I am no game designer, but I know what drew me to this game initially isn’t here anymore. I’ve suggested, I’ve ranted, I’ve cussed, I’ve taken a long break and came back when Invasion was released… and it just isn’t the same. The fun factor just isn’t there.
As far as I can figure, there are three things that drew me in initially that can be considered universal to all games.
Gameplay, Skill Requirement, and Progression
Imagine these are the corners of a triangle.
Gamplay
Also known as game mechanics. What initially drew me to Star Conflict was that the gameplay was so similar to Freelancer’s mouse and keyboard setup. You could customize your ship to an amazing degree of specialization too, which is always a bonus in my book. And the best part was, it was done really well.
Skill Requirement
This one’s a bit more fuzzy, but goes with gameplay. Typically, I won’t stick around and play a game that I suck at. It’s not worth the time and frustration. During my first couple matches, I was rather bad. But this changed when I finally understood how to use the game mechanics to my advantage. After that, I was hooked. Here was a competitive multiplayer game where I could hold my own.
Progression
The final thing I look for in a game is the reward system. If the game feels rewarding, I want to keep playing. If the game is rather skimpy on the payout, but demands an excessive amount of my free time (or my wallet) I’ll play for awhile, and then move on to another game.
So to keep a player like me around, you have to have those three elements. If you are missing one, you’ll lose me as a consumer. And that is where Star Conflict is struggling. And unfortunately, it’s not just in one area.
Gameplay
The Freelancer-esque controls are still there, and so is the customization. But “end-game content” matches are very hard to find. After the latest patch, we are at least no longer seeing 2v2 every time. Yet, 50% of the matches take place on Russian servers, where the high ping cripples any players not in the Motherland. It’s very hard to dogfight when the game hangs for a half-second with every bullet impact.
Skill Requirement
I never expected to be the best pilot in the game (although I had high hopes), yet there is only so much a player can improve upon when the other half is wrapped up on the technology end. Games like this are 50% Skill and 50% Gear. If you get the right blend, you are unstoppable. If not, you suffer crushing defeat after crushing defeat. Which leads directly into…
Progression
Unfortunately, this is also where the game designers have decided to monetize the game. If the gameplay is suffering, and a player doesn’t have the optimal gear/skill ratio, progression grinds to a halt. And this is perhaps my biggest bone to pick with the game. The monetization scheme.
If you make a game that has great gameplay, is relatively easy to understand and control, and makes each match feel rewarding, player like me will throw money at you for cool extras. Premium pirate ships? Sure! Colors and decals to make you stand out in a sea of killers? Absolutely!
So what’s changed?
Well, at some point the game stopped making me want to spend money, and replaced it with the feeling that I need to spend money. That’s a subtle difference, but a big one. When you can’t consistently fly the top level ships without a license because their repair costs are so great, when voucher prices for mark 3 gear skyrocket, when things like multiple crews (for GS only) and spatial scanners start making an appearance; all of a sudden, you don’t feel like you have the option to reach the “end” of the game and be competitive unless you shell out some money.
The other problem with this is when a community starts to feel like they need to spend money to be competative, they begin to resent it. There’s the subliminal message that buying X-item will make them better at the game overnight. And when they do spend that money and X-item has not brought them the success they believed it promised, you end up with bitter, angry players.
So how does this get fixed?
There is no easy answer, but it revolves around the concept of making the game feel rewarding again. Fix the lag, give new players some useful tutorials for once, let us have some nice match rewards again, and stop trying to nickel and dime us for every blasted feature you can cram a GS payment option into. If we like the game, we’ll pay you. Trust me. You don’t want to continue making your playerbase feel like they need to pay just so they can enjoy the game.
