"Experience/Level gated content unlocks"

I know at least some of you are sick of this cancerous practice. You know, how in game after game, items, weapons, or whatever require you to reach a certain profile level. I dunno if it's specifically skinner box, but it's at least something similar and it's fucking cancer. Any shooter that does this is pushing its luck, though I can understand co-op games doing it, in PvP games it's fucking awful for people to have to wait to get something, sometimes something that's required for a certain strategy or counter, to work.

It's especially cancerous in small indie games. Normies will deal with unlocking AR#124 in battlefield. The game will survive. But nobody wants to have to unlock every single part in some indie build-game. I swear this is why Gimbal died; it was a really fun aircraft-building and dogfighting game, but it gated a lot of the building parts behind a stupid levelup system. I lost my savedata, and though I wanted to play the game, every time I opened it I realised I'd have to grind back up to get all that cool stuff. It wasn't even a long grind, but it was just enough to make me go 'fuck that.' Because really, you shouldn't be gating parts of your game off to create some retarded progression. It's not an RPG.
Think devs will learn the lesson sometime?

usually I think of it as training. if you're getting the better weapons right off the bat then you're more then likely going to miss the important tricks needed to push a weapon to it's maximum ability and in turn elevate your own skills, this is usually why fuckers who pay to win are always trash at the game tbh

Why are you using the politically correct version?

Do games with unlocks based on real/fictional currency count under this?

what

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stop being pedantic about semantics, there is nothing wrong with saying normies instead of normalfags, toons instead of characters, snapshot instead of screencap or screenshot, using reddit memes, cuckchan deformed wojack's or calling imageboards chans, this is an inclusive space for all redditors and 4channers to post LEL xD

"normie" is what cuckchan uses, while here it's "normalfags"

You posted that wojack with the cuckchan filename in the other thread, didn't you?

This sarcasm is too much.
Stop it.

I thought it was just one of the generic heavy soldiers from MGSV. I like the art style, at least; they’re halfway between chibi and real proportions.

I'd rather earn credits and be able to unlock the things I want than to have better stuff locked behind XP progression.
As much as people hate CoD Ghosts, that game did the multiplayer progression right (earn tokens by leveling up and completing challenges so you can unlock the stuff you want).
The progression system is way too grindy in BF.

If I were to use the brain meme the last box would be everything affecting gameplay available right from the start for the price of admission.

Unlock systems in games only become bearable if a player is still dangerous at level 0, or if every item on the tree is a 'sidegrade'.
Bad Company 2 comes so close to having a decent unlock tree, but Magnum Ammunition and Weapon Specializations are straight upgrades for all the classes, you'd be an idiot not to use them.

I agree, also BC2 is the last good Battlefield game.

With the exception of a few glaring issues (like the Carl Gustav) BC2 had some of the best balanced and most satisfying gunplay of any shooter in the last ten years

Any multiplayer that has any kind of unlock system is automatically garbage, whether through progression or payment. Even playing field or no playing field at all. Stick to single player with your unlock bullshit, this also counts for "skins".
Then why does our military spend millions on camo?
Besides its a cancer that sets a precedent for any other kind of unlockables anyway. Sooner or later the dev will cave in with increasingly more gameplay-affecting unlocks.

Also, I recently acquired CoH2 for free through GOG.

It's too bad not many people share your mentality, that's why rainbow 6 sledge tolerates character/equipment unlocks.

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Words of truth.

They aren't that bad, when compared to lootboxes and RNG based unlocks which get in some PC/consoles games these days.

I like it.
League of Legends and Paladins both have this. Because of that, I played both games, beat on some AI while having to deal with retarded team mates, moved on to playing with retards against other retards, and finally quit because I hated being the only person who wasn't retarded, after a very short time and spending no money.

Essentially, it's a good way to tell when a game is going to be bullshit. So I hope devs keep including this feature in their shitty games.

What happens in a historical WWII game?
How does the game designer make it logical for every new player to be able to pick up rare equipment which was only issued to the best units?
Unlock systems works like military ranks. The higher your rank, the better equipment you will be given in combat.
The average grunt in WWII wasn't issued STG44s or G43s. He was given the basic uniform, a bolt-action rifle and a few clips.
The veteran units who had been fighting since the start of the war though were the first top be issued all the new luxury equipment.

So how does one put this into a game without an unlock/level system?
Asking for a friend.

Use a story mode you dipshit.

You get the basic bitch gear the first mission. As you progress through the story missions you get access to better stuff, learning to use it by going through increasingly complex missions. Then you get to transfer that shit into multiplayer.

It doubles as the most effective way to force people to actually get a modicum of an idea of how to play.

In Red Orchestra 1, the prevalence of such weapons were dictated by a class system that was set up on a by-map basis. When you join a server and select a team, you're given a choice of classes to choose from (e.g. stoßtruppen, anti-tank, squad lead, etc.). Each class can select from a set of weapons that are historically accurate for their role, and each class is limited - for example, there's only a few squad leaders, a set number of machinegunners, usually only one sniper (if there's one at all), etc. The exception is riflemen, who are equipped with just a K98 and grenades and have no class limit.
The downside to this approach is that the people who load in the quickest are usually the ones to get the "good" roles, so people with toasters are almost always stuck as riflemen. The upside is that you get a historically accurate representation of small arms for that time period.

red orchestra would have been great with no dumb fucking leveling

That would make everyone play with the best weapons. Not realistic.

Like you said, the first players will be the ones picking up the best roles. A double-digit nigger with an SSD could grab the sniper role even if he sucks.
We need to a think of a better system.

My personal idea is like this:
Matches play like in Planetside 2. Massive maps, many sectors, and a shitload of players. A match could last for fucking days until a team finally won.

In these matches, the best players will slowly rank up and be issued better equipment based on their class. You could start as a rifleman and 4 days later be the fucking Waffen SS death incarnate.

Red Orchestra 1, to my knowledge, did not have this. That was implemented in RO2, which did have a progression system that locked weapons behind user level. If you want a decent historical WW2 shooter you should not be playing RO2.

And that's fine, since sniper is objectively the most useless role in the game.
You may want to look into WW2 Online. It's old as fuck and for some reason is still pay-to-play but it's the closest thing to what you're describing.

RO1 had levelling. have 80 hours on RO2 and at least twice that on the first. RO2 cranked up the levelling to obscene levels but RO1 you still had to grind out your shit for levels

Thank you.

This. I should lose because Im shit at the game, not because some kid at level 99 unlocked an unlimited nuke launcher. Shooter unlocks need to be variety based, not strength based.

I think as far as things go And I could very well be remembering it wrong Reach did it alright. There was only different cosmetic pieces for multiplayer and you could earn them playing the single player modes, but there was still rank gated items in the collection.
I could also be entirely wrong and bungie sucked cock and put weapons in there but it has been like 5 years since I played reach, and it was on a friends system so I'm not totally sure.
As far as Experience rewards go, unless the game is free all "rewards" should just be cosmetics, or incredibly temporary boons like the "Award" weapons/abilities in Battlefront 2, even if the award sniper rifle is a hunk of shit that shouldn't exist.

This is a fucking Polygon blogpost, isn't it?

Level-gated unlocks can still make you pay for them. Also "level up" in multiplayer games shouldn't exist if it's a large series of once-off battles, compared to say something like an MMO where it's about building a character from the ground up.

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Is that one of those Rivercity ____ games?

Give me one example of a video game that couldn't be described as a skinner box. This stupid buzz word needs to fuck off forever. I get it, you graduated high school.

It's not even a matter of being an industry practice, it's just game design.

T. Normalfag

Yep. RPG progression in most games serves as an extended tutorial. It's not just guns. If you give the player access to every move or attack or crafting component or what have you straight off the bat they will be massively overloaded. Gating it off via levelups breaks it all into bite size chunks that they can more easily figure out and master. Fighting games are really bad about this which could be why so few people ever learn to play them properly

God forbid they make levels were you don't need every tool you're given but still allow you to use them just encase you aren't a drooling retard.

The result is settling on a few options that work and ignoring and never learning the rest of your kit. Besides, just getting into a game and being thrown a million different actions is too overwhelming and off putting on its own, regardless of whether or not you can eventually figure them out on your own or not.

Seriously this isn't even pedantry, it's just bitching about a literal nothing. Or maybe someone trying to fracture our community even further with meaningless bullshit.

Well designed fighting games have a limited set of tools that have to be combined well to be effective, and there should always be a requirement to any multiplayer game for players to get intimate with it and learn to kick ass.

Yeah a clone, I don't get locking some essential moves that are almost vital to your progress in beating the damn game.

Until the game actually demands you use more of your tools. Shouldn't have to state that.

Overwhelming maybe, but off putting? If you can't play a complex game, go play a simple one. Games should gate everything off just because having a few too many buttons frightens you.

We don't talk about that game. Lets pretend it doesn't exist.

That's because it doesn't exist on any storefront, no one talks about the game.

My mistake. I think we talking about 2 different games.

Off yourself my man.

Because clearly nobody could come up with an abbreviation like "normie". It's irrelevant that they thought of it first, and you are being harmful for community coherence. Just fuck off.

We did it's called normalfag.

If you want to play that game, at least don't make yourself look like a jackass doing so. Now go and chill out with some cute anime girls, or maybe even some vidya.

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Less hypocrisy, more chilling.

Everytime

Oh the irony. Lurk more newfag.

I guess you could make it kind of like like counter-strike. Everyone's rank resets to zero every new game, so just make it easy to rank up several times within a single game. Although this introduces the problem of players intentionally killing themselves so they can respawn with unlocked equipment.

Plebbitors definitely didn't come up with the term normie.

This can work although some players may prefer each round to be independent of each other, rather than based on early performance. Also suicide tactics can be punished.

It's a big load of nothing. You chill too. Besides if you care that strongly about it it'd be more damaging to appropriate the term.

At least the game itself isn't cancer, yeah?

Normie is the reddit approved versions, not cuckchan. It started on reddit because using "fag" is wrongthink to those niggers.

Also gated content works not only to ease the player into new concepts and ideas but to keep them from running into situations they might get fucked in.

I did like how WoW handled the "progression" thing in the old days. You COULD go to end game areas off the bat but your low level meant you were far weaker than anything there, the range you could aggro things was far greater. etc.

The problem is a lot of devs use it to pad out their games and make it korean tier grind or "pay real money to grind less".

Reported from being from NEITHER website.

Please don't remind me about the commander card bullshit. Relic is fucking trash now and it blows hard.

As a former avid RO and RO:Ostfront player I am no longer even saddened to learn about new petty shit that TWI did to sabotage themselves. It's just not even surprising. I stopped playing RO2 shortly after launch because it was shit, and to think I was actually excited for the one worthwhile realistic mechanic they added, which was the 3D first person weapon collision that was supposed to make shooting out of windows and narrow spaces way cooler.

Drunkleigh Sousexander plz go

Black Ops probably had the best base model for this: Every game gives you XP, and you can use it to just BUY the items you want instead of getting arbitrary numbers of kills.

I have no idea why they went away from this, as it was the ideal unlock system. Black Ops 2 had some good loadout shit too, with pointbuy, even allowing full-retard mode in custom games.

100% agree, but the skinner box keeps the plebs coming back. And that is what devs/pubs want so we can get fucked i guess.