this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2024
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[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I played the beta and was kinda excited to see it released. It wasn't the best game in the world and felt very generic in some aspects. But less than 700 concurrent players is just ridiculous. That's less players than most of the half baked, asset swapped, copy cat games that release into early access on steam and get abandoned in less than a year. I know Concord isn't the next big thing and has a lot of problems. But if you can tell me why games like Vigor, The Front, and Deadpoly (All on steam) have higher player counts I'd be dying to know. I know Concord got hit with the hate train, but this is just confusing. I'd rather play a generic new hero shooter over another generic early access survival crafting game.

I think people just expect hero shooters to be F2P these days. At the same time $40 may be expensive but that would only get you 1 or 2 skins in a game like Overwatch. Not only that but Overwatch used to cost about $40 and nobody gave a shit back then because you could potentially get all the skins in the game for free if you grinded enough. Nowadays if you want all the Overwatch skins in the game you'd have to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars to get them all.

[–] Kevo@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I wonder if they made more money from the $80 controller than the $40 game because of how cool the controller looked (in my opinion). I bought the controller knowing full well I had no intention of buying the game

[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Well the fact that it doesn't even have the name of the game on it and the fact that it looks cool would be a pretty good selling point. You wouldn't even need to know or care what the game even was.

[–] Kevo@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

The name is actually on the back, but yeah, probably a good choice you don't have to look at it constantly

[–] mihnt@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Looks more like it's themed from The Last Starfghter movie to me. I'm old though so who knows.

[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I'm not that old but my parents loved that movie. Definitely gives off similar vibes. Other movies I'd have listed would be the original Tron and Wargames (I think that's what it was called). Honestly that whole era in the 80's would fit pretty well. I wasn't alive in the 80's but they had a lot of bangers when it comes to movies.

[–] mihnt@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's what I was comparing it to. It's the symbol for 'The Rylan Star League' aka the good guys from that movie.

[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Oh yeah, I see what you mean now. Looks almost exactly the same lol

[–] InquisitiveApathy@lemm.ee 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It released in a saturated market with better and more mature options already available, for free. They also barely marketed the game at all. I don't know how any of this can be a surprise.

[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Well if you can give me any recommendations besides games like Overwatch, Valorant, Apex Legends, and Paladins I'd be dying to know. Because I'm honestly sick of all of them. I'm genuinely curious because I'm exhausted with all the current hero shooters I've played. Kinda the reason I was bummed when this game was pretty mid and flopped. Everyone always talks about the market being saturated when everyone that plays these hero shooters is pissed at the developers of said shooters almost on a daily basis. I don't think Concord was the next big thing. I'm just so sick of all the games currently out to the point I'm willing to try anything.

Deadlock seems pretty sick though. That's honestly the one I'm waiting for.

[–] InquisitiveApathy@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You kind of just explained exactly why the game failed without realizing it. You're exhausted and bored with the genre as a whole and a new flavor of the same games that already exist isn't innovative enough to entice new players. We've seen a long line of hero shooters that were dead on arrival because they have nothing new to offer and Concord is no different.

[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's less about exhaustion with the genre and more about being exhausted with the f2p model. Especially with games like Overwatch where this is a new thing. The core gameplay mechanics of Overwatch are fine, minus the constant changes to larger mechanics like team composition and role changes. But as a FPS game there is nothing objectively wrong with the game from a gameplay standpoint. It's fluid, easy to learn, and responsive. Same with games like Apex. There's nothing objectively wrong with the gameplay. But they sacrifice server stability and game breaking issues that have been present since the game was released in favor of adding more ways to spend money. If anything these issues have gotten worse while the shop looks more complicated and predatory than Fortnite's in its hay day.

I know Concord isn't the next big thing, but I think it's worth a try. $40 is not even that much when you consider how much f2p games are charging for their skins. And I'd much rather pay $40 for a game and have minimal microtransactions than play a game for free but have to spend even more money than the game is worth just to customize the huge roster of characters these games have. And the argument "it's just cosmetics" is such a lazy excuse when customizing your character is one of the only ways to express yourself in a game. It's the reason why there are so many jokes about people saying the first 10 hours of a new game they bought is spent customizing their character.

Sorry, I went on a bit of a rant and didn't mean to. Got a little carried away. I'm not trying to say your point is wrong, just that that's not the reason I'm exhausted with hero shooters.

[–] InquisitiveApathy@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I understand being frustrated with f2p shenanigans and microtransactions, but I think that frustration is blinding you to some of the bigger picture issues at play. I agree that microtransactions are a problem, but honestly fps games are one of the few genres where I would say a f2p and live-service model actually makes the most sense.

Before the prevalence of battle passes most games followed the CoD model where a new game would be released every year or two and you would be forced to buy it because the player population of the older game would die off drastically. With live-service it allows the dev to still update games and gives players a reason to keep coming back every season to keep playing a game. An fps game is only as healthy as how large and diverse in terms of skill range its player population has.

I'm also excited for Deadlock though. It will hopefully keep doing everything right that Battleborne failed at and looks really fun.