The days of playing an online multiplayer team oriented shooter for the bitter sweetness of victory itself is long gone. The inclusion of visible statistics, equipment unlocks and “feel good points” have disrupted the path to team glory. Are the inclusion of these things a good idea? Do they make us better team mates or enable us to succumb to our selfish desires?
I admit that I pay a great deal of attention to my Kill/Death ratio. However, that’s not to say that I willingly hide and pick off people simply to boost my ratio – it forces me to play conservatively. In some game types that’s a good thing. Throwing myself into enemy fire doesn’t help my team if it equates to points for the opposition. I see it is a valid statistic that people should be aware of, but it shouldn’t override the objective if it’s not team deathmatch.
Weapon, skill and equipment unlocks have been around for awhile and are a great way to keep players playing a game. I’m okay with rewarding heals and revives with additional bonuses, but I am not fond of asking players to obtain X amount of melee kills or knife kills to obtain a reward. Rewarding team play and other skills which benefit others could help a game in the long run. Rewarding knife kills and grenade kills simply promotes selfish play.
It’s obvious that I am referring to Killzone 2’s multiplayer, but it’s not the only culprit. Team Fortress 2’s class updates have also tainted the game’s online experience with these annoyances. There are rooms online which are dedicated to stat padding, unlocking or experience farming. I’m sure the developers did not wish for people to go out of their way in order to obtain these things, but what did they expect? Gears of War was plagued with issues like this, but Epic Games turned it around with Gears of War 2. They limited the number of weapon specific kills a player can contribute to their achievement goals within an online match.
This is the right way to implement these types of achievements.
I haven’t started Resident Evil 5 yet. Ironic considering it is the first game which I obtained on launch day. I have been busy with Killzone 2’s multiplayer. Impressions thus far? It’s fun. I’ll go in depth later this week when I write up my multiplayer “review”.
I noted this last night on my Twitter, but I will say it again. I watched the Animatrix for the first time and it’s remarkable how similar the Matrix’ robot revolution is to MegaMan X’s. I even saw a scene where construction helmet wearing robots were marching along like Reploids. I was also flabbergasted by how the writers set the fall of humanity.
The humans wanted to get rid of robots after one of them killed its owner. So they go on a massive robot killing spree, but then they stopped. The robots assembled and formed a nation. For some peculiar reason the humans allowed robots to form a nation and even trade with them. What happened to wanting them all dead?
So silly.
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