Community Interface

(tokamak) #1

Blizzard has just updated it´s Starcraft 2 menus and they´re amazing!

After each match you get your match average set against your overall average:

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And of course lots of other graphs beside that but let’s ignore that. You can also click on the map icon:

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Which gives you some info of the map. I imagine that especially DB could add a lot more on this in different footstep/kill layers on the top down view.

But wait there’s more. You can then go to reviews:

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Every player has the chance to rate the map and say a few words about this. If you give them the opportunity to formulate their thoughts right after playing you get the most accurate feedback as well as netting comments from players that normally wouldn’t say a lot.

All in all it gives you the idea that you’re part of a larger whole. That there’s lots of people who’re also playing this game and feeling things about it. It makes you want to play more and be better at the game.

The size of the playerbase is not enough. It’s the perceived size of the playerbase that matters and it matters double for an F2P game.

(dommafia) #2

I’m a big fan of stats. Anything that makes you feel like you are part of the bigger picture can only be good for a f2p game I would assume.

(potty200) #3

I think having an overall leader board with stats and things would only get more public players playing more! Excellent idea to boost numbers up!

I remember when I first started out in ET. It was all about who had the best KD ratio or who was top 10 on splatterladder. The only reason I spent so much time on ET back then was to get on the leader boards!

(Dthy) #4

[QUOTE=potty200;430747]I think having an overall leader board with stats and things would only get more public players playing more! Excellent idea to boost numbers up!

I remember when I first started out in ET. It was all about who had the best KD ratio or who was top 10 on splatterladder. The only reason I spent so much time on ET back then was to get on the leader boards![/QUOTE]

I’m a bit iffy about having a leader board. Whilst it in most cases does attract more players, it can also causes players to play without the games intentions (e.g. playing for k/d + acc rather than playing as a team, as the case was in QW). Don’t take this as a no though, I love stats as well but the way they’re displayed is important.

(tokamak) #5

It needs to be within the menu though. It can’t be just a site. Well it can be but it doesn’t draw the same emotional connection.

(dommafia) #6

+1 …

(.Chris.) #7

Have both, in launcher/game and a website the mirrors it, like you can with Steam.

(potty200) #8

I’m a bit iffy about having a leader board. Whilst it in most cases does attract more players, it can also causes players to play without the games intentions (e.g. playing for k/d + acc rather than playing as a team, as the case was in QW). Don’t take this as a no though, I love stats as well but the way they’re displayed is important.

With most pro’s comes con’s. I think SD could manipulate the way leader boards work. Say most XP gain per average minute or most win percentage. So many different ways you could go about it. Back when splatter ladder was rating ET players it was about who had the most XP gained per minute (average). You would revive like mad or hand ammo out as much as you could ect, ect. While there will be a select bunch of players going for the K/D ratio leader board. SD could have awards for the more team based ones while the KD one you don’t get much?

It would require much debate if it goes ahead. So many things you can do with this though!

(tokamak) #9

Leaderboards stand and fall with the values that are celebrated.

(stealth6) #10

Down with global stats!

(Accurate global stats need reliable servers… aka this cuts into the customizability of the game and for what…?)

(SockDog) #11

I’ll keep saying this until someone tells me it’s dumb or impossible. But stats need to be identifiable against where they are earned and that needs to be down to an individual map and/or mod. This way you can produce an official stats leaderboard (from secured 3rd party provided servers) alongside exactly the same stats for lets say user run dedicated servers or custom maps etc. Then you just give the people options to combine or separate those stats as they see fit.

IMO this keeps the leaderboard and stat monkeys happy without necessarily pushing them into a corner to get their fix.

(stealth6) #12

[QUOTE=SockDog;430861]I’ll keep saying this until someone tells me it’s dumb or impossible. But stats need to be identifiable against where they are earned and that needs to be down to an individual map and/or mod. This way you can produce an official stats leaderboard (from secured 3rd party provided servers) alongside exactly the same stats for lets say user run dedicated servers or custom maps etc. Then you just give the people options to combine or separate those stats as they see fit.

IMO this keeps the leaderboard and stat monkeys happy without necessarily pushing them into a corner to get their fix.[/QUOTE]

This is what I’m rooting for, but if you give users access to run their own servers you risk cracking or hacking the server for malicious purposes. On the other hand only allowing trusted 3rd parties to run servers means they are probably going to run up the prices + shoddy support etc.

I’m generally against global stats though since even if it is some kind of full proof system (hacking wise), people are still going to skew the stats by padding or client side hacks… Therefore I don’t really see a point to it. The best way imo is if you only see your friends stats since those are the only ones you care about, plus if one of your friends is a statpadder / hacker you can decide if you want to have those kind of friends :tongue:

tl;dr While the idea sounds good, you can’t trust the servers to provide valid stats. Especially not when they are user run.

EDIT: Another argument against global stats: Hackusations.

(Mustang) #13

-1 Global stats

+1000 End of match stats

(tokamak) #14

[QUOTE=stealth6;430771]Down with global stats!

(Accurate global stats need reliable servers… aka this cuts into the customizability of the game and for what…?)[/QUOTE]

Coherency.

If you want ranked matchmaking then you need to have a format for your matches,IE official servers. And once you’ve got that then the statistics are also ´clean´. Actually Echo would truly lose it´s value if it started incorporating all kinds of custom mods into it´s map profiles.

Custom and official need to be separated but equally accessible, it’s better for both sides.

(Violator) #15

[QUOTE=tokamak;430967]Coherency.
Actually Echo would truly lose it´s value if it started incorporating all kinds of custom mods into it´s map profiles.
[/QUOTE]

Way to clamp creativity…!

I like stats but I hope it doesn’t go down the ranked server path of ET:QW where it starts to affect gameplay.

(SockDog) #16

Stats need to be present for all different types of play including custom, you just need them to be easily identifiable by source so people can make their own decisions about the validity of the data. Problem with ETQW was that you either had stats or didn’t. Not sure how SD can quantify that people enjoy stats enough to support it in a game but then think it’s acceptable to either drop them or block other ways to play because they’re magically no longer that important to those same people.

(Loffy) #17

Stats aka quantitative data, from a pure statistical point of view:

Stats:

[ul]
[li]should provide information about the central value (i.e. average)[/li][li]should provide information about the spread (i.e. deviation) around that central value[/li][/ul]

That last point is often forgotten.

OK, can we transfer this to shooters such as DB? Dunno. If yes, the stats should provide some sort of information about the deviation, for example:
“Average accuracy, all players, this map, last 7 days, is 31%, and nine out of ten of these players have an accuracy between 26% and 36%.”

Another way of expressing this type of spread-information, is quartiles. E.g. “Your acc is 38% (top quartile)”.

Hm, maybe it complicates things too much?

EDIT: Surely there must be a college/institution of higher education near SD’s office? And there has to be a couple of gaming-interested doctoral students at the Dept. of Statistics there. Let them work with this for a week and let them come up with various ways to present quantitative data from rounds of DB play. IF you (SD) are keen on developing this aspect of in-game menus.

(RasteRayzeR) #18

I would agree for the global stats, incorporated in the game in a menu, with rewards, xp relevant informations, statistics on the player and graphs to show the evolution of performances. This could be a gift for clans looking for new members and a goal to achieve for players, thus addicting them to the game.

STILL, we have to be extremely careful with global statistics : global statistics often pushes the players to achieve a single goal as fast as they could. Meaning that many players suddenly went from playing the objectives to playing solo and only achieve their personnal goal of increasing aim, thus giving many snipers camping and waiting only for the perfect shot, or medics that try to do x number of XP with medpacks only, etc… It happened in ET:QW and that’s one of the main reason the website went down.

So global stats, yes, because they will help the game live and become addictive, but they will have to be organized in a really smart way, maybe with packages of objectives forcing the player to keep playing the objectives in team, like for example for medics have a package of stats like :

  • 1000 revives
  • 500 health packs given
  • % accuracy with medic primary gun

And give a special reward for each of these packages (If possible with a lot of humor, and maybe decals applicable on the player in game or special tags).

Then for the match statistics, 100% needed, and make them work nice, because for now if you play as a recon your never get to know which recon was the best in the match (bug ?)

(Apples) #19

If they need a worker i can come to London and work as statistical engineeeeer for DB, my salary pretentions are way too high tho :slight_smile:

(RasteRayzeR) #20

How selfish of you ! We are here to help them on the matter of statistics and you take the opportunity for yourself … (p.s : when you are in, could you put a good word for me ? Im done in 2 years with my master in Computer Science) :wink:

:tongue::wink::D:eek::cool::infiltrator::stroggtapir::tongue::mad: