Future of GW2 eSports

[GrubySzymek.1362]

> @"Ayumi Spender.1082" said:

> when I had to go through WvW only to get that Triumphant top was painful.

 

I'm currently experiencing the process. What an entertaining time I'm having.

 

 

[Danikat.8537]

I'd never heard the term 'esports' before I started reading pre-release promotional material for GW2. I was vaguely aware that some people liked to watch other people playing games and that somehow or other a tiny minority of people could earn a living playing games (and many, many more decided to call themselves "pro gamers" because they consider themselves to be good at several games).

 

But then I'm probably not at all the target audience for it because to me watching other people play sports or video games is a waste of time I could be spending actually doing something myself (I've managed to fall asleep during both the World Cup and the Superbowl finals in previous years, and I'm told both were good matches). So watching people play a game and calling it sport sounds doubly like a waste of time to me.

 

I did actually try watching some GW2 matches because my friends kept talking about it, but again I found it boring. I think you have to already be interested for some reason to get into it, which might be part of the problem because if you're not interested you're not going to watch it, but then how do you get to be interested in something you're not watching? I suppose the answer is for Anet to spend a fortune on advertising, but that sounds like a waste of money that could be going towards something many more people already enjoy. (Especially since past attempts to advertise tournaments to non-PvP players have not been well received.)

[witcher.3197]

The balance team veto'd that with HoT and elite spec design in general.

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

> @Kheldorn.5123 said:

> > @"Ayumi Spender.1082" said:

> > when I had to go through WvW only to get that Triumphant top was painful.

>

> I'm currently experiencing the process. What an entertaining time I'm having.

>

>

 

Yeah... now I have to go through it for gloves...

Only "Good" thing is I can get it from PvP or WvW reward track.

"Good"...

 

They really should make these things possible to sell in the shops so those that like that skritt can do it all they want and PvE peasants like myself can just spend the copper on it.

[PopeUrban.2578]

IMO, developers need to stop trying to force their products on to the esports scene.

 

If your game doesn't develop in that space naturally, its just not a good fit for a spectator-focused media market. Not all games are, and not all games need to be.

 

If you place getting popular of the ESL ticket and making your game more attractive to an extremely small community of professional esports teams above making your game just plain more fun to play for everyone, you are screwing up your game.

 

CSGO, Starcraft, and Dota aren't popular in the esports community because their developers went out of their way to make them esports. They're popular in the esports community because their developers went out of their way to develop a really well balanced and engaging competitive experience. They budgeted for esports as a response to an existing scene rather than wasted money in response to a nonexistant one.

 

Overwatch works in that space specifically because the game was designed to couch the everyday player's experience with esports trappings to enhance the game for the average user, not because it was designed to be a popular esport. It was designed to make every player feel like a top level tournament player every match with lots of slick GUI, easy to read UX for art and ability animations, and a focus on the fundamentals of competitive design. That's why it's successful. Not because it was designed specifically as an esports cash cow.

 

No amount of throwing prize money at people will make your game better, and if your game isn't better, its just not going to catch on with esports people in the first place.

 

Esports should not be a developer priority unless there is an obvious and overwhelming need for them. GW2 does not now nor has it ever had that need, despite desperately trying to shortcut their way to it like a lot of other developers. This has long been a problem with GW2, with its three separate game modes all trying to use virtually identical combat systems and itemization there are going to be huge balance hurdles. These were hurdles that were less apperant in GW1 because the game was designed at its core as a PvP game, and PvE was designed afterward making very few changes to that core combat model. Its easier to bolt on PvE to a pvp-centric combat model because you can just futz with small numerical values on mobs to balance them against the players. GW2's system is quite obviously built around PvE encounters and retrofitted for PvP, and the result is something that's very difficult to balance in a comprehensive manner due to the way it is itemized and the drastic difference between TTKs, overall damage levels, and importance of specific counterplay between the two modes.