EPTIN PREPARATION FOR THE GREAT WALL OF TEXT:
This article discusses the various ways that Blizzard can improve the game in ways other than balance. If you are committed to helping LotV become as good as possible, please read further!
OR
Follow the Battle.Net community discussion here (the article is better formatted):
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/10311881685
Let's get as much positive discussion going as possible! I'm continually updating this post with your feedback. This article will be a success if it creates lots of discussion among the community!
The article has been in development since 2013, birthed in the heart of the Battle.Net General Discussion forums.
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Recent Article Updates:
2015:
June 30: Added a section on Blizzard tutorials in the coaching section (macro, micro, strategy, map awareness, etc). Added achievements that highlight a macro, micro or map awareness accomplishment. Updated automated tournament interface for WCS and other large open bracket tournaments.
April 07: Updated the automated tournaments section with a Season Finals tournament inspired by the Teamliquid Starleague format (http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2011_Pokerstrategy.com_TSL3). Updated the ladder section to include detailed information about the Clan Wars format, as well as the implementation of other Clan Ladder formats.
April 06: Updated some of the sections to reflect the changes announced by Blizzard for Legend of the Void. Removed: cash tournaments, payed coaching. More importantly, thread bumped due to announcement of LotV beta.
Archived Article Updates:
2013:
Nov 27: Updated the WCS section with a link (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=327912) comparing the tournament structure of tennis and SC2. A worthwhile read and one that I very much agree with on many points, especially towards seeding in all WCS-point tournaments using a global ranking system.
Nov 8: Updated the Starter Edition with Fully Unlocked Mapmaking, WCS section with talks about consistent WCS region production values, and Balance=Fun! section with a critical response to David Kim's comments regarding changes in micro (If anyone at Blizzard is reading this, PLEASE, tell the design/balance team to look at my comments on the Depth of Micro section and then actually question the community about this or make a balance test map with those kind of changes because you will see that the large majority of people would be in favor of adopting these changes)
Nov 12: Updated the ladder section to include thoughts on MMR Decay and Mid-Season demotions. Added marketing ideas to the online advertisements/commercials section.
P.S. I did not discuss much about balance because I am not a high-level player and do not have the necessary know how to provide good feedback on this. However, I did include a short section on balancing for entertainment purposes.
P.P.S. Somebody told me that the Blizzard developers look at the Teamliquid.net forums more often than the B.Net ones. Unfortunately, this article is appropriated to the blogs section:
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=432823#1
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Introduction (Includes a TL;DR)
2. Interface
3. Popularity (Up/Down Voting)
4. Levels
5. Points (similar to Riot's Influence Points)
6. Cash Purchases
7. Achievements
8. Tournaments
9. Ladder
10. WCS Format
11. In-game Observing (similar to Dota/LoL observing & tournament streaming)
12. Game Modifications
13. Visuals
14. Coaching
15. Strategy
16 Clan Changes
17. Practice Partners
18. Calendar
19. Player Profile Changes
20. Friends List Changes
21. Player Search
22. In-game News Changes
23. Replays
24. Voice and Video Interaction
25. Special Events!
26. Hall of Fame
27. Methods to get New Players into the Game
28. Commercials/Online Advertisements
29. Balance = Fun! (And a promotion of LaLush's Depth of Micro)
30. The End (Finally!)
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1. INTRODUCTION:
About me:
I remember how I used to stay up late so I could watch the GSL Open Seasons live, seeing new players come upon the scene seemingly out of nowhere and old heroes from Brood Wars, Boxer and NaDa shining in the new game. I remember how everything in the game held a sense of excitement for me, and how I was excited about Blizzard’s new ladder feature, and used to ask friends “what rank are you?” when I saw them. I remember when there weren’t tons of Starcraft 2 tournaments, but every one of them held meaning and I was excited to watch them all.
Nowadays, I find myself watching only parts of tournaments, and don’t feel that need to stay awake and watch games live. I like to watch really good games, but if not, what keeps me up late at night are the amazing storylines that come from foreigners doing well, or watching powerhouse players blow through their opponents with ease. However, there aren’t many consistently dominant players on the scene. There aren’t many new players on the scene, and when there are, they don’t have the means to make a name for themselves right away, because tournaments have so many leagues to go through before you reach the top.
I also find that WCS has stunted the scene by how much time they have taken away from other tournaments to be focused upon and how little they accomplished compared to what the fan base had hoped for.
I also don’t feel that excited to log in the game because besides I am mostly a watcher of SC2 games, and don’t have that incentive to play the game, having gotten used to all the units and daunted by the task of reaching the highest leagues, with no short-term benefit. The features available in the game are not enough to keep me on, and I find it very lonely in the game because of the inadequate social features.
SO WHY HAVE I WRITTEN THIS ARTICLE?
By now you can probably guess why I have written this article. I am losing my passion for the game (as a player and a spectator) and I think there is LOTS that Blizzard could do to renew my interest. I have mentioned in this introduction a few of the reasons why I have lost interest in the game. However, there are many other aspects of the game that have not been handled properly or not included at all that have led to my dissatisfaction with the game. Hence, I have outlined all of these aspects in the above table of contents, in this article I have written, Fix Starcraft 2 for Legend of the Void, to showcase the potential the game could hold if Blizzard decided to push all the right buttons. And I submitted it now, of all times, before Legend of the Void is released, because, as we all know, all the big features are implemented with a new expansion. So this is the last chance we have left for big changes.
I think with these changes, people would want to spend more time in the game. They would help the scene from stagnating. These implementations will let the game reach its potential as an eSport, as a spectator sport, help tournament viewership numbers, make Blizzard more money, and ultimately lead to a better player and spectator experience.
First off, a TL;DR:
The best route for Blizzard to take if they want to maximize their game potential by spending minimum money is to increase the amount of people that play the game, and to improve the spectating experience.
How will you keep them invested in the game?
The three PRIMARY FACTORS:
1. By improving the interface through the use of social features and aspects that make people want to play more, making all of the available information easier to find. Examples being a permanent chat box, clan channels. They should also take note that many of the features on a site like Team Liquid should be incorporated in the game, such as in-game player and tournament observing, practice partners, advanced looking for clan/clan search functionality and many other different types of search options.
2. By keeping the game dynamic through special events and Blizzard tournaments
More invested people = more people that watch tournaments = more money for tournaments and more awareness for the game. More awareness = more sponsors for Blizzard. And by including features that can make Blizzard money, such as pay-to-play microtransactions (not play-to-win!), more players playing the game = more $$$.
3. By making use of the player community to develop things in as many ways as possible, because it is the best way to help the game grow without Blizzard spending additional resources. Therefore they should implement community developed maps into ladder more often, promote arcade games and give full map editor functionality in the starter edition, allow users to submit and rate replays, starcraft articles, promote non-WCS tournaments, and most importantly let the community aid with balance tests, having interface options that allow for the community to maximize their effect on the game.
For the scene to thrive, it also needs the many people who don't play the game much but like to spectate it. Therefore:
1. I have mentioned how Blizzard could fix WCS to allow other tournaments more room to exist, to make better storylines for their WCS, and implement features that make them comparable to real competitive sports.
2. I have included a section on how Blizzard could get new players into the game.
If your interest is piqued, please read further...
A word of caution:
I want to note beforehand that many of these options will require a substantial investment through Blizzard’s part, and they would of course have to analyze if those features would be making or losing them money. Many suggestions might also generate a negative reaction from some of you. However, I feel obliged to give them the best possible features that I could think of and it is up to them to decide whether they can implement it. Another point I want to mention is that I did not touch upon gameplay, as it is already long enough and the community has already made many such articles and told Blizzard loud and clear on what gameplay changes they want. This article will be a success if it creates lots of discussion among the SC2 community.
Format of the article:
In each section, I will start off by saying what is currently wrong with the game, and why each of the sections can "fix" the problems (Thanks to TheSkunk for the request).
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2. INTERFACE:
What is currently wrong with the interface: Makes the game feel lonely, because the chat interface is not a focal part of the game.
The fix: The main goal for the interface change will be to facilitate the social aspect of the game. A good example of Brood Wars and WC3 was how a chat box that filled up the majority of the screen as soon as you logged in. I propose the following:
You start the game with the standard loading screen, which brings you into a starting screen that gives you two options: Single Player, Multiplayer, Options, Replays etc. If you enter single player, you are left on your own. However, if you enter multiplayer you are automatically placed in the default Blizzard chat channel. You can disable this through in-game options, as well as edit the channel you enter.
The chat screen should not feel like a small box but a sizable part of the screen. I recommend the complete bottom portion of the screen. As an option I would allow the user to disable the chat box and have a larger screen for whatever else you are looking at, an example being to enlarge a list in a selection screen. The chat box is always on the screen, no matter what you are looking at; only other parts of the screen change when you are selecting other options. The only other way you would not see a chat screen is in the campaign mode.
The center of the screen will showcase different things, depending on the tab you select on a small box that when you click on it gives a large list of options (you can set the default tab in the options section):
-News feed: A small part where all of your friends can post things (like Facebook’s News Feed) and you can see it and comment on it
-Featured: upcoming events, featured arcade games that rotate, featured articles)
-In-Game Player Observing
-Different searches: Tournament search, clan search, coaching, practice partners, replay search, player search
-Calendar
-Player profile (that pops up when you select someone’s name in chat channel or friend list, search in chat box)
-Arcade
-Campaign
-Custom Games
-Ladder
-Achievements
-In-game Points and options (UI modifications, unit modifications, sounds, icons, etc)
-Strategy
-Practice Partners
-Hall of Fame
-etc...
By doing this, the chat section will always be available and the interface will feel more social and less complex.
A small part on the top of the screen where reminders (friend/tournament/other invites, calendar events) pop-up. An example would be if a WCS tournament is starting on twitch, an announcement beforehand would show up in this area and a box would pop-up when the stream starts, and when you click on it would cause the center of the screen to go to the twitch stream. This feature currently exists in the game, but it opens up within an external webpage, while I would have the stream show in the game interface, so that you could talk to people in chat and do other things in-game while you watch the tournament.
A tiny corner with your account name, in-game points, experience, player icon and clan name/icon
A tiny corner with the time and date. When the area is clicked it will open up the calendar.
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3. POPULARITY (UP/DOWN OTING):
The Fix: Nothing really in this section, except the use of popularity should be broadened to many more categories besides the Arcade to help people make informed decisions in their searches through the different sections of the interface.
A design to up-vote things that you deem are of superior quality. Will be able to up/down vote many things (maps, arcade games, strategies, players (for in-game observing), clans, coaching, practice partners, replays, etc). Will be part of search options in many areas of the game. Having a certain amount of popularity in each section will unlock the ability to be featured.
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4. LEVELS:
Continues the function it currently serves in HotS, showing the amount of experience the player has accumulated in the game.
-Only used to show game experience (tournament > ladder > comp games in experience)
-Not used to unlock decals or any other bonuses anymore, but the in-game points gained through playing ladder games can be used towards these bonuses
Leveling will not be capped, but each level will get increasingly harder to reach and only the most dedicated of players able to reach a level above 100.
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5. POINTS:
What is currently wrong with the game: It seems that the game sales by themselves are not giving Blizzard enough incentive to implement all of the features that we want, and with a polish that the game deserves. I propose a microtransaction system to generate more money for them from the game.
The Fix: In order to implement a microtransaction system, a points system should be implemented to reward people who play the game more to be able to purchase things for free using points they earn in the game.
An alternative to spending money in-game for many of the new game additions, the use of in-game points will reward players who play the game more. This is similar to League of Legend’s Influence Points. Gained through laddering (including unranked ladder games), playing in Blizzard tournaments, playing Arcade games, achievements, and also through purchasing with real money
In addition, I am also suggesting that Blizzard add a points system for their automated tournaments. These will accumulate as players win more important matches during the tournament, with the highest number of points being awarded to the tournament winner. The players with the highest number of tournament points at the end of the year (Blizzcon) will be awarded substantial prizes by Blizzard.
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6. CASH PURCHASES:
What is currently wrong with the game: As mentioned in points section.
The fix: For Blizzard to devote more time to adding features to the game and polishing it to the extent that we would hope for, a microtransaction pay-to-play (not pay-to-win) system that uses real cash should be implemented. This feature would apply to in-game modifications (icons, UI, etc) as well as other features discussed in this document
I am especially looking forward to feedback of what options people think should be used for real money versus in-game points, as I had trouble thinking of how to keep as many benefits accessible to the masses without giving Blizzard the option to make more money and hence put more effort into the success of the game in the future. I would also like to encourage discussion on what kind of things Blizzard could do with cash that would not be considered online gambling.
6.1 Other Benefits of In-Game Points & Cash:
Transferability: being able to transfer the points you made in SC2 into any other Blizzard game (make those use point system too) so that people play the game just to build up points for other games too. Points are also server-wide, so points accumulated in one server will show up in the other.
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7. ACHIEVEMENTS:
What is currently wrong with the game: Not enough achievements to keep achievement-seekers playing the game on a regular basis.
The fix: Implementing many more achievements with a range of difficulties.
These provide in-game points, icons or other mods. Their difficulty ranges: easy, medium, hard, rare. With an experience bar you can see how many achievements you have completed and how many remain.
Here are some examples of achievements they can put in the game:
-making it into a new league
-joining your first clan
-creating your first strategy guide
-trying out your first coaching session
-creating your first tournament/playing in your first tournament
-winning X amount of ladder games
-winning X amount of tournament games
-participating in X amount of balance tests
-playing your first 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, FFA game etc
-using voice/video chat for the first time
-using in-game points for the first time
-using real cash for the first time
-using X amount of cash
-accumulating a total of X in-game points lifetime
-winning X ladder games in one day
-winning a game in under five minutes
-playing a ladder game that is over X minutes
-playing a ladder game for X consecutive days
Most intriguingly, achievements that highlight a macro, micro or map awareness accomplishment could promote players to get out of their comfort zone and try new things in order to improve themselves. Such achievements could be:
-Make X expansions in under X minutes
-Blink X stalkers in X seconds
-Kill X units with one unit
-Keep under X minerals and X gas for the whole game
-Control all the Xel'Naga towers for X minutes
Note that for each achievement with X would scale up depending on the difficulty as a separate achievement
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8. TOURNAMENTS:
What is currently wrong with the game: No tournaments for the casual player to participate in. Blizzard has recently announced it will be implementing automated tournaments for LotV, but have not yet expanded on the details.
The Fix:
I propose the following changes to revitalize the competitive scene of the game:
-Weekly in-game Blizzard-run tournaments.
Consists of 1v1, 2v2, Archon Mode, 3v3, 4v4, 5v5, FFA and Clan Wars (explained in Ladder section). Organized similar to the now defunct Teamliquid Open tournaments and TSLs, every week in each server, there is a single elimination tournament with the top players in each format getting tournament points. At the end of each ladder season, the winners of each tournament along with the top players in overall points (1v1, FFA) and top teams (archon mode, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, 5v5, Clan Wars) in each server get invited to a streamed final tournament for each format with substantial prizes.
You will be able to see the tournament brackets as they are going on, and after the games you can see the leaderboard of players with tournament points in each format, as well as the ability to download the replays.
At the end of every season, tournament points would be reset. During any time, you can obtain special icons (portraits, badges, decals, unit skins) as well as acheivements through tournament achievements that cannot be purchased through in-game points
Clan Wars teams that enter in the tournament will gain points specific to that particular group of 5 players, so that same exact group would need to be assembled again in another tournament to build on their points total. In this manner, more then one Clan Wars team from the same Clan may enter the same tournament.
-In-game User-created tournaments:
Hosts like MLG and other smaller venues or even individuals can create their own tournaments through Blizzard’s in-game interface. By hosting a tournament Blizzard gives you a page where you can put your own tournament banner and other information about the tournament, as well as giving the ability to send invites through the game to players to enter the tournament through either friends list or player search, and the option to allow players in-game to observe (obviously through a delay), or allow viewing of twitch/other video streams on this page. Any format allowed (XvX, FFA, Clan Wars [Both Standard and All-Kill]). Players would be able to search for tournaments in a tournament search selection screen.
-Tournament Interface:
All tournaments are done through the In-Game Blizzard Interface, even for open tournaments like WCS Qualifiers. This makes it a lot more accessible to enter the tournaments and the brackets can be automatically adjusted for the amount of people that join (no limit). The large tournament open qualifiers (MLG, Dreamhack, WCS Challenger) can all be done through the in-game tournament feature that is displayed in the center of the main screen when the tournament signup begins. Smaller tournaments can be seen through a tournament window opened separately.
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9. LADDER:
What is currently wrong with the game: Not enough ladder features to suit people who like formats besides XvX.
The Fix:
-Addition of Clan Wars.
Players in a clan will now have the ability to truly showcase how well they function as a team, in a competitive environment. Clan Wars requires 5 players from the same clan to play in. There are two formats to choose from, Standard format, and All-Kill Format. Standard format has all of the 5 players selected in the order they will play, while All-Kill has only the first player selected, with the party leader of the losing clan deciding who to play next. When selecting the matchmaking process, the party leader decides which maps to veto, which format to play before being able to start searching. Once two clans with 5 of the same non-vetoed maps, along with the same format have been matched, the 5 maps are randomly chosen in play order and the players determine the order of the player to go first. The players from the clan who are not playing at the time can only observe the point of view of the player on their clan who is currently playing.
Clan Wars teams are separated from Bronze to Grandmaster, just like the regular ladder, and will have their own ladder page.
-Addition of Clan Ladder.
There are also separate clan ladders for 1v1,2v2,3v3,4v4,5v5, Archon Mode,FFA formats. The clans playing in these formats would play against players on the regular ladder. However, they would have both their own regular ladder MMR rank, and an Overall Clan League Rank that combines and averages the MMR of all players on the team. For example, when a clan is just starting out, they would be Bronze rank in all the clan ladder formats, and as they play in the different formats, they will move up to Silver, then Gold, Platinum, Master, and finally Grandmaster league. All clan members will have the same Clan league for every format, so it is possible for you to obtain your new rank even if you are not doing anything at the time. As you move up in league, you obtain special icons (portraits, badges, decals, unit skins) as well as achievements. In the clan ladders you will be able to see your Clan rank, the number of points you have as well as the records of each of the clan members records that participate in that clan ladder format.
I believe the addition of the Clan Wars format as well as the implementation of Clan Ladders and Overall Clan League Ranking for multiple formats will separate the wheat from the chaff and create prestige in being in one of the top Clans in each of the competitive formats.
-Midseason demotions, MMR decay, Adding another lower league rank:
(Credit to Doncroft and TheSkunk for the following ideas)
Edit: I have removed this information as I no longer know if it is accurate. Any information shared on this topic will be added here.
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10. NEW WCS FORMAT:
What is currently wrong with the game: WCS not implemented within the game's interface, and not implemented to a great enough degree within the game. Too many koreans in non-korean servers makes for stale storylines. WCS tournaments have varying production and entertainment value. A new WCS system is needed to revitalize the competitive scene. Someone once mentioned comparing competitive Starcraft to tennis in terms of rankings and seeding, and I tend to agree.
The Fix:
I propose the following:
Competition aspect:
-The WCS points, effectively generating a World Ranking system, are used towards seeding in all tournaments that offer WCS points, including the open brackets of the Seasonal WCS qualifiers. This will ensure that a lot of your favorite players will still make it far in the tournament. Note that this doesn’t mean that only the highest ranked WCS players are invited to the tournament, only that if those players decide to enter the tournament they are seeded against people with less WCS points.
-WCS points reset YEARLY for qualifications towards Blizzcon, although they are permanently added to the lifetime WCS points pool of that player that do not reset for seeding purposes
-The top players on 1v1 ladder will gain WCS points at the end of each ladder season, and each season resets after every Season Finals. This ensures that people play ladder a lot and also gives more options to players who wish to maximize their WCS points for Blizzcon. It also enhances the competitiveness of ladder points with something at stake.
A good thing about being able to make in-game purchases as well as advertisement in the Starter Edition could give Blizzard money that they could potentially reinvest in increasing the WCS prize pool or other parts of eSports.
You should read this article that compares the professional tennis tournament structure to SC2. It is a good read, and a good discussion topic:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=327912
Lastly, for this section I would lastly like to talk about:
The entertainment aspect of WCS:
-Consistent production value between all of the Regional Tournaments. That means that the North American region needs to have the same quality as the European WCS done by ESL, as well as Korea's GSL/OSL. That means productive discussions between the different regions on how to improve each other's tournaments.
Some examples:
-The addition of features such as the camera focus on the players during important moments to see their facial expressions implemented by Kespa's Proleague. This feature adds to the tension by showing how concentrated the players are at that moment. You can see this in the following link (skip to 5:30 or 6:30):
-Short documentaries on the backgrounds, playstyles and lifestyle of the players done for every region. Not everyone knows in detail about all the players in the tournaments, and having players to root for makes it more likely for someone to tune in to a stream. Hyungjoon becomes a progamer/NalRa/Project A type videos are examples that were focused on individual players and in my opinion were extremely interesting. I would like to see videos like this at least once a Season for people to have an up and coming player who's progress they can follow, or short segments covering a larger number of the players in the tournament. The latest one, Project A, made it so that even people who didn't know Yellow previously rooted for him as he went from zero to almost advancing to Code A and making it into the GSL.
Here is a link to that show:
http://www.gomtv.net/2011gslsponsors5/vod/65947
-Group selection for the offline portion with ceremonies for the Regional WCS seasons, with player introductions that along with trophies for the ceremonies, kind of like the MSL did. This provides a form of entertainment and showmanship that showcases players individuality and endears them to the viewers by something other than their gameplay.
-Trophies for different achievements that are given at the end of Blizzcon, encapsulating exceptional accomplishments in the form of best overall ceremonies, best player of each race as voted by the players, rookie of the year, etc.
DRASTIC CHANGE SUGGESTION: Lastly I would like to mention how the WCS format takes up so much of the time from other tournaments while it is being run. On one hand, having a GSL type system that gives unknown players a chance to shine without having to pay money to travel to a tournament is nice. It provides a system to prove themselves as the very best. However, it also hinders the ability of other tournaments to go on at the same time as it does, and every WCS Regional tournament lasts a long time indeed, so we don't get a chance to see many other tournaments and it feels like this is slowly killing the scene. With In an ideal world, the Regional Tournaments would last a max of three weeks, or better yet, removed entirely.
I mean, look at tennis. You clearly know who is the best of the best and you don't need a GSL-type system to get there. You just need a bunch of tournaments that give you points that influence your World Ranking, which gets you invited to big tournaments like Grand Slam events and gives you seeding for every tournament. So think about this. Would it be better for the WCS Regional tournaments to be COMPLETELY REMOVED, and every feeder tournament would seed into both WCS Finals and Blizzcon tournaments? I think so, but I mention this at the end here because it is more drastic than the other WCS suggestions mentioned.
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11. IN-GAME OBSERVING:
What is currently wrong with the game: The accessibility factor that is lacking to player observing by forcing people to stream their games through alternate websites with the need for high definition cameras. The limited amount of players that stream the game. The inadequate advertisement for outside SC2 tournaments.
The Fix: LotV will herald a new era of visibility. I propose the following:
-The In-Game Observing feature:
Similar to LoL and Dota, this gives the player the ability to watch in-game any player on ladder or in a tournament (Blizzard, Hosted, or Player-Driven) through a selection screen that allows the user to narrow their search.
This feature lags the game by a substantial number of minutes to avoid cheating, and can be disabled by Tournaments and players, respectively (players have no control over the tournament settings). I would assume that large tournaments such as Dreamhack, IEM, GSL would disable this option and have all viewers watch through a streaming program like Twitch, and so would players who want their gameplay kept as a secret.
-Provide the ability to sort through player streams through an interface by-WCS points, ladder ranking, player level, viewers.
BETTER OBSERVING INTERFACE:
What is currently wrong with the game: Not enough observing tools for players to analyse their games as well as for casters in tournaments to help spectators understand the games. Currently, Blizzard is aware of this concern and have hired the GameHeart developer to help better the replay interface.
The Fix:
-Having the ability for game analysts to use drawing tools to further their explanations such as the ones available in GameHeart Classic (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=400600) would be beneficial to the scene
-Additional camera features like the ability to slowly circle around the screen, and ground view like in WC3 would be nice.
-Add missing abilities to the production tab, an example being Chrono Boost (Thanks again Mr. Barcode)
-Add the option to see the player cursor in replays, in such a way that it looks like a translucent cursor of a different shape than the regular cursor, to avoid confusion. This would help people in learning to emulate the micromanagement skills by pro players, and generally makes the replay feel more natural to watch. (Thanks DSK from TL.net!)
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12. GAME MODIFICATIONS:
What is currently wrong with the game: Besides the arcade section and a few other features, not enough ways for the user to customize the game. User customization is a key feature to game longevity, as the users are the ones who play the game, and therefore the ones who know what they need to make their experience a better one. Customizability is an important part of the uniqueness of a user’s experience. I am hoping that Blizzard offers us more than just better features for observing and mapmaking.
The Fix: I propose the following additions:
Icons:
-Special icons for achievements: being in WCS, having been to Blizzcon, having been to other big tournaments (Dreamhack, IEM etc), icons for WCS world ranking, number of ladder wins as examples
-Free icons: Player country, player clan logo as examples
-Icons achievable by using in-game points or paying cash
UI Tweaks:
-Ability to unbind units from a control group. Small, easy change that just makes the game slightly more intuitive. See http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/legacy-of-the-void/482076-request-a-key-to-unbind-units-from-cg for an example on this feature (Thanks Hider from TL.net for the suggestion!)
Ability to customise unit priority. Another small change, but not everybody necessarily agrees with the priority Blizzard have selected. Everyone has had those times where they've accidentally boxed one Ghost while trying to micro their Bio army, and had trouble to stimpack their marines. (Thanks Hider, again)
Modifiable in-game UI:
-Selection of UI that can be purchased using in-game points or money
-The ability to move around different elements of the UI and place them where you want (akin to action bars in WoW and other MMOs)
-The ability to create your own in-game UI (including custom hotkeys, like TheCore http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=341878)) and put them up for sale for in-game points or cash, with Blizzard getting part of every purchase
Other:
-Moddable skins (or can use in-game points): parts of each of the units (e.g. marines helmets, shoulder pads, weapons, mutaling wings, building designs, etc.), pay to have team logo, home screen picture
other payable things:
-The ability to always see someone’s statistics before the game starts
-The ability to change your name (exists now, but will require cash)
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13. VISUALS
(Thanks to llllIIIIlIlI, or Mr. Barcode, for suggesting this section)
What is wrong with the game: Not much in this aspect, but it could be improved in ways that make every game feel more interesting and dynamic.
The Fix:
This is probably already something Blizzard is working on for LotV, but you can't understate what visuals do to a game. The physics that LotV brought to SC2 made it look more dynamic and interesting for viewers. Blizzard needs to continue in this aspect to make things look as intense and exciting as possible, focusing on making each race seem more thematic and unique.
Blizzard implemented destructible debris in SC2, but they did not touch the map itself. Perhaps some form of destructible environment could be implemented? This would not be too radical, mostly for viewer entertainment and not for strategic purposes.
WC3 had day/night cycles, another aspect that made the viewing experience more dynamic. Perhaps Blizzard could implement something like this in the game, not necessarily for any strategic advantage but just for the visual dynamics.
More weather effects:
Blizzard should add more types of weather effects to the game in such a manner that wouldn't impede the ability to see the game unfold but make it look more dynamic.
Not to mention the in-game modifications and special events sections which mention more ways that Blizzard could customize the visuals to avoid any sort of staleness (seasonal and custom building & unit skins, modifiable UI, etc)
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14. COACHING:
What is currently wrong with the game: Blizzard has not given the players a good feature where they can find coaches to improve their game, or coach others. Also, there is not a detailed training program available in the game to help new players learn all the nuances of the game.
The Fix: By making coaching accessible to the masses, the level of the players will increase as a whole. Players and progamers alike can choose to help others for free within the game by applying as a coach within a new coaching selection screen.
I propose the following:
-Coaching done through a selection screen. Players who want to become coaches can enter their name in a coaching list with criteria (race that they can coach, their rank, a short description of how they coach). Can search coaches based on WCS rank, ladder rank, race, popularity, moniker. Each coach has their own profile page where they write detailed information about their coaching.
-Looking for a coach: Players can also post their requirements and a coach can see it in the looking for coach section and message them.
-Blizzard tutorials: There needs to be a progressive tutorial system for players of every race to learn the fundamentals of their race, from techniques on how to max out faster, micro different units of their race against all the races, and gain better map awareness while playing. I'm sure many of the progamers would be thrilled to help out Blizzard if they decided to do this and I would personally be super excited to see something like this come to life.
Here is an interesting proposition on a build order trainer that could be used to teach timings: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/legacy-of-the-void/492234-blizzard-please-make-a-build-order-mode
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15. STRATEGY:
What is currently wrong with the game: Information to help others improve their builds is not easily accessible because of the need to use external websites.
Looking for that next strategy to up your game, or think you've come up with one but wondering where people can find it?
The Fix: Implementing a strategy section in the game that would synergize well with the coaching feature. The strategies can be up or down voted and the currently most popular strategies will be featured at the opening of the strategies section.
-Will consist of player-generated strategies that players can search through in an interface by player rank, race, popularity, type of play, type of unit used, etc.
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16. CLANS:
What is currently wrong with the game: Not enough polished and ease-of-use features available to help clans grow and prosper.
Looking for people to train with? Or just a group of friends you can hang out with while you’re on the game?
The Fix:
-Include a improved clan interface where the user can search all of the different clans based on a much larger list of selectable criteria (ladder rank required, type of things the clan does, amount of time required to play), there is a clan search on Teamliquid.net now but it would be much more usable if there was something like this in the interface (Blizzard auction house-like selection screen).
-Each clan will have their own well-designed profile page with their logo, roster, clan rankings and information about the team and how their clan operates.
-Players can also post their own clan requirements for clans looking for new members to look through (I call it free agency)
-The ability for the Clan Leader to create a clan icon for members to use to represent them.
-Clan channel with moderator privileges
-The clan can create events with information, date and time, which are linked to a calendar for each of the clan members to see (events can also be set for non-clan members to view as well, e.g. clan tryouts)
-And of course, the previously mentioned Clan Wars ladder option and Overall Clan Ladder Ranking (see Ladder section)
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17. PRACTICE PARTNERS:
What is currently wrong with the game: No training options for people who don’t want to be in a clan, or for players just looking for specific training partners.
The Fix: An interface where users can enter themselves as practice partners and enter in description what they are looking for in a selection box, so people can narrow by search options for suitable practice partners.
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18. CALENDAR:
What is currently wrong with the game: The wealth of information in the game is not well-organized to be easily digestible by the average user.
The Fix: To organize all information, I propose that Blizzard adds a calendar unique to every player.
-Includes all clan-related information
-Includes all events (Blizzard tournaments, other WCS point tournaments, bonus in-game point days)
-Includes the ability to add events to the calendar
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19. PLAYER PROFILE:
What is currently wrong with the game: Not enough information available through the player profile to showcase the uniqueness of every player and fully describe them.
The Fix: I propose that Blizzard design player profiles with a complexity that harkens to Facebook (in ways that are appropriate to a Blizzard game, of course)
-Every player is unique: You can post information about yourself here, including your background, strengths and weaknesses, age, location (including country flag),
-Privacy Protection (Thanks to Neal for his thoughts on this feature): You can choose which information you want to reveal to everyone and which information is revealed to friends only. An additional protection feature Blizzard could implement is to disable access to fill out certain parts of a profile if you are under a certain age, including the ability to link other social media accounts. In addition, certain features such as being able to upload your own picture would not exist, because of obvious privacy issues and little benefit to the players. Because privacy is so important, especially in a game that can generate certain frustrations, I would especially appreciate all feedback that people give regarding this topic.
-Will include generated information like league, race, clan, achievements, wcs points and ranking (1v1, 2v2, clan, FFA), level in an easy-to-read graphical format with much more polish than the current profile.
This information becomes all part of a database where people can search other similar people in a database and clans can find potential members (once again part of Blizzard auction house type selection screen). Also this is really cool since you can look up the player you beat afterwards and gain a more intimate knowledge of the kind of players they are, connecting players together. can even have pictures of the players if the person wants to put it there.
-A generated timeline that shows when the player started playing the game, and how their ladder rank has changed since then, using a chart format similar to the one used in in sc2ranks.org (http://www.sc2ranks.com/team/eu/11002896854/M%C7%82ForGG)
-For every WCS ranked player Blizzard should create GSL-like player stats (offence, defence, macro, micro, strategy, cheese, popularity). See http://terrancraft.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/wcs-korea-player-stats.jpg
-The ability to link twitter account/other social media (either as a link or with the ability to see the twitter chat on the bottom of the profile)
-On the bottom of every chat will be a section where people can write things and that player can see it forever. Think of it as a person’s Facebook Wall. The player can delete whatever is written if he wants, have only friends write here, have only friends read it, or disable this feature.
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20. FRIENDS LIST:
What is currently wrong with the game: There is not enough information for you to which of your friends currently play the game besides having added that player through any other Blizzard game.
The Fix: Being able to find friends through other social networks. You may not know people’s email or account name but you most likely have them on Facebook, Twitter or other social media.
-Social Network Integration: Add an option at the first opening of the game that asks if you would like to search for players using social networking websites (Facebook, Twitter, etc). By doing so, you would enter your account information for that social network and be able to see which of your friends from each of the social networks play the game, and by that, I mean their actual B.Net accounts only. This would only be used to find which of your friends play the game so you can add them to your friends list, and has nothing to do with being able to chat with them on Facebook through Battle.net.
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21. PLAYER SEARCH:
What is currently wrong with the game: Difficulty to search for players to message or to see their profile.
The Fix: Ability to search for players based on location, age, etc for people to find others with similarities, or to invite to games, tournaments, or just to a message. Sometimes you want to look up a player whose profile you you know but it’s so difficult to find it. This makes that easier.
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22. IN-GAME NEWS:
What is currently wrong with the game: The news that is provided does not cover all of the news that is available on the internet is completely controlled by Blizzard. It does not open up in game but instead loads up an external browser which is annoying when you have to open a new browser page for every little piece of information you are interested in reading. In-game news is an essential way for users to keep up-to-date with the goings-on in SC2
The Fix: I suggest the following two options, which could be complementary:
Option 1:
An in-game newspaper like interface talking all about sc2 eSports (tournaments, players, strategies, etc) similar to Liquipedia (http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Main_Page) somewhere on the screen that you can click and will open up in-game and not in a browser.
Option 2:
(My favorite) Using the user base to create a news section similar to Digg. Users can post a link from an internet site and the community can up/down vote it, with the highest voted links on the top of the list. Users can also flag inappropriate links and they will be looked at by one of Blizzard staff and removed if necessary. This option would save Blizzard money and ensure that all of the available news is being put in this section, and Blizzard could use this list to put headliner news that they feature on the main page.
Another useful feature could be a twitter feed that shows up in game, whenever a player tweets something with #StarCraft it shows up in a box in-game.
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23. REPLAYS:
What is currently wrong with the game: No centralized database for replays. There are too many replay sites scattered throughout the internet that make it a chore to find the ones you want.
The Fix: I suggest Blizzard facilitate that through the game interface.
-Give the ability to view replays through a replay watching site interface in the game, where you can search by player name, game length, races, map, votes, etc (and there is always a replay of the week) through a auction house type selection screen. Note that the replays are only available if a player uploads it into the replay search database, so pro players won't have to worry about strategies they want kept hidden (unless the other player posts it! lol)
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24. VOICE & VIDEO INTERACTION:
What is currently wrong with the game: Insufficient player immersion through voice or video, which harms the social capabilities of the game and furthers the feeling that one is "lonely". No one uses the voice interaction capability currently used in the game.
The Fix:
-A good in-game voice & video system is needed for people playing in tournaments, when observing, or even just in chat (make a deal with Skype, Teamspeak or Ventrilo for this)
-The ability for the host to disable/enable voice/video interaction in custom/tournament games(for example, disabling for observers and enabling for caster for in-game tournaments. note that the caster would be commentating on the delayed feed in this case)
-The ability for anyone to disable their own voice/video as well as others' (ignore)
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25. SPECIAL EVENTS:
What is currently wrong with the game:
Not enough CHANGE. CHANGE = EXCITEMENT!
The Fix: Nothing spells excitement like a surprise. Besides the automated tournaments, I propose Blizzard keeps the player base eager to log on through the following:
-Extra points days: making a kind of Day9 Daily thing where every day you get more in-game points for winning a game with one type of unit that Blizzard selects, and Blizzard can select units that aren’t being used as much, which would shed more light on new strategies or showcase possible units in need of being nerfed or buffed
-Balance testing: testing balance maps and units and giving feedback (voting included, potentially on balance & fun options separately) gives a good amount of in-game points, special icons, and allows for the community to voice their opinion. the good thing about doing this in-game is that Blizzard can easily sort out opinions by league & race. This could especially be useful during beta testing for LotV in looking at what units people like and what they find in terms of balance.
-Mapmaking & Arcade-Game making contests. The TL map contest is an example of how exciting contests can be, and Blizzard can take a part in this by having the winning maps included in the new ladder seasons as well as offering special add-ons (icons, skins etc)
-Seasonal game modifications: Having the visuals suit the time of year (Christmas, Halloween, Saint Patrick’s Day, Easter, etc). Units, buildings and the UI and even the main screen interface would suit the theme. Reset everything after the special occasion but keep it as microtransactions (in-game points or real cash)
-VIP rewards: Inviting the person who spends the most money in-game every year to Blizzcon (assuming they make money by implementing this) and offering other prizes to the second place onwards.
-The StarCraft 2 home screen changing depending on special events (for example, large tournaments, Hall of Fame inductions)
-Reductions in in-game points or real cash requirements for purchases on select days
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26. HALL OF FAME:
What is wrong with the game: SC2 is an eSport, but you can consider it similar to real sports in many ways. In the real sports, everyone knows who the greats are. No system in place in SC2 to designate the most accomplished players to ever play the game.
The Fix: Every year, five players are added to the StarCraft Hall of Fame, each of them having their own special Hall of Fame profile with a lengthy player biography, defining replays of that player. To build up the suspense before the announcement, every week during the month of the announcement, a new temporary SC2 home screen lasting X days is made with that player, ending at the end of the month with the final player and the announcement.
In addition, these home screens will be purchasable using in-game points or real cash after the announcement.
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27. METHODS TO GET NEW PLAYERS IN THE GAME:
What is currently wrong with the game: Declining player base that consists of people getting bored of the game and/or moving to other games such as MOBAs Dota 2 and LoL.
The Fix: This is one area where the in-game points system will help. Currently there is the SC2 starter edition which is free.
I would like the following things to be added to the SC2 starter edition:
-Levels
-All races unlocked
-Clans
-The ability to use the FULLY FEATURED map editor (more maps = better for the community)
-Voice chat
-Chat channels
-Unranked ladder (gives in-game points)
-All news-related information (strategies, tournaments, headlines etc)
-Achievements
-Microtransactions
Advertisements for SC2 Starter Edition:
Blizzard can make additional cash by accepting advertisements from different companies and rotating them in a rectangular area throughout the top portion of the screen.
Other potential areas for advertisement:
-Loading screen for games
-In the actual game itself
(Note that advertisements would only be enabled in the Starter Edition and by purchasing the game would be removable)
Players would also be able to use any in-game points earned towards microtransactions, and be able to use real money for the microtransactions as well.
This would give them the social features of the game and the ability to work their way to getting part of the full game temporarily. What I hope this would do is give them enough information to truly decide if they would like to purchase the game or not.
Also, Wings of Liberty should become FREE TO DOWNLOAD (thanks JBangin for the suggestion!). Blizzard is most likely not making much on the original game any longer, so this would give new players the option of trying out StarCraft 2 with all of the original game's features for free, or trying out the Starter Edition with everything until HotS included, with limited features.
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28.COMMERCIALS/ONLINE ADVERTISEMENTS/MARKETING PROMOTIONS:
This isn’t exactly related to the game but I thought I would post my thoughts on a potential advertisement that would showcase what Starcraft has to offer. I remember reading a post of LiquidRet’s on how he is still awed by how multitasking and micro can produce spectacular effects in a game. The following idea is inspired by that example:
The cut scene starts with two young kids playing chess, which turns into two older players playing chess, and then two grandmasters playing chess. Then the chess pieces turn into StarCraft units and then the whole board changes into the StarCraft game and you get examples of the truly amazing things skilled players can do (marine splitting, storm dodging, muta control), as well as amazingly huge battles. A voice says “Test your mettle in the world’s most challenging video game”. StarCraft 2 LotV logo follows.
Blizzard could rev up their marketing team to create buzz from purchasing the game. This will not necessarily make the game better, but will create buzz and hopefully get more players to purchase a copy of the game. I propose the following:
-Include a WCS player card in every box of LotV, with a that can unlock that player's icon for your profile on a single account, or the icon randomly added to your account when you purchase the game online. You can trade these icons to other accounts.
-Include special box covers that feature different Protoss units, so there is a collectable aspect for every box, and some people will purchase more than one copy of the game to collect all of the boxes (inspired from the multiple Game of Thrones box covers).
-Have people cosplaying as various StarCraft 2 characters in major city centers around the world leading up to the launch.
-Have a chance to win an all-inclusive invitation to the next Blizzcon by purchasing the game
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29. BALANCE = FUN!
What is currently wrong with the game: Without getting into specifics, the game is designed for balance, but not necessarily for fun. What is missing, I think, is that feeling of fun, joy and excitement.
The Fix: Balance through imbalance, death to the deathball, and LaLush's Depth of Micro!
(I will not mention unit pathing in this article as I feel Blizzard will not touch this aspect of the game)
This section was inspired by Rosencrantz, and I will quote his words because they would carry more emotion than my own:
"Personally speaking, the campaign for WoL and HotS were a blast to play. They were fun, interesting and you always had a ton of units to play around with and try to find a strategy for. But then you get to the online game and suddenly all the units are taken away except for a very small handful. And when looking at HotS compared to WoL, there weren't many changes at all. A couple new units to each race was it (arguably).
I think this idea of the game not being all that fun is because of Blizzard's obsession with perfect balance. In order to accomplish this, they need to strictly control how units are being used and limit them if they stray outside that purpose. However, I have posted more than once that other online games are seeing WAY more users and popularity because they don't worry about perfect balance. They have balance through imbalance. Instead of nerfing a unit because it is too good, they have a unit that is good in other ways the first unit was weak in. So an imbalanced unit to counter an imbalance in another unit. The imbalance isn't the issue so long as there is a way to counter it."
I didn't originally want to discuss balance changes, even though I share many of the same thoughts as you guys, but because the idea of balance as entertainment value has merit in this post, I let this one go through
As far as my comments are concerned, I have to quote Dustin Browder's motto of "terrible, terrible damage" because I think is it a good guideline to follow. By making units stronger, we make the game more entertaining as a spectator sport. The problem is that the races don't all have as many "terrible, terrible damage" units as Protoss does. There needs to be equally imbalanced units in every race, I think.
For those of you who watched Brood Wars, the game also had many aspects of it that people deemed "broken". But in the end, the game achieved a sort of balance -- and according to many people, made it much more fun to watch and play than a game that emphasizes balance over fun, like StarCraft 2.
Death to the Deathball:
Fewer things have been complained about more in SC2 than the deathball "issue". A good article created by a TL.net user, bearhug, summarizes the complaints and solutions which you can read in the following link: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=433623.
I'd like to note that many of these topics have been discussed to death, and so most of you guys already know about all of these fixes, but I put them here anyways as to be a repository of information.
My thoughts:
Players are afraid of moving out until 200/200 because of how critical engagements are, where one fight could lose you the game. There are a few reasons for that. One of them is the ability to put infinite units in one control group. Another is the increased reliance on mobile ranged units with automatic splash damage (note that I don't include microable splash damage such as High Templars in this group, because they provide a high entertainment value versus the automatic splash damage/ranged units). And a last one is that you don't see a ton of bases being used in the game because mining is much more efficient than in a game like Brood Wars.
An interesting post by a TL.net user regarding splash damage:
"However, looking at Brood War, many of the splash damage units were not actually splash damage units in a mobile deathball. The Siege Tank could not dish out splash damage while moving, so it was useless in a moving deathball. The Lurker could not attack at all unless buried, so it was useless in a moving deathball. The Reaver - well, you wouldn't want to have that unit in the middle of your deathball and you wouldn't want to have it too exposed either. So Brood War had several mechanics that (perhaps accidentally) made the splash damage units pretty worthless in deathballs."
LaLush's Depth of Micro:
I would like to thank LaLush for creating this article, and hope that this advertisement gets more people to see it. I decided to add it to the OP because his suggestions promote enhanced microing capabilities, which is a definitive source of entertainment to spectators. Click on the link below:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=433944
-(Updated Nov 8 2014): David Kim responded to someone's comment of whether he had watched the Depth of Micro by stating that the casual player cannot understand these types of unit movements.
I respond to him with this:
"There are many features that the players can't use or understand, the fact remains that the game should remain like that, easy to learn but difficult to master. The players will still be able to micro, they will just not be able to at the extent that pro players do, which is already the current situation. Additionally, from a spectator's point of view, there are many things in the game that the audience currently doesn't understand on their own.
However, they are able to understand it with the help of the community casters, whether that be Day9 on his dailies or Tastosis and many others in tournaments. And it is A FACT that even without fully understanding these micro tactics, they can tell that it makes the engagements look more exciting (someone tried to clarify David Kim's response by saying otherwise, this is incorrect). By implementing these features you will be giving the chance for the pros to be able to showcase their skills to an even greater extent, something that David Kim himself mentioned was a priority. In addition, you will give an even greater spectator experience which would increase the amount of hype in tournament games and therefore positively affect viewer numbers."
In summary: Don't nerf damage output units, keep it high, but increase the importance of melee units as opposed to ranged units, make splash damage units less mobile and/or risky to use because it can backlash on the user. Make units overall less efficient in large groups. And make mineral mining less efficient so more bases are necessary to have a good economy. Lastly, increase the microing capability of units to further reward playing capability as opposed to a-moving with a superior "deathball-ish" army composition.
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30. THE END:
Finally, I would like to thank everyone for reading this, even those who skimmed through it really fast
I can only hope this stimulates meaningful discussions related to the steps Blizzard can take to “fix” the game, and encourage you to spread the word if you care about the game as much as I do!
Who knows? Maybe Blizzard is listening.
