Narrowing Tier Spreads Discussion - How to Fix Matchmaking
Дата: 22.07.2011 18:11:12
smokntuesdays, on Jul 22 2011 - 02:34, said: I don't care about exp and credits. You are either worried that
people will get more or they will get less. This isn't about
progression. I don't want to play the higher tier tanks vs a bunch
of lower tier tanks anymore than I want to play the lower tier
tanks vs the higher tier tanks. No doubt there is much
less complaint from those on the higher side in that equation, but
there are areas of tanks which I am fond of, which are completely
ruined by what you call progression.ChrisK: Agreed, and this (as I pointed out in the interview with Tobold) is
where the difference of perception takes place. We balance the game
across the entire game, not from battle to battle. But the player
experiences the game battle to battle, not all at once. So what
we're working on is how to best serve both of these types of
balance without potentially breaking what we already have, both in
terms of gameplay and customer satisfaction across all server
clusters.
Quote What you are saying is that the middle tiers can't be enjoyable because of progression.
ChrisK: No, what I am saying is that they are more of a challenge because
of progression. How you meet challenges - head on, quitting, going
around, trying something new, etc. - is up to you. If you're not
enjoying your current method of taking on the tough challenges, try
another way. Or maybe look at your rewards in a different way -
like instead of only win/lose or kills or survival rate, look at
your xp and credit earnings (again, the long view method of
balance). However, even with the relatively low (albeit vocal)
amount of complaints, we do take them seriously and are looking for
ways to improve the system. It just takes time to research,
implement, and test. 
Quote We basically NEVER see any content added to the game that is program related. What gets added is all modeling stuff, very little programming at all. We can't even get a decent chat system. Your modeling team is awesome, I'm not even sure what the hell your programmers do, because we never see any content that is based on their work other than the base game itself. It seems to me your programmers are out to lunch on something else, and what's left is your art team.
ChrisK: I've been asking for better chat tools since October. Seriously.
The programmers have been working on finishing up Ultimate Conquest
and implementing new features (camo coming...), but soon will go
back to tweaking and improving core gameplay.
Quote When people say more content, it doesn't mean just maps and tanks. It also means different game modes and things which require a little programming and a little more design then letting your art team put out a new map and some rigged tanks(not rigged as in screwing someone over).
ChrisK: Oh yeah, and new game modes are coming. 
Quote Now, lets talk markets.
Russia GDP = $1.465 trillion
European Union = $16,282 trillion
US GDP = $14.772 trillion
Get the picture?
ChrisK: Yes, but it's irrelevant to matchmaking. Of more concern to us are
the cultural differences in player types that keep players on the
NA servers from enjoying the same systems that Russians and others
love to play. Which is again why, even though the MM complaints are
a small minority, we're working on new approaches to it.
Quote Why in the world are you looking at how many current players you have in the US rather than how many potential customers you have? You think your Russian population is big? Its not.
ChrisK: China dwarfs both markets and is perfectly happy with the game.
However, we don't want it to be unsuccessful in NA, so we're
working to improve it, even though we don't expect as much return
on our investment because of the cultural differences, not because
of GDP.
Quote This is flat out not true. People keep quiting at T4/T5. They did in beta, they do now. Go load up the game now and the majority of the population is T5 and below. I find it hard to believe that the community I came from, which plays FPS regularly/daily all quit for the same few reasons and it's some kind of oddity as you claim. I find it hard to believe it's just a vocal minority when if I bring up this game somewhere else, it's always the same general complaints.
ChrisK: Again, only here - we're still going to keep working on it though,
because we see this as an important market, not just because of the
GDP, but because it's culturally significant in the world, the
economy, history, and the industry. Plus, I want to keep playing on
the NA servers, not on the Russian servers! 
Quote And McDonalds doesn't want to make people fat.
ChrisK: They don't want fat people for the same reason the cigarette
companies don't want lung cancer - they don't want to pay for it!
But that's a straw man argument and doesn't in any way apply to
WoT.
Quote I find it hard to believe that you don't want people spending more than $20 a month when you sell individual tanks for more than that, and then have recently increased the price of a tank because it was a popular buy.
ChrisK: We're hoping that will cut down on the number of Lowes in the game
actually, not because it was a popular buy. I prefer my KV-5 over
my Lowe by far, personally. But yes, we'd much rather have
low-spending long-term players than high-spending short-term
players. Really. In fact, if everyone just spent $10 a month we'd
be quite happy, but we don't feel that a $10 monthly subscription
model lends itself well to the game.
Quote If you only wanted people to spend $20 a month, then you would cap the spending.
ChrisK: Now THAT would be foolish! LOL!
Quote Yeah, it's exciting the first couple of times you get put into a battle with higher people. After about your 100th time doing it - not so much. It's like seeing a girl with a nice butt, getting all excited and then she turns around and has a huge nose with buckteeth.
ChrisK: And yet, those girls end up married too. And when you finally get
that hottie you've always wanted, it's never as good as you thought
it would be (well, at first it is, but once your kids hit Tier 4,
it's not as much fun). 
Quote I thought we were going to get some serious discussion on this topic, but all you gave us was spin.
ChrisK: Nope, serious discussion. But not caving in "OK let's just do it
your way and see how badly the game breaks" compromise. I'll
continue to talk facts and reality.
Narrowing Tier Spreads Discussion - How to Fix Matchmaking