Trisha Takanawa
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2008
- Messages
- 51
Playing CNC 4 I have noticed that I generally feel more free then I do other RTS. There are several reasons for this, ranging from how multiplayer does not place as much responsibility on one player, to how there are classes, to how there are more relative wins/losses, and you can respawn continuously. I am not sure if these are all the reasons, but I do like CNC4 a lot and here is my analysis as to why:
1- Shared responsibility.
Whenever I play one on one I really get stressed out. Egos are on the line, and when you lose you just feel horrible. Even when you win however, I find that I do not enjoy it because I was so stressed out the entire game.
2- Constant respawns.
This adds so much more fun to the game it's hard to explain. In past RTS one reason I didn't like it was 1- When you died it was absolute, and it just felt really horrid. Like in past CNC, say an opponent does an engie rush- end of game. That sucked. It really prevents most players from using the higher tier units. Likewise, it leads to a paranoia about the MCV. Again, more stress, less fun. Even if you played multiple people, the problem is when one player died, it would go from say 2 vs 2, to 2 vs 1. In that case, you either have to sit and watch, or fight against 2 ppl by yourself. And even if you were on the winning side it was boring because it was usually so easy.
3- More viable strategies.
Because you are with 5 people, there is a broader range of viable strategies. Say you are a player, like me, who loves just teching and acquiring resources while turtled. In past CNC games this would not be so good, cause I would end up with 10,000 credits, and get swarmed. Now however by focusing on tib harvesting I help my entire team greatly.
This goes for the opposite as well. If you hate resources gathering, and just want to go offense, you don't have to focus on resources at all. And you can still get teched, and help your team immensely.
This makes the game more fun throughout because even if I lose, I at least got to play the game how I wanted to. I still usually got to utilize the higher tier units. I was still able to get some sort of shining moment in some sort of battle.
Generally put other RTS games seem to force you into a strict formula to stay competitive. You HAVE to build X of some units, Y of other units. Play a certain median/middle ground style that discourages individualized strategies or specialization. In fact, in most CNC multiplayer games Superweapons are rarely even used for this reason. In fact, when I observe Battlecast I notice that none of the RA3 or CNC3 games have any superweapons used at all.
Again, even if I win, I don't have fun doing this because I felt pigeon holed into a play style I do not honestly enjoy. I enjoy turtling/teching. CnC 4 lets me do that.
4- Relative vs absolute victories/defeats.
In previous CNC games and in SC games victory and defeat is often absolute. You either win or lose- that's it. Again this stresses me out so much the game is no longer fun. However I like how in CNC 4 there really are relative victories and defeats. Even if you lose, if you still got 2000 VP you still feel pretty good about yourself, especially if the enemy was of higher ranks.
Overall then, I feel better losing because I still earn XP (or help others do so), I am not fully responsible (say what you want about this, but it *is* a game, I don't want to feel like a loser just cuz of a game), and I can play how I want to play for the entire game (I do not lose my MCV to an engie and have to sit on the sidelines for an hour. ) And when I win, I feel better for all the reasons above, I got to play a way that was tailored to my own style of strategy.
Generally I feel relatively free when playing CNC 4, whereas past CNC felt more constrained. I also don't feel bad if I lose. And I am allowed to use all the game has to offer, in multiplayer, without being some grand master.
Overall, I feel this more free style of game play will benefit casual players much more then hardcore, perhaps leading to multiple complaints. However, seeing as casuals make up something like 80% of the market (though I imagine they make up a significantly larger percentage of the forums and may thus prove useful sources of innovation and criticism) , I don't think EA should change the fundamentals of this mechanic just to please a very narrow crowd that is unlikely to be pleased by anything (and because they play games to put others down and feel like a God via having no life, something that has outweighed playing the game for fun in their minds. )
Again hardcore gamers are important for the development of a community, but to make a game only for hardcore players alienates the entire rest of the gaming community. In the end, such a game will stagnate because hardcore gamers rarely like to see their favorite games (which they have invested a great deal of time and effort into mastering) changed in any fundamental way at all. And it makes sense, if I skipped work/university, or stayed up an unhealthy amount of hours *just* to be better then others in a game, I'd be pretty mad if they changed it too. (World of Warcraft experienced a similar reaction when they made WoW more casual friendly, the hardcore gamers complained greatly because they had sacrificed so much to be better players. )
Of course a game has to be challenging, and an RTS has to be strategic. CNC 4 allows this though because you are against human opponents in Domination, and hence the difficult can be varied by infinite degrees.
The main point of a game is to have fun. The more freedom I have in a game, the more fun I have. The less stress I have in a game, the more fun I have. As a casual player CNC 4 does this for me. There is nothing wrong with competition, but when it comes at the expense of a game's fun factor you have to consider the original purpose of the activity.
If you haven't played CNC 4 yet, get your beta key here: Digiex CnC4 Beta Keys
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