Gametypes
This was a real kicker to me, coming from CoD4,CS:GO & Bo2 on pc to a extent when someone said the words... CTF and Hardpoint i had that horrid sinking feeling that i was about to get a HELL of a lot of angry xbox players telling me i am a total moron and didn't understand anything about the game.... which in honest would be fair.
So throwing myself into the game we were on Meltdown with hardpoint...
A game type that has never been played in a competitive environment on PC, i was in a right little panic but after doing the typical "Pansy" approach to not knowing a situation i asked ReL in a fluffy way to explain what we were to expect within the first min of game play, now as you can see on the map above team A & B will spawn in a fair distance a part from the 1st capture point. Generally you will get a fantastic clash between players within that center core which well.... we got.
I was so impressed at how quick and aggressive the SMG players really were, it was a drastic move from what i had seen within the PC S&D setup so far. It hit me with this wave of nostalgia when the SMG was king within Call of Duty. A time before i even thought about picking up a mic to shoutcast the game but to be a avid listener of TosspoT and Deman highlighting how "sensational" the game could be..
The glory days in my mind that are long gone within the S&D format we see today
The point was CoD4 became so slow and dull towards the end it removed that thrill for me and to see that thrill alive and kicking within the Call of Duty xbox scene was more of a shock than anything, due to the game types they have embraced they manage to retain something that is so special about call of duty...to me anyway. I have raised the point of keeping a game "vanilla" to a reasonable level gives easy accessibility to the basic player, the xbox scene had that, you can see the easy relate ability for a casual player looking at a game. They could understand the brilliance to what a player did because they face it on a day to day basis within the games they play which is a mile from what promod did which alienated the casual player, who wouldn't necessarily appreciate the best 3 man in the world even with the best shoutcaster telling you the story.
Back to the point the action was fast and furious from moment to moment and with my slow realization as to what was so different to the public version was the full and impressive control of spawn point, team play to objectives and individual skill. We "PC Gamers" tend to overlook the Xbox and its games due to us making huge assumptions about what defines skill.
This was a real kicker to me, coming from CoD4,CS:GO & Bo2 on pc to a extent when someone said the words... CTF and Hardpoint i had that horrid sinking feeling that i was about to get a HELL of a lot of angry xbox players telling me i am a total moron and didn't understand anything about the game.... which in honest would be fair.
So throwing myself into the game we were on Meltdown with hardpoint...
A game type that has never been played in a competitive environment on PC, i was in a right little panic but after doing the typical "Pansy" approach to not knowing a situation i asked ReL in a fluffy way to explain what we were to expect within the first min of game play, now as you can see on the map above team A & B will spawn in a fair distance a part from the 1st capture point. Generally you will get a fantastic clash between players within that center core which well.... we got.
I was so impressed at how quick and aggressive the SMG players really were, it was a drastic move from what i had seen within the PC S&D setup so far. It hit me with this wave of nostalgia when the SMG was king within Call of Duty. A time before i even thought about picking up a mic to shoutcast the game but to be a avid listener of TosspoT and Deman highlighting how "sensational" the game could be..
The glory days in my mind that are long gone within the S&D format we see today
The point was CoD4 became so slow and dull towards the end it removed that thrill for me and to see that thrill alive and kicking within the Call of Duty xbox scene was more of a shock than anything, due to the game types they have embraced they manage to retain something that is so special about call of duty...to me anyway. I have raised the point of keeping a game "vanilla" to a reasonable level gives easy accessibility to the basic player, the xbox scene had that, you can see the easy relate ability for a casual player looking at a game. They could understand the brilliance to what a player did because they face it on a day to day basis within the games they play which is a mile from what promod did which alienated the casual player, who wouldn't necessarily appreciate the best 3 man in the world even with the best shoutcaster telling you the story.
Back to the point the action was fast and furious from moment to moment and with my slow realization as to what was so different to the public version was the full and impressive control of spawn point, team play to objectives and individual skill. We "PC Gamers" tend to overlook the Xbox and its games due to us making huge assumptions about what defines skill.
I think the other way around is better. With CS:GO and TF2 and MOBAs and RTS games aiming to introduce casuals to tournament play via ingame stream links and ELO systems and match search functions, developers manage to get people interested in eSports, or at least pave its way in terms of understanding, without sacrificing the skill cap.
e: Bo2 Console has great support from the Devs and such mostly through Harst0
is that bad?
but no seriously i think the attitudes are different because console gamers are a lot more chilled and have more fun as thye are playing with real life friends and messing about a bit more, pc gaming is just forever serious. and yes the master race title u gave fits perfectly to how they think of themselves.
Pretty weird considering that video games no longer attract me at all..
I stopped reading.
The CoD community isnt struggeling at all... I dont get this "adapt or die" thing when its the most successful entertainment franchise of all times. People buy CoD to mess around and collect badges, customize weapons and all that good pub stuff. The game is not designed to be a ground breaking competitive experience. The people who still think that CoD has a place in esports are S&D players, you got that right. But why try and force something on them that they clearly dont want? If they wanted something new and exciting they wouldnt buy the new CoD every year, would they?
The same people trying to play S&D "competitively" will buy the new game next year and play it the same way.
The rest of us has moved on.
I do get that its quite hard for you as a caster. But I think (and im obviously only guessing here) that you approach things the wrong way. You have been trying many different games, most of which i think you expected to go big. CS:GO is the worst populated of all CS and the new CoD was obviously not made for esports and has attracted no attention within the community at all.
Try to find a game that you like, not that you expect to get good viewing numbers from.
I mean it would obviously be a bad decision to get into Shootmania (game died before it came out, 2k viewers on major events is an incredibly fail) but in the end it doesnt really matter.
I am saying this because I had the feeling that you wanted to really get into CS:GO but dropped that as soon as BO2 came out. And now you dont even sound content with the way that game is.
Why try and change the community and the game if you could cast one that you enjoy in the first place?
Dont get me wrong, I really like the idea of playing game modes that differ from S&D, after all I left CoD when i became bored with the simplistic gameplay. But is it realistic or even needed? I dont think so. I think that if S&D CoD doesnt float your boat you should move on to other things, and so I did.
The PC community is in dire straits it has been for some time. No lans could get more than 10 teams to attend 3 of which would always place top 3 and 1 that would always win it. To separate the "eSports" side away from the public side which has become "most successful entertainment franchise of all times" is half the issue. No one wants to play it within a eSports friendly manor as it doesn't work with the previous archetype.
" But why try and force something on them that they clearly dont want? If they wanted something new and exciting they wouldnt buy the new CoD every year, would they?"
Clearly? you clearly dont look at tek9 bar 10% people are wanting to try something new and the 10% who dont are either pretty damn stupid or they are the small fraction of S&D "top" players who wont be able to adapt to the same level within a more vanilla game type as their skill set applies to only one game type. If they wanted the same S&D they would of stuck to CoD4 which they didn't.
"I do get that its quite hard for you as a caster. But I think (and im obviously only guessing here) that you approach things the wrong way. You have been trying many different games, most of which i think you expected to go big. CS:GO is the worst populated of all CS
As a caster/player i highly disagree im approaching it any way but correctly, CS:GO for starters is fardly the worst populated of all CS games, you sound like someone from HLTV i think you overlook the huge events, great prize pots and the massive amount of teams all willing to move over so lets not go on to CS:GO as the community is literally proving you wrong every DH they attend.
" the new CoD was obviously not made for esports"
...The whole point of this game was to embrace something bigger than prior which it is doing within the Console community and to a fraction the PC. The shoutcasting overlay was designed brilliantly with eSports in mind and the features they are using are top notch, they just don't apply to what you class as eSports... which is S&D which is the whole point of this topic.
"Try to find a game that you like, not that you expect to get good viewing numbers from."
I find this more insulting than anything considering all i do for the ET community column wise and just about everywhere else, if i was after viewers.... i wouldn't be doing FPS now would i? LoL ... SC2... World of Tanks? You seem to overlook anything that isnt slap bang in your face and its bordering on stupid. I moved away from CoD4 due to the community and decided to try new FPS as i enjoyed them, CS:GO has fantastic potential as does BO2 so please do not make retarded assumptions about me.
"I am saying this because I had the feeling that you wanted to really get into CS:GO but dropped that as soon as BO2 came out. "
Another retarded comment, i casted x2 10 hour days for CS:GO only last weekend for iseries, i recently moved away from it as i had to stop casting for a while due to personal reasons and ive only just managed to come back and why would i want to step on people like Rizc's toes as he has been doing while i was away? Please don't be naive.
"And now you dont even sound content with the way that game is."
This doesn't make sense, coming from a player point of view... the game isn't ideal the way its being played now... so why would i be content?
"Why try and change the community and the game if you could cast one that you enjoy in the first place?"
I am not the only one trying to open up what CoD could be, sadly what you seem to be missing out on is the fact that without there being some change or progression from the prior versions CoD on PC is as good as dead. So really all im trying to do is support the community i belong to.
Generally i welcome your opinion on my columns or articles but please make no assumption as to where my intentions lay with eSports.
I thought that might happen and im sorry if i gave offense. Im not saying you are a sell-out or anything, i dont personally follow your activities closely enough to do that. I have however noticed that you were moving your attention and effort towards the new CoD, just judging by your activity on this site that is.
We seem to have two completely different perceptions of what the new cod is, at its core really.
In my eyes this game has a 1 year life cycle and can not sustain a competitive tour for longer than that.
When I say that its clearly not made for eports I am talking about there being absolutely no tools to mod/balance/... so in my eyes there is absolutely no room for improvements. It is what it is, S&D, and lacks the tools to change it.
You say the PC community has issues within CoD and you obviously have a close connection to the industry so its kinda hard to disagree. Surely the numbers are not what they used to be but that is a natural thing. People are burnt out with CoD S&D, which I guess we both can agree on. Your solution to that problem is: Get something new going.My solution is: Get something new going. But I am talking about a new game entirely.
I agree the BO2 spectator overlay is a neat looking thing but its nothing to Natural Selection 2 spec overlay which is a 30$ indie game made by modders. What im trying to say is that it wasnt a big financial effort or risk to implement it and say "here you go, you are catering to the esports audience now".
Competitive gaming needs modding, I am as convinced of that as Ill ever be. Especially when the shelfed product at its core is aiming at a casual audience and the numbers dont lie.
Ask yourself this: Do Activision (and this is a decision the publisher forces on the devs for financial reasons) really want to give the community the tools to prolong the life span of their product? Or do they want to be able to control every last bit of content for their game (and monetize it)?
They want you to buy the game, get the 4 DLCs and then move on to next years installment.
You talk about trying to open up what CoD could be when relly it cant be anything else.
What I am saying is that it is easier to move on to a game that is more suitable to your needs rather than try and force something to work that isnt intended to. In short: The esports community doesnt care for competitive BO2 and neither does the publisher/dev and looking at things that really isnt tragic.
As for the CS thing: CS 1.6 is twice as big as CSS is which in turn is twice as big as CS:GO. again, numbers dont lie. Yet CS:GO has its competitive tour right now, simply cause its new. Sponsors and organizations are not interested to get involved with old stuff. Yet I see CS1.6 and CSS "outliving" CS:GO once that has had its competitive cycle.
CoD on console is young and has alot more energy in the community
Also console gaming is 100% more accessible due to the consumer nature of consoles.
However, in time, I believe that PC gaming will pull through due to the freedoms that the platform offers. As gamers become more hardcore they will want to throw off the limitations of consoles and the limitations of the basic controllers.
That is the real adapt-or-die question for the PC gaming community:
How do we adapt to entice gamers to spend lots of money on a ''powerful'' PC without their friends to play with?
Perhaps the steam game console thing might help..
u kan use me dick as toothbrush
1. Players don't die in 1 or 2 hits
2. Fast movement
3. Respawns
So even when you look at CoD with respawns, it's still not the gametype I (and I think a lot of ET/Quake players) are looking for. It's not the gametype/tactical aspect or the platform, its the game and the concept of the game. Maybe CoD works better on consoles though because the controls are more limited, but I prefer mouse and keyboard because they feel more free and accurate. Thing of it is, for a lot of people these games are too slow and limited/linear.