Saturday 11 August 2012

DUST 514: The virtuoso problem

I downloaded DUST 514 this afternoon and have been trying it out. After several matches during which I failed to hit an opponent I've realised they may have a problem.

One of the great thinkers of our time on games is Jane McGonigal. She has spoken of the virtuoso effect. According to research, 10 000 hours spent doing something is enough to make you a virtuoso at that thing. And most people growing up now will have spent 10 000 hours gaming by the age of 21.

I haven't spent 10 000 hours playing first person shooters. Or console games. So in making a game that's playable by a generation of gaming virtuosos, CCP seem to have made a game that's beyond me.

It's partly the control system. I don't have any muscle memory for which button to press to shoot someone (it's Right 1) so I'm thinking a lot about that not just concentrating on getting my cursor onto a target.

It's partly a hand eye coordination issue. To shoot someone I have to very quickly target a tiny chevron that may well be moving.

But it's mainly that the other people are so good. If they were terrible they'd take ages to accurately target me too so I'd have a good chance of killing them in the age they took to shoot me. But they're brilliant at this and generally if I go anywhere near someone I'm toast.

Now as a large number of Eve players try DUST as our first shooter in years (Doom 1 was the last one I played a lot), we're going to discover we're awful. So bad at it that the game is unplayable. It's also very demoralising to get zero skill points for the match because skill point awards are completely linked to how well you do.

I'm going to persevere at it. I might try the medic. Hopefully I'll have a chance of hitting someone on my own team who isn't trying to avoid me.

14 comments:

  1. Had Dust been on PC, I would have been there. This PS3-exclusive thing is the most bizarrely dumb cross-over gamble I have ever seen.

    And even though I have 10,000+ hours of FPS on the PC, I get my face stomped whenever I play Halo with friends on the Xbox, as the PC skills are not all that transferable to consoles.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well the good news is that I've only 9994 hours left to go before I become a virtuoso.

      More sensibly, they are letting you use mouse and keyboard which is probably something that will suit a lot of us PC gamers better.

      Delete
    2. I agree with Azuriel, the whole Dust setup is bizarre. It's on a completely different platform. It's a completely different type of game; the two are as far apart as could be, I mean, EVE doesn't even support joysticks to pilot manually, and then they create an FPS? I also read multiple times (I'm not part of the community, so can't comment on the accuracy) that FPS players are a finicky bunch that puts MMO players to shame, and will jump boat within months when they next game is published.

      The whole thing smells like a classic overextending scenario. They think they're so good, they'll branch out to a different platform, game type, and player audience all at the same time. If this doesn't crash and burn spectacularly, good for them, and I'll eat crow.

      Delete
    3. I'm rooting for them but one has to wonder. Still if people didn't try improbable things we wouldn't have Americans.

      Delete
  2. Maybe there's a reason you haven't played many FPS since Doom. Like ... maybe you just don't like them? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I want to like it. I'm playing with a friend who's fantastic at these games. It will interface with Eve where I'm a billionaire and from where I'll be able to nuke Dust players from orbit.

      And so far I'm not actually disliking Dust, I'm just observing that it's unplayable at my current stage of noobiness.

      Delete
  3. Man I have no idea how many hours I have spent on games... but I am willing to say it is in the 10k range...

    Started with Commander Keen and Wolfenstein, every iteration of Doom, Quake, Unreal, Duke Nukem, Decent, Heretic, Hexen, Splinter Cell, most of Call of Duty, most of Rainbow Six, most of Halo... you get it... but I am of the old gereration by gaming standards... 52 this coming month.

    And, um, if I may... Select your targets from the OV, not on screen. If you have your OV setup right, targeting is as simple as "press R-Ctrl" + "L-Mouse click" > move cursor down 1/8th inch and repeat. The ONLY time I 'click' in space is during manual flight and for R-Click menu access.

    Where I get swamped is with the data overload during fleet fights in RvB... 10 to 30 flashing red icons on screen and in the OV makes it hard to follow Primary and Secondary calls... but I'm getting better at it... =]

    And I for one am moar than a bit pissed DUST is on a console, and not PC.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's no overview in Dust. In Eve I do just as you recommend.

      Delete
    2. Hmmm... I started out talking about DUST and segued into EVE w/o realizing it there... sry bout that.

      And yea, it takes just practice, you'll get it. =]

      Delete
  4. I spent quite a bit of time playing CS back in the day. My FPS skills are definitely degraded ( wasnt all that stellar back then either , but I played at amateur competitive level)- but still I can jump into random FPS du jour and score on top of the board with decent consistency.

    Now console games I cant play at all - controller is something completely foreign to me, so if I play MW3 on PC I play well, if I play it on some1 else xbox I cant get positive KD to save my life

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It could be something that will get fixed once I set up a mouse and keyboard.

      Delete
  5. I have really been looking forward to this game but haven't had the chance to try it myself. From what I understand -- based largely on the Podcast Beyond interview (you should check it out) -- the game was really designed with a whole different type of player in mind. That's certainly not to say you shouldnt be playing/enjoying it but, truth be told, I got the impression they care more about opening MMOs to a whole new audience rather than give their existing players a new option. That said, by allowing keyboard and mouse support on the PS3 they're giving PC inclined players a definite advantage over your average console guy, so I just don't know.

    One thing I've learned about shooters over the years, however, is that starting a new one is almost always like slamming your face into a brick wall to start. It gets better once you develop the map know how rand muscle memory you describe. What they're trying is really ambitious and could turn out great with the right support. Don't give up! It gets better because at the end of the day, EVE property or not, it's a shooter and they always get better if you muscle through. It just sounds like all their design has made it deliberately hard to get into.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hang out for the Aug 21st KB&M patch.
    Then get some payback on those gamepad virtuosos who stupidly refuse to upgrade to the more advanced, precise control system. They won't stay playing for long, so get in early.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'd like to put a word in for the console players out there. I'm quite the virtuoso myself when it comes to FPS games, and I'm quite sure I've well exceeded 10K hours. Although it takes good reactions, hand to eye co-ordination and timing to effectively play console versions of FPS games, that shouldn't be a bad thing, in fact it makes the game more competitive. I've had a couple of months experience of EVE online, and that's just as hard to get into for noobs as it is for you and FPS DUST. I actually approve the concept of DUST, as it gives console players a taste of EVE universe while keeping it familiarin terms of gameplay, and for the EVE faithful it offers the skill upgrade system and increasing tech levels that they will be used to. Hopefully CCP can keep it balanced enough to make it an enjoyable experience for anyone and everyone

    ReplyDelete