Comment on Fighting games have a product design problem
_Lory98_@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
I honestly don’t see how single player “content” could be of any help. Sure, situational training like Strive and a few other games have (UNI I think had it?) would be nice to have, but I think the main obstacle for a lot of players is the (gameplay) interaction with another real person. I can’t say how other genres fix this (or if they even do), but my guess is that the mechanics themselves are less restrictive and a bit more forgiving.
Also, personally, I prefer buying characters for relatively cheap rather than having the usual f2p predatory crap. They should obviously be free for training tho.
Also, personally, I prefer buying characters for relatively cheap rather than having the usual f2p predatory crap. They should obviously be free for training tho.
As someone who has been playing fighting games on and off since 1995, the idea that non-dlc characters are f2p predatory crap is wild to me.
That’s not what I meant.
The article mentions paying for cosmetics instead of characters. With how f2p/live-service games are currently designed, I’d imagine that means things like battle passes (which are present already in some games like SF6 and GBFVS), rotating stores and/or lootboxes.
I think the biggest thing it can help with is steady escalation of difficulty.
In level 3, you learn how to grapple. The level has a growing number of enemies that can only be beaten by grappling.
In level 4, you learn about pokes and block punishes; and enemies will use different attacks that can test your block (but grappling is set aside for the moment so players aren’t overloaded)
Oh, and crucially: This isn’t put into the set dressing of a big square stage with a “Training Step 5 of 182” HUD and a “Good!” and jump to the next lesson each time the player executes a mechanic once.
Have the president’s daughter kidnapped, send a horde of zombies, make the player a detective finding clues in the bad part of town. Break it up with a locked door puzzle, climbing sections, etc. The lessons of interest learned from every other action adventure game.
hzl@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
The idea of buying characters is itself wild. Games as a service has really screwed up player expectations.
_Lory98_@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
I mean… I’m not saying it’s good, but considering most games wouldn’t get free characters as updates (I think only MBTL did it, and it’s probably because most of the free characters are from Fate), I think it’s better to be able to optionally buy a set of characters if you want to play them, instead of having to buy a whole new version of the game to continue playing.
hzl@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Updates suck. Gaming was better when they didn’t exist.