Just picked up this game on a whim two days ago, and was blown away by the level of teamwork that existed even at the lowest levels of play. I am a Dota fnatic (sorry
), and can say with a very tiny bit of authority that GOIO steps far beyond Dota in terms of team play, level of fun, and positivity in the community.
tl;dr: there are a few steps that might improve the competitive scene of GOIO, listed at a very un-tl;dr length at the bottom of this spiel. Sorry, it's late, and I'm lazy.
As a potential e-sport, the fabric of the game itself is great material. There is something poetic and powerful about the individual working for the greater good of a ship at war, such that the idea a theme for stories from the vapid Pirates of the Caribbean to Patrick O'Brian's more thoughtful Far Side of the World. Indeed, it is perhaps the most elegant and potent version of the war story, which is, after all, at the root of what a "sport" is. Combine this crucible of competition with the engaging world of steam-punk, and you get an environment classy enough to call its game a sport.
The mechanics of the game follow this up. Far more than any of the games at MLG, or even Dota/LoL, GOIO forces gamers to form a functional leadership system, use effective communication, and work for a common goal. This is a product of both intentional design (no boarding, etc) and the necessary elements of ship combat. A ship can't function well without ship to ship teamwork, and an individual sailor is certainly required to work with teammates to succeed. This creates a twofold level of teamwork that is engaging both tactically and strategically.
However, GOIO has its faults as well, and these hinder serious competitive play and following. I understand that it may not be the intention of the developers to create an e-sport, but I believe that there is real potential for GOIO to achieve a level of play similar to World of Tanks or other fringe e-sports. Thus, I would present my observations and suggestions for improvement:
1. Casting is fundamental to any e-sport. It gives the act of spectating a certain legitimacy that can be hard to explain to the disgusted girlfriend/boyfriend/parent/etc: "Wait, you're not even playing?" *patronizing incredulity*. Nevertheless, casting is critical to the field of e-sports. It's hard to directly encourage this practice, as the internet-based nature of e-sports leaves casters largely to their own initiative. However, in the style of Dota 2, I suspect it would be a rather painless measure to promote tournaments and casters in the game itself. There's a lot of downtime while one is queuing, and putting a banner somewhere, or a navigable page to feature competitive play and casting next to the social tab would ensure that featured casters and events could get attention. Such measures would also be useful for maintaining the already strong integration between community and developers.
2. Many previous posters have noted the importance of individual spectating. I would like to echo their thoughts; the fuel that powers an esport is a rabid fan-base, comprised of individuals who are inspired by professionals to improve their own play. I can almost guarantee that anyone reading this has been inspired into a hobby by observing a great. But no matter if you took up guitar on the tacit advice of Eddie Vedder or went to chess-camp in pursuit of Gary Kasparov, I promise that you had access to their greatest works. Individual spectating serves two elements of e-sports. It creates and sustains charismatic professional players, and encourages others to strive for their status. With that said, I would suggest further polish to the spectating system as well as potentially creating a system to download the replays of games for intensive analysis. The second option is likely quite difficult, and I only mention it as an end goal, but there are a number of small changes that could improve the spectating system.
Create a single drop down menu that can be cycled through every ship to give an overview of load-out and cool-downs, ammo type, etc. Create an unobtrusive bar to display spotted status, balloon, armor, and hull health for each ship at all times. A mini-map for spectators might also be nice, allowing one to monitor the battle even as you focus on particularly charismatic ship-to-ship engagements (this is more caster oriented, and less necessary than in many games when most of the map is invisible). Finally, and most nitpickingly, it would be nice to have a small delay between the last kill of a death-match and the score-screen coming up, allowing a cinematic appreciation of gravity acting on disassociated bits of brass and wood.
3. I do not think matchmaking is necessary to creating competitive play, at least given the currently relatively small player base. Instead, I would suggest more regular "formal" matches, perhaps a set of crowd-sourced tournaments. Daily, self-reported formal matches, consisting of teams with no qualification beyond having full ships (maybe in a round-robin format) would allow for a low-pressure but competitive forum for player skill. Given enough participation, tournaments could be made more similar to matchmaking by breaking up skill levels, with higher tiers being reached with success in lower brackets. Cosmetic rewards could be offered for success or extensive participation in such events.
4. There has been some concern voiced about toxicity with growing player base and competitiveness. This is reasonable, because the community rocks, as small indie game communities tend to do. But it would be a mistake to idylize current community standards to the point of inhibiting the game's potential. I believe that the forced teamwork of the game, the open forum of queue lobbies (perhaps soon to go?), and the near-necessity of voice chat reduce potential toxicity in the environment: in general, the more you know about someone the harder it is to be a turd to them.
That's all I've got, overall. It's late, I've already rambled way too much, and I'll leave this here for general consideration.
