EPTBack in 2000, my older brother sent me to the PC store to buy him the original Unreal Tournament. He said it's supposed to be this amazing shooting game with incredible graphics and support for 3DFX (good times). I personally wasn't interested in FPS games and decided to get Diablo II for myself while I'm there.
It didn't even take a month before I realized D2 was a waste of precious time in which I could be shooting people online. (not bashing, chill
)UT grabbed Israel in the nuts unlike any other game in history (with the exception of Counter Strike) and the local community was literally booming. I've met so many amazing personalities with which I'm good friends with to this day, and have very fond memories from the game from LANs and whatnot. I believe any hardcore gamer in his 20s can relate.
I've played the game until ~2006 (even after the release of the next two games in the series, which were just not as good) and from then on I've been playing on and off because of my military service, the dying-down of the community and the decrease in tournaments.
UT99 is dead.
Once I finished my service, I've been on the hunt for a new, exciting FPS. It has since been 3 years, and this is what I found:
* CS, COD, MW, Halo. Huge communities. Huge tournaments. Incredibly dull and one dimensional gameplay in comparison to Arena shooters. Yes, I'm bashing.
* Quake Live. This is a super fun game. Only problem with it? HUGE skill ceiling and no newbies to be found. No one plays this game if they haven't played Quake 3 Arena. 0 community, 0 tournaments.
* Warsow. Based on Quake 2 engine. Exact same problem as Quake Live.
And so, I was left with no other choice but to try something completely different. I obviously didn't want to get an RPG because of the inherent imbalances and uncompetitiveness.
I found Starcraft. Obviously an RTS. Fortunately I decided to give it a go anyway because it seemed to have the Esports magic in it. I'm so glad I did.
But I'm still waiting for Epic, Id, or any other software developer to come out with a new Esports-worthy arena shooter. I've taken the liberty to list out the ingredients for such a game:
1. Diversity in weapons:
* Every weapon serves a different purpose. Once you get into a certain situation, you either have to switch to a specific weapon in order to defend yourself/hit your opponent, or, if you don't have it, you just gotta run the hell outta there. This opens up possibilities for map positioning tactics and creates tension points around weapon pickups.
* Not all weapons are instant (sniper-like). Actually, since people have become so good at aiming with the mouse, having more than a couple of these guns in a game is going to award mediocre players who can only aim well, and this obviously lowers the skill ceiling and frustrates the thinking player. Good aiming should obviously be awarded, but the overall arsenal of weapons has to be balanced.
* Some weapons require prediction abilities. Newer players will often mistake this for "randomly spamming everywhere", but an experienced player will know where to send his rockets when he sees his opponent going through the portal/behind the corner/etc., and apart from that, recognizing the opponent's movement pattern becomes an important skill to master.
2. Tricky, fast paced movement:
* Bunny-hopping was always the trademark of the competitive FPS scene, and for a good reason. In Unreal you had dodging, in Quake you had the mind-blowingly hard to master strafe-jumping, and there have been more variations of these. Jumping adds another dimension to movement and gives adept players a good edge.
* Overall fast game speed is essential. I swear, when I see Halo progamers "walk" it makes me cringe. If the weapons are lightning-fast, your character should be lightning-fast as well. This opens up the possibilities for endlessly more exciting combat, with players constantly having to dodge attacks from all angles, instead of just having people shoot straight forward across the map.
3. Accessibility & attractiveness, without compromising competition:
* A game like this should definitely have a skill tier system, and if possible, matchmaking (a-la SC2, QuakeLive). This is a no-brainer. Let the casuals play with the casuals, let the pros play with the pros. Everyone's happy.
* The game should feel reasonably fresh. This means up-to-date graphics and solid physics. If you want a game to become an Esport, it has to draw attention from the casuals in the first place.
* The gameplay mechanics are the most important aspect of the game, and none of it should ever be toned down or dumbed down in order to work better with any concept of realism/fiction/lore. Esports should be about fun and competition, not storytelling.
* Everyone should be able to play on equal terms. No one should be able to level up or unlock a personal boost. No one should EVER gain an advantage from a micro-transfer. You simply have to try and become a better player.
4. Community focus:
* One thing that made Unreal so exciting was the relative ease of making maps and modding. The modding community was so excited with the engine, they literally created an incredible amount of completely new games on it.
* Patching, support, forums. Customizability of character and team support are a big bonus.
Many of the aspects I've listed above can be applied to RTS, for you Starcraft veterans. I for one don't like the fact that some of Starcraft's lore gets in the way of game design. In my opinion it's also never going to be completely balanced. But one thing is for sure; it's fun, and it's competitive.
I just hope I find a game as good as the old arena shooters some day. Starcraft kind of good.
I believe.
Rez
