Pavlov's slaves - microrewards in casual play

Hi,

I'll preface this with that I actually solely play the competitive mode myself and the features I am proposing are not really ones that I'd be needing for myself. Rather, I believe that these features are more or less mandatory to get casual players play the game.

So, reward mechanisms. People play games and really, do anything at all, because there's some sort of reward. In games, no doubt the simplest reward would be winning your match. This reward however does not come very often nor does it come every time. Therefore there needs to be other mechanisms of reward in the game. For example, in Battlefields you get points for supplying your teammates, you get points for standing on a capture point, basically you get points just for breathing. This makes the gameplay feel rewarding even if you don't win the whole match. The game still continuously rewards you for things it thinks you did right. Even in more hardcore shooters that have at least some casual appeal, say Squad, you get points for e.g. being near your squad leader or for supplying covering fire and so on.

In Insurgency: Sandstorm, you don't really get this feedback. You only see your score when you're dead and the only things that give you any score are your kills and point capture (and well, assists, but those are rare). I think the game would benefit from more immediate reward and other feedback mechanisms. This doesn't mean that it should be all CoD, or that e.g. kills should be announced to the player. But more immediate rewards would either way make the game more appealing to the casual player.

Therefore, I suggest that in the Versus mode, player would get score feedback right on their screens from actions such as defending and capturing points, giving suppressing fire in cases where the enemy would have made a sound anyway (so that the points don't give away the enemy's presence), and so on, to make the gameplay feel more rewarding even when you don't win the match.

last edited by tzaeru

It absolutely frightens me that people want a ticking UI of reward points over an immersive sequel to what are arguably the two best immersion shooters ever made, Ins2014 and DoI.

This to me is just contrary to the whole point of what an Insurgency game is.

@tzaeru said in Pavlov's slaves - microrewards in casual play:

People play games and really, do anything at all, because there's some sort of reward.

People have played, and enjoyed, games for far longer than pop-up achievement rewards have been a thing. I don't think they're mandatory, nor do I think they fit thematically with the atmosphere that Sandstorm creates.

@tzaeru “(and well, assists, but those are rare).” Lmao what game you playin breh? I get so many goddamn assists every single game I play. Cause lord knows when people can survive being shot multiple times like nothing even happened there gonna be lots of assists...

last edited by planetcanada

The reward for getting kills is getting kills. Everything you do brings you closer to winning the match. That's where the fun comes in. If I get 5 kills in 2 seconds, I don't find it fun because my kills stat incremented by 5. I find it fun because I just killed 5 players in 2 seconds. One of the things that made me like Insurgency was how it was detached from conventional reward systems. Everything was intrinsically rewarding. If you don't like playing the game, don't ask for numbers on your screen that go up when you do things. Find a game you like.

@whitby said in Pavlov's slaves - microrewards in casual play:

It absolutely frightens me that people want a ticking UI of reward points over an immersive sequel to what are arguably the two best immersion shooters ever made, Ins2014 and DoI.

That's an odd thing to be frightened about, but alright!

This to me is just contrary to the whole point of what an Insurgency game is.

Maybe, but if Insurgency doesn't manage to appeal more to the FPS players, it's going to have trouble with player numbers.

@planetcanada said in Pavlov's slaves - microrewards in casual play:

@tzaeru “(and well, assists, but those are rare).” Lmao what game you playin breh? I get so many goddamn assists every single game I play. Cause lord knows when people can survive being shot multiple times like nothing even happened there gonna be lots of assists...

My experiences may be biased due to playing almost only competitive, but usually people die to 1 or 2 hits and most encounters are 1v1 situations either way. Perhaps there's more assists in the Versus mode though. Doesn't change the core of the suggestion.

@cyoce said in Pavlov's slaves - microrewards in casual play:

If you don't like playing the game, don't ask for numbers on your screen that go up when you do things. Find a game you like.

I literally started the post with "the features I am proposing are not really ones that I'd be needing for myself". That's in the very first sentence.

Point isn't what I or you might like, point is that the game needs more players. It's already hard to find a game in low hours. I've been sitting in the queue for around 30 minutes now. The game needs more players and to do that, it needs to be more appealing to the average gamer. You will get the more hardcore players and more competitive players after that.

last edited by tzaeru