Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 2:19 am Post subject:
What C&C F2P needs to succeed.
Fellow C&C community members and visitors,
Since the jump to the Free-to-Play business model has taken place for Generals 2, many of us have voiced our opinions, concerns and suggestions. However, I've seen many openly dispute the move to F2P for the fear of the following:
1 - Not having a Single Player storyline mode/Campaign mode
2 - The possible lack of an offline mode
3 - The possibility of premium, hardly-affordable for the average and casual player, Pay-to-Win content
4 - The possible lack of success of this game we've all been waiting for so long to play, followed by an abandoning of new content creation and perhaps the closing down of the game's servers.
While these concerns have all been heard by EA Victory and EA Games, many of you may wonder, with the information we've received, what guarantee there is of the 4th concern not eventually coming to fruition despite EA Victory's best efforts to sustain this game and prevent it from going the way of Age of Empires Online.
Thus, I come forth with this suggestion. What if there was a way to stack the odds in C&C - Free to Play's favor? Well, it seems this may be the C&C series' saving grave: A marketplace for player-created content. While I am aware of many's concerns with such an idea when it comes to a C&C game (such as the fact mod-making tools have permitted, in the past, the creation of content that was entirely free and available to all), I find it fairly rational to go this route. Blizzard's StarCraft II and Valve's Team Fortress 2 have gone the way of pushing player-created content to attract and keep a large share of players, be it casual or hardcore (competitive players & long-time fans). Allowing players to create content and sell it would not only push more creativity on the side of players, it would also allow many players to see the advantage in creating new content; rather than have it cut into their time, it would allow these content creators to make a quick buck out of something they enjoy (and likely remain motivated to create more and of better quality) while also allowing EA Victory to take a small cut out of every sold content piece to every player, allowing EA Victory to fund their game and create more content for it (DLCs could be released alongside player-made content in the marketplace, like with TF2 and SCII, some which could be free, some which could cost, those costing money having to be approved by EA). This player-made content would then give EA and DICE a fairly good reason to create and release mapping & modding tools for Frostbite 2, not to mention integrate them with Origin (and thus compete on a higher level with Valve's Steam service).
I fully believe this type of feature will allow the C&C franchise to evolve in flourish in the coming decade and compete with games like StarCraft II and Free-to-Play games, seeing as how fully-fledged RTS games like C&C have trouble attracting and keeping a large crowd of players, while other F2P games are easier to get into for many casual players.
For those who do not know much or who wish for a second opinion, viewpoint, or a more detailed account from someone who is far more knowledgeable when it comes to the gaming industry, I'm including a video by TotalHalibut/TotalBiscuit, AKA the Cynical Brit, down below. The first 7.5 minutes discuss this subject in a very detailed manner.
Additionally, here is a video of how creative and innovative developers (in this case, Gas Powered Games and Chris Taylor) can get with mod tools, and how this could revolutionize modding and mapping for games (I highly recommend watching this video, it's amazing). Scroll down to watch this video.
So, my fellow community, what are your thoughts, comments and suggestions on this matter? QUICK_EDIT
The issue with custom content is that there are two ways of getting it out there:
1) Vetted by the devs and officially included
2) Used in modded servers
The effort that is required to vet and then enact in game, for community items is astounding. Especially game-changing objects (new vehicles, buildings, support powers, etc) which require balancing. And that's an ongoing process.
The other stuff, cosmetic things, are mostly an annoyance imo.
As for modded servers, I thought the word was that they'd be keeping the servers very much in EA times. So modded servers seems unlikely. QUICK_EDIT
The issue with custom content is that there are two ways of getting it out there:
1) Vetted by the devs and officially included
2) Used in modded servers
The effort that is required to vet and then enact in game, for community items is astounding. Especially game-changing objects (new vehicles, buildings, support powers, etc) which require balancing. And that's an ongoing process.
The other stuff, cosmetic things, are mostly an annoyance imo.
As for modded servers, I thought the word was that they'd be keeping the servers very much in EA times. So modded servers seems unlikely.
Why would game-changing objects require balancing? Mods you can find on ModDB don't. They would act like SCII maps/mods and C&C3 mods. SCII mods and maps have to get approved by Blizzard, but they don't need to make sense or be balanced. They just have to not be game-breaking (cause the game to become unstable, act as a hack that subverts Blizzard's security methods, or cause the game to crash) and/or be filled with profanity, sexist and racist images and statements.
As for modded servers...Really, in a C&C F2P game? I've not seen this happen with SCII or TF2. QUICK_EDIT
Did you seriously ask why modded objects would need to be balanced?
If we're keeping the TF2 analogy, then the reason is that giving the scout an instakilling minigun which grants brief uber is a re-e-e-e-eally stupid idea.
Adding hats, fine. Adding skins, fine. But the moment anyone wants a new map or a new unit, balance is important. Especially if they're trying to get a e-sport going (are they?)
As for mods not needing balancing... what?
There are mods aimed entirely AT balancing the game. And most mods aim for at least a semblance of balance (at least around here).
As for modded server... still keeping with the TF2 analogy, have you ever played a game of VS. Saxton Hale?
Basically, they're these modded servers where there's a single enemy, Saxton Hale (CEO of Mann Co), and everyone works together to beat him.
And this is fine, and good fun. But the server is by no means official. There is a set of standardised rules by which players play. There is a standard list of weapons, hats, and items. There are a standard roster of maps. The standard game is the one built and maintained for the most part by Valve, and modded servers are run by other people. Balance is maintained (OK, TF2 isn't remotely balanced, but bear with me) by the folks at Valve, and the modded servers run in parallel.
I'm not sure if you're getting what I'm saying here.
Since, and correct me if I'm wrong, the plan is to keep servers centralised to the developers, unofficial servers run by third parties isn't going to fly. And as such unofficial additions aren't either, by that model.
This all reminds me that we should have a PPM game of TF2. QUICK_EDIT
New units would come with maps, much like "mods" for StarCraft II. You download a map that is modded with new units, or you download the mod, and you can then download the respective mod's maps, or you can use that mod as a "game mode" for a respective map you already have. StarCraft II does have such expansion mods, as does C&C3, and yet, most of them are balanced and those that aren't, well, it doesn't matter, anyways. This is a concern that ultimately doesn't matter, because it doesn't change anything from the current situation of modding. Downloading a single new unit like with Total Annihilation could only work if it was approved by EA and if the units never get used in ranked and unranked quickmatches, or against players who have them disabled or don't have them (as was the case with TA). And if it's too much prone to cause issues, why not simply just not have them? StarCraft II doesn't support custom new units you can download, yet it supports expansion mods and total conversion mods.
New maps being balanced? Look at half the community-released maps for C&C3, RA3 and SCII. They're not quite balanced...Doesn't stop players from making them, publishing them and playing on them. They just don't count as official maps that ladders can be played upon. No problem there. QUICK_EDIT
But the games you're trotting out as examples are not online-only MP affairs designed for competition.
(Apart from Starcraft, and I've never heard of the competitive side of the game being played with mods on).
BTW, have you looked at the number of items pending in the TF2 workshop? Fortunately I have the workshop open in Steam, and can tell you for sure that there are 5,327 pending items currently. 198 of which have been accepted into TF2. Not all of them have yet been added into the game. QUICK_EDIT
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What C&C F2P needs to succeed.
