Having a lot of online multiplayer modes in videogames is not necessarily good.
Bored and disappointed with Nintendo Switch's library, I recently went back to PC-gaming. In Q4 of last year, I built a new PC, but I hadn't gamed too much on it. I did copy a few games from my older PC to it: Titanfall, Titanfall 2, and Battlefield 4, while purchasing two new games: Recore, and Rise of the Tomb Raider. However, Daemon Tools messed my computer up. I had to use Windows 10's "Reset this PC" feature because System Restore wouldn't work. This meant I had my files, like my pictures and videos, but all my applications and games were lost.
I've been slowly copying my games back from my old computer that has a decent-sized library on it, and the second game I copied to this newest PC was Titanfall.
I don't know how it is on Xbone or X360, but it's a sad state of affairs for Titanfall on PC. Attrition, the most boring mode, is the most popular mode, followed by Frontier Defense and Campaign. My favorite lobby - Variety Pack, is a wasteland.
There are so many modes in Titanfall, but it's a shame because I can't play them unless I organized a tournament and made private matches or something.
Having a lot of online multiplayer modes in videogames is not necessarily good. This is one area in which Nintendo was really smart. In Splatoon 1, there were only two modes for random, online play: Regular Battle and Ranked Battle. With Ranked Battle, they were even more clever: they rotated three modes within it so that you could play all three modes while only having to worry about queuing up for one lobby.
I like a lot of the modes in Titanfall; they are very fun. Capture the Flag is a competitive favorite, and also a favorite of mine as I just plant Arc Mines near the flag and hide. Marked for Death forced me to stop turtling and move around the map; it was frightening but exhilarating. I liked Pilot Hunter more than Attrition because you couldn't expedite matches by farming grunts; this meant the matches lasted longer and were more strategic. Last Titan Standing was very tactical and taught me a lot about flanking, positioning on the map relative to my teammates, and generally fighting with my Titan. Hardpoint Domination is a classic, but also another favorite; I loved getting easy kills with Arc Mines in it as well.
The problem with the modes wasn't that they weren't fun, nor that there were even too many, but that people could queue for one and only one of them at a time. Variety Pack sought to remedy this by including most of them in a single lobby and randomizing which mode would be played next; but when there are other lobbies to queue for, people are less likely to pick Variety Pack.
They tried to remedy this again in Titanfall 2. You can queue for any number of lobbies at one time. The problem here is that most people will just select Attrition, the most brainless mode, and deselect the others.
If I was a developer, I would have one lobby - Variety Pack. Some people might be upset that they can't only play the most boring, brainless mode, but exposing players to all the different modes will benefit them. By playing a variety of modes, they will be forced to develop multiple skills with multiple weapons, using multiple strategies and mindsets. This will lift the skill-floor as well as the skill-ceiling of the entire playerbase.
Choice is sometimes good, but sometimes it is best to limit it.
I've been slowly copying my games back from my old computer that has a decent-sized library on it, and the second game I copied to this newest PC was Titanfall.
I don't know how it is on Xbone or X360, but it's a sad state of affairs for Titanfall on PC. Attrition, the most boring mode, is the most popular mode, followed by Frontier Defense and Campaign. My favorite lobby - Variety Pack, is a wasteland.
There are so many modes in Titanfall, but it's a shame because I can't play them unless I organized a tournament and made private matches or something.
Having a lot of online multiplayer modes in videogames is not necessarily good. This is one area in which Nintendo was really smart. In Splatoon 1, there were only two modes for random, online play: Regular Battle and Ranked Battle. With Ranked Battle, they were even more clever: they rotated three modes within it so that you could play all three modes while only having to worry about queuing up for one lobby.
I like a lot of the modes in Titanfall; they are very fun. Capture the Flag is a competitive favorite, and also a favorite of mine as I just plant Arc Mines near the flag and hide. Marked for Death forced me to stop turtling and move around the map; it was frightening but exhilarating. I liked Pilot Hunter more than Attrition because you couldn't expedite matches by farming grunts; this meant the matches lasted longer and were more strategic. Last Titan Standing was very tactical and taught me a lot about flanking, positioning on the map relative to my teammates, and generally fighting with my Titan. Hardpoint Domination is a classic, but also another favorite; I loved getting easy kills with Arc Mines in it as well.
The problem with the modes wasn't that they weren't fun, nor that there were even too many, but that people could queue for one and only one of them at a time. Variety Pack sought to remedy this by including most of them in a single lobby and randomizing which mode would be played next; but when there are other lobbies to queue for, people are less likely to pick Variety Pack.
They tried to remedy this again in Titanfall 2. You can queue for any number of lobbies at one time. The problem here is that most people will just select Attrition, the most brainless mode, and deselect the others.
If I was a developer, I would have one lobby - Variety Pack. Some people might be upset that they can't only play the most boring, brainless mode, but exposing players to all the different modes will benefit them. By playing a variety of modes, they will be forced to develop multiple skills with multiple weapons, using multiple strategies and mindsets. This will lift the skill-floor as well as the skill-ceiling of the entire playerbase.
Choice is sometimes good, but sometimes it is best to limit it.
Comments
Post a Comment