Deadlock - An FPS MOBA by Valve.

[200MB]

I am continually impressed at the amount of people posting about how the game is dead when it is an entirely unpolished alpha. It's a new Valve title, of course the playerbase would balloon to a comical number: but why did you think people would stick around? There's less content than DotA's playtest, and no player retention mechanics to keep the attention of retards who need battle passes and cosmetics in front of them 24/7 to keep them interested in a game. The only people left are, unsurprisingly, people wanting to playtest this very unfinished game. It has nothing to do with whatever chinkslop is popular right now, Deadlock would only have a few thousand players regardless after the initial hype of the playtest because it's an entirely unfinished product. Everything is very barebones, even the superficial stuff is barely present. Most of the characters are almost completely untextured not counting a flat color and most of the buildings aren't textured either, just modeled. That's just the petty surface stuff, that's not acknowledging how poorly it's currently balanced and how development has been completely frozen due to the holidays. It had a big boom and then it petered out. Like, genuine question, what did you expect would happen? And why are you comparing it to a finished product?

Based on how much fun I'm still having with the game, despite it's unfinished state, I'm pretty optimistic about it's future. Been a while since I was hooked by a pvp multiplayer game like this.

 

[Rodeo Roadrunner]

player retention mechanics

You know back in the day games didn't need a battle pass, skins, micro transactions, any of that shit to retain players. People played games because they were fun. People sunk hundreds or thousands of hours into games like halo or bad company 2 because they were fun to play, you didn't need corporate tested min-maxed incentives for people to play a game. Hell I remember when dota 2 launched and it didn't have any of that and tons of people played and enjoyed the games without dota+, battle passes, or endless arcana skins. I remember when some heroes like night stalker had no skins.
If that many people have left deadlock, sure you can argue that being a playtest and such affects retention, and people want to go play finished games. But they should seriously consider that something might be wrong with the game if they can't retain player numbers and they keep falling.

 

[Mike Matei's Penis]

I never found the game fun in the same way Dota is. Having to hit headshots on creeps for 30 minutes plus is a lot harder than the last hitting mechanic

 

[Outland Cow]

You know back in the day games didn't need a battle pass, skins, micro transactions, any of that shit to retain players. People played games because they were fun. People sunk hundreds or thousands of hours into games like halo or bad company 2 because they were fun to play, you didn't need corporate tested min-maxed incentives for people to play a game. Hell I remember when dota 2 launched and it didn't have any of that and tons of people played and enjoyed the games without dota+, battle passes, or endless arcana skins. I remember when some heroes like night stalker had no skins.
If that many people have left deadlock, sure you can argue that being a playtest and such affects retention, and people want to go play finished games. But they should seriously consider that something might be wrong with the game if they can't retain player numbers and they keep falling.

I don't even disagree, but if you don't think that player retention mechanics aren't a factor as to why people would play other games, you're either mistaken or doing a bit. The days where you didn't need it, like DotA's original release, are long gone. Player retention mechanics are an unfortunate but necessary component to keeping a game alive in %currentera%.

Based on how much fun I'm still having with the game, despite it's unfinished state, I'm pretty optimistic about it's future. Been a while since I was hooked by a pvp multiplayer game like this.

I'm still having a blast with it. The core gameplay loop is strong enough to keep me playing regardless of the balance of the game kind of being in the toilet right now.

Not @Mike Matei's Penis, but for myself, it's not textures that make a game fun, it's the core game loop. There are tons of games out there where the graphics aren't the best, but it's fun and I personally wasn't having that much fun with it. Maybe that was true for others as well.

Yep, it's really only something I cited because I was listing reasons why people dropped off of it. For a lot of people it's still too rough and unpolished visually. People just want a finished game, which is perfectly fine. You can drop a game for whatever reason you want.

 

[200MB]

You know back in the day games didn't need a battle pass, skins, micro transactions, any of that shit to retain players. People played games because they were fun. People sunk hundreds or thousands of hours into games like halo or bad company 2 because they were fun to play, you didn't need corporate tested min-maxed incentives for people to play a game. Hell I remember when dota 2 launched and it didn't have any of that and tons of people played and enjoyed the games without dota+, battle passes, or endless arcana skins. I remember when some heroes like night stalker had no skins.
If that many people have left deadlock, sure you can argue that being a playtest and such affects retention, and people want to go play finished games. But they should seriously consider that something might be wrong with the game if they can't retain player numbers and they keep falling.

I gotta strongly disagree with you bro. Making knee-jerk sweeping changes in pursuit of popularity could be disastrous for the game and would only work in the short term. They are really onto something with the core gameplay of deadlock and it's being refined with every patch. I legit think all they need is time to cook.

 

[Patrick Bait-man]

You know back in the day games didn't need a battle pass, skins, micro transactions, any of that shit to retain players. People played games because they were fun. People sunk hundreds or thousands of hours into games like halo or bad company 2 because they were fun to play, you didn't need corporate tested min-maxed incentives for people to play a game.

This is why I continue to play older multiplayer games, because they're naturally fun. If your core gameplay isn't well designed, your game is shit and incorporating player retention mechanics like that won't fix it. If I hear of a new multiplayer game and it has a battle pass and or other bullshit, I immediately write it off and go back to playing something like TF2 or Quake.

Why can't we have simple good games anymore? It's all so tiresome.

 

[Ambient Occlusion]

A big reason why I stopped is because I'm just waiting for the game to be more finished. The environment has been getting nice art passes, but the rest of the game is still so unfinished and unpolished. The ending fight still feels half baked to me especially. I'm glad they're focusing on bigger updates because I still think there is potential. I just hope Valve doesn't get bored and drop it.

 

[Rodeo Roadrunner]

I don't even disagree, but if you don't think that player retention mechanics aren't a factor as to why people would play other games, you're either mistaken or doing a bit.

The primary issue I have with battlepass/additional paid content or 'player retention mechanics' that involve micro transactions, is that they take developer time away from making the game good and enhancing the game as it is. I can't think of a single game in recent memory, where after they introduced microtransactions/battlepasses, that the game became better over time instead of worse. The common theme with paid cosmetics for example, is that they are a large revenue generator, for a low amount of dev time. But if that is true, and comparatively a developer can make more money for dev time, then why shouldn't they spend more and more dev time maximizing those things, at the expense of the core game? Also, this removes incentives for developers to add cosmetics to the base game, based on in-game achievements, and instead move those cosmetics to a paid battlepass or something similar. IE the game becomes less about a fun game, and more about maximizing revenue for a company based on instant gratification stuff locked behind real money transactions. To Deadlock's credit, the Christmas themed costumes for the characters they made are based around in-game achievements, but I suspect this is a temporary thing they are trying rather than a new normal, simply by looking at how Valve monetizes Dota and CS2.

Honestly if developers want people to play a game regularly, they should focus on fun first, and borrow ideas from REAL live-service games, and focus on in-game events and similar things. Have them happen with regular frequency as well, not just an event based on a real-world seasonal celebration (Christmas, Easter, etc). Every game does those, so your game has to compete with all the other that do those themed events. Have something happen in the game world that modifies how you play the game, and that will bring back players. Look at what Helldivers 2 has done with that, people come back for in-game events and things happening, not because they introduced the new monthly bundle or whatever (even though I do think those pose an issue), even if you can find enough SC in game.

 

[The Purple Ghost]

All my friends and myself included (Cause fuck playing solo) all have temporarily stopped because we are all waiting for new heroes and playing when they keep updating things so frequently got a little old
And add this to long Queue times in Aus and we agreed we'd all pick it back up when there is a little more meat
Great core game, but they gotta iron out some things

 

[sassblassted]

You know back in the day games didn't need a battle pass, skins, micro transactions, any of that shit to retain players. People played games because they were fun. People sunk hundreds or thousands of hours into games like halo or bad company 2 because they were fun to play, you didn't need corporate tested min-maxed incentives for people to play a game. Hell I remember when dota 2 launched and it didn't have any of that and tons of people played and enjoyed the games without dota+, battle passes, or endless arcana skins. I remember when some heroes like night stalker had no skins.
If that many people have left deadlock, sure you can argue that being a playtest and such affects retention, and people want to go play finished games. But they should seriously consider that something might be wrong with the game if they can't retain player numbers and they keep falling.

I will still never forgive valve for removing -override_vpk. Playing sand king with darude sandstorm in the background when you ulted or legion commander with a kill la kill skin was DotA at it's peak. I'd rather have paid a monthly fee to be allowed to mod the game than to have skins that had to be community-approved and was shown to everyone.

 

[sassblassted]

New update just dropped: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/786541361952194832

4 of the heroes from hero labs just got released (Calico, Holliday, Vyper, and The magnificent Sinclair). Gonna be interesting to see if this drives back some of the previously high playerbase. Seemingly no updates to the rest of the game, so if we're to believe that they only worked on heroes it'll be a long time before the game is ready for release, assuming that it doesn't just stay in early access forever. Hopefully they'll be able to free up some more resources and pool them into deadlock after HLX is out.

On a related note: Vyper can still slide up stairs without losing momentum, meaning that you slide around with infinite ammo indefinitely

 

[200MB]

New update just dropped: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/786541361952194832

4 of the heroes from hero labs just got released (Calico, Holliday, Vyper, and The magnificent Sinclair). Gonna be interesting to see if this drives back some of the previously high playerbase. Seemingly no updates to the rest of the game, so if we're to believe that they only worked on heroes it'll be a long time before the game is ready for release, assuming that it doesn't just stay in early access forever. Hopefully they'll be able to free up some more resources and pool them into deadlock after HLX is out.

On a related note: Vyper can still slide up stairs without losing momentum, meaning that you slide around with infinite ammo indefinitely

Holy shit Sinclair might be my new favorite. Swapping your health back from a Geist is never gonna get old. Also you can break ankles like crazy with his clone. It's really funny watching enemies do the virgin walk back to base after they can't find you.

 

[Terror Sandwich]

One of the reasons I assume this isn't as popular as other mobas is due to how demanding of a game it is. At least that is the reason I don't play it as much as I would like.

In dota/league you have a lot of down time during a match, where your are literally just right clicking creeps without putting much thought or effort in your play, or waiting for you hero to slowly walk somewhere, or waiting for the teleport. From time to time there are bursts of intensity during team fights and such, but a large portion of the game is relatively chill.
Meanwhile Dealock is set to 100% intensity all the fucking time. You have to put brain and physical effort into last hitting almost all the time, 3D aiming requires a lot more brain power than the 2D "aiming" of mobas. You don't have down time traversing the map as the rail system will get you to action in seconds. A 40 minutes match is non-stop action.

For me that shit is exhausting, I love to play it, but I can't handle more than a couple of matches a day. Meanwhile there were days were I'd play over 10 matches of dota and still feel fine.

 

[Anonitolia]

Gonna be interesting to see if this drives back some of the previously high playerbase.

It barely even put a dent in the bleeding.


Before and after the update:

It brought a cool 8k players back for one day and then immediately began losing players again.

The game has been bleeding players profusely, nonstop, since October.


I haven't even heard of this game for months now. I only remembered it existed because a video about it popped up in my recommended and I realized the game hadn't even begun pre-releasing yet.

Is this thing even going to make it to launch alive at this point? It's basically in open beta right now and has already lost 95% of its peak player count with no signs of turning itself around. I understand that a lot of people are turned off by it being incomplete, but 1) this is a live-service hero shooter, it's always going to be "incomplete", and 2) when has being incomplete made a difference this extreme, especially in relation to AAA titles nowadays?
Ever since Early Access became a thing, people have bought blatantly unfinished shit and digested it just fine. I don't see why Deadlock would be any exception. There must be something fundamentally wrong with the game's loop and/or current state for it to be bleeding this much for so long. I've seen some theories as to why above, but I can't really comment myself as I haven't played the game.

Kind of a shame, since a new Valve IP is always nice, but on the other hand everything about this project seems a bit doomed to fail. The character designs are distractingly ugly, the visual style is washed out and cartoonish, the setting is ambiguous and clashes with the visual design, and from what I can glean of the gameplay it seems like a very ill-fated mix of two intense genres that just don't really blend into anything fun. Feel free to correct me, but as an outsider looking in that's my impression.

 

[BibiLivesMatter]

One of the reasons I assume this isn't as popular as other mobas is due to how demanding of a game it is. At least that is the reason I don't play it as much as I would like.

In dota/league you have a lot of down time during a match, where your are literally just right clicking creeps without putting much thought or effort in your play, or waiting for you hero to slowly walk somewhere, or waiting for the teleport. From time to time there are bursts of intensity during team fights and such, but a large portion of the game is relatively chill.
Meanwhile Dealock is set to 100% intensity all the fucking time. You have to put brain and physical effort into last hitting almost all the time, 3D aiming requires a lot more brain power than the 2D "aiming" of mobas. You don't have down time traversing the map as the rail system will get you to action in seconds. A 40 minutes match is non-stop action.

For me that shit is exhausting, I love to play it, but I can't handle more than a couple of matches a day. Meanwhile there were days were I'd play over 10 matches of dota and still feel fine.

Honestly this. I put 100 hours into the game and for the most part I liked it, but just got tired of going through multiple matches that last 40+ minutes that need endless focus. I enjoy MOBAs, but Deadlock balance of stress to fun just feels off in long term. Wears you down, and doesn't always feel rewarding after a long match.

Also, I don't know if was just me or not, but matchmaking felt off around October-November. The win/loss rate I had during that period just varied like hell.

I do at the very least hope the game does well, and I can acknowledge that it might not be something really for me. This is my first Third-Person MOBA game.

 

[NoReturn]

Is this thing even going to make it to launch alive at this point?

Probably not. Not unless something significant changes.

I've seen some theories as to why above, but I can't really comment myself as I haven't played the game.

Do you want to? I'm sure someone could send you a code.

Kind of a shame, since a new Valve IP is always nice,

The character designs are distractingly ugly, the visual style is washed out and cartoonish, the setting is ambiguous and clashes with the visual design, and from what I can glean of the gameplay it seems like a very ill-fated mix of two intense genres that just don't really blend into anything fun. Feel free to correct me, but as an outsider looking in that's my impression.

Honestly this. I put 100 hours into the game and for the most part I liked it, but just got tired of going through multiple matches that last 40+ minutes that need endless focus. I enjoy MOBAs, but Deadlock balance of stress to fun just feels off in long term. Just wears you down. and doesn't always feel rewarding after a long match.

You know, Valve used to have an in-house psychologist. Maybe it would have been helpful if he were still around or if they got someone to replace him. There's probably something happening in terms of human attention span and how long we can reasonably stay focused if we aren't in a flow state.

I do at the very least hope the game does well, and I can acknowledge that it might not be something really for me. This is my first Third-Person MOBA game.

I like how mature everyone is being about this itt. There's not a lot of "This game is shit." and it shows people do care about the concept and the company behind it.

 

[WULULULULU]

After seeing Valve mismanage both TF2 and CS2, I desperately want Deadlock to fail.

 

[Fae Supremacist]

Artifact was not a new IP though, it was a Dota game. Terribly balanced, horrifically monetized and with zero support, and of course they dropped it the second they started making decent changes.
Valve devs are the ficklest ADHD faggots on the entire planet, multibillion dollar private company and they're still treated like a class of special needs kids, you can't farm mystique like this as if it's 2010.

 

[Anonitolia]

Do you want to? I'm sure someone could send you a code.

Only vaguely, and given what I'm reading about it now I think I might actually be happier never giving it a shot lol. I've always been curious about it because of the aforementioned "new valve IP" thing though.

That's a DOTA spin-off, not a new IP. Also lol at that rating. Is that Deadlock's future?

Valve used to have an in-house psychologist

they probably had to replace him with a therapist once Artifact came out

 

[A Shi Piao Teapot]

Tbh I'm not even worried about this game's future. It's fun, it's a fresh take on the genre, and it's literally an invite-only beta for the foreseeable future. I'm sure once the game has a full, unrestricted release and a handful of casual retaining features it'll do just fine. Right now, however, new and casual players are hopping into a game with a bare-bones tutorial and a 10k+ playerbase of mostly sweats. Also, everyone has to deal with the current matchmaking, which is pretty fucked right now, probably due to lower players overall.