Garrett Blacknova
Codex Troopers
3362
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Posted - 2013.07.22 13:22:00 -
[1] - Quote
There are two ways a game can have "flavour of the month" gameplay.
1. The good way, which DUST doesn't do:
As players learn to use the game, a particular build starts routinely countering most - NOT all - other options. People start using the build a lot, and the meta mostly revolves around that fitting. After a while, a few good counters emerge for this playstyle, and one of those tends to have an advantage over the others as well as the most recent FOTM. This build becomes the new FOTM, then soon finds its own counter, and so on.
Over time, it should emerge that there are some key weapons and/or suits that are being used in the majority of FOTM builds, or that are relatively common on a consistent basis without being part of the FOTM cycle, and there will be other items which emerge as being under-utilised, because their effect on gameplay isn't enough to warrant equipping them over any other options. Sometimes, these could reasonably see small nerfs and/or buffs, depending on the prevalence/rarity of the tiem, and the devs should continue watching the metagame develop after doing so.
2. The wrong way, which CCP have a habit of running with.
As people are coming to terms with the game's altered mechanics, but before the meta can start evolving, the devs notice the current FOTM fitting and nerf it into oblivion. There's always a slightly less popular, but still effective option, which is typically lined up to become the next FOTM, and often this gets a buff when the other option got nerfed, even though the traditional FOTM-based meta would have seen it on top soon enough without any improvements to its capabilities. This results in a powerful (but under-used) option becoming even more powerful, and more than secures it as the go-to option for almost everyone. Obviously, this later has to be nerfed as well, and when it does, everyone complains about the loss of their precious SP. Then they notice that with the nerf, that other gun they'd been a little worried about fighting has become a great option, skill into that, and go back to their EZMode win button on a new fitting, before the same thing happens and they come back to complain again.
Some items in this setup are not merely neglected, but actively nerfed in spite of a lack of usefulness.
A similar pattern to number 2, although worse, has been demonstrated by the Assassin's Creed series. In the multiplayer for these games, the Smoke Bomb was seen as being overly powerful in Brotherhood. Most of the playerbase relied heavily on this ability, and the devs noticed. Instead of realising it was OP, though, Ubisoft posted a public notice saying "we've noticed that Smoke Bomb is being used a lot, even though Firecrackers do the same job better". The whole community laughed at them, with many people thinking it was a joke. Until Revelations, where they BUFFED THE SMOKE BOMB AND NERFED FIRECRACKERS. And after releasing the game in this state, and seeing continued complaints about the Smoke Bomb, they decided to prove that they listen to the fans by BUFFING THE SMOKE BOMB AGAIN.
Fortunately, while CCP have been quite happy to repeatedly nerf the most underpowered vehicles in the game, they haven't resorted to excessive buffing of the latest FOTM build (yet). So there's hope for the game to continue improving instead of going steadily downhill like Assassin's Creed has done. |