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a theory of the birth and death of the competitive scene

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DMaximus:

--- Quote from: Replaceable on September 21, 2014, 06:02:26 pm ---I also would love to see some of the 'old guard' come back, the stories I've heard about 'the old gents', 'the old ducks', old school OVW, Zill's merry men, etc. The return of these teams would be very exciting :D

--- End quote ---

MM is still around. Whenever we do compete, it's usually with most of the same members from the Floatsam Dynasty Era. It's just kind of hard to maintain the same level of interest in a game for over a year, so we don't play random PUGs as often. We've never been big on organized practices, so when we do compete we're not quite the well oiled machines of balloon-born death we once were. We still do fairly well, but the teams that put in the time and play together a ton tend to outperform us.

Mezhu:
Muse never seemed to fully grasp the competitive potential of the game they created, hence their casual approach to it (youtube promotions, no ranked matchmaking, lack of properly organized official tours and a clan leaderboard until only very recently etc.)

The competitive scene has always been in the hands of the community. Clans and individuals have stood up despite the lack of any competitive structure and organized their own events. Many many different people have been involved in the scene and contributed to a different extend to its' growth and survival. If community interest in it keeps dwindling, the scene is sure to sooner or later collapse as Muse haven't really ever been up to the task of nurturing and promoting it. Introduction of the clan interface and leaderboard was an exceptionally good step but having an instant view of the top 16 clans won't do much by itself. I want to believe it's not too late but action has to be taken by the next couple of sales/promotions.

It's understandable that putting more focus on the competitive part of a game could decrease the community quality. A competitive structure that's easily accessible by newer players and teams, on the other hand, would provide longer-lasting interest and motivation. Right now we're experiencing a decline, not only in average population, but most importantly in active, experienced players. Old people are leaving due to the lack of content (yes, the content is lacking- look at the number of maps, ships, guns) and new people aren't staying long enough. The average lobby quality is just getting worse with each passing day and that in turn is putting many of the older players off.

Hence my many suggestions of a ranked matchmaking system centered around ships (crews of 4). Many if not most people purchase the game in 4-packs and play it with their friends. Even for those who don't, it's easier to form a group of 4 that can queue up for a game anytime rather than a group of 8 that has to consistently practice together in order to play a bunch of games every sunday afternoon. If there was a structure that allowed you to play with your friends with and against other preformed groups of 4 players, in a casual yet ranked environment, tracking your progress and fighting for a ladder position, I'm pretty sure more people would have sticked to the game.

GeoRmr:
The leaderboard is inadequate, it can only rank registered clans where several competitive teams have been comprised of players from multiple clans, thinking of CRRy and HRA. Not to mention it is massively out of date (pretty much was a week behind throughout the HC, is currently more than a month out, and isn't representing the current timmyB tournament) despite multiple emails to muse reminding them to update it. Muse needs to create an interface for the tournament organisers or CA's to interact with, and create multiple pages to show the results of the more casual tournaments such as the Sunday community skirmish.

Replaceable:

--- Quote from: Dementio on September 21, 2014, 08:10:50 pm ---Muse has tried giving attention to events through the "Event List" in the "Community"-tab.

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I am aware, but evidently this isn't working maybe we could try something else, like what gilder said perhaps?


--- Quote from: Dementio ---
For example: TimmyB Tournament.
Get 4 people that fly under one teamname and you can join the tournament, even while it is already going. It is also a different mindset from other tournaments: Play for fun, instead of victory.
Compared to the Hepheastus Challenge people can join in middle of it and leave in the middle of it without feeling like they "lost" or getting "kicked out". You wouldn't have to keep 8 people going, but instead only 4 people and you get to know some of the other players in a more organized manner compared to the chaos of a pub lobby, may these players be competitively active or not. TimmyB is  also a rather short event per day, 3 matches instead of ~8 per casters the scs features, which could sometimes lead to a team dropping out because it gets just too late.

Less organized versions would be the Iron Fork and the Dev Matches (although you actually want to win the Dev Matches because of the cosmetic reward).


I wonder if it were possible to put a TimmyB like tournament parallel to a Hepheastus like tournament. The teams that want to play competitive, to win or just want a really skilled enemy team would probably join the Hepheastus like tournament, while others that want to play for fun or just can't afford to have a consistent 8 people team would probably join the TimmyB like tournament.

--- End quote ---

I agree with everything here, this should totally be a thing paired with a butt-load of advertising we can get lot's off newer clans involved which would be great. The newer clans can do the casual Tournament and as they become more experienced, and a stronger pillar then they can go serious- if they want to.

Alistair MacBain:
I agree with Gilder here.
The issue biggest issue isnt the player retention. It is a problem yes. But not the major one. Thats how things usually go. People come and people go.
The issue is the lack of new teams. The People coming cant maintain the scene cause to many leave.
The game has a big enough playerbase for a stable competetive scene in my opinion. The issue is that most of those players dont have a chance to get into the scene cause they dont know it exists.

The competetive scene needs some kind of advertisment in game. And not on some page where you first have to search for (aka event list). It needs it on the front page. When a tourney runs we need a big link on the first page that features the event. Thats how you maintain interest in it.
Another issue is the difficulty for new teams to establish in the scene. It takes lots of work and alot of failure to get on a lvl that you can play competetive and dont get stomped every game.
Thats the problem of single elimination. You play one game or one set of games (bo3) and youre out. Thats most times 2 stomps. That demoralizes alot. You need weeks over weeks of those to actually establish and most players dont want to take that effort. I dont blame them for it. Its hard and its not nice.
I hoped a league based system takes that out a bid. Sadly it didnt. You wouldve needed more weeks for that but that longterm commitment isnt something goio can pull of as of yet.
I'd love to get something going to get new teams into competetive and establish a stable format. But i currently neither have the time nor the ideas to make that.

Another issue for sure is the player retention. Newer players leave cause they cant get into the competetive scene and old players leave cause its always the same. Muse cant maintain the effort to optimize skrimish and develope adventure and coop mode at the same time. Thats sad but the truth. Id love to have a ton of things and id love to have coop as early as possible.

Im sure we could name a ton of other things that render the scene.

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