Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
There is a huge problem in multiplayer gaming that very few (no one?) talks about...
PROBLEM: Great multiplayer games are horrendous at keeping friend groups together.
If you have 3 friends that play a certain multiplayer game on the regular, it is essentially a certainty that this group splits up due to the skill level of the group shredding. I have experienced this phenomenon in literally every MP game I've ever enjoyed. There's always one or two players that advance in skill level to such a degree that it causes friction with the low skill friends. Either the low skill players don't want to play with the high skill players because going 2 - 14 (KD) isn't fun for 2 hours, or the high skill players find other high skill friends to group up with, leaving their real friends behind.
Concord doesn't have SBMM because Concord was designed specifically to keep friend groups intact. Consider the following four points...
1. The hit boxes in Concord are unbelievably generous. If your cursor is anywhere close to the opponent, you're hitting them. This was a conscious design choice.
2. Concord provides players with a number of low skill floor heroes. Lark, Daw, Jabali, Emari, and Kyps can be played relatively effectively by players who can't aim.
3. The game doesn't punish teams for losing. You rank up and unlock cosmetics at exactly the same rate whether you win or lose. This means high skill players don't feel held back by their low skill teammates to the same degree.
4. The game leans heavily on Rock, Paper, Scissors design philosophy. That means low skill scissors players can beat high skill paper players when they bump into them in a 1v1.
Concord might be a commercial flop but this particular design philosopher should not go by unnoticed. SBMM is a poor solution to a very real problem and it's awesome that Firewalk attempted to address it with Concord. I hope we see more games tackle the issue going forward.
PROBLEM: Great multiplayer games are horrendous at keeping friend groups together.
If you have 3 friends that play a certain multiplayer game on the regular, it is essentially a certainty that this group splits up due to the skill level of the group shredding. I have experienced this phenomenon in literally every MP game I've ever enjoyed. There's always one or two players that advance in skill level to such a degree that it causes friction with the low skill friends. Either the low skill players don't want to play with the high skill players because going 2 - 14 (KD) isn't fun for 2 hours, or the high skill players find other high skill friends to group up with, leaving their real friends behind.
Concord doesn't have SBMM because Concord was designed specifically to keep friend groups intact. Consider the following four points...
1. The hit boxes in Concord are unbelievably generous. If your cursor is anywhere close to the opponent, you're hitting them. This was a conscious design choice.
2. Concord provides players with a number of low skill floor heroes. Lark, Daw, Jabali, Emari, and Kyps can be played relatively effectively by players who can't aim.
3. The game doesn't punish teams for losing. You rank up and unlock cosmetics at exactly the same rate whether you win or lose. This means high skill players don't feel held back by their low skill teammates to the same degree.
4. The game leans heavily on Rock, Paper, Scissors design philosophy. That means low skill scissors players can beat high skill paper players when they bump into them in a 1v1.
Concord might be a commercial flop but this particular design philosopher should not go by unnoticed. SBMM is a poor solution to a very real problem and it's awesome that Firewalk attempted to address it with Concord. I hope we see more games tackle the issue going forward.
Last edited:
