Rambo Arrow- A Warframe Critique

[Doozy84]

WARFRAME- A CRITIQUE

or “The story of Rambo arrows”

    First off, I want to start by saying that I really like this game. The first time I saw the teaser video with the 3 starter frames chopping up Grineer, I wasn’t impressed. I passed on it. Some of the stuff looked cool, but most of it just looked like ninja gaiden and devil may cry’s love child in a Masamune Shirow painting. I wasn’t convinced that the characters were compelling, or that you could actually develop or do anything with them, that they were just really transparent playstyle variations on the same run-n-gun show, like a late nineties Dynasty Warriors game.

    I finally got into the game later when I saw a friend playing it, and I asked him if it was good, and he said it was. I didn’t have a whole lot going on at the time in terms of video games I was playing, mostly just burning brain cells on candy crush like everyone else in the first world, but when I did finally get here, I was actually really impressed. The cinematic trailers don’t sell this game at all. As a matter of fact, I guess that’s my first critique of this game- You guys need to throw out your trailers. There’s nothing in that pile of sci-fi kung fu fight-choreography porn that actually sells this game, its pretty much the exact same pitch from every button masher action game ever- Here’s a space ninja dude. He’s badass. He’s too fast for these mooks. Watch him chop them into hamburger patties. You can be a space ninja too! Play for free through steam!

    Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure cinematic trailers in general are just one of the things in this industry that needs to go away and die. I don’t think anyone is still impressed by the cut scenes in Final Fantasy 7 anymore. I’m pretty sure we’ve all collectively figured out that cinematics pretty much only exist to pitch ideas to the marketing department of AAA game companies. Everyone who actually plays games wants you to put all your effort into actual content, and show us that.

    Sorry, that’s just my opinion. I’m giving it out for free, so don’t worry about it too much. Now where were we? Oh yea, the trailers. There is nothing on warframe right now, on the company website or on steam that actually illustrates the depth of character building and customization that is this game’s best feature. There is no trailer that displays how you can collect multiple powers and weapons and level them up and customize them. There’s just one tagline that’s supposed to communicate all of that- “Master the Warframe.” Needs work. If you guys just had one trailer on the front page or on the steam store that actually showed an inventory screen with a player modifying his mod loadouts, that would be such a huge deal for pitching this game. I checked the Steam store while I was writing this too. Its 2 cinematic trailers and 6 screenshots of angry Grineer marines getting murdered with ninja swords. The only thing being sold is the image of a badass space ninja, which honestly isn’t that compelling in a marketing environment that produces video games that tell us we can pretty much be every kind of badass ever. We need to do something that communicates- “Hey, you can make that ninja badass! Check out this mod card that gives you those exploding arrows from Rambo 3! You can shoot down helicopters and commit war crimes! Muthafuckas be jumpin from tree to tree like Predator and S#&$!”

    Alright, I promise I won’t talk about trailers anymore. When I was young, a Metal Gear Solid game killed my little brother. He sat there watching cut scene after cut scene in Guns of the Patriots and he eventually starved to death because Konami sold him a full-length movie disguised as a video game. I have never forgiven them and I have vowed revenge.

    On to the next thing on my agenda- Depth of weapon customization. There’s a problem with it, and that problem is that the depth isn’t there. This is something that I don’t think is much of a problem in Frame customization, because I believe that the frames actually have a lot of options, like deciding whether or not you want to invest in buffing your shields or HP or putting on that sprint mod so you can parkour faster. Also, different frames get different gains from different mods. Saryn gets so much travel out of continuity it should be criminal, for example.

    The problem here is that the depth of weapon customization does not mirror or even approach the depth of frame customization, and its a serious let down and a failure to deliver on one of the game’s best selling points. The framework needed to make this game go is already installed, but the muscle tissue isn’t attached to the bone yet.

    There’s really only 2 weapons in the game that are shining examples of the system in action, the Dread and the Paris, and for our purposes here, they’re really just the same weapon.

    There are really 2 distinct bow builds, thunder bow and crit bow. The first is about smashing Rambo bomb arrows, and the second is about hitting fat crits. This is really the only weapon in the game that has 2 distinct power builds.

    Every other weapon in the game, whether its a gun, melee, or something from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, falls into the same build trap. Every weapon is either a crit spam build or an elemental build (Armor pierce is an element). Weapons with innately high crit rates or innately high rate of fire to force crits out through volume are universally always crit spammers, and weapons that have good clean hard hits, preferably ones with armor ignore like bolt weapons, are always elemental spammers. There’s no depth of build, there’s just 2 builds that every weapon is pigeonholed into. The only mold breaker is the bow because with the way the thunder bomb works, bomb building and crit building are mutually exclusive. There’s a bajillion mod cards in the game, and a version for each weapon, but there is no build diversity, they all contribute to either a power critter or power hitter, and each weapon is already hardwired innately to be one or the other. The ‘master mods’ for each weapon are always the same- multishot and armor pierce, after that its simply a matter of whether you’re slotting flat damage improvement or crit improvement.

    My critique in this field is that our existing pool of mods is built to heavily around the idea of statistics and rote improvement. Every mod contributes a scaling percentage increase to some value on the weapon, which innately means that they’re slaved to specific weapons that already exhibit those values.

    This build philosophy, which is professionally called “Being a World of Warcraft raider” is boring and sad. The sole goal is to make the weapon more efficient, not to improve the satisfaction of the player and make it more fun to play with. Mods that grant innate percentage bonus are a necessary part of the game in order to scale for higher level content, but they do not promote build diversity and they do not push the envelope of the tenno’s customizability. I am reasonably sure that if you go on a tier 3 raid with a team of high level players with the same weapons, they’ll all be slotted exactly the same.

    There needs to be a larger library of mods that add depth of customization by adding features that aren’t currently represented, and it needs to be an action item- As a matter of fact, half of the mod pool, which is different variations of the same traditional elements- fire, ice, electricity- is considered useless by high level players because of the resistances of high level enemies. That’s literally content that was built, designed, and paid for and implemented in the game that players aren’t using because the current system is self-defeating. You spent money to create that, and the players on the high tier of content don’t want it. That’s a significant design problem.

    There needs to be a pool of mods that aren’t slaved to rote statistic improvement, something that adds gravity or interest to the weapon in a way that isn’t dictated by a percentage value increase.

    What could that be? Maybe its a random proc chance to do something cool like fire a harpoon or leach damage back to the owner. Maybe its some kind of reverse-mod that gets more useful the poorer the weapon’s rating in its governing asset is. Maybe it activates a warframe ability like firing an Ember fireball or a Mag pull, so that players have a wacky, random way to be able to get abilities from other frames, although in an unpredictable fashion. Maybe it has a random chance to summon an osprey that fights on your team.

    The fact of the matter is, every weapon in this game has one purpose- to farm meat, and the only way the mod system is currently tooled to customize these weapons is to make them more efficient at farming meat, not making them more interesting or fun, and that is a significant design concern in a game that is supposed to be able to sell deep character customization as part of its play experience.

    Moving away from stats and numbers, because I’m crap at math anyways, let’s talk about quality of life issues. Third critique- I am coming to your lead developer’s house to slam a door on his fingers. Boss drops in this game are ridiculous. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with drop rates or the rarity of the materials or items dropped- I’m fine with that. What I’m not fine with is how they have a tendency to explode like bottle rockets. I’ve literally stood on top of the sniper balcony of the Grineer Outpost boss room and watched a blueprint shoot halfway across the cave to land on the rock ridge on the wall. It hurts my brain to imagine how many players have lost blueprint drops and can’t build new frames because they didn’t see which direction the drops shot off at when the boss exploded like a roman candle. This isn’t just bad design- It’s intentionally sadistic design. Player rewards for defeating boss content are earned and are that player’s by right. He shouldn’t have to parkour off the ceiling because a blood fountain shot Captain Vor’s blueprints into low orbit. The drops should just be added to the end of mission gains like artifact drops on alerts, there should never be any nagging doubt that a player did or didn’t receive rewards that they earned, or buoyed to the ground in the way that rare resource drops are.

    Speaking of rewards earned, there needs to be some kind of dynamic internal scan that awards the correct ‘missing’ blueprint for every player in the party for warframes that are keyed to boss drop blueprints. The fact that a given boss can drop 1 of 3 different blueprints based solely on blind, dumb luck isn’t just bad or sadistic game design, it's completely irresponsible game design that punishes the persistence and determination of otherwise dedicated players who are contributing to the game community. It’s Japanese RPG bad. Random number generators do not create replay value, especially when it comes to loot drops. Random number generators create World of Warcraft players, and everyone who has ever quit WoW will tell you, “If you make me play WoW again, I will end you and everything that you love.”

    My fourth, and final -FOR NOW- critique of this game is what I consider to be the most important. I can take or leave my preference for trailers- I’m not personally invested in trailers, I already bought the product. That’s a business concern for you. I’m also not personally invested in mod and build diversity, its just the reality I have to deal with. Everything will work a certain way or it won’t, and that’s how we’re all going to live and play the game.

    The most important critique I have to give however, and the one that is the deal breaker, the decider, and the one that is going to determine whether or not I keep logging in every day and playing this game for the next week, for the next month, for the next year, is the social system.

    Its time to be brutally honest- I know this is an open beta and all the toys aren’t on the shelf yet, but guys, we’ve got a big problem here and that problem is that your game has all of the social utilities of a free to play Korean MMO.

    And I mean that in a bad way, I mean to say, “There are no social utilities. Its ridiculously painful to communicate with other players in this game.”

    Korean MMOs are allowed to get away with this kind of crap because they are played by Koreans. I know, because I’ve lived in that country. They don’t need deep, functioning, intuitive social utilities in their games because Korean people go to PC Bangs (internet cafes) to play their games, because every Korean person in Seoul lives with their parents in an apartment the size of a dorm room until they’re 30, and they have to go out to internet cafes just to breathe. Its assumed in a Korean gaming environment that your game is already a social experience, and that you’re playing in the internet cafe with all your other friends who are trying to get out of the house, and you can yell across the room at them. Its also why so many Korean games are so intense and grindy- So they don’t actually finish the game and have to go home.

    Naturally, in a more westernized audience where we’re perfectly happy to sit around in our boxers and shoot Rambo arrows at Grineer marines, this isn’t going to work. Normal western people hate fresh air and sunshine and we don’t want to get up from our battle stations and talk to each other face to face, so we need in depth, intuitive, and functional social utilities for communicating with other players inside the game- Utilities that this game currently does not have.

    Log into the game tonight and try to play in a pickup void run. Don’t message your friends or clanners, just go into chat, and try to join the first t2 or t3 void run that pops up in chat. Then, send that guy a friend request, then a session request, then join his game.

    It's criminal how ridiculous and draconic that process is, and it needs to stop. It’s like those 30 friends you have on facebook that you don’t actually know and have never met, but they’re your neighbors in Farmville. The biggest problem with this game is that the lack of communication mobility is prohibiting to experiencing the content. The matchmaking system for finding normal missions just by clicking on the planet you want is clumsy at best, and the means for organizing runs of higher tier content or just farming defense missions for mod cards and keys is archaic and painful. The biggest barrier to experiencing this game is not difficulty, or time commitment, or grinding up the materials for new frames and weapons, its the fact that the tools that players have to organize themselves are on a level of pain and torment that can only be described as “Ragnarok Online.”

    Several things need to happen to move this game from “played for the last 3 weeks then went outside again, saw girls, remembered life.” to “Couldn’t put it down and lost track of the last 5 months, am 30lbs overweight and wife left me, what happened to me?” And most of them are social issues. Some are easily resolved, and some require a great deal of content to be generated.

    First, we need speech bubbles in game. Watching the bottom left corner of the screen for scrolling font 4 text makes me want to punch you. We need an indicator that calls attention to someone trying to communicate, like their words coming out of a bubble on top of their head.

    Second, the lobby chat system needs to be retooled. Sending and receiving personal whispers is pretty terrible right now, as is friend requesting and session joining.

    Third, we need an inclusive public space for players to traffic in inside of the game environment, like a clan dojo, but public. Here players could congregate and meet each other “In person” and build teams for missions accordingly, instead of just inviting a bunch of rank 5 excaliburs that just got off mercury.

    Fourth, there needs to be a game economy. Credits are laughably pointless, and there’s no way for tenno to trade items and mods amongst each other, which would help facilitate communication and commerce within the game community and keeps more players logged in more often to complete the feel that the user base is vibrant and active.

    Well, that’s about all the damage I can do for now. I hope that you read all of that and that it didn’t put you to sleep. And just remember- Every time the stalker comes for you, its because he’s punishing you for coding in ridiculous bottle rocket boss blueprint drops into the game, and you’re going to die alone and unloved in some podunk Grineer backwater bleeding out behind an ammo locker.

[FiendFyre]

Holy S#&$, wall of text!!!

Didn't read through the entire thing, but yeah I agree with a lot of your points.

[Grimicus]

10/10 would read again.

[SprungCardinal8]

jesus man, summaries are supposed to shorten things down. not make them longer.... that said I got just past the trailer thing and I gotta tell you I disagree. You have a little wiggleroom because there is no real storyline in Warframe, but games that tell a story like Assasins creed or Halo and some other games that I can't think of need something to push the story along too. Totally agree that they should invest in gameplay first though

[CaptainHammer]

*slow clap*

great read and I agree. An in game voice chat would also help but I understand it can be jading, I have had the misfortune of playing on a friends Xbox live account

[Mietz]

0/10

[Pirate_Shark]

On your first point it was pretty weak. Learn to never judge a book by its cover. Play it for yourself. Also its a unfinished game and they haven't even put the story in it yet with cutscenes. We are about to get that kind of stuff. Its a beta for a reason. Cut the game some slack. Judge it when its actually finished. This is one of the best action games I ever played and I have played a lot of games. As a DMC fan this is nothing like DMC or any game I ever played. Ninja Gayden doesn't have anything on this game and I played that too. I don't feel the connection. This game is unique... I never seen space ninjas before from the future.

[Ronin666]

Ronin666 supports this.

[fatpig84]

TL ; DR.

 

But yeah I can agree on a few points but rest not so.

Edited July 4, 2013 by fatpig84

[GrandClapper]

You named this article "the rambo arrow story" (or some BS like that) and the context that you used "rambow arrows" is about 1/20 of the book you wrote.

 

The F is wrong with you.
 

By the way, I didn't read it at all. I just ctrl+F and typed in Rambo, saw how little the article had to do with Rambo and then wrote this scathing critique.

[SprungCardinal8]

On your first point it was pretty weak. Learn to never judge a book by its cover. Play it for yourself. Also its a unfinished game and they haven't even put the story in it yet with cutscenes.

well ya it's beta but it doesn't have a definite direction in any sense other than mercury which is pretty much mandatory. So it is a beta but cutscenes should be at a minimal and at gameplay level graphics. The devs also said story and background history was being put in an almanac as you progress, but if you read all this that shouldn't be a problem.

[SprungCardinal8]

You named this article "the rambo arrow story" (or some BS like that) and the context that you used "rambow arrows" is about 1/20 of the book you wrote.

 

The F is wrong with you.

 

By the way, I didn't read it at all. I just ctrl+F and typed in Rambo, saw how little the article had to do with Rambo and then wrote this scathing critique.

really, why the F did you even bother going to the forums and expecting a whole story on Rambo. seriously this is Warframe, it says warframe critique. You don't have to comment on this because you didn't get what you expected. You should open your mind a little, you might just find some interesting ideas.

[Sni7ch]

Warframe takes time to get the full idea. I would tell this guy/gal to go play Blacklight Retribution. BR is complicated, play2win, and pointless. Yet it has players that love it. (I kinda like it.) His/her view seems bland and uninspired. 

[notlamprey]

I'm incredibly (really, it's a miracle that I function at all - anywhere - ever) introverted and, because of that, I don't feel too cheated by the lack of social framework in this game. Generally, I'd rather not play with - or even talk to - anyone. Warframe time is time to recharge from all the interaction I didn't have the option to avoid.

 

That said, I did read the entire book you wrote and I feel like I learned a lot about Korean game culture. I love learning stuff, so thanks for that.

 

I also agree with your contempt for cinematic trailers in general. Show me gameplay. If I play your game and grow to like it, then I'll enjoy your idealized cinematic vision much more because I've already accepted the core 'premise' that is the game. Not everyone feels this way, obviously, and that's why cinematic trailers still exist.

 

Hopefully the resistance system for enemies will receive a rework, because it does need some serious examination. DE still doesn't seem to have a solution to the problem you pointed out with the mod system. Warframes have abilities and traits that make them feel varied/unique. Weapons have unique values for rate-of-fire, accuracy, damage and so on. Mods are supposed to build on this, but as you pointed out, that isn't working yet. It's currently too easy for players to hone in on an "optimal" setup - as defined by current game mechanics - and there isn't much incentive (even just for laughs) to try different things.

 

The "exploding boss" loot physics problem really should have disappeared ages ago. It doesn't make sense for items to have physics like that. Just today, I slapped a fieldron sample across a room with my Orthos by accident. It doesn't seem like a difficult problem to solve, and I think it's an embarrassment that they haven't fixed it yet.

 

Credits are, at the moment, just not as useful as they ought to be. DE is working on ideas for this; they touched on it in today's livestream.

 

As for social/interface problems, they're working on some ideas here that might help. I don't think any of them will please you very much, unfortunately. It just doesn't seem like the changes you're hoping for will fit with what DE wants for this game. Personally, I think I'm ok with using 3rd party tools to make up for what this game lacks in social functionality.

 

I do hope that DE isn't so wedded to its vision that they ignore these issues. If I could upvote your post more than once, I would. It obviously took a lot of time and effort to write, and it's the kind of post this community will always benefit from. I've had quite a lot to drink (4th of July, you know), and I may have skipped some points in my response.

 

Cheers!

 

[truci4]

I will never do a text like that for a forum, but reading is something else. I think the same as you.

 

Texting other ppl is a pain and the design we have now is very bad.

 

The contacts window is too **** small. Why does a window pop up if its going to be as small as my finger. Make it bigger and more usefull, with filters and so on.

[Wesgile]

 

    

    Alright, I promise I won’t talk about trailers anymore. When I was young, a Metal Gear Solid game killed my little brother. He sat there watching cut scene after cut scene in Guns of the Patriots and he eventually starved to death because Konami sold him a full-length movie disguised as a video game. I have never forgiven them and I have vowed revenge.

 

managed to read until this part,

then i stopped.

[ZachGalifianakis]

Aint nobody got time for reading D:

[jakundo]

As an ex-WoW player i agree with all you have said.

 

This needs to get some DE attention.

Edited July 4, 2013 by jakundo

[Raven2785]

While I agree with you on the trailers I give them a pass simply because out of ALL the cinematic trailers I've seen the ones for Warframe are the ones that are trying to bullS#&$ me the least, almost every single skill or ability you see on the trailers can be done in-game with a few exceptions here or there (Viod keys do NOT shoot lasers. :P )

 

Some diversification on the weapons would be good to have. Now as far as social features go I'm of mixed opinions, a better way for people to meet up and play is something I can get 100% behind any day of the week, but if I ever see a "login with facebook" page anywhere on the game I am unisntalling this game with such speed a racecar would have trouble keeping up with me.

Edited July 5, 2013 by Raven2785

[ReiganCross]

You are a voice that needs to be heard... Be noted that there are more of us that have the EXACT SAME COMPLAINS as you have, it's not just you!

Also, after reading the whole thing i think i laughed at it aboout 10 times XD. Congratz man, hope you actually get some attention from DE. (And if they give you a warning point for any of that, then you have my suport to rocket punch them across the room.)

Edited July 5, 2013 by ReiganCross

[Zext]

On the trailer bit, just a quick point: 

 

Cinematic trailers nowadays are just for story telling and setting... setting. I agree on that it's not really a good indicator of gameplay at all. 

 

HOWEVER, there have been a few of those warframe 'profile' videos or whatever they are called, made to show the individual frames and their powers, as well as suggesting certain mods for them. I wouldn't say they are making the best suggestions, but it does help make the mod system apparent. Possibly adding these videos somewhere where they'd be more accessible, especially for new players, could possibly help.

 

On your other points, I'd say I mostly agree with them. Especially considering the terrible social UI of this game.

[Doozy84]

I feel like something needs to be clarified here regarding my disdain for cinematic trailers. I think a lot of people who actually bothered to read the whole essay, and yes it is an essay, didn't get past my humorous disdain for the cinematic trailer and thought that I was just attacking the game.

 

That's not what I was saying at all.

Yes, I am bored of them and I don't watch them anymore. I'm an 80s baby. I've literally seen every cinematic trailer since the dawn of video gaming, because my generation was there for the dawn of videogaming. I was watching cinematic trailers when cinematic trailers came on their own CDs, and you had to pop the drive on your playstation or your computer just to watch Diablo crawl out of hell or Sephiroth pout and complain. Rest assured, positive or negative, there is nothing most of you can tell me about cinematic trailers I don't already know. I am Bad Religion's 21st Century Digital Boy.

However, what some of my responders have failed to realize here is that my hatred of trailers is not the point of that argument. The point of that argument is A PURELY CONCEPTUAL MARKETING FAILURE on ED's part.

My critique of the trailers has nothing to do with the fact that I'm crying waah waah I hate trailers. Granted, I say that a lot, but the point is that the trailers that are presented DO NOT SELL THE GAME'S FEATURES. They are not unique in the market, and they do not separate the game from its peers and competitors in the genre. ED's representation of the game in media is found wanting. The game is a lot better than the media we are given.

That is not an attack on the game. I play the game religiously and have been harvesting the daily logins at 7 day tier for the past 2 or 3 weeks now. I am very pleased with the game. If I hated it, I wouldn't be showing up every afternoon for the server flip to get blueprints or writing critique essays.

But the fact that the game trailers do not showcase features and do not entice potential customers is a crippling loss and a potential retardant in the growth of the customer base. The game needs more media that illustrates the depth of the content, and the material that is presented right now does not illustrate that. If you actually view warframe objectively, from an isolated environment, not using your existing knowledge as a warframe player, it looks from the outside like a standard issue run-n-gun console clone, and that is naturally not the image DE wants to sell.

[Celestics]

After reading the OP's post, I have to say that I agree with most of the major points. But really, please keep it short and sweet, even if it's a fun read.

 

I will try to sort out the major points I see in the post below, but for now, I just want to say that Warframe has A LOT of potential. It just takes time to develop the game. The DE's are trying their hardest, and I applaud them for that, but we have to be patient, because these problems will be taken care of in time. I am just happy that they are taking the community's ideas with great consideration. Now then, on to the issues...

 

-----

1) Trailers - I think that Warframe is doing fine as it is right now on this topic. To be honest, this should not be a major problem - developing the game should be more important. Why try to promote specific parts of a game that are not really "fully completed" yet? I think this should be dealt with later, because Warframe's style of gaming is constantly changing, and I do not really want to see a trailer come out that will emphasize aspects of the game that will soon be irrelevant.

 

2) Weapon Builds - I completely agree with this. Weapons builds should never be black and white in this type of game. I suggest that Warframe should introduce events that will force players to use specific mods while making other mods useless. That way, the builds are no longer set in stone, but are constantly changing because of the changing conditions in the game. The problem is not necessarily with the weapon system itself, but with the way that the weapons are being used during gameplay. Damage should not shine out as the priority the every case.

 

3) Mod Variation - I find this very interesting. A percent chance on hit to blind the opponent, teleport him with another entity next to it, or even just pop balloons out of the bullet like popcorn? I would love this! It makes it seem more like Borderlands 2. Damage no longer becomes priority - fun and style does. Besides, isn't Warframe about NINJAS IN SPACE?

 

4) Boss Drops - Agreed. The DE's are definitely working on this, so I do not really want to go crazy into this issue.

 

5) Social System - Although I feel this would make the game feel better, I think that this issue is just a byproduct of how the game works. If you want to improve on communication, force it to happen. Make puzzles that split teammates into different rooms in Void missions. Other than in-game, I do agree that the lobby chat should be revamped. PM's are not really convenient right now, but that is just a minor issue.

 

6) Economy - I am sure the DE's are working on this. The value of credits is low right now, but I am sure the DE's are finding some way to make use of the massive number of credits in the economy right now.

Edited July 5, 2013 by Celestics

[Tempera]

On your first point it was pretty weak. Learn to never judge a book by its cover. Play it for yourself.

The concept of 'never judging a book by its cover' is thrown around a lot, but it doesn't mean what you think it means. It means don't let your first impressions, such as seeing a book's cover, or seeing Warframe's http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b7RghMXpAcI/UWKWaHpc9vI/AAAAAAAAZJ4/qh8tCeykxyA/s640/warframe.jpg'>cover art, sway you towards or away from reading a given story.

 

Warframe's cinematic trailers would be closer to a book's blurb, which is the main thing an author relies on to hook people's interest- that and the first several pages a potential reader may browse through in the store.

 

Unfortunately, Warframe's cinematic trailers are poor enticement for the game. They show off a bunch of 'frames slaughtering Grineer, but that's it. It doesn't even convey the gameplay (is it a shooter? it looks like a shooter. Is it an FPS or a TPS? What is a typical level/area like? What does it feel like to play?), which is the biggest selling point for a game.

 

It's easy enough to tell new players to just go and play the game, but the devs aren't trying to hook in new players; they're trying to hook in potential players, people who have heard of the game and have enough interest to check out the trailer, in the hopes of turning them into new players.

[Troublechutor]

A short... short reply, because you merit one.

 

1.  I like cinematic trailers.  They stage the audience for the game experience.  You may not like them, but they are great, and they will continue.  I'm not kidding when I say I almost skipped the rest of your post because you harped on this for 2 long paragraphs.  The rest of the post is well worth reading and entertaining to boot (kudos)... the OP would be greatly served by just deleting the crap about cinematics.

 

2.  Weapon customization is almost a certainty.  Assuming the game does well enough to warrent support 6 months after release, new guns/weapons won't cut it... there are only so many ways to visually represent +5 damage.  People will want custom animations, special effects, surprising and interesting depth to weapon interactions, and emergent gameplay.  However, you have to admit, the first and easiest way to code a game like this is to just make +x damage effects, stack them, and send them out into the world.  Most enemies are just JRPG style progressions... White goo, green goo, red goo (!), purple goo (!!), Black goo (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).  The weapon design currently reflects the same level of variety.  Given time, the present model would snuff itself out in very short order... I can't imagine a mature version of this game without deeper customization.  Patience.

 

3.  I could give a crap about social tools.  I don't much like people anyway... and I don't feel like being rushed through a map (and I play Loki ffs) when I get a sudden urge to attempt some new parkour skill out or explore the vertical dimensions of a room.

 

4.  The grind is indeed a PITA.  Its also the only existing incentive to pay plat for anything at all.  There will always be tension between plat and grind, its literally their business model.  Every lost blueprint that sails out of the map is another potential plat purchase.  The player will call it bad luck, the developer will call it a sales opportunity.  The trick is to annoy the player just enough to get them off their &#! and into the market, but not annoy them enough to drive them from the game.  I kinda hope that there will be a $50 version of the release product that just lets me solo the game in peace without having to worry about the grind incentives... unlimited inventory and a creds-2-plat conversion rate for $50 would be an excellent option for solo players.  Yet, when you think about it... if they implimented that system, they would have no incentive to release new "for free" content... they clearly see the upper limit of player purchase to be well beyond the "traditional" $50 price point for a AAA title game.  Expect grind, RNG, and unlucky loot pinata effects for the forseeable future.

Edited July 5, 2013 by Troublechutor