Guild Wars 2

Requirements for GW2 to be an Esport.

1.Must last longer than 30 mins. (games are too short to give any thrill, anticipation, or suspense. Currently GW2 does not entertain viewers.)

2. Must have some type of resource that players can use to turn the battle in their favor.This can include buffs(in the form of capture points, creep kills) , debuffs, and possibly a resource that can be picked up and brought back to home base(can be
used for spawning controllable NPCs to the extent of having them follow you).

3. Maps have to be symmetrical. This way one side doesn’t have a terrain advantage.

4. Maps need to be larger. This makes players choose wether guard a point or take the long route and cap something.

5. The mode cannot be conquest.This mode does not really fit into Esports because capping points does not give enough strategic value.

6. The mode has to be similar to traditional Guild Wars 1 GvG style. 8 versus 8. Each faction has a base with uncontrollable NPCs. Killing the Guild Lord wins the match. Players must complete optional objectives before they can reach the Guild Lord such as: Breaking down a door, killing a faction’s champion NPC, capturing a flag and bringing it back to their own home base.

NPCs are somewhat strong and cannot be soloed. If a team does not want to complete the objectives they will have to go through these NPCs to get to the Guild Lord.

As the fighting goes on if players collect enough resources they can call in an NPC assault to march onto the opposing side’s base.

7. Death has a huge penalty. A player death should subtract resource counts, buffs, or debuffs. A team that dies alot should have minimal chance in winning the match, however the dieing team can turn the tide around with global buffs, or debuffs.

I recommend creating something that has a little bit of Starcraft and a little bit of MoBa combined surrounding the traditional GvG type game we played in GW1.

1.Must last longer than 30 mins.

Debatable. Having shorter matches allows for more games. Longer games also can introduce problems with turning the tide or create long drawn out matches if the other side just loses the will to continue. You can easily be invested into a 5-10 minute match, and at that length it’s not a chore to sit there a watch.

2. Must have some type of resource that players can use to turn the battle in their favor.

This already exists on all maps. The orb, treb, chieftain and svanir, cannnon, cap buffs, keep lords.

3. Maps have to be symmetrical.

This is already true as well. If it isn’t on any certain map then it needs to be fixed, but the only thing not symmetrical about the maps at the moment that I really notice is assets (One ramp on one side might be wood, while the other is stone)

4. Maps need to be larger.

This would be boring to watch. The small nature of the maps encourages players to move from points and see new ones constantly, creating conflict on the battle field, and that is entertaining to watch. Having an obscene distance to run would be boring for an audience, and even more so if players just sit on points.

5. The mode cannot be conquest.

Bullkitten this doesn’t give enough strategic value. The goal is meant to be simple for the sake of captivating an audience (new ones mainly). An audience values action over calculated strategy; it’s not like actual sports like say, Baseball or Basketball have difficult objectives that require huge amounts of strategy.

A simple goal to achieve so the action can take the spotlight.

6. The mode has to be similar to traditional Guild Wars 1 GvG style.

I don’t see why, I’ve already explained why conquest is more than acceptable at this point. Understand that “Esports” doesn’t just mean “Good PvP” it has to be fun to watch, and complicating the core objective of a game alienates an audience.

7. Death has a huge penalty.

Right now you are penalized for dying; 5 points I believe. That’s more than enough, and if your entire team dies as often as I think you think a team should to the point of losing, you will lose, unless you do something about it… like any of the tide turning mechanics in the game right now (treb, lords, buffs, ect), or just stepping up your game.

The core game itself is fine, right now it’s just a matter of balance, giving proper tools, and finding the PvP crowd again after the jumped ship because the proper tools were missing.

The game is easy to understand (cap points, first to 500 wins). It’s fast (There is almost always a fight going on). And the tide of battle can sway very quickly (Rezing from downed, killing a lord, getting buffs, ect)

So what you are saying is that everything is fine. Except that GW2 is not considered an Esport in pvp.

2. Resources: physical items that players pick up and bring back to home base is what I meant. Like Minerals in SC.

“An audience values action over calculated strategy;” This is not true in the Esport world in regards to MOBAs like Dota or LoL or even Starcraft. Calculated strategy is what makes action.

Constant action gets boring. Constant action might be entertaining for a player but not for an audience. Does a movie with 1hr 30 mins of straight fighting entertain viewers? I hardly think so. Maybe kids , but not fellow players who like to spectate.

1 – the lack of thrill isn’t about the duration of the match.

2 – this alrdy exist, i just think they are not as game changing as they should be.

3 – “kinda” alrdy are

4 – larger maps needs more objectives and possibily more players

5 – personally i agree, but i think the problem isn’t the conquest itself. In my opinion the conquest could be one of many objectives on a map, not the main one. (ex,: You get the mid point for 1 minute, it opens a gate, you get both side points and something spawns for you, however the main objective could be a lord kill or something)

6 – that’s one of the options, a good one actually.

7 – death has a huge penalty, not by itself but in terms of efective points derived from it (time to get back to point, losing a main point, etc).

1. No thanks to longer games. Feel they’re long enough playing, then watched Blu’s cast, and realize they’re definitely long enough. Was able to watch 3 games in 30 minutes. Length of 1 smite game, much prefer that. It’s just boring to watch because of Slow tick not being thrilling at all

Agree with Gunner on 5.

What Malthurius.6870 +1 said although your “constant action” part is also true. You need a break from time to time to make the action exciting again.

Call of Duty is a rather large Esport at the moment. It has a very similar playstyle to GW2 IMO.

There isn’t rely a “secret design formula” out that makes a game eSports, what you list are things that make many RTS and MOBA games successful in the esports scene, but something as simple as 3v3 PvP arenas completely contradicts everything you list.

Truthfully it’s view-ability, promotion, and money that turn a game into an esport, the studio that creates the game has the responsibility of promoting it as a competitive title by hosting extravagant tournaments to attract viewers even outside of the gamer demographic (S2 LoL championships were being showcased in sports bars for example, simply because people can’t just ignore 5m prize pool for any type of competition).

The key to successfully building an esports title is simply budgeting more cash towards tournaments and marketing than development; people would call runescape an esport if Jagex hosted their own league, paid for player housing/LANs ect… Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to have dynamic/evolving pvp gameplay, but it rely just comes down to how much the studio and or outside organizations are willing to budget for tournament prize pools (most people thought league was an utter joke of a game before Riot threw a 100k tourney at dreamhack a few years back).