How Any Game Should be Updated, Period

[George_PPS]

How Any Game Should be Updated, Period

Most games are updated this way, but Warframe? 

I was reading some recent comments on Steam because it's uncensored 100%. I was also comparing game rankings of games that are similar to Warframe such as D2. It came to my mind that the only way an update should be implemented is not based on complaints but based on maximum player retention! Throughout the years, this review sums up what drives Warframe players away:

"it's a shame really. As someone who played the game since very, very early days, first Founder stages, it's crushing to come back to Warframe every few months and see the severe/blanket nerfs making whatever I used before the break either useless or near-useless.

Some of the things that became near useless over the years:
Berserker Fury mod: Changed from increasing attack speed based on crit damage to On Melee Kill, and only twice.
Syndicate weapons without Rivens: Completely useless for anything higher level.
Over the years there were some really good weapons to have fun with, Hek and Vaykor Hek, too slow now to be of any use. Arca Plasmor, Corinth, above mentioned Hek, Ignis and its Wraith counterpart, Lenz, Opticor and Opticor Vandal, Simulor and it's syndicate counterpart, Synoid Gammacor, Staticor, Sonicor, Atomos, Glaives, Secura Lecta, Synoid Helicor.... So many weapons that people, including me, would spend countless hours pimping up only to become utterly useless unless you either have the best luck imaginable when rolling a Riven (a weapon-unique mod, it's RNG whenever you get one from Sortie or not, it's RNG which one you get, it's RNG which stats the mod gets.....) or you will dish out your money to the "Riven mafia" (either it's time spent grinding so you can sell Prime and other stuff to other players, or actual money. And time's money) (Riven mafia, because in Warframe nothing has a set market value, you have to actually check the market, rely on Clan mates, or people. But some people will try to scam out of you every last Platinum they can anyway).
It's a shame that you can't really use those weapons, or any kind of "fun" weapons with unique mechanics in your day-to-day grindathon. Before all the nerfs and removing of CC from Eximus enemies (basically micro boses, stronger version of normal enemies, now since last big patch you can't stun them or anything), which made half the frames useless because you now you HAVE to power through.... Well, before that, the game was much more fun. No matter how better streamlined this or that gets, or shinier, the fun factor is going away."

 

The reviewer doesn't even list many other items nerfed to the ground. Only some of them. 

 

The dev team almost always caves to those who want nerfs most of the time. Many many warframes and weapons nerfed to the ground and also completely destroyed these items as "fun factors" of some players. The more destructive nerfs are implemented, the more fun factors are destroyed. Guess what? Most players have a set of time to develop and make up their minds to choose their favorite items to play in game. What happens when these items are nerfed to the ground? These players not just leave, they leave with resentment and negatives feelings. Yes you may retain some players who prefer these nerfs but the "net result" is the loss of the players over time. 

This is what's driving Warframe players away long term as other similar games retain their positions on the chart over the years. I had built so many meta warframes and weapons every time my top 1-2 items got destroyed despite playing solo and with friends only because of these complains. It's terrible. 

 

[(PSN)Madurai-Prime]

1. D2 isn't warframe. Warframe doesn't make you pay for everything then get rid of old content completely for example. They're entirely different games. 

2. Some games are simply going to be more niche crowds, instead of appealing to ignorant masses of large swaths of players all wanting different things. 

3. There are probably thousands of different games nowadays, and expecting them to all follow the same formula to all reach some magical retention number is unrealistic. I've played multiple games for 5 to 7 years and simply leave because I had my fun and received a great ROI and it was just time to move on. 

4. Uncensored in no way means 100% truthful, objective and without bias. Sometimes people are just bitter or had unrealistic expectations. Change happens and they have to deal with it because TOS and EULA exist. 

5. You do not need a riven to use a weapon. Rivens are a bonus and something to work on over time and play around with. A persons addiction issues are entirely separate from the mechanic.

What a player needs....is a properly built team and arsenal. Expecting to solo the entire game with a Braton is an unrealistic expectation, even though the games powercreep let's you have the freedom to do it. You can solo the entire game with a Braton if you have 2 or 3 people in your team with arcanes and you synergize off each others abilities.

5. Nothing is nerfed into the ground in a game with so much powercreep. That's literally a theme of the game. There are so many debuffs and buffs to stack that as a meme...people use the stug...the worst weapon in the game. People have broken Eidolon synovia with a stug.....which literally tells you every other weapon is completely viable if you actually have an imagination.

[Uhkretor]

The reviewer seems to be someone unable to adapt and, therefore, inadequate for online games in general. 

Its DE's product, so they know best how to develop their product... How to update it is irrelevant, its the same for every game - - Develop new content, adjust and/or update existing content, compile new stable version, broadcast update. Its not rocket science.

 

In the meantime, me:

[Genitive]

18 minutes ago, George_PPS said:

It came to my mind that the only way an update should be implemented is not based on complaints but based on maximum player retention!

That's just word salad. What do you mean by maximum player retention? No nerfs, only buffs? What makes you think you know how most players play the game or whether or not they adapt their playstyle to the changes? I doubt forum posts or angry steam reviews are representative of the majority. Especially that one review, it summarizes nothing about no one, except the person who wrote it.

[cute_moth.npc]

I think they did make this update with player retention in mind?

As far as I can tell, they decided that making a game adjustment that would make more players happy with squad play and higher level play options was preferable when weighted against the number that might complain or leave because of AoE changes.

[Steel_Rook]

2 hours ago, George_PPS said:

The dev team almost always caves to those who want nerfs most of the time.

I'm glad I wasn't drinking when I read this, because I would have spit my drink out laughing. DE cave to people wanting nerfs? Have we been playing the same game? The ammo nerfs to AoE weapons are largely balanced, and that's the most significant nerf they've pushed through... pretty much since I started playing four years ago. The transition from Melee 2.0 to Melee 2.9/3.0 was received poorly, so a MASSIVE damage buff was included to sweeten the deal. Then when melee weapons overtook the Meta, a couple of meaningless nerfs were applied, while also throwing in massive buffs to firearms to sweeten the deal.

If Digital Extremes actually catered to people calling for nerfs, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. We wouldn't have a fundamentally broken weapon modding system, we wouldn't have player EHP into the hundreds of thousands, we wouldn't have enemies sitting on 95% + damage resistance from armour stacked on top of several other independent sources of resistance. It's exactly because DE don't have the stomach to push NECESSARY nerfs and systems redesigns without throwing in massive power creep to placate the masses that Warframe's core gameplay loop barely even exists.

Yes, significant changes will always upset some people. That doesn't make them "anti-fun". Whatever else you may call Warframe, it is first and foremost a game - a thing with gameplay. Far too many people's power fantasy and preferred playstyle is to not play the game. While I can respect their preferences, that's bad for the overall experience. There's a reason why developers strive for balance. This can't be achieved with buffs all of the time, as Warframe clearly demonstrates. Let's hope the change of leadership comes with renewed drive to actually fix this mess.