Why the TF2 respawn timers are bad -- a novel.
Why the TF2 respawn timers are bad -- a novel.
Categories: Video Games, 1447 wordsSend feedback • PermalinkTeam Fortress 2 was released last night after eight years in the making, and it is awesome. It is very well balanced, very fun and interesting, and an all around good game. All of the things I'm about to say dwarf in comparison to how fun TF2 really is, but I have to say them because it is the only thing I simply hate about the game.
Respawn timers are bad because nobody wants to wait to have to play a game. I've heard many reasons that respawn timers should be included, and now I will debunk them all.
Respawn timers are there for balance.
There are many, many ways to balance a game. Choosing a way that forces or penalizes players is a poor design decision. Many games are balanced without respawn timers and there are many ways to balance games without respawn timers. The original TF as well as TFC were both very well balanced games without the need for respawn timers.
Respawn timers help prevent stalemates by penalizing the losing team.
If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a game where winners keep winning. Stepping on the underdog is a great way to design a bad game. Nobody likes having to die over and over again, and then wait 20 seconds between each spawn, because all of your teammates are bad and therefore you must suffer as well. A player should never be penalized by poor teammates to the degree where the game is not fun to play, or where he is forced to sit it out. There are many other ways to break stalemates, such as the medic's invulnerability, and other room-clearing methods.
Respawn timers force players to spawn in waves and thus stay together and work as a team.
First let's deal with the forcing. Valve has spent millions of dollars developing video games only to realize (as revealed in developer commentary on games such as HL2: Episode 1) something that I could have told them years ago which is that players don't like being forced, coerced, or told to do anything. Forcing a gamer is always a great way to have the gamer either not play your game or dislike you and your company.
Next let's deal with the issue of these so-called "waves". Proponents of the idea claim that forcing players to wait to spawn helps players create waves. The reality is actually otherwise, because of several factors. First, different character classes (specifically, the ones designed to work together,) move at different speeds, and during the time it takes to get to the fight the players have already been split up. Furthermore, just because players spawn near each other does not mean that they will actually stick close; there are many paths to take and the players will probably split up and take different paths. Additionally, teleporters split players up even further, as the time it takes to use one means that players coming out the other side are not in a coherent group.
Now let's consider classes that don't require this teamwork. If I am an engineer I don't want to have to wait until the next wave, I have a sentry that is dying and requires urgent care. If I am an hwguy I need to get back to my post. If I am a spy then waves don't matter to me because I am an independent agent. If I am a sniper I just want to get back to the battlements to continue the lone-wolfing that I've been doing. Really the only group that this refers to are the medics and their soldier/heavy/demo/pyro counterparts that require teaming up in order to assault enemy positions.
The proper way to encourage teamwork is not through coercion, but by introducing game elements that allow the players to be synergistic through teamwork in ways otherwise not possible. If players are shown that working together helps them to kick more ass, then they will leap at the chance despite having not spawned together.
Respawn timers are there so that killed players don't leap back into your face.
If this is a tradeoff between being able to respawn quickly and get back into the game against having players come back quickly after I kill them, I would rather have someone leap back into my face and have to put them down again then lack the ability to get back into the game when there is something that urgently needs doing. There are also other mechanisms of doing this; mainly multiple spawn points and proper spawnroom positioning, which most TF maps already have.
Respawn timers are an incentive not to die.
How is not dying a positive influence on the game? Naturally nobody wants to die. People who phrase this argument act as if nobody really minds dying in video games, as if some people jump on grenades for fun. Nobody dies unless there is a good reason for it, like a team self-sacrifice. Why penalize people for dying? The way to encourage people not to die is to penalize their score, which already exists in every FPS ever.
OK, so in addition to not dying, let me add to my to-do list: "Don't get headshotted by distant unseen snipers." "Don't find yourself in the path of an invul'd hwguy." "Don't spend more than 0.5 seconds in front of a level 3 sentry that wasn't there two minutes ago." "Don't ever try to capture the enemy flag, because that's impossible to do without dying." "Don't walk past any det traps, even if you don't notice they are there." and "Don't get stabbed in the back by a spy that was cloaked until two seconds ago."
Penalizing people for dying is really a penalty for newbies instead. This is stepping on the neck of those who die a lot because they haven't played the game much before. Not a very good way to retain players.
Additionally, encouraging players not to die in such a fashion is a good way to get them to go to extremes to stay alive. Suddenly it becomes more worth it to let the enemy have your flag if it means staying alive and not having to wait 20 seconds. After all, they would get the flag either way. Telling the player not to take one for the team is another way of telling the player to look after his own skin instead of working for the good of the team.
Have some patience.
Patience is not a virtue when your teammates are being killed and your team is losing and the enemy is getting away with your flag.
The spawn timer gives players time to think about *insert topic here*.
To those of you who can not think and press buttons at the same time: Why are you playing video games?
You are still thinking in the "deathmatch" mindset.
TF is just glorified deathmatch with teams and goals. Having rockets, sniper rifles, autos and lots of other cool deathmatch-y weapons, TF is just a deathmatch game. If you don't want to deathmatch, your game is CS or DoD.
If you don't like it, don't play. or Well, you just suck.
Patronizing and elitism does not solve any problems. If you can't come up with a good reason that respawn timers should be in the game, say "Maybe you're right." Saying, "Then don't play" and "Stop dying" is a cop-out, unproductive, and dodges the real issues. Weak statements like this hide the speaker's inability to find solid ground for argument and only serve to highlight that the speaker has run out of arguments and is using a last resort to show he is not wrong.
Also, think about this issue from a design perspective, not from an elitist perspective. Not what is easiest for you, but rather what is best for the game and most fun for the players? A self-respecting and self-preserving game company would be wise not to take this approach, because they don't want people to stop playing their games and giving them money, and because they are out to design a good game, not redirect the issues.
And lastly, I paid good money for this game and I'll play whatever the fuck I want, who are you to tell me not to play just because of one minor thing? How pretentious!
The Solution
Keep the respawn timer exactly the way it is, except cut all times in half so that players must wait no longer than 10 seconds. This will alleviate the frustration of not being able to get back in while appeasing those lost souls who still after reading this believe that respawn timers are somehow a good thing.
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