A little rant about apex legends development and innovation

So apparently there is a “bug” right now where you can charge the Vantage sniper without an ult accel. This might sound overpowered, I wouldn’t know in BR because BR is boring as hell, so I only play the LTM deathmatch or control modes. You know, the ones with only two teams and no third-party nightmare.

Man, even explaining how I play the game already shines some light on how horribly the game is treated, the fact that Gun run and for a time Capture point was in the game with 4 team free for all was insane. How does this trash leave development, who in the world thinks 4 teams in an arena is fun?

Anyway, ignoring the glaring negligence of the developers and getting back into the topic at hand. The Vantage ultimate sniper can be charged without an ult accel. Of course, you might think “Damn so it must be OP right?” No, its not OP at all, its mildly worse than using a charged-up sentinel. And I know because I can now freely shoot the Vantage ultimate now without limited ammo.

Which reveals the next question, what is going on developers? Why add an ultimate to a legend, that doesn’t even impress? No, I am genuinely starting to get angry here, we have Marvels becoming more and more popular, changing the game for the better based on player feedback, AND a fresh flow of new content. And here we have apex legends with glaring problems with the game that have been a problem for almost years, without any basic fix or improvement, despite tons of player feedback. I’m talking about the player engagement SBMM ofcourse, and Straightshot, why is it not a permanent mode?

And then we have Vantage, with a lacking ultimate, that still disappoints. When are they going to increase the damage on the Vantage ultimate to acceptable levels? I’m talking values of 65 on the first shot, and 130 on the follow-up shot. The funny animation to charge up the sniper is cool, but it doesn’t make the gun any better at winning fights. And then we have the endless cycle of buffing large legends, making them OP, and then nerfing them again, resulting in them never being used as always. Without ever fixing the core problem, the huge hitbox or low fortified damage resistance.

I’m genuinely just tired, I’m tired of saying the same things over and over in the feedback posts and other games are just doing stuff better than the apex developers. I don’t know what is going on anymore at respawn studios. Maybe all they do now is count money. But man are they falling behind, apex legends had so much potential, the game had such a great start, but innovation seems to have left the company. And I can’t even bring myself to buy skins anymore, why? Because there is no hope, yes, the game does more balance changes more frequently and that is wonderful, but in the most important area’s it just stagnates, and it has been stagnating there for multiple seasons now.

Maybe those few Titanfall developers who left the company did actually carry apex legends. But that still doesn’t explain why the developers don’t more actively incorporate feedback from the players. I mean why isn’t Straightshot a permanent mode? Why is the SBMM still designed to artificially boost player engagement by letting skilled players stomp in noob lobbies? Why is Alter getting pointless buffs that won’t make her any more effective? For a season without a new fun character or weapon, it all feels too lacking. Because mark my words, give me one season to tweak all the number values on all the weapons and characters, in addition to the bulk data of winrates/pickrates in the different modes and I will significantly improve the game overnight.

No, actually, let me spell it out how to do that:

1. Remove duos as a mode.
2. Make Straight-shot a permanent mode.
3. Take all the weapons that have a low win-rate in champion/predator and buff their damage by 1, every season until their win-rate reaches average levels.
4. Take all the characters with a low win-rate in champion/predator and buff their abilities by simple number values until their win-rate reaches average levels.
5. Take all the weapons that have a high win-rate in champion/predator and nerf their damage by 1, every season until their win-rate reaches average levels.
6. Take all the characters with a high win-rate in champion/predator and nerf their abilities by simple number values until their win-rate reaches average levels.
7. Remove player engagement SBMM.
8. Replace SBMM with an MMR system that awards players for each kill/indirect kill, that is reduced with every death they suffer, then match people with the same MMR with one another.
9. Make the Gun run LTM only have two teams.
10. Add a powerful new legend or weapon to the game every few seasons, not a piece of trash like Alter that feels like the developers just said “yeah this legend has sufficient animations, lets puke it at the players just to meet a new content release quota.”

I apologise for my extremely vile and strong language, but I had so high hopes for apex legends, and while some things are getting much better like frequent balancing, the game evolves too slowly in a more innovating gaming industry. While most of the innovation in apex legends seems to be focussed on new skins and new ways to make skins even less affordable. While glaring issues with the game are left completely ignored for some strange reason. I’m not the only one with these concerns, look up online on anyone talking about apex legends and you’ll hear the same type of frustration.

And if EA is behind this, who only seek to stagnate the game and maximise profits, they might need to understand that things change quickly on the internet, and you don’t just make a successful game overnight, it’s a miracle apex legends was such a success, but if they treat it like a money printer, it WILL die, and die quickly too. Other game developers are learning from the failures of other games which will raise the bar, and within time apex legends will be bellow that bar and everyone will hop over to the new better BR game, and you can’t fix that anymore. Those fans are gone, they are never coming back.

Put yourself in the shoes of the overwatch developers, those customers who have left Overwatch for Marvels are gone. They are never coming back to overwatch. Why? Because Overwatch has devolved into a skin printing machine that doesn’t innovate, its management does not understand good gameplay anymore, there is simply no hope for the future. And the players understand that, despite how superior managers think they are, they cannot anticipate the behaviour of their own customers. If apex dies, let’s take a look at how much money EA loses, how much it will cost to make a new game, and then take into account that the new game might not even succeed.

If apex legends is the golden goose of EA, they should invest in it, instead of trying to squeeze it dry and neglect it. If the golden goose dies, it can’t be revived anymore, the pillars that built it have left the company, or the company no longer supports the infrastructure and leadership required to build a new golden goose. It is easier to stay ahead when you are ahead, then go back to square one and climb back up the ladder. The death of apex legends is a monumental threat to EA, and like Ubisoft, perhaps we will also see them fall, and everyone will be celebrating, because they did it all by themselves by ignoring everyone else. Their salvation was right in front of them, but maximizing short term profits was more desirable.