What Makes a Solid eSports Game?

The ESL is one of many popular eSports event franchises around the world.

eSports is on the rise in a wide range of genres, with the support of outlets such as Twitch.tv and dedicated casting organizations such as the North American Star League (NASL) and Major League Gaming (MLG). Growing numbers of viewers watch live events from aroudn the world, and big-name sponsors like Alienware and Intel are taking notice and backing events, players, and teams.

Developers and publishers of eSports games find themselves in a new world of opportunities, where suddenly their entertainment products become a way of life for professional competitors around the world, and an obsession for legions of eSports fans. Owning the intellectual property of an eSports-centered franchise brings a new level of sustained revenue and interest that basic multiplayer games, and even most MMO's, cannot achieve. Up to now, it would seem that the games that become successful in the eSports world have been flukes, gaining popularity over similar titles through a combination of great design, compelling visuals and loyal playerbases. Based on what we've seen in successful franchises such as Starcraft 2, League of Legends, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, we can now begin to analyze the things that all of these games have in common, allowing us as developers to understand exactly what our games need to have to gain popularity in the world of eSports.

Balance
Let's start with the basics; the obvious elements. Balance is key, and is never taken for granted by serious players. Balancing different races, weapons, abilities and stats is a constant exercise for developers of eSports games. Players must always feel that they have an equal chance at victory, and that their opponents do not have an unfair advantage. Balance becomes even more of a challenge in games with asymmetric factions (different races with different units and structures, for example). Constant play-testing is key in the delicate act of balance. Play-testers should include the widest range of gamers possible: from in-house testers to beta testers; from veterans to casual players; from young players to older.

Control
Controls have to be tight, logical, and above all, customizable. The mechanics of controls are of paramount importance to veteran players, and each player has slightly different preferences for control schemes. The player must feel like he is in full control in an eSports title. Any lag between commands and execution can ruin a competitive experience, as can randomly unresponsive controls. Players should be able to quickly perform any action that logically fits within the framework of the game, and they should be able to do it without looking at their keyboards. Again, bringing in the widest range of play-testers possible can help greatly here. Never make assumptions about controls. Always seek feedback from players and testers.

Skill
Skill-based competition is the only type embraced in the eSports world, and for good reason. MMORPG PvP has never broken into the world of eSports due to its heavy reliance on gear and character attributes, for example, while first-person shooters have always had a presence. Skill-based competition goes back to the issue of balance. Each player should feel that the only thing that can lead him to victory is his own personal skill, not the contents of a character inventory or a collection of hard-earned perks. The most popular eSports games build in achievements and vanity rewards to make players feel as if they are accumulating goodies, but these rewards do nothing to provide an unfair advantage.

Emergent Strategy
The possibility of emergent strategy may be the most important design factor that rockets games to eSports stardom. Emergence, an elusive yet well-studied concept in game design, can be simply defined as a simple framework of rules and systems, out of which can emerge countless variations of play. Minecraft is today's shining example of emergent design; think about how simple Minecraft's mechanics and controls are, and how vast the number of different creations have come from it (everything from a 10,000 foot tall portrait of Barack Obama to a fully functional MMORPG).

This is the essential element in an eSports game: the players' ability to create, refine, and evolve their strategic options within a deceptively simple framework. Consider how the four ability slots and 6 item slots in League of Legends allow players an unlimited number of character builds, or how a defined set of structures and units in Starcraft 2 can be used in an unlimited number of ways. Even first-person shooters like CoD:BO2 provide emergent possibilities, since players can deploy such a wide range of tactics all around a map.

What Happened to MMORPG Design?

Asheron's Call got me excited for MMORPGs for the first time.

I've been a huge fan of MMORPGs since I was 13 years old, back in the days when having a 56k modem made me the envy of all my nerdy friends. Since then I've played a number of MMOs, most recently culminating in my experiences with SWTOR, which I've written about several times. Recently, a friend and I have started playing the first MMORPG I ever played, Asheron's Call. Released in 1999, this game is actually still running, and has a robust population on its most popular servers.

The experience of playing Asheron's Call again has awakened something in me that I forgot existed: the pure joy of playing with others in a virtual world. The slow evolution of the genre had numbed me to the numerous failings of modern MMO design, and playing this gem has revealed gaping disconnects between modern MMOs and the fundamental concept of an open, virtual world.

These days, playing SWTOR (and almost any modern MMO) feels more exclusive than inclusive, more antagonistic than friendly. Modern endgames are designed to encourage people to treat each other with disdain and disrespect, and other players have become expendable at all levels of the game. Forced class roles and the requirements that every player be perfect in every way have made raids and group quests tense and hostile. PVP groups must be perfect in every way, and anyone who plays less than 8 hours a day is summarily booted from any high-level groups.  People who are slightly under-geared are kicked out of groups as if they don't matter, and silence has actually become a rule in raid voice chat.

I'd like to repeat that last sentence -- silence has actually become a rule in raid voice chat. When did the MMORPG experience become as tense and important as heart surgery? When was the sense of exploration and camaraderie designed out of the genre entirely? When did completing high level raids become about angrily insulting someone for being 1-hit, or having hostile arguments about aggro or healing? And when in the wide world of eSports did silence become a rule in raid voice chat!?

I don't want this post to be an advertisement about Asheron's Call (although I highly recommend it as a once-in-a-lifetime gem of MMO design), but let's contrast the way that this game from '99 works to the way that SWTOR works.

In Asheron's Call (AC), any player can train any skill at any time. No one is forced to play any role. Every character can handle tanking, dealing damage and healing to certain extents. This means that groups can consist of as few or as many players as desired, and there is no incentive to exclude people simply because their role has already been filled.

In AC, players are rewarded generously for taking new players under their wings, whereas in SWTOR the answer to every noob question is "Google it, you idiot," followed by "Shut up, troll," followed by "Ignored and reported."

In AC's high-level dungeons, any player can die and return at any time without halting the group's progress. This prevents the necessity that every player be perfect in every way. In SWTOR, if your healer dies, all progress stops, meaning that any casual healers will be insulted and eventually booted from groups.

In AC, everyone's armor is different, and the sky is the limit to the possibilities. In SWTOR, you must have the exact gear that the designers intend for you to have to even participate in a group raid. SWTOR's group finder allows players to que for raids that they are not geared for, in which case the other group members will kick the player immediately. In SWTOR, group members check each other's gear immediately to determine who they have to kick out; in AC, group members check each other's gear out of curiosity and a sense of discovery.

I could go on for days about the huge shortcomings in modern MMO design that I'm discovering by playing one of the originals in the genre. The bottom line is that the first MMO's were designed as virtual worlds to explore, and in which to adventure with friends met along the way. Modern MMO's are designed to exclude people in every way possible, and to force players into following prescribed paths in every area, whether leveling, crafting or gearing up. Modern MMOs are designed to force silence to be a rule in raid voice chat (I know I've said it three times, but it's just insane to me). It has created a cynical elitist culture that excludes anyone who does not wish to spend hours each day grinding through the same boring things just to be able to try and fail at a high level raid several times in a row.

Who has the courage to design an MMO that brings people together in a spirit of adventure? Whoever can achieve that will find my money shoved in their wallet! Until then, I'm going to be on a quest of my own, to discover whether any MMORPGs on the market today are designed to be fun. I'll keep you posted on what I find!