E-Sports and the competitive gaming scene are a growing part of the industry and gaming culture, despite the many false starts and inconclusive attempts at formal leagues. At Game Connection, I took the opportunity to ask Mr. Caleb Fox, head of Wargaming America, about his views on the competitive scene and how it affects game balance and design.
I’m here with Mr. Caleb Fox from Wargaming America, Head of E-Sports.
Hey.
We’re here to discuss the relationship of esports both to the community and game design development. Earlier today you talked about the idea that you couldn’t do an e-sport unless you had a fundamentally good game. What do you think is the relationship between casual gamers and competitive gamers in terms of game design and balance?
I would say it doesn’t necessarily have to be that different. It depends on the title. For our title, for example, there’s virtually no difference between one and the other…the difference is how the player executes on the design. Hard-core players are naturally going to go deeper, so that depth of design is necessary. A casual player may interact with that depth but not necessarily ever notice that it’s there
So you’ve never had a situation where you had to constrain the design to ensure a more easily balanced environment?
I would say that the design inherently has to be balanced or you’re operating under a false premise. To my knowledge, there’s no situation I can think of where we’ve had to not implement something we’d intended to because it would affect game balance. It’s more a matter of figuring out how it would affect game balance and coming up with a creative solution to solve it.
World of Tanks is a free-to-play title, and as players are aware it’s primarily grouped into different tiers of development. Do you find your competitive and casual audiences have different tastes for tiers and tanks?
Yes. Our casual audiences tend to enjoy every tier. It’s not that our competitive audience doesn’t, but they don’t want to compete with them. They’re not their go-to tanks. Generally we treat tiers 8-10 or 8 and 10 as the competitive tier, simply because they’re the most finely balanced. Obviously, when you have so many details going in, it’s a matter of the finely-balanced details down to the wire, so those two tiers happen to be the most balanced. They also have an incredible variety.
As for tank variety, I’d say our more competitive players prefer anything with a turret. Naturally, it’s more versatile… You’re not going to see a whole lot of tank destroyers [armored vehicles with a cannon but without a turret] used in competitive play because they’re not adaptable.
Do you feel that a competitive or e-sport environment encourages a more static design environment or a more evolving and gradually changing design environment?
I actually think it’s pretty neutral – you can use either. But I think if you want to keep it interesting then yes, it encourages a more dynamic environment. It depends on the game – look at something like Starcraft, which is pretty static, but still makes a good e-sport.
It’s interesting you brought up Starcraft because Starcraft is what I was about to get to. Starcraft has a very large gap between the competitive and casual style of play that almost doesn’t resemble the same game. Do you feel the same is true of all competitive gamers? Do you feel that this is a healthy dynamic? Or would you prefer that competitive gamers utilize the same core strategies as casual gamers?
As a former competitive Starcraft player. I think it’s just a matter of learning at the early stages, learning what strategies to apply. By the time you get to the competitive level you have it down to a science, and it’s just a matter of how quickly you can implement your strategy or counter strategy X, Y, or Z. How well you know your opponent. It’s really the same game, just deeper. So I think that accessibility is really the key – the deep end is there if someone wants to go there. I don’t think a strict line is healthy; I’m a big fan of creating a bridge for newbies, if you will, to become pros – but again, a lot of them aren’t going to want to do that.
One thing I’ve had a great deal of experience with is Magic: The Gathering. Magic is a highly competitive game, and I’ve been told that they deliberately design cards that are explicitly designed never to see competitive play – either because they don’t fit the competitive mindset, or they’re supposed to be inherently inferior to other options. Do you ever find yourself doing that with World of Tanks?
No. We actually never design tanks with e-sports in mind. We design tanks with other tanks in mind to be balanced and fun to play. Then we let the competitive side of it evolve. There are always tanks that are going to be more competitive than others because they are more versatile than others… Usually it’s going to be speed and versatility over something that fills one specific role, unless your strategy revolves entirely around that role.
Do you feel that competitive games necessarily favor a horizontal design – something like chess, where all the pieces are inherently playable – or do you feel that competitive games should have more of a tiered vertical design, where you build yourself up from relatively simple strategies to choices that have multiple strategic depths?
I think the answer is yes. If you look across at League of Legends, DOTA, Starcraft, and World of Tanks, you’ll see those [sides of the spectrum]. I think it depends on your design philosophy and who you want to reach.
Do you feel that competitive play is the natural end-point of a game? Do you feel as a gamer gets more skilled they should naturally gravitate towards competitive play? Or do you see it as separate audiences?
That’s a tough question, because it depends on the person. I was hired because I was a competitive World of Tanks player, so for me, the end was – well, right now, becoming the head of e-sports. So, it really depends on what the player’s goals are. If he loves playing the game that much, well, yeah that’s his end, if that’s what he wants to do with it. If he wants to do something else, well, the power’s in his hands.