Problematic Weekend Warfront Tasks
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 11:29 am
Hey all,
I'd like to addess an issue that is related to the Weekend Warfront's event tasks, of which this Weekend's Warfront 'Unforgiving Seas' serves as a great example.
First, let me state clearly that on the whole I think Weekend Warfronts are great. They are something to look forward to every week, and Weekend Warfronts incentivise players to group up and participate in the large variety of scenarios that Return of Reckoning has to offer.
So why does this great addition to the game sometimes turn into a source of much frustration for a lot of players?
I think the answer to this question can almost always be found in one or two problematic event tasks during certain Weekend Warfronts.
Even before entering a single scenario, simply looking at the list of event tasks is usually enough to identify such tasks.
This week's Weekend Warfront 'Unforgiving Seas' has the task "Win the Serpent's Passage scenario with 500 points", and it has to be done five times.
So what is wrong with this task?
A few things.
First, during the weekends, the event scenario tends to be a highly competitive environment. Almost every scenario features at least one premade group on each side. This is in itself actually a great thing. However, as these groups fight for victory, it quickly becomes apparent that the Serpent's Passage scenario is rarely finished at 500 points, and much more often ends when the timer runs out.
The net result is that groups are punished for having close-matched fights and I think this is highly undesirable. Players' progress stagnates and they are instead incentivised to stop playing and try again when the fights are more one-sided in their favor, thus making 500 point victories easier and allowing them to finish their event task.
This issue also reinforces itself, since even strong premade groups may have trouble finishing these sorts of tasks, causing them to continue queueing for longer, leading to my next point.
Second, the aforementioned discourages beginning players, despite their efforts to group up. An often repeated, but ultimately empty statement, even by some of the developers, is "Just find a group!" However, this does not suffice. There is a large group of players whose gear, skill and experience levels are simply not high enough to compete with many of the groups found in scenarios during the Weekend Warfront. Parrying the objections of this group (which I think are quite reasonable) with slogans like "Get good!", "Just roll class x/y/z!", "Grind harder!" is nothing other than elitism.
Getting steamrolled is never fun, but getting steamrolled and receiving nothing in return is reason for a lot of players to simply stop playing, and understandably so. This cannot be what is intended.
Conclusion/Solution,
In conclusion, the task described above, and others like it:
1. Discourage player participation, especially at low and intermediate experience levels,
2. Do not reward players for their hard work,
3. Discourage players to look a good fight.
The task mentioned above is only an example of some of the tasks I've come across over time.
They can sour what would otherwise be a fun Weekend Warfront, and I don't think this is necessary at all.
Problematic tasks are often easily identified even before entering a single scenario. Here are some criteria which I think have a tendency to be problematic:
(Note: for the sake of lengthiness these criteria weren't all discussed in this thread, but I will give examples if prompted)
1.Requiring landslide victories to complete (especially when such tasks need to be completed multiple times),
2.Encouraging behavior that is tactically unsound,
3.Encouraging players to act "out of role", i.e. healers or DPS running flags, holding baubles, etc.
What could serve as a general rule of thumb is that tasks should be progressable (though perhaps more slowly) even when one is losing or having close fights. If this were to lead to players finishing their tasks too quickly, it could always be an option to increase the amount of kills required to finish the event.
I think I have said enough, and I am curious to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for reading,
- Caduceus
I'd like to addess an issue that is related to the Weekend Warfront's event tasks, of which this Weekend's Warfront 'Unforgiving Seas' serves as a great example.
First, let me state clearly that on the whole I think Weekend Warfronts are great. They are something to look forward to every week, and Weekend Warfronts incentivise players to group up and participate in the large variety of scenarios that Return of Reckoning has to offer.
So why does this great addition to the game sometimes turn into a source of much frustration for a lot of players?
I think the answer to this question can almost always be found in one or two problematic event tasks during certain Weekend Warfronts.
Even before entering a single scenario, simply looking at the list of event tasks is usually enough to identify such tasks.
This week's Weekend Warfront 'Unforgiving Seas' has the task "Win the Serpent's Passage scenario with 500 points", and it has to be done five times.
So what is wrong with this task?
A few things.
First, during the weekends, the event scenario tends to be a highly competitive environment. Almost every scenario features at least one premade group on each side. This is in itself actually a great thing. However, as these groups fight for victory, it quickly becomes apparent that the Serpent's Passage scenario is rarely finished at 500 points, and much more often ends when the timer runs out.
The net result is that groups are punished for having close-matched fights and I think this is highly undesirable. Players' progress stagnates and they are instead incentivised to stop playing and try again when the fights are more one-sided in their favor, thus making 500 point victories easier and allowing them to finish their event task.
This issue also reinforces itself, since even strong premade groups may have trouble finishing these sorts of tasks, causing them to continue queueing for longer, leading to my next point.
Second, the aforementioned discourages beginning players, despite their efforts to group up. An often repeated, but ultimately empty statement, even by some of the developers, is "Just find a group!" However, this does not suffice. There is a large group of players whose gear, skill and experience levels are simply not high enough to compete with many of the groups found in scenarios during the Weekend Warfront. Parrying the objections of this group (which I think are quite reasonable) with slogans like "Get good!", "Just roll class x/y/z!", "Grind harder!" is nothing other than elitism.
Getting steamrolled is never fun, but getting steamrolled and receiving nothing in return is reason for a lot of players to simply stop playing, and understandably so. This cannot be what is intended.
Conclusion/Solution,
In conclusion, the task described above, and others like it:
1. Discourage player participation, especially at low and intermediate experience levels,
2. Do not reward players for their hard work,
3. Discourage players to look a good fight.
The task mentioned above is only an example of some of the tasks I've come across over time.
They can sour what would otherwise be a fun Weekend Warfront, and I don't think this is necessary at all.
Problematic tasks are often easily identified even before entering a single scenario. Here are some criteria which I think have a tendency to be problematic:
(Note: for the sake of lengthiness these criteria weren't all discussed in this thread, but I will give examples if prompted)
1.Requiring landslide victories to complete (especially when such tasks need to be completed multiple times),
2.Encouraging behavior that is tactically unsound,
3.Encouraging players to act "out of role", i.e. healers or DPS running flags, holding baubles, etc.
What could serve as a general rule of thumb is that tasks should be progressable (though perhaps more slowly) even when one is losing or having close fights. If this were to lead to players finishing their tasks too quickly, it could always be an option to increase the amount of kills required to finish the event.
I think I have said enough, and I am curious to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for reading,
- Caduceus