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Saving Concord. A prescription for Firewalk to save their burning wreck...

How many of the 8 fixes described in the OP do you think could help Concords player numbers?

  • 0 - I am certain Concord is DOA.

  • 1 - 3 of them are good ideas.

  • 4 - 6 of them are good ideas.

  • 7 or 8 of them are good ideas.


Results are only viewable after voting.

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
So I jump on Concord right before the open beta ends. I sort of had this "Let me make sure I don't like this game" mentality.

First game on...was awesome. Both teams played together. Teams were evenly matched, no one left. Pace was slow and tactical, most rounds went into overtime. It was exactly how I imagined Firewalk wanted the game to be played.

Second game on...my team plays like kittens being dumped out of a cardboard box.

That's the problem with Concord. Most games there's zero cohesion with your crew. Very few people are on mic. Very few people pick the correct team composition. Very few people stay with their team. The problem with Concord is they made a team based "strategy fighter" where no one plays as a team. If you look to Battle Royale, MOBA's, or even other 5v5 hero shooters, you can see a significantly higher level of team cohesion. Concord is bombing because there's very little incentive to play as a team.

Eight fixes that will encourage teamplay and give Concord a pulse...

1. Steer your players to RIVALRY mode. It's clearly what the game was designed around. The other modes dilute the experience and teach players incorrect habits.

2. RIVARLY has to be bumped up to 5 or 6 round wins for victory. First to 4 goes by too fast.

3. Stop giving XP rewards out to the losing team. Incentivize winning. The beta (perhaps by design) had the worst progression system I've ever seen.

4. Voice lines should teach players core concepts of the game. Tanks should say "Drop that heal pad near me and stay close." Flankers should say "Let me get into position before you push."

5. Put a map in front of the player so we can more easily coordinate with teammates. "Let's go A route. Roka, you stay on top of B and cover us." On this map, show every wall, heal disc, spore, and dome that your teammates have dropped. Switch to this map automatically after you've selected your character.

6. Incentivize winning by creating difficult challenges that reward teams in clever ways. Example: If your crew wins 5 matches in a row, a new map enters rotation where only 5 win streak teams can play on.

7. Give players a Match MVP designation for outperforming teammates. Fix KDR feed so we know who is performing and who isn't.

8. Go F2P ASAP.

It's time for Concord to take off.

Concorde-British-Airways.jpg
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
I dunno. The game will flop hard at launch, that much is certain.

If they want any chance at even getting a decent userbase with time, they should start by changing color palettes for their freerunners asap. This is like the easiest "hot-fix" to at least make their characters look less bad.

Then at least the first 3 new freerunners should be hot chicks and cool looking white guys.

And for gameplay they should at least have ranked, fill empty slots (due to quitters) with at least AI, add a comms wheel like in Mobas (it's a team fpcused game with no comms...), stop putting people in character select after every death and have a much better explanation of the crew-system.

And after all that, do a soft-relaunch and hope for the best.

But going by their Discord, they're probably a bunch a buffoons that will double-down on their Woke agenda.
They don't even acknowledge 'Woke' and dismiss any criticism that points out that their inclusivity agenda is pushing people away.
 
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I dunno. The game will flop hard at launch, that much is certain.

If they want any chance at even getting a decent userbase with time, they should start by changing color palettes for their freerunners asap. This is like the easiest "hot-fix" to at least make their characters look less bad.

Then at least the first 3 new freerunners should be hot chicks and cool looking white guys.

And for gameplay they should at least have ranked, fill empty slots (due to quitters) with at least AI, add a comms wheel like in Mobas (it's a team fpcused game with no comms...), stop putting people in character select after every death and have a much better explanation of the crew-system.

And after all that, do a soft-relaunch and hope for the best.

But going by their Discord, they're probably a bunch a buffoons that will double-down on their Woke agenda.
They don't even acknowledge 'Woke' and dismiss any criticism that points out that their inclusivity agenda is pushing people away.
Is this really such a big deal?

Personally I don't give a shit how these characters look, most of them are silly as fuck for sure. I don't see my character when playing and the rest of them I can shoot in the face. Win win.


Also: I don't agree Rivalry being the mode for this game. It does make the fight at the start very strategic, but once you kill 1 or 2 of the other team there's no way they can come back from that, unless your team fucks up big time. The only valid strategy is that the teams stay together, no flanking or other silly shit, because you risk getting outnumbered and killed.
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
This game is most certainly dead on arrival. You can usually gauge interest with open betas, and its just not there. Not to mention this is on top of the very negative reception the game got in the first place. This will tank like Suicide Squad, perhaps even harder because SS likely drew a few of Rocksteady and DC fans and Concord has nothing of the sort.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
Is this really such a big deal?

Personally I don't give a shit how these characters look, most of them are silly as fuck for sure. I don't see my character when playing and the rest of them I can shoot in the face. Win win.


Also: I don't agree Rivalry being the mode for this game. It does make the fight at the start very strategic, but once you kill 1 or 2 of the other team there's no way they can come back from that, unless your team fucks up big time. The only valid strategy is that the teams stay together, no flanking or other silly shit, because you risk getting outnumbered and killed.
I personally dont give a shit either, but many people do (just look at any Concord thread on Gaf, for example) and I think it's just the thing that pushes people over the edge.

The game itself has issues as well. Personally I'm 50/50 on it.
 
I have never seen a game recover by adding stuff like this.

If they really want to take on Overwatch, Apex, Fortnite etc…

Dont buy a studio that has never shipped a game and make them launch a title in this genre.

You can make SP games great by throwing money at them. Extra polish is enough to convince players its a great game.

But this genre cannot be won like this. Get Bungie caliber team, give them enough money to branch out.

Merge Firwatch, Haven etc with Bungie and cancel their current games.
 

dotnotbot

Member
So I jump on Concord right before the open beta ends. I sort of had this "Let me make sure I don't like this game" mentality.

First game on...was awesome. Both teams played together. Teams were evenly matched, no one left. Pace was slow and tactical, most rounds went into overtime. It was exactly how I imagined Firewalk wanted the game to be played.

Second game on...my team plays like kittens being dumped out of a cardboard box.

That's the problem with Concord. Most games there's zero cohesion with your crew. Very few people are on mic. Very few people pick the correct team composition. Very few people stay with their team. The problem with Concord is they made a team based "strategy fighter" where no one plays as a team. If you look to Battle Royale, MOBA's, or even other 5v5 hero shooters, you can see a significantly higher level of team cohesion. Concord is bombing because there's very little incentive to play as a team.

Eight fixes that will encourage teamplay and give Concord a pulse...

1. Steer your players to RIVALRY mode. It's clearly what the game was designed around. The other modes dilute the experience and teach players incorrect habits.

2. RIVARLY has to be bumped up to 5 or 6 round wins for victory. First to 4 goes by too fast.

3. Stop giving XP rewards out to the losing team. Incentivize winning. The beta (perhaps by design) had the worst progression system I've ever seen.

4. Voice lines should teach players core concepts of the game. Tanks should say "Drop that heal pad near me and stay close." Flankers should say "Let me get into position before you push."

5. Put a map in front of the player so we can more easily coordinate with teammates. "Let's go A route. Roka, you stay on top of B and cover us." On this map, show every wall, heal disc, spore, and dome that your teammates have dropped. Switch to this map automatically after you've selected your character.

6. Incentivize winning by creating difficult challenges that reward teams in clever ways. Example: If your crew wins 5 matches in a row, a new map enters rotation where only 5 win streak teams can play on.

7. Give players a Match MVP designation for outperforming teammates. Fix KDR feed so we know who is performing and who isn't.

8. Go F2P ASAP.

It's time for Concord to take off.

Concorde-British-Airways.jpg

Enough OP, take this
7jbur3.png
 
You have solid points here but we will have to see what Sonys business decision is here. The game just didn't land. I'm not sure what the exact reasons are but it hopefully sends some form of message to the industry.

I’m hoping it sends ripples up the asses of Bungie leadership which makes them rethink the idiotic Hero pivot for Marathon. But fat chance of that happening. Fucking Valorant.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
I'm not sure focusing on rivalry even if you extend the rounds is a good idea.

The issue is how long it takes to get into those rounds because you are forced to swap heros on win, this means you waiting to get into the match, your waiting for the match to start via the extended intro cutscene + character select, your waiting for character select every round.

Vs the more popular respawn game modes, which was more popular because of how long you spend waiting per match vs playing.

also games that don't reward players on loss are massively frustrating for the casual audience, meaning you are targeting specifically at the hardcore. Honestly this focus on hardcore I think is the issue with Hero Shooters recently, there's no designed for casuals title's like TF2 since we'll... TF2. Where my 16 vs 16 objective based team hero shooters? Why does everything need to be 5 vs 5 esports ready BS?

Isn't that the gap in the market people are missing?
 
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Neolombax

Member
Add custom game mode, add server browser. Incentivize long term player progression, give cosmetics that change how certain characters look (since it was such a concern (?)) My personal issue was I dont know what I'm progressing towards. COD gives a list of things that you can earn with 100, 200, 300 headshots for example. There's nothing like this for Concord.

I don't normally like games going F2P. Thats the reason why I liked Overwatch 1 over Overwatch 2. Yes loot boxes are scummy, but I had a chance of earning cosmetics rather than paying for them. At least I know I'm playing towards something in-game.
 
The good news is, you can always play one of the other 10 games concord copied and u'll barely feel a thing!

But concord is more than DOA, its DOA since we saw the 1st images. Its a combination of pretty much every single decision being terrible.

And the funny thing is, they paid tens of millions to have this game flop even harder by adding pronouns. They deserve to flop.
 
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lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
We all can agree except for those old existing GaaS IP , most new GaaS games are not going to survive
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not

Atleast THE Concorde actually achieved something, it innovated and was interesting.......im still sad that I never got to fly in one and that no one has made a supersonic commercial aircraft since.





This Concord has done nothing.
An easy skip for me, I cant even hate the game cuz I havent even given it a chance.....i didnt like Overwatch I very much doubt ill like weve got Overwatch at home.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
We all can agree except for those old existing GaaS IP , most new GaaS games are not going to survive
When it comes to MP and GaaS games most people play the ones they are comfortable with and what their friends playing and in that space is mostly dominated by Fortnite and COD.

They will play the new one for a week or so but they eventually just go back to Fortnite or COD like they always do.
 
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Neolombax

Member
The good news is, you can always play one of the other 10 games concord copied and u'll barely feel a thing!

But concord is more than DOA, its DOA since we saw the 1st images. Its a combination of pretty much every single decision being terrible.

And the funny thing is, they paid tens of millions to have this game flop even harder by adding pronouns. They deserve to flop.
I tried Overwatch and Apex again last weekend, and I'm reminded why I dont like any of them. The gunplay in Overwatch feels more floaty. Also both Overwatch and Apex's movements are too fast, and the TTK is faster.
 

PeteBull

Member
We got open beta numbers, was around 2,5k concurent players at peak, so we can be super sure game is nasty flop, game is broken at its core, made with pushing woke agenda as top priority, nothing can save it.
6years of development time/cost down the drain.

Its good for gamers/market such bad quality games flop, otherwise sony keeps funding them and cuts funds for example for Days Gone sequel(dev/director for it wasnt woke so they had no scruples even tho game sold decently on both ps4 and pc).

Its capitalism, baby, underperforming products are meant to fail and be nourishing soil for future better products.
Even biased sellout proffesional journos reviews wont help here, same way they couldnt cancell hogwarts legacy despite their best efforts(official 24m copies sold as of dec 2023).

https://www.wired.com/review/hogwarts-legacy-review/ 1/10 score -that creature reviews dildos btw
But there were tons more bad scores from "reputable sources" too, its on the net so u can check for urself :p
 

tommib

Member
We got open beta numbers, was around 2,5k concurent players at peak, so we can be super sure game is nasty flop, game is broken at its core, made with pushing woke agenda as top priority, nothing can save it.
6years of development time/cost down the drain.

Its good for gamers/market such bad quality games flop, otherwise sony keeps funding them and cuts funds for example for Days Gone sequel(dev/director for it wasnt woke so they had no scruples even tho game sold decently on both ps4 and pc).

Its capitalism, baby, underperforming products are meant to fail and be nourishing soil for future better products.
Even biased sellout proffesional journos reviews wont help here, same way they couldnt cancell hogwarts legacy despite their best efforts(official 24m copies sold as of dec 2023).

https://www.wired.com/review/hogwarts-legacy-review/ 1/10 score -that creature reviews dildos btw
But there were tons more bad scores from "reputable sources" too, its on the net so u can check for urself :p
Love this. It goes from woke agenda, Harry Potter, dildos, capitalism, cancel culture… love it. You should start a YouTube channel.
 

PeteBull

Member
Love this. It goes from woke agenda, Harry Potter, dildos, capitalism, cancel culture… love it. You should start a YouTube channel.
Sometimes truth stings bro, no need to get upset, better accept reality than live in ur woke bubble or u end up like democrats before this years elctions(and i say it as an european, altho i love watching US politics, coz they are super entertaining :p ).
 
Sometimes truth stings bro, no need to get upset, better accept reality than live in ur woke bubble or u end up like democrats before this years elctions(and i say it as an european, altho i love watching US politics, coz they are super entertaining :p ).
So you are saying Concord just shot themselves in the foot and that bullet ricochet right through Trumps ear and killed Biden's political career?

Got it.
 

PeteBull

Member
So you are saying Concord just shot themselves in the foot and that bullet ricochet right through Trumps ear and killed Biden's political career?

Got it.
Im saying game is so bad even alphabet and transformers community doesnt wanna play it, and the game panders to them hard, no wonder normal/avg players dont wanna touch it even with a stick just like normal guy doesnt even wanna have casual sex with beached whale :messenger_sunglasses:
 

Barakov

Gold Member
So I jump on Concord right before the open beta ends. I sort of had this "Let me make sure I don't like this game" mentality.

First game on...was awesome. Both teams played together. Teams were evenly matched, no one left. Pace was slow and tactical, most rounds went into overtime. It was exactly how I imagined Firewalk wanted the game to be played.

Second game on...my team plays like kittens being dumped out of a cardboard box.

That's the problem with Concord. Most games there's zero cohesion with your crew. Very few people are on mic. Very few people pick the correct team composition. Very few people stay with their team. The problem with Concord is they made a team based "strategy fighter" where no one plays as a team. If you look to Battle Royale, MOBA's, or even other 5v5 hero shooters, you can see a significantly higher level of team cohesion. Concord is bombing because there's very little incentive to play as a team.

Eight fixes that will encourage teamplay and give Concord a pulse...

1. Steer your players to RIVALRY mode. It's clearly what the game was designed around. The other modes dilute the experience and teach players incorrect habits.

2. RIVARLY has to be bumped up to 5 or 6 round wins for victory. First to 4 goes by too fast.

3. Stop giving XP rewards out to the losing team. Incentivize winning. The beta (perhaps by design) had the worst progression system I've ever seen.

4. Voice lines should teach players core concepts of the game. Tanks should say "Drop that heal pad near me and stay close." Flankers should say "Let me get into position before you push."

5. Put a map in front of the player so we can more easily coordinate with teammates. "Let's go A route. Roka, you stay on top of B and cover us." On this map, show every wall, heal disc, spore, and dome that your teammates have dropped. Switch to this map automatically after you've selected your character.

6. Incentivize winning by creating difficult challenges that reward teams in clever ways. Example: If your crew wins 5 matches in a row, a new map enters rotation where only 5 win streak teams can play on.

7. Give players a Match MVP designation for outperforming teammates. Fix KDR feed so we know who is performing and who isn't.

8. Go F2P ASAP.

It's time for Concord to take off.

Concorde-British-Airways.jpg
Fuck your plane. I reinstalled Overbotch.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
Im saying game is so bad even alphabet and transformers community doesnt wanna play it, and the game panders to them hard, no wonder normal/avg players dont wanna touch it even with a stick just like normal guy doesnt even wanna have casual sex with beached whale :messenger_sunglasses:

What about the LGTV community? Those OLED owners got have something to play on it.
 
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hlm666

Member
3. Stop giving XP rewards out to the losing team. Incentivize winning. The beta (perhaps by design) had the worst progression system I've ever seen.
This actually wont have the impact your hoping for, it will increase quiting because why stay when your teams losing if you get nothing. Quit and try get in a new game where you will get xp. Unless they also implement some penalty for quiters aswell.
 
Hold the game back with a general message of "We've heard the criticism, and we want this to be the best product it can be."

Make the game free to play, and give refunds.

Hire a new team to rework / redesign the characters and their outfits. Without changing race or weight, devote your team to making everyone look either attractive, or cool, or badass, or all three. The idea here is make people want to be like the characters in your game. That's what gets people to want to spend money.

Give all robot and face covering helmet characters an optional human character model.

And add at least two or three new characters.
 

MrRibeye

Member
You have some nice ideas there

1. Steer your players to RIVALRY mode.
Agreed. Sony's last live service game Destruction AllStars had lots of different game modes and it felt diluted because of it.

2. RIVARLY has to be bumped up to 5 or 6 round wins for victory.
Agreed, longer game time makes comebacks possible and victories earned. Counter-Strike has 24 rounds to victory.

3. Stop giving XP rewards out to the losing team.
Disagree. I'd introduce another currency exclusively gained through victory, like the Crowns in Falls Guys.

4. Voice lines should teach players core concepts of the game.
Brilliant.

5. Put a map in front of the player.
Agreed. No reason not to feature maps more prominantly.

6. Incentivize winning by creating difficult challenges that reward teams by giving them access to a limited game mode.
That's like Trials of the Nine in Destiny and it always felt like an honor to participate. Love this.

7. Give players a Match MVP / better KDR feed.
Agreed. There was a time when Heroes of the Storm obscured player performance and people didn't like that, so I'd learn from Blizzard what not to do.

8. Go F2P ASAP.
Agreed. Destruction AllStars should have too.


Even though I agree a lot, I don't think Concord can be saved unless Firewalk becomes more humble and admits that they missed the mark and don't brush us off as white noise.
 
I tried Overwatch and Apex again last weekend, and I'm reminded why I dont like any of them. The gunplay in Overwatch feels more floaty. Also both Overwatch and Apex's movements are too fast, and the TTK is faster.
Wellp, none of that justifies a new game, and the audience clearly chose already.
 

Astray

Member
I think we need to add "OP is an idiot" as an option.

You've been hyping up this game (and Sony's GAAS initiative) for ages now, literally the only person I've seen doing it anywhere online btw.

But now you know you've been caught with your pants down, so you make these weird threads in order to pivot.

Some of the weirdest behavior I've ever seen anywhere online. Just take your lumps bro it's not that deep.
 

balls of snow

Gold Member
Its point 8.
And even then its dead when Marvel Rivals and or Valorant comes out for real. Also just have either quickplay or rankings because splitting the pitiful player base into specific gamemodes is gonna make the wait times longer.
 
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