This community is a curious one. The few that remain are stalwart adamant defenders of the giga skillcaped and pingcaped melee combat. But they also demand from Starvault that they increase the amount of players while maintaining this combat system. I am here telling you today that if Mortal had different combat that it would have far more players then it has right now and that the melee combat is one of the primary factors in why this game cannot and will not grow.
But how is Mortals combat holding it back? If you start thinking of a MMO in the same nature of a Casino it starts to make a little more sense. Josh strife Hayes just released a video that briefly touched on dying MMO's and the casino->MMO paradigm, it's worth a watch if you haven't already seen it.
Lets break down an example of Albion Vs Mortal. This isn't the only relevant example but its one thats close to my heart since many previous notable mortal players on my friends list now reside in Albion.
Albion combat-> Low/medium skillcap, Easy to pickup, high variety, high outplay potential despite low mechanical skill cap.
Mortal combat-> High skillcap, hard to pickup, low variety, low outplay potential and Mechanically intensive
Joe Bob wants to play a game: he has a full time job, he has a fat needy wife as well. He likes mortal, he really does; The graphics, the concept, the map, the creatures all of that appeal to him. However he only has 2 hours a day at most to play. 14 hours a week. Joe Bob tried to play mortal but because of his time limitation and the mechanical nature of the game requiring hundreds or even thousands of hours to be competitive in he could not compete in the game on his own. Group play required too much organization time for Joe and since solo play is the most accessible format of play, especially for someone like Joe with limited time, that is what he spent most of his time doing. He was forced out of the game by the few players that could play 8-10 hours a day against which he could not even hit once in melee combat even in the very rare situations that he got a 1v1, because those players had won whatever relevant objective that Joe was also interested in playing at. By the time Joe had gotten to that in-game objective, someone named Time Freeman had already forced many players out.
Joe Bob never won a fight in Mortal, even though he liked the game he had to go to a different game, one where he could win at despite only playing 2 hours a day, even if winning was rare it was still possible for Joe Bob in Albion. Thats why Joe Bob plays Albion now, its a casino he can win at, even if its rarely.
Now lets talk about Time Freeman
Time Freeman wants to play a game, he has no obligations outside of gaming. He chooses Mortal and likes everything about it, just like Joe did. Time Freeman can play up to 14 hours a day and quickly dominates the opposition. He has many accounts and can single handedly hold multiple valuable objectives in the game, of which there are only handful. Time Freeman notices over time there are less and less players challenging him for objectives. The objectives themselves aren't very fun if repeated to infinity without the intervention of other players. Because other players no longer come Time Freeman gets bored and trys Albion and finds a plethora of players to play against, tons of action. Time Freeman quickly ascends to the highest tiers of Albion gamers with the highest mechanical skill cap in the game. However Time Freeman still loses fights to Joe Bob rarely in Albion due to the nature of the combat, the variety and randomness. Time Freeman is willing to accept that Joe Bob can rarely win, Time Freeman would rather play in a game with lots of action then a game with no action.
Hence the Casino->MMO paradigm. Both players eventually played Albion anyway because Joe Bob plays where he can win and Time Freeman follows the action.
People are going to play where they can win, because always losing is not fun. We should take players time restrictions into account when implementing game design. It is crucial to design an ecosystem not an esport when designing an MMO because MMO's depend on other players to maintain in-game systems or the whole thing collapses. Esports work differently, because they have matchmaking. Player time constraints are not a concern when designing games around matchmaking. Esports also do not rely on players maintaining in-game systems. A game of Halo plays the same whether 5 people are online or 500000 people are online.
You didn't listen.
But how is Mortals combat holding it back? If you start thinking of a MMO in the same nature of a Casino it starts to make a little more sense. Josh strife Hayes just released a video that briefly touched on dying MMO's and the casino->MMO paradigm, it's worth a watch if you haven't already seen it.
Lets break down an example of Albion Vs Mortal. This isn't the only relevant example but its one thats close to my heart since many previous notable mortal players on my friends list now reside in Albion.
Albion combat-> Low/medium skillcap, Easy to pickup, high variety, high outplay potential despite low mechanical skill cap.
Mortal combat-> High skillcap, hard to pickup, low variety, low outplay potential and Mechanically intensive
Joe Bob wants to play a game: he has a full time job, he has a fat needy wife as well. He likes mortal, he really does; The graphics, the concept, the map, the creatures all of that appeal to him. However he only has 2 hours a day at most to play. 14 hours a week. Joe Bob tried to play mortal but because of his time limitation and the mechanical nature of the game requiring hundreds or even thousands of hours to be competitive in he could not compete in the game on his own. Group play required too much organization time for Joe and since solo play is the most accessible format of play, especially for someone like Joe with limited time, that is what he spent most of his time doing. He was forced out of the game by the few players that could play 8-10 hours a day against which he could not even hit once in melee combat even in the very rare situations that he got a 1v1, because those players had won whatever relevant objective that Joe was also interested in playing at. By the time Joe had gotten to that in-game objective, someone named Time Freeman had already forced many players out.
Joe Bob never won a fight in Mortal, even though he liked the game he had to go to a different game, one where he could win at despite only playing 2 hours a day, even if winning was rare it was still possible for Joe Bob in Albion. Thats why Joe Bob plays Albion now, its a casino he can win at, even if its rarely.
Now lets talk about Time Freeman
Time Freeman wants to play a game, he has no obligations outside of gaming. He chooses Mortal and likes everything about it, just like Joe did. Time Freeman can play up to 14 hours a day and quickly dominates the opposition. He has many accounts and can single handedly hold multiple valuable objectives in the game, of which there are only handful. Time Freeman notices over time there are less and less players challenging him for objectives. The objectives themselves aren't very fun if repeated to infinity without the intervention of other players. Because other players no longer come Time Freeman gets bored and trys Albion and finds a plethora of players to play against, tons of action. Time Freeman quickly ascends to the highest tiers of Albion gamers with the highest mechanical skill cap in the game. However Time Freeman still loses fights to Joe Bob rarely in Albion due to the nature of the combat, the variety and randomness. Time Freeman is willing to accept that Joe Bob can rarely win, Time Freeman would rather play in a game with lots of action then a game with no action.
Hence the Casino->MMO paradigm. Both players eventually played Albion anyway because Joe Bob plays where he can win and Time Freeman follows the action.
People are going to play where they can win, because always losing is not fun. We should take players time restrictions into account when implementing game design. It is crucial to design an ecosystem not an esport when designing an MMO because MMO's depend on other players to maintain in-game systems or the whole thing collapses. Esports work differently, because they have matchmaking. Player time constraints are not a concern when designing games around matchmaking. Esports also do not rely on players maintaining in-game systems. A game of Halo plays the same whether 5 people are online or 500000 people are online.
You didn't listen.