Does Melee: Battlegrounds have Esports potential?

[Tomas_Miles_again]

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.

[NejStark]

I have no clue where the distinction between an 'E-sport' and a competitive games lies

Marketing throwing money, I think.

[Sniger]

I found it more satisfying to have a close tense game.

(click to show/hide)

XPEE

[Tomas_Miles_again]

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).

[Sniger]

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 fuck the big picture, just grind money and become famous. and people love it!

[Tomas_Miles_again]

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).

[Nessaj]

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)

[Sniger]

You must unlearn what you have learned.

[Molly]

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.

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/

[Prpavi]

 “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.

[Herezy92]

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.

[SP1N]

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.

[Joseph Porta]

Devs should make a new chance to donate, so we can give them more money so that they can make an even bettr game.

[Herezy92]

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

[Hobb]

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.