Forum Discussion

KelRiever's avatar
4 years ago
Solved

Control is the best game mode, and you know it.

All these complaints people have had with Apex BR, and BRs in general:

Third party this and that

My team mates hot drop and get me killed

Longer load times than playing the game

I got beat by a better weapon someone happened to loot ahead of me, and I had no armor

And on and on, are all solved with Control.  

It's not perfect, but please give me a break, it came out this season.  If Control had 12 seasons of possible corrections behind it, we wouldn't even be having this conversation, it would be the status quo.

But people forget too, that BR started as the stupid, blow off steam, for fun game mode.  Nobody, when it started, gave you credit for lucking your way at least in part through 99 other players, or in Apex's case, 57.  It's not that Apex wasn't a great BR on release because it was, but the BR genre, by then, had turned into 'serious face', a money make for streamers and a company wanting to shell skins for $18-$40, so you could pay more per year playing a BR than playing a game released with full content and all game modes.  I mean, there are companies that clearly do that, but also clearly people need to feel better about themselves by spending money.

Why, though?  All I can figure out is this reason right here:  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-06641-x 

And if you look at it, there's some hard truth in that...most people prefer to play 19 mostly terrible games for the 1 time they win.  And all of them say they 'like' that (which if you think about it, if you like that kind of masochism, you probably should take time to think about life choices 🙂 )

Anyway, there's a lot of crying about Control, which to me is actually fine.  But if you look at the crying, there are simply some great points made for improving it, and a deep desire for people to like it.  Actually, I'd argue they DO like it, in a non-pigeon way, and naturally want to see it get better.

Control needs some improvements, and of course since characters were designed for BR, they need some work.  But I am one person who wouldn't mind seeing Control becoming both the best and most popular way to play this game.  It really is excellent.

  • Its a good mode, but not the most fun for me though.


    By the way, I found this funny xd

10 Replies

  • @KelRiever Agree with almost everything that you’ve said. Don’t have anything to add actually other than echoing that control is the best complement mode to BR in Apex. The longer the mode is active, you actually see more diversity into the games as players are getting better and making new strategies for each map which is great for the longevity of the mode. On the other hand, the mode needs a lot of work and investment from Respawn. Stop making arenas map already and make original maps for control Respawn! And I also agree with the BR statements as well. Great post as always and giving us a different perspective on Apex.

  • @Cheese9Man Yes

    @hayhor Very possible.  You won't have the problem with character abilities being nigh useless.  But you might just have the same, though less, looting issues.  The other common multiplayer is, of course, CTF, which I'm not sure could translate well with the defense characters there are and I suppose that's why they went with control.  

    Honestly, I would LOVE TDM and Control.  I'd play both happily.

  • @KelRiever

    If I'm reading you (and the pidgeons) right then I'm guessing you like a 50/50 shot at victory over a 5/95 shot at victory. That's psychologically coherent, at least as far as any gaming behavior is concerned, and I would never want to take Control or Arenas away from anyone who thinks they're the way to go.

    But I didn't come out of twenty years of arena shooters and over to Battle Royale because I was getting everything I wanted from short, objective-based, two-team gametypes. I wasn't. Odds of winning have nothing whatsoever to do with whether I can find satisfaction in a game. Having lattitude in how I play, how I choose to approach goals and objectives, has everything to do with my satisfaction. Which is why I'd far rather lose 95% of my BR matches than win 50% of my arena matches. But that's just me.

    Third-partying, hot-dropping, bad loot luck - none of these are problems except for players who haven't figured out how to solve them. And I'm pretty sure that "I just lost because I got screwed by bad teammates" will follow us no matter what game type we choose to play.
  • So, when I say that clickbait gets more replies, and I get the well intended advice that more level headed posts might get better replies, I'm going to point to the 'Control is Trash' post, which is even more clickbaity than mine here.  People don't want to talk thoughtful things online.  They want to scream.

    But to @reconzero , nobody's talking either/or here.  I personally think that BRs got popular because they were fun ways to blow off steam.  It went all wrong when it became seriousfaced in my opinion.  Always a legit alternative, BRs exist and should exist for a reason.

    Despite, however, what you say being true, that you have to learn the game, in the big making things popular way Respawn, I would imagine, is focused on, I could still see Control taking over as the more serious game mode.  All you say about people complaining about BR is true...but the same applies to Control.  Learn your game mode.  

    All things being equal, though, it's a matter of preferences.  However objectively you are open to more shenanigans in BR simply because there ARE 60 players in teams of 3.  Party of the crazy and the luck is the fun.  But that's why I smh when people take it too much for serious.  I mean, yes, play your games to win and seriously, that's fun, but don't pretend when some dumb luck hits you and you go down cause you were 'third partied' that this, therefore, is the more serious game mode.

    If Control took over as the main game mode, or TDM, I would always blow off steam playing BR.  Having played it serious faced though, as the main game mode, knowing the game enough...it's still pot luck silly often, even when you do all the things correctly.  Control, to me, is far more strategic (and far more punishing, rightly so, to the team that doesn't play it that way)

  • Its a good mode, but not the most fun for me though.


    By the way, I found this funny xd

  • reconzero's avatar
    reconzero
    Seasoned Ace
    4 years ago
    @KelRiever

    I get that we both have preferences and that they're not the same, but I'm still a little puzzled as to why anyone would call TDM (slayer in my day) or Control the more "serious" game mode. If you're talking about the role of luck, as you were, then I would say BR is by far the more serious game mode: the great misunderstood and untapped potential of BR is in finding ways to minimize the role of luck. Gun play and movement? Everyone does those things, and everyone gets good at them eventually. But if you're serious about BR those things are only the price of admission. Beyond getting your foot in the door you have to start thinking about how to minimize risk and be less reliant on good luck and more resilient against bad luck. That dimension of game play is pretty much just absent in shorter, two-team, time-bound game types. Or has it been so long since I played slayer that I've forgotten that aspect of the game???
  • Because it isn't that there isn't skill in BR.  It's just that if it is less of a factor in a win, then it's not the most skilled based game mode.

    I mean, aside from the fact that if I drop alone, I place higher in ranked than if I play with my team, that says something about the stupidity and chaos of BR.  That just shouldn't happen.  Bad team mates happen, but in control, it's probably a 50/50 shot if my entire other 8 members are so bad we have no chance.  And I have more of an effect on the outcome.  Meanwhile, if my 2 team mates even get near me in pug ranked, there's about (I'm not kidding, I've counted), an above 90% chance they'll get themselves and me killed.

    Part of the problem is Battle Royale is chaos, part of the problem is Respawn has actually sucked at team based games, even though 'that's they're thing'.  BR is the suckiest of all the team based modes, not to say you can't win with a team, or preload a team or what have you.  But you can do that in Arenas or Control, you'll have an even bigger impact, and frankly, it isn't nearly as much of an auto loss.

    Again, so I'd argue that when a game mode requires more skill just to suffer through it, probably it's the fun of it all carrying you, not the challenge of skill.  So much nonsense can happen to a team before you get to final 5 it's more like lottery or maybe poker is a better example.  People LOVE poker, but poker is so random that your massive skill skews your outcome minimally as a percentage.  It's just that it's enough over the many games you play to make a difference.

    But if you are playing bridge, it's more about skill than chance.  If you are playing chess, it's all about skill (skill including remembering things), and not about chance.  Some people like poker, some like bridge, but I don't think anybody is going to say poker is a more skill based game than bridge.  Just more people play poker, and I think it's because of the same pigeon reason for a lot (not necessarily all, like yourself)

  • Control should be a permanent game option, and maybe ranked too.  I mean, if Arenas is ranked, then do Control (another option is just don't have ranked for either, it is too distracting).

    Speaking of which, yes, the problem with timed event formats is it often takes away from those of us who grind ranked BR.  I mean, that's another story, why it takes so much grinding, but obviously it's harder when the same game is competing for all our attention.  Make Control permanent and it won't be so hard, plus...it's proven worth it, I think, by this point.