True, but it still impacts the quality of the gameplay experience.
Any new players who try to get into the game will find a very hostile environment where they will suffer one crushing defeat after another, until they either practice and read up on guides to the point where they can actually compete with the people who’ve been playing the game for years, or they quit.
Any gamemodes that aren’t popular with the diehard fans might as well not exist. Unless you have a group of willing friends, you’re generally stuck playing in only the most popular gamemodes and lobbies.
And if you run into players you don’t like because they’re rude/elitist/griefing/cheating, you’re generally stuck with them. They’re likely to be friends with the rest of the diehard playerbase and thus can’t be kicked or avoided.
So yes, a game doesn’t live and die by how much it’s trending on twitch, but a lack of popularity is still a very real concern for an ongoing multiplayer game.
You never played SC2 did you. I still play. It’s still crushingly hostile to someone who’s played the game for 8 years let alone a new player. Yet people still play SC2, even new players.
Welcome to life new person. It’s generally not ideal for you here. That’s no reason to quit though, as un-ideal as it sounds, it really does have it’s moments. Good luck & have fun!
I just proved this sentiment wrong but whatever, continue to march on with your own internal narrative I suppose.
The OP’s doom and gloom makes it sound like the games servers are going to be turned off, which is the only way I video game can “die”.
Evolve Stage 2 had about 30-60 active players per day but the game was not dead because the servers were still hosted. They’re down now, so yes, that game is dead, but as long as hots is hosted on Blizzard’s servers, it is not a dead game.
Highly unlikely to happen unless something significant changes at Blizzard. Even then, there are often 3rd party solutions if there is enough of an interest for it.
ya thats not happening. if blizz can keep a game as old as D2 up this long with its less than active population i think they can handle HotS with its more active crowd.
Seriously? A game with 30-60 active users could go on for 3.5 years before being canned but a game like HotS with THOUSANDS of active players is on borrowed time for a year or less?
Could you point me to an actual new player in Starcraft 2? I play it occasionally too, but I can’t remember the last time I saw someone asking a total noob question or saying that they’re new. There were a few after the game went free-to-play, but I haven’t seen much since then.
You seem to be implying that these problems are present in every multiplayer game. This is not the case for popular games with a large, healthy playerbase. Even the most unpopular gamemodes in League of Legends, DotA 2 and Overwatch still have some people who will play with you, and if you run across a player you don’t like for whatever reason, you can always avoid them, report them and/or mute them; and even if you don’t, you’re unlikely to see them again.
…no you didn’t. You just downplayed the significance of the issues that come with a lack of popularity.
Plus, for every game like WC3 that still has a diehard fanbase, even years after the game’s popularity has faded, there are a dozen multiplayer games that truly died when the servers shut down, or have become so unpopular that it’s almost impossible to actually play with other people. Lawbreakers, Nuclear Dawn, XCOM 2 Multiplayer, and hundreds of other forgotten titles that neither of us remember.
I don’t know why people think Hots is alive. This game is dead since December 13, people just can’t understand it. Devs are gone, Kevin is gone, patches will come less frequent. Plenty of good people (pros and players from higher ranks) uninstalled right after the announcement. A lot of players stayed, but the question is for how long. The lack of players is not very prevalent now, because there was Kid event and Imperius was released, but how will Hots look like after first 2 months without any new content? it will definitely happen sooner or later this year! Hots players got used to regular new content, but what if it wouldn’t come? In my opinion we will se serious lack of players in months…
I think servers will be online for a long time, but without players. Maybe some smaller local servers (like the Singapore one) will be closed or merged, but EU or NA will be online for years. Without players…
I think you have no idea how game server works and the difference between Evolve and Hots!
First of all Evolve had dedicated servers. It means that you lease server from the owner. You gain full control, but have to pay for it. In this case Evolve’s devs leased servers from Valve. The key is you never lease server for a day or for a week (especially if you are big company such as 2K)!! You do it for months or years. Servers were shutdown when they had to renew the lease, but the income was lower than the cost.
However, Hots doesn’t have dedicated servers, because Blizzard has its own ones. There are so many servers for all of their games, so maintain a few more is barely noticeable. But it doesn’t mean Hots is alive!
I don’t know how to interpret the disappearance of the pro aspect of the game. On one hand, I understand that larger tournaments do attract attention, but on the other, the way pros play differs wildly from the wider game base that keep the game afloat.
I also don’t understand why loss of Twitch viewing is so important. On one hand, again it shows that there’s interest in the game if people watch Twitch players in HotS… but that’s one person playing… It’s not like the whole audience is in-game as well (and if they are, that’s usually when the term 'twitch sniping comes into play)… So I can understand the lack of visibility, but I don’t see how that determines the game is declining.
Longer queue times, NOW we’re talking. While there is a bell-curve to the player population (only small portions will be exceedingly bad or exceptionally good, while the majority will be in the middle) I think there is something to say the game is declining due to longer time waiting for a match. Fewer players, the longer the search for a match with players in your category takes… I have noticed that it takes me a little longer sometimes, but I will confess this is during times where I expect most people are asleep, or otherwise busy.
I’m not calling whether the game is going to be dead or not… YET. This year I think will be critical for it in helping us judge. If the devs make a larger hash of this, or the changes just are NOT what we want, yeah… it’s gonna die. However, we don’t know what will be done, there’s still 11 months left in the year, and a lot can happen. I’m practical enough that I don’t expect to be playing this game forever, and I’d rather it die at its height than die after it’s chased me away, but that’s up to what’s coming… not where it’s at now.
I’m pretty confident the game will be still here and accessible in a year and beyond. The question is, how enjoyable will the game be if it loses too many players. It is not like Diablo 2 or Diablo 3, where you can enjoy the game experience solo.
One of the most consistent complains has been about match quality and the Matchmaker, both those problems will only get worse if this game loses players.
So yes, those people who state “that game will not be shut down” are probably correct. But I’m doubtful people will want to stay if the population falls too low to make reasonable queue times for Quick Match which would be even more of a clown fest in terms of skill disparity than we have now. Not to forget other modes like ranked where matching 10 people of roughly equal skill is a must to provide the experience the devs intended.
You only need to look to smaller servers, I have friends from Australia where HOTS was apparently quite popular and had a smaller but dedicated player-base. Apparently after the denouncement in December, nobody can get a match in TL for less than a 15 minutes wait, where as last season it was 5. Apparently HL takes them about 5 - 10 minutes, but they don’t have the stricter divisional rules of larger servers like the US and EU and these are the wait times for rainbow league matches.
These are just the 10 friends i have from Australia as we met through Diablo 3 where playing with high ping was somewhat less a problem, so I’m aware it’s anecdotal, but there are already threads like this on the forums from those in smaller regions. These regions provide at least an idea of how things might play out in larger regions if HOTS loses a significant part of its player-base.
The servers may stay on, the lights might be on, but it won’t matter if nobody is home.
