How’s it go again? Happy is the country that has no history. Tolstoy? Anyway, the point is is that negativity won’t necessarily harm the game. And not all of it is bad if it’s constructive. Threads about the game dying aren’t ever really helpful, but there are others which are concerned because they want the game to be great.
I could ignore this game and go off to play another. My primary concern is that something bad will happen to it when I look away. It’s happened before. I actually want to get the most out of it, because I really value this game.
There are many ways where I can say, honestly and without a touch of irony or humour, that this game stands among few others, it is one of the few where I feel I’m having more fun I’ve had with video games since the '80s-early '00s. You know, before the crapfall hit in '06 and everything became obsessed with fidelity and over-the-top shaming became a thing, everyone got a free girder to stuff up their butt. That sort of thing.
I place this with Undertale and Xenoblade Chronicles X.
I hold it in incredibly high regard. And I just want them to do right by their own game. Sometimes, I can’t help but feel like what they’re doing is destructive. The nuclear nerfs, for example. There have been so, so many threads where people have been disheartened with the nerfs, who’re depressed by how little consideration they had behind them. Even abstract nerfs, like removing perches from various levels, instead of just instead altering the geometry to make sure that a player can be shot at from all angles in that perch.
That’s the only part that makes me sad. Everything else, everything else, I can support. I love Alani, I dig their new skins, I adore the look of the new characters they’re going to be adding… I just love this game. If ever I’m negative, I only want to be constructively so.
I really can’t express how fun I find this game.
The thing is, though? After the first nuclear nerf, designed to suit PvP, not PvE? I stopped playing ISIC in PvE because he stopped being fun to play in PvE. This is a thing that many of my favourite games have done to actually kill themselves off. And it’s depressing. This is why I urge them so strongly to separate PvP and PvE balancing, and to hold off on balancing until they’ve done just that. I’ve pointed out that the balancing of Borderlands was much more sensible, and largely because it wasn’t beholden to PvP.
In general, what I want to see from now on…
-
More considerate balancing, show us the buffs (of ridiculously weak characters and broken ultimates) along with the nerfs, show you have numerical baselines for things like damage, healing, survivability, et cetera;
-
Stop taking away perches and ways that characters can harmlessly explore, it doesn’t break either PvP or PvE, but if someone can’t be hit in a perch just modify the geometry so that they can rather than destroying the perch;
-
Separate the balancing of PvP and PvE;
-
Communicate your desire for future balancing changes before you do it, this way the community can give you numbers and stats to either affirm or counter what you’re seeing, every community has numerical balancing geniuses and it’s important to find them (I’m not one of them, not even saying that, I only know a little);
-
Communicate more about the future of PvE, such as the upcoming missions, also share more concept art and things like developer Q&A’s, if we can see you being positive about your game in videos it’ll do much to help us be optimistic;
-
Do more community spotlights and highlight community art, Jim Foronda on Twitter is doing this almost single-handedly at the moment, so if you need someone to be a community liaison and to pick out art to share, have him do it;
-
Consider creating more merch, at least run some polls to see what people would be interested in and to what numbers;
-
Run some creative competitions, ESO’s art competitions did so much to draw attention to the game and to bring people together, there was so much cool art and it really made everyone pumped for the game.
That’s what I can offer.
If I am ever negative though it’s only an inverse of how much I love this game and it really is only ever meant to be constructive. I get feelsy and emotional, I know, but that’s who I am. I don’t know whether it’s because I’m autistic, or what, but I care about this game.
And there’s a lot more they could be doing better.
Sure, I could turn a blind eye and ignore the game, but I’d be missing out on a game I really love. A game I plan on supporting. I just threw thirty quid at them earlier today to buy a whole bunch of skins and taunts, I don’t mind being a ‘whale’ for a game that matters to me this much.
In so many ways, Battleborn has encapsulated the spirit of the '90s and early '00s. They were bold enough to give the middle finger to over-the-top shamers and I love them for that. I won’t ever hold them in anything but high regard for that.
So my emotions for this game are complicated, but by and large incredibly positive.
