time, who is the fastest to clear battlefield, then it would be a sport!  :lol:
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 12, 2014, 11:58:12 pm
However with that mindset, half the people playing will be stomped, and might give up on the game. PvE should satisfy stomping urges. Look at how popular DTV was at its arrival. Personally I found poorly balanced rounds and meat grinder strat matches boring, I found it more satisfying to have a close tense game.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: NejStark on May 13, 2014, 12:06:38 am
I have no clue where the distinction between an 'E-sport' and a competitive games lies

Marketing throwing money, I think.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Sniger on May 13, 2014, 12:09:04 am
I found it more satisfying to have a close tense game.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 13, 2014, 12:11:47 am
I do admit XP and levelling are pretty satisfying. But there's only so long that provides a sense of progression. After so many retirements, it feels kind of hollow. However the prospect of getting noticeably better at a game (from your own skill) is far more satisfying in the long run (imo).
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Sniger on May 13, 2014, 12:24:11 am
sorry mate, im just repeating what everyone tells me when i say what you do :) i completely agree with everything you say.

but people aint like you and i :/ ive realized that the masses/majority doesnt care about competition or even fair games, they call the stomping "teamwork" and they pick their classes and clans based on the current patch and how much score and XP they can get. majority choose high damage weapon/build and apply to an active mega-clan and then they "teamwork" 24/7 farming XP and epeen, because this is how the game is forcing them to play.

its like IRL :D fuck the big picture, just grind money and become famous. and people love it!
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 13, 2014, 12:51:25 am
Well the defining points of cRPG in the beginning were the persistence of stats, and customisation, and the prospect of a PvP campaign. So I can see why things have gotten where they are. WSE2 addressed a lot of Warband's mechanics failures. I guess my original question would be better addressed by looking at where Warband fell down rather than cRPG. For example, it didn't have the persistence and customisation. But on a competitive level it was balanced. It didn't have integrated competitive features, but relied on the community.

So in progressing my harping on, I would suggest the inclusion of the following would be successful:

A public "casual" mode of play similar to cRPG as a whole: persistent stats, levelling, and customisation.

Balanced, competitive modes of play.

Distinct separation of gameplay and cosmetics. Imagine if weeaboos, medieval reenactor escrima fanatics, and fiction/lore junkies could represent their ideal character visually without unbalancing them because of differences in gear stats? i.e. a katana and a greatsword *were* the same item, excepting visually. The tiers of weeaboo armour aligned with the tiers of European armour because they were statistically the same. It was certainly cool to have all these very different weapons in cRPG, but it would be easier to balance if weapons were aligned into tiers of stats, but were only visually different. You could even (yep gonna say it) monetise cosmetic stuff, i.e. provide European visuals as core/standard, but have Asian, Middle-Eastern, Renaissance , African, American, extra European cosmetic gear available as optional purchases. 

Integrated features common in popular competitive games (Spectating, official stats, etc).

Private game capability (of course this one does further open up the hacking can of worms if you are going to distribute your server tech this might already be a concern, I don't know).
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Nessaj on May 13, 2014, 01:37:26 am
It also depends on how everything in MBG will be structured in-game, cRPG/Warband is very crude but that's of course because its system is very old now, but for MBG it could be groups, perhaps even a 'find a group'-feature, matchmaking, queue for duels/arena, the possibilities are endless because there's no limitations imposed via engine restrictions, because what's being used is a homemade engine.

All the things that are impossible to do with cRPG, or features that would take far too long to overcome, are now suddenly tangible.

You must unlearn what you have learned.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Sniger on May 13, 2014, 09:08:12 am
You must unlearn what you have learned.

Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Molly on May 13, 2014, 11:40:02 am
get melee green lit on steam and i think it has a good chance of getting near the top.
Steam isn't continuing Greenlight much longer. I've read several times that it will end sometime this year. So... better not rely on that one.

Quote
Valve president Gabe Newell told the assembled crowd of developers that they want to get rid of Greenlight.

“Our goal is to make Greenlight go away,” said Newell. “Not because it’s not useful, but because we’re evolving.”

http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/15/steam-has-75-million-registered-users-third-party-steam-controllers-and-other-tidbits-from-valves-dev-days/ (http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/15/steam-has-75-million-registered-users-third-party-steam-controllers-and-other-tidbits-from-valves-dev-days/)
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Prpavi on May 13, 2014, 12:22:28 pm
 “Not because it’s not useful, but because we’re evolving.”

No, it's because you let a bunch of shit flood Steam without any quality control and responsibility.

Just look at new releases last months, utter shit, soon we won't be able to find anything decent but a milion "casual" or "indie" shit games, got nothing against smaller developers, love Limbo and similar quality products but labling it indie does not give you an excuse to put out utter shit on the worlds biggest gaming digital distribution platform.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Herezy92 on May 13, 2014, 12:35:11 pm
For me, i still believe that the game as the potential to become famous and impact a large community.
In our modern age, with few ressources (money and men), you can still be seen by an important amount of players.
One guy dedicated to the marketing is enough to become popular enough to let the players speaking about the game it self.

FrenchKiss.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: SP1N on May 13, 2014, 05:00:58 pm
I believe M:BG could become a large market game (though not on the scale that Starcraft and LoL are). It would take an organized effort toward marketing from both the community and developers, hosting tournaments for prize money (which we can't do for cRPG), and of course a high quality of competitive gameplay.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Joseph Porta on May 13, 2014, 05:01:53 pm
Devs should make a new chance to donate, so we can give them more money so that they can make an even bettr game.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Herezy92 on May 13, 2014, 06:14:07 pm
Devs should make a new chance to donate, so we can give them more money so that they can make an even bettr game.
Go ahead, give money for us ! :)

And By the way ;
[...]
Distinct separation of gameplay and cosmetics. Imagine if weeaboos, medieval reenactor escrima fanatics, and fiction/lore junkies could represent their ideal character visually without unbalancing them because of differences in gear stats? i.e. a katana and a greatsword *were* the same item, excepting visually. The tiers of weeaboo armour aligned with the tiers of European armour because they were statistically the same. It was certainly cool to have all these very different weapons in cRPG, but it would be easier to balance if weapons were aligned into tiers of stats, but were only visually different. You could even (yep gonna say it) monetise cosmetic stuff, i.e. provide European visuals as core/standard, but have Asian, Middle-Eastern, Renaissance , African, American, extra European cosmetic gear available as optional purchases. 

[...]

If you add an ingame STORE, please, for all the guys who pre-ordered/gave money for the development, make it free, or very very very very small price. (like 75% discount)
For me it would be a fair and respectable present made to the old community who supported/helped you for so many years. :)

Edit: and yes i'm not against a store for style/cosmetic armors. (if something is made for the "first-buyer" + new free contents & updates)

FrenchKiss
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Hobb on May 13, 2014, 10:22:37 pm
I don't have data to back this up, but I've heard from e-sport pros that with your RTS and MOBA (sc2, lol, dota the biggest right now) the mass majority of audiences for tourneys and streams are by people who don't actually play, but are familiar with the genre.

While FPS e-sports like CS:GO, CoD, Halo etc, which up until recently with the surge from MOBA games, have always been the dominant e-sports as far as viewers, have higher %'s of audiences who play those games.

To me, the difference between a "competive" game and an "e-sport" is that although both are high skill, clear ranking system and in-depth balanced games, but an e-sport also is entertaining to watch for audiences (both those who play the game and those who don't) Audiences provide money, players get sponsored and you have "proffesional" gamers.

I would argue that a game like Halo or CoD fails at being a good e-sport because they are terrible to watch and follow because the nature of the game. It is very hard to follow what is happening in these games.

League and Starcraft however, are very entertaining to watch because they are very easy to follow what is happening. Yet, you can't just label FPS games as bad entertnment for streaming, because is also a very popular and despite very fast paced and hectic action, remains easy to follow. CS was clearly developed with intention of being an e-sport. And unlike other FPS's, CS keeps "dull" colors and small maps, which I think is necessary for creating a viewable/entertaining show for audiences.

Assuming M:BG is "competitive," which I think most of us agree it could be. And assuming it is big enough to maintain a large playerbase, I think it could easily become an e-sport. This genre is obviously not Lol or Sc2, but if you compare M&B combat to CS, you have A) dull colors, easy to switch from player to player without bleeding eyes B) small maps that will keep all the action and potential strategy simple. But also C) a combat system where the point of interest is always players fighting point blank against each other and next to their team mates (which is how LoL and Sc2 plays out as well, most action can be viewed from a single angle.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: HarunYahya on May 14, 2014, 05:36:40 am
I just fear that M:BG will be like Chivalry.
Both have similar stories. Once a mod, became a game.

I'll surely buy M:BG but not sure if Im gonna play it more than a month. Even if the game becomes a terrible mess I would buy it just to thank this dev team for stealing my life for 4 years the joy they brang me for 4 years without asking for a single coin.

To be honest there is no multiplayer only game that i regularly play. I don't know how you make animations of M:BG, don't think you have a motion capture studio or you have funds to use someone's motion capture studio and since animation is the most important part of this kinda game, I sadly think that M:BG will fail.

But on the other hand, you guys are great developers. With cRPG we all saw that if someone gives you wheat, you can make crazy ass cakes by processing it. Just not sure if you can grow your own wheat .
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Falka on May 14, 2014, 06:03:52 am
I don't know how you make animations of M:BG, don't think you have a motion capture studio or you have funds to use someone's motion capture studio and since animation is the most important part of this kinda game, I sadly think that M:BG will fail.

Animations in last dev's video looks pretty awesome.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: HarunYahya on May 14, 2014, 06:19:48 am
Animations in last dev's video looks pretty awesome.
:O Can I haz a link to it ?
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Falka on May 14, 2014, 06:58:25 am
Probably not, it's available only for scholars, in closed section of forum.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: HarunYahya on May 14, 2014, 07:19:44 am
Probably not, it's available only for scholars, in closed section of forum.
:( Discriminating people by their education is wrong! What's wrong being a non-scholar peasant !

One day... one day you bundle of well-educated sticks will pay for that !
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Molly on May 14, 2014, 08:17:23 am
As far as I can tell, the youtube videos are not set to private. So, there doesn't seem to be any reason not to show it...

Here you go, fat Turk! :wink:


(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: HarunYahya on May 14, 2014, 08:57:08 am
BAN HE !!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111

Thanks Molly  :)



Neat animations btw, gratz, you guys prove me wrong !  :oops: Especially hoplite animations are fucking lovely
I have no idea what this is but I loved it lol
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Molly on May 14, 2014, 09:38:04 am
Obviously Ballz!
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: UnholyRolyPoly on May 14, 2014, 10:42:59 am
I don't believe it has, even though that would be amazing. I just dont see it collecting a big enough playerbase to actually support a decent competitive scene. I do however believe that the very game, as a concept has potential, because i expect the skill roof to be pretty high.

There is an easy way to give it that kind of player base.....

Gambling....


Implement a REAL gambling system by selling E-Coins for real cash and allow players to gamble on things like duels, scrimmages, tournaments etc etc.  Create a pay only server where players have to buy in to gamble.  You can keep it simple.  Red team vs white team at 2-1 odds.  If you are on red team... and red team wins.... you double your money.  If you are on white team your money goes to red team.  This could carry over to nearly every server.   Battle, Duels, Siege.  It also opens up a whole new range of servers like tournaments where people would watch.... simply to gamble.  That's how you make this game explode.  It's just like Fantasy Baseball in the US.  Gambling draws people in.  Don't SELL items like most online games.  That's fucking lame and kills a player base.  Instead base it on gambling.  The devs can take a small cut of all payouts (say 5%) to help fund better servers and a larger team.  You sell 100 coins for 1$.  Players receive their 100 coins and gamble.  They end up earning 5k coins or whatever.  When they finally decide to cash out..... charge a 5-10% fee for doing so.  Then you automatically fund everything.  The devs are paid for.  The servers are paid for.  And the players are happy because they either made or lost money of their own accord.  They won't feel cheated because they won't be charged a fee.... until they decide to cash out. 

The point is let the players gamble.  The devs sell the E-Coins and the players use them as they see fit.  So it's not a system where the devs set the odds and risk losing a  fortune.  It's a system where all they do is provide the currency.... when it's time to flip the E-Coins into real money.... they get a small cut.  There won't be a single E-Coin in the game that wasn't purchased by players.  Create a wagering interface that allows players to set their own bets etc.  It can be wide open with endless possibilities.

And of course you could keep the current system in place.  Keep the XP and looming system.  Create 2 layers of each server.  Battle (Pay) and Battle (XP) for example.  Players go to the XP server to gain CRPG gold and looms.  Players go to the gambling server.... to gamble using the equipment earned from the XP server.  Keep the marketplace as it is.  Just add in the E-Coins.  Players who don't want to grind XP for looms can buy +3 items FROM other players with E-Coins.  That keeps the devs out of it.  They aren't selling pay to play.  Players are.  This generates a wide dispersal of coins and something for everyone.  Some guys will never touch the Gambling server but grind like hell because they can sell their +3 item (earned from the regular server) for real money.  Some newbie who wants to be good will buy it.  And the market.... sets the price..... not the devs.  Just avoid pay to win.  Nothing can come directly from the devs.  No experience bombs you can buy.  No special items that you can buy from the server.  Make it 100% player based.... and make the money change hands via gambling. 

This is exactly the type of community which would THRIVE on gambling.  It would literally explode.  This game is already highly competitive.  It takes a special kind of fucked up individual to play it for years at a time.  Add gambling and the game would grow.... not shrink.... the devs would have vast financial resources for good servers and better updates.  It could go for years and create an entire new genre of video game.  One you could literally get paid for. 
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: chadz on May 14, 2014, 11:08:13 am
Haha, I must admit that's a new idea  :lol:

Would it work? Probably.

Would it completely ruin the community, draw in the biggest lowlifes, scumbags and cheaters? Definitely.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Grumbs on May 14, 2014, 11:12:42 am
Gambling or not, you should have an item shop that uses real money. No better stats on gear though, just for stuff like different cloth dye colours or other cosmetic stuff. Add a chance for the stuff to drop when you get kills and it will be fine, just an extra way to fund the game when its released..if people want to spend money on junk in a game let them as long as it doesn't interfere with gameplay
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Herezy92 on May 14, 2014, 11:18:59 am
Gambling or not, you should have an item shop that uses real money. No better stats on gear though, just for stuff like different cloth dye colours or other cosmetic stuff. Add a chance for the stuff to drop when you get kills and it will be fine, just an extra way to fund the game when its released..if people want to spend money on junk in a game let them as long as it doesn't interfere with gameplay
This
And as i wrote :
[...]
And By the way ;
If you add an ingame STORE, please, for all the guys who pre-ordered/gave money for the development, make it free, or very very very very small price. (like 75% discount)
For me it would be a fair and respectable present made to the old community who supported/helped you for so many years. :)

Edit: and yes i'm not against a store for style/cosmetic armors. (if something is made for the "first-buyer" + new free contents & updates)

FrenchKiss
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 14, 2014, 12:45:28 pm
Maybe you should allow people to gamble only for cosmetic items.  :lol:
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: HarunYahya on May 14, 2014, 12:49:39 pm
Nah please...
Not in game store...
Make game 100 dollars but promise you won't sell DLC's or in-game store please.
I mean seriously please...
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Kafein on May 14, 2014, 12:52:14 pm
What is wrong with cosmetic microtransactions ?
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on May 14, 2014, 12:53:27 pm
Works for Dota 2. Also, see Loadout, they got a good in-game store.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Prpavi on May 14, 2014, 12:59:14 pm
Wouldn't mind dropping a euro or two for a sexy kilt  :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: HarunYahya on May 14, 2014, 01:12:51 pm
What is wrong with cosmetic microtransactions ?
They become macrotransactions for me quiet easily.  :lol:
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: UnholyRolyPoly on May 14, 2014, 08:31:05 pm
Haha, I must admit that's a new idea  :lol:

Would it work? Probably.

Would it completely ruin the community, draw in the biggest lowlifes, scumbags and cheaters? Definitely.

Dude I hate to tell you but NA is already that way lol. 

I know what you're saying though.  Hacking would be a major problem.  People would go out of their way to cheat etc.  I suppose that would be incredibly difficult to prevent when there is real money on the line. 
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: UnholyRolyPoly on May 15, 2014, 12:03:11 am
Works for Dota 2. Also, see Loadout, they got a good in-game store.

In game stores aren't bad but.....  Eventually.... the devs start creating things for money rather than balance.  It becomes pay to win.  Buy this new super item and be better than everyone else.  It may last for a while but will eventually kill the player base. 
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: cmp on May 15, 2014, 12:13:35 am
In game stores aren't bad but.....  Eventually.... the devs start creating things for money rather than balance.  It becomes pay to win.

If there are things in the store that require balance (i.e. not cosmetics), it's already pay2win from the start.
I don't know about Loadout, but Dota 2 is the perfect example of a game completely free from pay2win items, despite having a massive store/marketplace.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Joseph Porta on May 15, 2014, 12:22:49 am
What is wrong with cosmetic microtransactions ?

Nothing at all, imo.

Can you imagine, the heavy kuyak vaegir mask set for 10€.

Huehue, and only the true old-schoolers would know how gay they are, the ultimate scam.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: no_rules_just_play on May 15, 2014, 07:36:08 am
do we even want this?

Fuck look how stupid and fucking gay all those esport games are, their player base is shit and it breaks the game.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: LordBerenger on May 15, 2014, 09:11:11 am
Maybe if it's not in a constant beta mode  :wink:
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Kuujis on May 15, 2014, 10:41:28 am
do we even want this?

Fuck look how stupid and fucking gay all those esport games are, their player base is shit and it breaks the game.
You are too biased. You want there to be no rules  :|
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tydeus on May 15, 2014, 03:14:00 pm
do we even want this?

Fuck look how stupid and fucking gay all those esport games are, their player base is shit and it breaks the game.
You're right, there's no e-sports shit in cRPG, which explains why our community is superior and never attempts to break anything.  :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Herezy92 on May 15, 2014, 07:53:07 pm
I thought 'e-sport' was just a new hip word that means 'Take too seriously, obsessed with performance and K/D', how is cRPG not one?
E-sport is more about nice games with skilled players, a good show, an event (like watching a match) etc...
I went to the Paris Games Week this year, for the E-sport world competition, and that was really nice.

And if someone doesn't like the e-sport, no one is forcing him to do so :)
If he wants to play on normal server  he is free to do so.
So where is the problem ?  :D
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Moncho on May 15, 2014, 08:11:34 pm
I thought 'e-sport' was just a new hip word that means 'Take too seriously, obsessed with performance and K/D', how is cRPG not one?
I thought it was more about it being competitive, watched and playing for money
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tojo on May 15, 2014, 08:31:32 pm
Does it have e sport potential: No it doesn't have enough hype or player base, also the fact that it is not even out yet.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tydeus on May 15, 2014, 08:40:31 pm
I thought 'e-sport' was just a new hip word that means 'Take too seriously, obsessed with performance and K/D', how is cRPG not one?
Maybe to some, but that's certainly not how it's being used in this thread and I wouldn't say it's proper use of the term. Generally people are talking about the "scene" and whether or not one exists. It's the difference between pub play, and organized play, generally in the form of tournaments/matches. Money is irrelevant, but tends to increase the size of the community. Up until you reach a certain tipping point, you just have "events" like what we have in cRPG, where occasionally you have a tournament or two, and often only involving a few players with very little practice/preparation before each match. Your e-sports scene is completely separate from public servers, therefore public performance or k/d is irrelevant.

For every one kill, you have one death. As with most competitive team games, when you actually get to the "e-sports" scene(the competitive scene), most people stop caring about k:d ratios, as the team victory is what's most important. Just take Dota for example, the game would be another League of Legends if everyone just cared about their own K:D ratio. FPS games are unique in that they're just about the only competitive games (physical sports included) where each person on the team is (nearly)every bit as capable of "big plays" or "putting up numbers", as the next.

Does it have e sport potential: No it doesn't have enough hype or player base, also the fact that it is not even out yet.
Uhhh... Isn't that why he used the word "potential"? All of those three things can only happen after open beta.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Osiris on May 15, 2014, 08:51:14 pm
Quote
Maybe to some, but that's certainly not how it's being used in this thread and I wouldn't say it's proper use of the term. Generally people are talking about the "scene" and whether or not one exists. It's the difference between pub play, and organized play, generally in the form of tournaments/matches.

Native warband has a very busy organised competitive scene. I see no reason why Melee couldn't have the same UNLESS the epic part takes as much time as strat. If epic takes a lot of effort and some no lifing then you can kiss any kind of tournaments and leagues goodbye just like strat killed them in crpg (Casual players don't run and organize the leagues etc so if all the people who put time into the game play epic then you might get a couple of duel tournaments or stuff now and then)
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Life on May 16, 2014, 02:04:19 am
Not being snarky (for once), genuinely never heard of e-sports till this thread lol, i'm a poor excuse of a geek...

Had no idea people played games for money like that
Koreans don't play starcraft 24/7 for no reason  :D
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tojo on May 16, 2014, 11:21:38 pm
 used the word "potential"? All of those three things can only happen after open beta.



Yea sure potential... All the E sports today had a following before they came out i.e. Starcraft, CoD,  Dota,  etc.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tydeus on May 17, 2014, 01:39:47 am
Yea sure potential... All the E sports today had a following before they came out i.e. Starcraft, CoD,  Dota,  etc.
Their original games didn't. Furthermore, that's only a fraction of the actual e-sports scene. Just because something isn't an MLG featured game, doesn't mean it lacks a competitive scene.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tojo on May 17, 2014, 04:49:44 pm
Hello Kitty Island Adventure E sports Tournament

The world's most competitive MLG circuit announces it's 1st annual HKIA Tournament. Compete against the world's best Kitties for the grand prize of $5!!! Contestants must sign up at nobodygivesashit.com before June 8th. 

Brought to you by the world of E sports
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Tydeus on May 17, 2014, 10:42:28 pm
Hello Kitty Island Adventure E sports Tournament

The world's most competitive MLG circuit announces it's 1st annual HKIA Tournament. Compete against the world's best Kitties for the grand prize of $5!!! Contestants must sign up at nobodygivesashit.com before June 8th. 

Brought to you by the world of E sports
I can't tell if your sarcasm is in support of what I said, or in response to. In the event that it's in response to my previous statements, check the spoiler.

(click to show/hide)

Edit: Piece of shit "Toggle View" button fucking up my post.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: _GTX_ on May 17, 2014, 11:05:25 pm
I can't tell if your sarcasm is in support of what I said, or in response to. In the event that it's in response to my previous statements, check the spoiler.

(click to show/hide)

Edit: Piece of shit "Toggle View" button fucking up my post.

Well he forgot the biggest e-sport aswell, so im not quite sure what he is getting at.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Teeth on May 17, 2014, 11:19:25 pm
'Take too seriously, obsessed with performance and K/D'
That is e-peen, not e-sport, we need a global k/d leaderboard for a proper e-peen scene in cRPG.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Viktarion on May 18, 2014, 01:42:19 am
Problem with lot of people playing M&B is that game is much harder then most popular games. When someone tries it it is very hard to make them stay for a while until they learn at least something so they can do anything in game at all.
 Maybe it could work if you design like few levels or something where people who registered in like last month only play against people who registered in last month or something like that(i know it's easier said then done and all that, just something where they don't just jump into playing all veteran players and they lose all interest in game because they feel totally useless, i am not really creative person so don't really know what should be, but something to help them stay like for first few weeks) because how it is now, it is very hard to make people stay to play when they can't do anything at all unless they play game a lot for quite some time.
I am still pretty new and i played for a while and even i still feel pretty useless but it is even worse for new people, i persuaded few friends to try game, but they just quit it after few hours even tho i was telling them that if they stick around they'll really love it etc, nothing help there.
So point is idea is really great, that would be so awesome to do, but to have any chance of success i really think need to do something to make a lot easier for people who didn't play this kind of games, because that can only work if lot of people play it and that will be hard to manage with current state of things.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Nessaj on May 18, 2014, 05:39:22 pm
Problem with lot of people playing M&B is that game is much harder then most popular games. When someone tries it it is very hard to make them stay for a while until they learn at least something so they can do anything in game at all.
 Maybe it could work if you design like few levels or something where people who registered in like last month only play against people who registered in last month or something like that(i know it's easier said then done and all that, just something where they don't just jump into playing all veteran players and they lose all interest in game because they feel totally useless, i am not really creative person so don't really know what should be, but something to help them stay like for first few weeks) because how it is now, it is very hard to make people stay to play when they can't do anything at all unless they play game a lot for quite some time.
I am still pretty new and i played for a while and even i still feel pretty useless but it is even worse for new people, i persuaded few friends to try game, but they just quit it after few hours even tho i was telling them that if they stick around they'll really love it etc, nothing help there.
So point is idea is really great, that would be so awesome to do, but to have any chance of success i really think need to do something to make a lot easier for people who didn't play this kind of games, because that can only work if lot of people play it and that will be hard to manage with current state of things.

That's part of the concerns for MELEE too, don't think of melee as a cRPG clone, instead think of it as the spiritual successor, whereas the new product will not only revolutionize the system it will be an evolution too.
Title: Re: Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?
Post by: Kafein on May 18, 2014, 06:17:10 pm
Problem with lot of people playing M&B is that game is much harder then most popular games. When someone tries it it is very hard to make them stay for a while until they learn at least something so they can do anything in game at all.
 Maybe it could work if you design like few levels or something where people who registered in like last month only play against people who registered in last month or something like that(i know it's easier said then done and all that, just something where they don't just jump into playing all veteran players and they lose all interest in game because they feel totally useless, i am not really creative person so don't really know what should be, but something to help them stay like for first few weeks) because how it is now, it is very hard to make people stay to play when they can't do anything at all unless they play game a lot for quite some time.
I am still pretty new and i played for a while and even i still feel pretty useless but it is even worse for new people, i persuaded few friends to try game, but they just quit it after few hours even tho i was telling them that if they stick around they'll really love it etc, nothing help there.
So point is idea is really great, that would be so awesome to do, but to have any chance of success i really think need to do something to make a lot easier for people who didn't play this kind of games, because that can only work if lot of people play it and that will be hard to manage with current state of things.

MOBAs have a much higher barrier to entry than Warband, given that the complete rules of any popular MOBA would fill a small book. And yet MOBAs are extremely popular e-sport games with a durable influx of noobs.