Exciting times ahead for Valve and Steam as most of Hopoo Games, the creators of the Risk of Rain series, have now joined Valve.

A bit sad their next game is on hiatus, but I’m happy for them. I assume they’ll be working on Deadlock since it’s sort of similar to Risk of Rain 2.

  • fartsparkles@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    923·
    2 months ago

    I have a strong feeling they’ll be working on Deadlock given their experience with third person hero shooters with crazy items that change your build.

    Which is a shame because Deadlock is destined for the land of toxicity most other MOBAs exist in unless they do something meaningful to change the game’s design.

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      442·
      2 months ago

      I’ve got a solution!

      Just refuse to play those games and go dig rocks and stones instead!

    • Virkkunen@fedia.io
      17·
      2 months ago

      I think we oughta wait for the game to at least leave the alpha, where huge changes happen from night to day, before concluding how toxic the game and mechanics will be

      • fartsparkles@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        102·
        2 months ago

        Totally, my comment is with regards to the current state of the game and so far they’ve fallen into the same pitfalls as other MOBAs.

        Personally, allowing the team to vote to concede and to get rid of increasing respawn timers would help a lot in getting rid of the biggest causes of frustration noted so far however these were comments about DOTA2 and sadly Valve never implemented them there either.

        • 0xD@infosec.pubEnglish
          22·
          2 months ago

          Because that’s just game balance. Toxicity is a people problem.

          It’s fine that you don’t enjoy that kind of game - there are plenty of others.

    • Buttflapper@lemmy.worldEnglish
      142·
      2 months ago

      Deadlock is destined for the land of toxicity

      I don’t think we should assume this right away. TF2 isn’t really all that toxic (that I am aware of). Valve tends to attract less toxic people in general. OW2 however, hoo boy… that game is agonizing to play. People will not hesitate to insult you.

      • SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.worldEnglish
        19·
        2 months ago

        TF2 isn’t designed to be as competitive as deadlock. It’s a goofy game that’s mostly just designed for fun. (Competitive TF2 does exist and I am a fan of it but it’s not really officially supported in any meaningful way.)

        Deadlock on the other hand is designed to be a very competitive MOBA where individual decisions will greatly change a games outcomes. I would look at DOTA as a better comparison than TF2.

      • SmilingSolaris@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        I play both overwatch and counter strike. While overwatch does a great job of making sure I don’t see slurs most of the time, the community is toxic af. I can’t go a single game without someone saying “tank diff, DPS diff, support diff” and whatever else directed insult they got.

        Counterstrike on the other hand, surprisingly wholesome. Many games players will say good try after you fail and be pretty supportive. Sometimes you get assholes who just say slurs cause they can of course but that’s like, once or twice a month. Overwatch is literally every god damn match minus the slur part.

    • Ibaudia@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      2 months ago

      My experience playing it so far has been pretty overwhelmingly positive. No one really cares who wins, it’s more fun to just make cool plays and do well individually.

      • Graphy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        27·
        2 months ago

        That’s just new competitive games in general though. The best time to play a pvp game is the first month when there isn’t a clear meta yet and everyone’s having a good time.

        • KombatWombat@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          2 months ago

          It also helps that there isn’t a competitive mode yet. Until recently it didn’t even track your stats in a visible way. Also, people can only get in by being invited, so you have to have had at least one person who has vouched for you in some way, which probably selects against the most toxic personalities.

          • myliltoehurts@lemm.eeEnglish
            3·
            2 months ago

            Except there is (of course) a mega thread on Reddit to get invites where people blindly invite anyone.

          • Graphy@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            2 months ago

            Sadly it’s pretty easy to get an invite. I got one from a few friends and they told me they just sat in a weird discord asking for invites.

      • BruceTwarzen@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        I felt the same way about the finals. The beta was amazing and i played it every day. It was just good fun. When the game released it was all meta builds and abusing every mechanic known to mankind.

      • fartsparkles@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        313·
        2 months ago

        Snowballing

        30/40min games where you’re unable to concede when loss is clear early on (causing other team mates to become stressed and rude). Games can sometimes be decided in 5 minutes yet there can potentially another half hour to go before you have a chance to requeue with different team mates.

        One team mate’s mistake early on can lead to the opposing team snowballing and the rest of the team becomes toxic due to the first point.

        The respawn timer increasing in length penalises the team further for being behind the enemy team, and the downtime as someone is waiting to spawn gives them time to type and be toxic. By mid-game, I’ve seen some players spend as much time waiting to respawn than they did playing.

        Losing begets losing.

        Macro and Meta

        The volume of items leads there to be objectively better builds (and meta after each patch as items stats are changed) leads expectations on all team mates to follow that meta and know which build to play otherwise they get raged on.

        Map awareness is more important that aiming and it takes the whole team to remain aware of the map for success.

        The lack of transparency as to why a person is losing to another (item selection, ability upgrades etc) irritates players into feeling cheated.

        Competitive

        As a competitive game, players are trying to prove themselves yet, as a team game, individual performance can’t make up for a weak team thus rage. Competition drives emotion.

        Note: I played Deadlock for about 15 to 20 matches but all the typical MOBA issues emerged within a couple of games, I’ve already bounced off of it.

        • offspec@lemmy.nicknakin.comEnglish
          8·
          2 months ago

          I haven’t enjoyed any other mobas, but I’ve put ~100 hours in to this one. The comeback mechanics seem fine enough, I’ve had a few games that have come back from a ~30k soul difference.

          • skulblaka@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            4·
            2 months ago

            Same, I haven’t even slightly enjoyed any other MOBA I’ve played except for Smite, but I’ve fallen in with Deadlock like it’s an old friend. And we’ve come back and won from a couple really depressing looking matches. Just the other day I was at 0/12 running Bebop with a 25k team soul deficit and once I actually got my head in the game, and got a little lane assist, we came back and won it and I finished with a 10/14 K/d.

            The comeback isn’t easy, and it shouldn’t be, but it’s doable. Especially so if your opponents get cocky. I’ve been on the other side of that coin as well, going 10/0 with Vindicta and fly out to snipe without a care in the world, to discover that every enemy is suddenly paying attention to where I am.