My thoughts on WF, the game that changed my life.

[_R_o_g_u_e_]

I'm writing this specifically to the team at DE, I am open to anyone reading what I have to say, but in the interest of not being overlooked I will be making an effort to be succinct. Such an effort may result in a lack of clarity, I just don't want to pour my heart into a wall of text no one wants to engage with at all.

My story, and the chapter of Warframe

My name is Jason, I'm a 26 year old artist living in Western Australia. In December of 2019, I entered a very low point in my life, as I'm sure many of us would over the next few years. It was in this slump that I revived an old dream, the dream to be an artist, I found Taylor Payton's beginner drawing course on Google, paid for the lessons, and within a year I had filled 10 scrapbooks haha.

So, then it's 2020, I'm by no means professional, but I have made significant progress, and then my "artist's eye" fell upon a game I had loved, Warframe. This is where everything changed for me. I started using warframes as drawing reference, for years I had LOOKED at the frames without ever truly SEEING them. It was during this time I became obsessed with the organic flow of the warframes designs. How they weren't wearing clothes, but were an almost seamless unit. Almost animalistic, sleek, streamlined... With an almost aquatic flare to it all, to really make it feel alien.

I was awe struck, once the designs began to unravel on the page in front of me. Once I got to have a look under the hood of the warframe design, and piece it together myself.

Now it's 2021, and I'm working as a free lance concept artist that specialises in characters. It was my passion for warframe that allowed me to explore a whole aesthetic of art I never would have touched, that has irreversibly changed me as an artist. It has distinguished me from my peers, and inspired me beyond anything I had experienced previously. For that, I wish to thank DE.

My thoughts.
As noclip eloquently worded himself, "Digital extremes had captured lightning in a bottle," and indeed they had. The story of warframe alone is inspiring and beautiful. When everything was in a race to be the same, the same grey/ brown, boots on the ground bore-fest the fps industry had turned into, warframe was born. A game that felt as alien to play as it looked aesthetically. Over the next 8 years the game grew far beyond the scope of what anyone had envisioned at it's inception.

Which brings us to now, September 28th, 2021.

I can sing your praises all day, Digital Extremes, and you have done a lot right. But you're already good at what you're good at, and no amount of praise will make you better. I, as an artist deeply inspired by your work, want to talk about where the rubber meets the road. The friction. 

For everything you have done right, there is one thing I would beg you to devote more attention to, and that is the Warframes. I mean, that's the name of the game, right? Warframe, the game where you play as a Warframe.

Longevity in a live service is difficult, it's impossible to keep content from aging as new things come out, shinier and prettier than ever before. What I would ask, if that you dedicate a small amount of resources to a balance team, dedicated specifically to achieving healthy variance in warframe usage.

To be clear, I'm not asking your team to match Riot games and release balance changes every two weeks. But, there is a great deal of design space that is conceptually amazing, yet wasn't able to fulfil that fantasy for players, as it had simply aged before they got to it.

Reworks are a tool, but with all of the layers of complexity in warframe, it's not desirable, I get it. But they also aren't necessary. Replacing animations with spiffy new ones, changing damage types, damage values etc, all of these things are very quick changes that can be implemented, tested, and either walked back or left in the game.

I'm wrapping this up here, but I would ask anyone from Digital Extremes who reads this, please look into the Story of Irelia, the Will of the blades. Her rework, the way Riot repurposed her kit to fulfil the fantasy of a telekinetic bladeswoman, is honestly beautiful. Irelia was taken from relative obscurity and has become one of the most iconic women on the Rift.

Many warframes could fulfil their fantasy much more successfully with only a little bit of TLC.

DE, you captured lightning in a bottle, please pleasepleaseplease do not let it go to waste.

Your's Sincerely, a man who owes you everything.  

 

[(PSN)Pablogamer585]

This is such a beautiful post :)

I am a small & nooby artist myself, and I can see very well what you talk about in this post. At the same time, I am also a long-term player of the game, so gotta agree with what you mention about the older parts of the game needing to be taken care of by some specialised team that can "restore" them to the be close to as relevant as newer content, and not just be forgotten as relics of the past.

Glad to see a game has inspired you so much!

[Lutesque]

Is there a bite sized version of this Story ? 😁

[(PSN)Pablogamer585]

hace 2 minutos, Lutesque dijo:

Is there a bite sized version of this Story ? 😁

Depends on what kind of bite size do you prefer, I will guess a whole cookie in one go, so, I'll make a TL;DR for you.

Guy years ago was going thru a bad moment, during this time he retook a dream of his, becoming an artist. A bit later he started to "see" Warframes for who they were, instead of what they were, which was a really good source of inspiration for his work.

Little by little he has become better, but by no means a pro as he claims, will doubt that myself though, and now works as a freelance artist.

However Jason, our artist here, also sees what is wrong with the game, as much as it has helped his artistical career, and he feels slightly worried about the state of some parts, so he made this post for others to see.

Hope it helps!

[Lutesque]

Oh.... Cool... 👍 !!!