SF6 seems to have a lot of new players with a very high retention rate. Focus on World Tour, customisation, a really good training mode, and balanced gameplay between neutral & punish seems to have had a very positive effect on retention of new players. Deciding to go for a tag game was always going to be an uphill battle when it comes to having fun vs. forcing players to improve. This game is going to be very heavily skewed in the latter direction from just a gameplay stand point. Hopefully on release they will offer other forms of content - arcade mode, story mode, for fun / party mode, etc... on top of casual/ranked modes. If it's just online match making, training mode, and avatar customisation, then I think this game is going to be like DNF Duel. Popular with the very very good fighting game players who love their 30 hit ToD's, but we will just have to see if the LoL IP is enough to naturally retain players otherwise.
As soon as they announced it as a tag fighter I felt it was never gonna become the massive hit people predicted it was gonna be, that’s gonna pull in both casuals and League players and become bigger than any fighting game before it. I love tag fighters, but they are an inherently more daunting type of game to play than regular fighting games, just by having to learn more than one character. I guess they’re thinking newbies are gonna play the team mode and play one character each, and that will help them not only by just having to learn one character, but also by being able to be carried by a more experienced team mate while they’re learning. And maybe they are right, but I’m highly sceptical. Like you said, more single player focused stuff is imo how you pull in a big general audience, not by trying to make the competitive side more palatable. They do however have an advantage in that they’re probably gonna have more customizations and skins than any other fighting game, and by being F2P. And I’ve seen many people who’ll be motivated to learn a game just by the skins and reward system loop alone. Then again, Multiversus also showed how that alone doesn’t guarantee longterm success.
Important to note this is not an open public beta, most people playing the game are fighting game players, and there's no matchmaking. So new people don't have new people to fight. This will change when the game releases and everyone can play, not just those dedicated fans who signed up for the alpha or who went to Evo
Im really interested to see what onboarding they have for new players. Trials, challenges, and single player content will decide how well this does with casuals.
On the first day I got bodied by two different people so I put it down, the second day I found someone close to my casual skill and ran like 6 sets and it was the most fun I had. So if they nail the matchmaking I will be fine.
League of Legends is a highly competitive game. Valorant is a highly competitive game. I don't know why 2XKO shouldn't be a highly competitive game. Newbies shouldn't beat experienced players. Newbies should be able to have fun at their skill level.
Should have just been called 2KO. Sounds like TKO, rolls off the tongue, still alludes to the 2v2 format which is the whole idea with the 2XKO name, and could still make for a cool looking logo. I have to assume the only reason they didn’t go with that is that it’s already copyrighted by someone else.
the issue about getting bodied by good players will always be there. nothing we do will change that. they def need to lower damage though so you can get more chances to play. the weird thing is the matches can take a bit longer than you want due to movement and how long block strings are at the moment. when we get better the game will probably increase in speed but still is not new player friendly. same thing happened with strive no matter what anyone says that is not a game for casuals. heck even casual like games skilled players will destroy casuals always. maybe finding better skill based matchmaking is the best play or something.
It really does not matter how "beginner friendly" a game is when you are playing as a newcomer VS an experienced player you will always get clapped. Even if the game is as simple as Divekick, you will just get destroyed. And that's fine. Making games beginner friendly should be about getting to the fun of the game as fast as possible against other players of similar skill levels. If you want to actually dumb down the genre to the point that an absolute beginner can have an even match against a 20y veteran, you probably went so far it's not even really a fighting game anymore.
I think it's a great start for Riot to finally have put their FG staff to good use with developing this game and that there will be hurdles to perfect it and it's system. Gui menu and so on, but at least it isn't going away any time soon 🫡
SF6 seems to have a lot of new players with a very high retention rate. Focus on World Tour, customisation, a really good training mode, and balanced gameplay between neutral & punish seems to have had a very positive effect on retention of new players. Deciding to go for a tag game was always going to be an uphill battle when it comes to having fun vs. forcing players to improve. This game is going to be very heavily skewed in the latter direction from just a gameplay stand point. Hopefully on release they will offer other forms of content - arcade mode, story mode, for fun / party mode, etc... on top of casual/ranked modes. If it's just online match making, training mode, and avatar customisation, then I think this game is going to be like DNF Duel. Popular with the very very good fighting game players who love their 30 hit ToD's, but we will just have to see if the LoL IP is enough to naturally retain players otherwise.
As soon as they announced it as a tag fighter I felt it was never gonna become the massive hit people predicted it was gonna be, that’s gonna pull in both casuals and League players and become bigger than any fighting game before it.
I love tag fighters, but they are an inherently more daunting type of game to play than regular fighting games, just by having to learn more than one character. I guess they’re thinking newbies are gonna play the team mode and play one character each, and that will help them not only by just having to learn one character, but also by being able to be carried by a more experienced team mate while they’re learning. And maybe they are right, but I’m highly sceptical.
Like you said, more single player focused stuff is imo how you pull in a big general audience, not by trying to make the competitive side more palatable. They do however have an advantage in that they’re probably gonna have more customizations and skins than any other fighting game, and by being F2P. And I’ve seen many people who’ll be motivated to learn a game just by the skins and reward system loop alone. Then again, Multiversus also showed how that alone doesn’t guarantee longterm success.
I dunno if it's because I'm used to it, but I honestly find the S1 and S2 buttons for specials more complicated for me than motion inputs lol
I'm so used to Motion Inputs that S1/S2 feels so alien to me.
I agree for sure. It actually feels worse to not be able to use motions.
Important to note this is not an open public beta, most people playing the game are fighting game players, and there's no matchmaking. So new people don't have new people to fight. This will change when the game releases and everyone can play, not just those dedicated fans who signed up for the alpha or who went to Evo
Im really interested to see what onboarding they have for new players.
Trials, challenges, and single player content will decide how well this does with casuals.
Already more polish in this alpha build of 2XKO than MK1 which has been out for a year.
On the first day I got bodied by two different people so I put it down, the second day I found someone close to my casual skill and ran like 6 sets and it was the most fun I had. So if they nail the matchmaking I will be fine.
League of Legends is a highly competitive game. Valorant is a highly competitive game. I don't know why 2XKO shouldn't be a highly competitive game. Newbies shouldn't beat experienced players. Newbies should be able to have fun at their skill level.
Should have just been called 2KO.
Sounds like TKO, rolls off the tongue, still alludes to the 2v2 format which is the whole idea with the 2XKO name, and could still make for a cool looking logo. I have to assume the only reason they didn’t go with that is that it’s already copyrighted by someone else.
Man I'm waiting for an open beta for this and Marvel Rivals also waiting for Jinx
Same dude I was late on Rivals and this game I registered and just didn’t get the invite, both look dope
the issue about getting bodied by good players will always be there. nothing we do will change that. they def need to lower damage though so you can get more chances to play. the weird thing is the matches can take a bit longer than you want due to movement and how long block strings are at the moment. when we get better the game will probably increase in speed but still is not new player friendly. same thing happened with strive no matter what anyone says that is not a game for casuals. heck even casual like games skilled players will destroy casuals always. maybe finding better skill based matchmaking is the best play or something.
It really does not matter how "beginner friendly" a game is when you are playing as a newcomer VS an experienced player you will always get clapped. Even if the game is as simple as Divekick, you will just get destroyed. And that's fine.
Making games beginner friendly should be about getting to the fun of the game as fast as possible against other players of similar skill levels.
If you want to actually dumb down the genre to the point that an absolute beginner can have an even match against a 20y veteran, you probably went so far it's not even really a fighting game anymore.
I think it's a great start for Riot to finally have put their FG staff to good use with developing this game and that there will be hurdles to perfect it and it's system. Gui menu and so on, but at least it isn't going away any time soon
🫡