Forum Discussion

New Vanguard

2 months ago

Player Shortage

The problem of player outflow exceeding the influx of new players is becoming critical. I believe this is largely due to feelings of unfairness and distrust among the player base. I request immediat...

Seasoned Ace

2 months ago

I haven't really been looking at player counts lately. I assume they spike at the beginning of each season and then drop off quickly afterwards as they have for years now. Not really sure how it could work any other way in a six year old game. But overall I can completely agree that this game has A LOT to learn about player retention. How hard could it be to poach people from Epic to show them how to do it?

Could not agree more about the disruptive and ultimately corrosive nature of the "balance" adjustments they've taken to relying on. I'd call them "imbalance" adjustments if we want to be accurate. It's all short-term desperation at the expense of long-term viability.

The matchmaking is a horse of a different color. I take exception to the observation that quality should be prioritized over speed in ranked play. It should be prioritized in every single mode in the game. Rank vs. Unranked is completely irrelevant, imo. But this is a chicken and egg thing. Is the matchmaking bad because the population is too low or is the population dwindling because the matchmaking is bad? The truth is, it's both. And the harder truth is that this problem is baked into the formula of every single multiplayer shooter that ever has existed or ever will exist. For one very simple reason. Developers believe that gamers will tire more quickly of a game that is easily mastered. So they build their games with ridiculously high skill ceilings. Which creates literally dozens of different problems for the game and its players, none worse or more intractable than cheating and smurfing. If you make your game in such a way that a normal person cannot even reach a level of basic competence without quitting their job and aim training full time, then you haven't, imo, built your game right. When you build a game with a skill ceiling so high that legitimate high-skill players appear to do things easily and regularly that defy game physics... then you are actively encouraging a gigantic cheat industry to grow up around your game. And when cheaters decide they're not having any fun anymore because it seems like everyone else is cheating... then they just start a new account in order to get at the last bastion of normal, non-cheating players in the game: the scrubs. And then the scrubs leave. And suddenly season 26 mid-gold looks an awful lot like season 4 diamond. Suddenly there is no where in the game that isn't a sweat-soaked **bleep** hole of three stack hard pushes and multi squad pile ups.

So here's my call out to all fps developers (a call out I've been making for decades now and will continue to make until I quit gaming): Stop building your games for professionals and streamers and just expecting the rest of us to go along for the ride. The ride sucks. Start building your games for normal people.

Akipekopeko
New Vanguard
2 months ago
reconzero
The quality of Matchmaking requires a sufficient player population. While fostering new players is necessary for this, measures to deter inactive/abandoned accounts can also be expected to secure the MM player pool. This might be particularly effective in higher ranks, where abandoned accounts are common and frequently lead to player shortages.
Master-tier players and above may lack sufficient end-game content. This could be a result of the widening gap between Apex Predator and Master tiers. It may be necessary to introduce a system that stokes competition and encourages Master-tier players to be conscious of their ranking ( Master League equivalent).
Apex's balance adjustments should not be made primarily for the sake of professional players and streamers. On the contrary, they should be expected to adapt to the game content. The ability to adapt to the environment is part of a player's skill set, and it is an opportunity for competitors and streamers to demonstrate their expertise.
For example, adjustments that add new functions to a character (e.g., Blink, EMP Smoke) excessively raise the player's skill ceiling.Conversely, quality-of-life adjustments (e.g., better Jetpack handling) raise the skill floor. A powerful skill with limited usage, such as Maggie's Drill, exemplifies a better adjustment: its design allows players to use Perks to choose between maintaining the usage limitation for better accuracy, or easing the limitation in exchange for a reduced effect. When the range between the upper and lower limits of player skill (skill ceiling and skill floor) is wide, the environment becomes comfortable for highly skilled, heavy users, but it is exclusive and unwelcoming to casual and new players, who are essential for increasing the player population.