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Fielding Speaks about the Heroes of Newerth State of the Game (EM Notes)
S2Fielding is the Director of Design & Development of S2 Games.
Fielding Speaks:
Related: Fielding's Design Update (HoN)
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S2Fielding is the Director of Design & Development of S2 Games.
Fielding Speaks:
I want to take a moment to talk about Easy Mode and our thoughts and observations. Firstly - we understand what it is players like about Easy Mode, and that they have a good reason to want to play it. There are some very specific things EM tries to do, such as shortening game length, and providing a more casual less stressful experience. EM players like to have their cake and eat it too - getting a lot more gold and items in an EM match than normal mode. None of these things should be frowned upon - there's nothing wrong with wanting that experience out of HoN.
That said, since the beginning of HoN's launch we've seen EM play percentages drop from about 50% to 28%. Ultimately we feel this has been good for HoN, as EM presents a lot of poor mechanics and balance issues. It has never been fixed up in a way that we could be proud of it - it largely just contains copied mechanics from DotA's EM mode. We don't want to mess with the reason why people choose to play EM, instead we want to fix the rest.
Our current outlook on EM isn't very positive. It uses a lot of arbitrary mechanics to try to achieve an end result, and it does so poorly, creating many problems in its attempts to solve others. It's no secret to any HoN forum-goer that EM players are treated rather poorly. Ultimately, this is an understandable reaction when you consider the bad habits EM's forced mechanics can cause, and the frustration this creates amongst normal mode players when they play with EM players. One of our goals is to fix up EM in such a way that the types of player choices it promotes is consistent with normal mode, all the while offering the same increased game pace, faster progression and leveling, less stressful/more casual game type that EM players prefer.
Some of goals that are attempted to be achieved in EM games actually coincide with some of the issues we see in normal mode (gold distribution and game length). We fully validate the desire to want a more approachable, less stressful, fun, quicker, more action oriented game. EM has some very poor mechanic decisions to try and force this result. With a few modifications we feel we can provide a much more balanced experience while still achieving some of these underlying goals and making a game mode that won't be sacrilege to play by all HoN players. It should be a mode that keeps all the balance of normal mode but just makes for a less stressful environment.
That said, since the beginning of HoN's launch we've seen EM play percentages drop from about 50% to 28%. Ultimately we feel this has been good for HoN, as EM presents a lot of poor mechanics and balance issues. It has never been fixed up in a way that we could be proud of it - it largely just contains copied mechanics from DotA's EM mode. We don't want to mess with the reason why people choose to play EM, instead we want to fix the rest.
Our current outlook on EM isn't very positive. It uses a lot of arbitrary mechanics to try to achieve an end result, and it does so poorly, creating many problems in its attempts to solve others. It's no secret to any HoN forum-goer that EM players are treated rather poorly. Ultimately, this is an understandable reaction when you consider the bad habits EM's forced mechanics can cause, and the frustration this creates amongst normal mode players when they play with EM players. One of our goals is to fix up EM in such a way that the types of player choices it promotes is consistent with normal mode, all the while offering the same increased game pace, faster progression and leveling, less stressful/more casual game type that EM players prefer.
Some of goals that are attempted to be achieved in EM games actually coincide with some of the issues we see in normal mode (gold distribution and game length). We fully validate the desire to want a more approachable, less stressful, fun, quicker, more action oriented game. EM has some very poor mechanic decisions to try and force this result. With a few modifications we feel we can provide a much more balanced experience while still achieving some of these underlying goals and making a game mode that won't be sacrilege to play by all HoN players. It should be a mode that keeps all the balance of normal mode but just makes for a less stressful environment.
Related: Fielding's Design Update (HoN)
Weiterlesen...