A Reflection on 4-5 years of Warframe (And some idea rambling)

[Vinnile]

Nearing my fifth year of playing Warframe, I've thought long and hard about the ups, the downs, what drew me to it, what continues to draw me to it, and what might reignite me interest once again. Logging very close to 2000 hours on steam, and given 5 years, that might not sound like much, however, with some elaboration, it may become clearer. What attracted me to Warframe in years past was at first, the gameplay, the cooperative focus, and my own wild, active imagination. Imagining what could become of Warframe with time, which I must say, I'm not displeased with, ultimately. There's certain features I feel are being overly focused on due to popular demand, a subject I will get to in the body of this open love letter to my main game. I played with friends first, pulling them in for the ride, some even got Founder's packs, much as I did too. Though at 16 years of age, I naturally could not afford much beyond the typical price of a retail game, yet would have given more. Nevertheless, I was happy. Bought my share of platinum, hundreds worth in the grand total, always spending it on what I feel are the most practical uses, that being cosmetics and weapon/warframe slots. Later on, lenses, potatoes of both kinds, some forma. I'm invested, to say the least.

The peak of my interest was always in the midst of big events, the best in memory being Gradivus, since we had a tangible effect on the story, one we got to be reminded of in the events and lore following, and Eyes of Blight, one I wish we could look back on with a it more significance. I was on Strata when it went down, a genuine player-built dramatic moment for myself, since I'm a dork like that. While on Maroo's Bazaar (Back when it was orbiting Earth exclusively,) part of me wondered if it was the same relay, scavenged together, though that was deflated when the actual Strata ruins were revealed on the starmap later. Nevetheless, each relay receiving its own visual identity would have made each have more punch, something we might still see now if they had more utility. Such is more easily discussed once every planet finally has its own visual identity.

As years went on, my interest waxed and waned, as new events came and went, as new weapons and warframes were added, I'd usually get those at least for mastery. The times that brought me back in strongest were story related events, such as the ones connected to Alad V, as was mentioned earlier, given I had a story investment in his character. But my interest was certainly slowed by month after month of merely more mastery fodder being tossed in from time to time, sometimes a fun change, like The Sword Alone, one of my favorite non-story updates, as I love melee combat. But even that was sort of dashed when Blocking was essentially removed, no longer could I block bullets and brace for big hits by focusing on such an elegant discipline. Blocking feels like merely a way to change combos now, little much else. Since the majority of enemies use guns.

My interest feels now like it's more polarized than ever. Occasionally sparking when a new event hits, but none of my friends have the same passion anymore, not a lot to regularly progress toward, like it was when syndicates were introduced, or when mastery rank was so important. I was most looking forward to the addition of that new clan system, essentially the nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor, as that would've added a unique bit of fun and flavor to the game and progression, especially clan activity. Yet that seems to have been delayed over and over, meanwhile the playerbase typically clamors for Excaliber Umbra, which in my eyes, is insulting. I have a sort of attachment to my Excaliber Prime, given it's sort of an icon for being there at the dawn. Umbra looks to render it essentially pointless, leaving me with little to show for my dedicated interest all those years ago. The newer cosmetics are already better, not to mention the new primes. Way I see it, I'd have rather them just release all the original primes into the void pool, and give founders something new and shiny, cosmetic or some such.

But that's my take on that whole situation, I don't exactly carry high hopes of one meager voice carrying above the rest when it comes to communities as big as Warframe's has become. Now to focus on the future, different features I'm either looking forward to, or hoping for. The new open world areas, the plains being just alright (Needing a way for people to locate those darn fish statues without looking up a map,) are a nice addition, if as grindy as much of it is. Eidolons are mediocre content to me, not impressed, but that's just me it seems. The new area on Venus looks to be very exciting, I've been wanting to see the corpus and its related groups get more development, this is a step in such a direction. I'm also holding out for more operator development, I like them okay as a gameplay feature, despite some clunkiness, but some of their voice acting is... amateur, to put it politely. Personally I'd been hoping the Eidolons would see us developing them into adults, more or less, able to wear actual armor, wield weapons, the like. And possibly ending up with a more grown up look, potentially, in future story, culminating into the idea of becoming one's own person, defined by your actions and choices. Big choices that can really make the player their own character, in skills, look, and interactions alike. Even with the focus schools developing a less-passive layer of effects, that influence the weapons and skills the Tenno themselves have, operating like a way to generate a custom Warframe, from a gameplay standpoint. Becoming the core of our favored weapons types and gameplay styles, modifiable, unique, integral.

The last thing I'd want to mention is metagame, I believe the term goes. Something to keep people coming back. A good example would be if say, the world relied on the players in some way more often. For example, let's say there's an infested incursion on mars. We do nothing, if no one played it at all, or just a few players, nothing happens. It sits there until the percentage is run down, and it ends. However, I worked out a much more interesting system to give the missions, alerts, and invasions a bit more flow. Each planet is developing its own distinct appearance and visual aesthetics, as well as basic enemy types. I'll simplify my idea as follows:

Each faction generates fleets, using whichever system is considered its home base. Pluto for Corpus, Sedna for Grineer, or something to that effect. Each system other than those home systems, the home ones not being fully invade-able by the opposite side(s), generate faster fleet spawns, or possibly some other resource/effects on the map not yet developed, the fomorians and Razorbacks for example. Each position on the map could be invade-able save for special ones, like bosses, or perhaps Dark Sectors. The more one side holds, the more resources generated, and the less control one holds, the more likely they are to invade, and the more rewards they offer for helping them. Another thing to offer potentially, as to less behave like mercenaries [Insert Sargas Ruk yelling here], and more like dedicated warriors, would be potential reputation gains, and cosmetics of some kind for choosing a side. I'll speed this up as I could elaborate on some of this stuff for hours: Infested. A wild card and always enemy, for now, but imagine if Heleminth were more developed, a way for us to essentially control or ally ourselves with them in some way. Their fleet generation in such a system would operate a bit differently, infesting an already existing fleet and using it to try and take systems. This way the infested would still hold the least ground, as it takes them longer to generate an invasion force, despite it being very widespread, when present. The infested ideas are much more up in the air, as they're not developed in most regards, but I felt it was appropriate to include a mention.

ANYWAY, I'll save the rest of my jumbled up ideas for when they're wanted, I just had to blather a bit to demonstrate the sort of eagerness and passion this game brings from me. Come what may, I only want the best for Warframe, and hope DE keep to the path of consumer-first mentality. We're all counting on you.

[K4RN4]

Can you please write a TL;Dr?

[Vinnile]

Right, forgot how much people hate reading nowadays.

TL;DR: Ups and downs, glad I've been part of the game, need more reasons to stick around, active things to contribute to, things that can change, choices to make. Also dislike Umbra, think it's a dumb idea if founders aren't given something else, as it renders the original founders packs useless.

[(PSN)HAVOCS-Regret]

I read the whole thing, good on ya! :)

what i want most is for more thought to be put into player retention, more options and incentives for end game content, and more love for vets, afterall if the player retention is there, everyone will turn into a vet eventually