The optimal way to play almost all games is boring. Powerful winning strategies are also safe, consistent and reliable, and therefore usually unexciting. Excitement comes from high risk high reward plays, but those are only wisely employed by players or teams when they are behind and need to catch up.
And see that’s basically what happened. At high levels of pvp at the era when this occurred (the first expansion, the burning crusade) These types of matches were, at a high enough level, effectively rock paper scissors.
So like, I think it came down to one team guessed the other team was gonna use the class that uses poisons, and picked the class that counters poisons. That was what decided the televised wow.
Good job that’s not me then. I’m having a blast at this game.
Well done for continually missing the point.
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The balance of skill and randomness in Fall Guys is pretty genius. It’s a simple formula of “i lost and it was random” plus “I won and that took skill”.
And it really feels like that. Anyone can play and not worry about being eliminated, but it takes quite a bit of knowledge and strategy and platforming skill to actually win. The chances are that the players in the final mini-game have high levels of competence, and while you can make it there on chance alone, you’re going to have to use skill to swing it your way to grab the crown.
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I guess, my point being that in the 3 player fall guy games, there’s currently no incentive to get in first instead of second(only to raise the margin above the 3rd place player), so there’s no incentive to win instead of just get second. There’s hypothetically ways to effect this(like, 3rd player should attack player 2 and not hinder first player from getting points, or other such group strategies). Giving players incentives to go for first would encourage taking eggs from first player rather then continuing to swarm the 3rd place player, which would give some relief and possibly some ability to rebound.
Generally speaking, I think there’s a lot of other ways to combat “vote who wins”. Such as engraning players in a narrative/way of thinking(it may be vote who wins, but it’s now based on thematic feelings rather then you as a person, so it dampens the bad feels). Uncertainty, either from lack of game knowledge(a lot of scott/rym’s talk mentions play at the highest level, but things can often play differently before that point), or from uncertainty about game state(sure you can make probabilistic goals/guesses, but oftentimes outside of the highest level of play it’s better to focus on your own heuristics rather then trying to machiavelli your way to victory).
That’s a lot like how I’d characterize the PAX Omegathon. The first several rounds are more random than skill based, and your goal is mostly just not to be eliminated. Only the final round or two are really tests of any serious skill. Everything before that is just having enough basic competence to get enough lottery tickets to have a shot at playing the real game at the end.
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In the post the ball race three team mini-game, there is that clear incentive for coming first. As soon as the first ball crosses the line, that team disappears from the game and then can’t be eliminated. It’s then a straight race/battle for the remaining two teams.
So of course, the most likely way to victory is to concentrate on coming first, not making sure you aren’t last.
My proposal for the Egg Scramble mini-game is to have that same kind of first place elimination.
One minute on the clock, and the team in first place qualifies and is then removed from the arena. From there is another 30 seconds of direct competition to not be the last placed teams.
This would put the incentive in from the start, not only to steal from the last place team but also from the second place team, to make sure you’re at least one egg ahead.
And it would give the last place team a specific goal: not lag too far behind the second place team, so in the final 30 seconds they will have time to catch up.
I was in a game of Fall Guys with a cheater. I got to the final round, but of course didn’t win because the cheater stole the tail and then flew into the air and was never seen again.
However, I seem to have been awarded an extra win count crown. I’ve only won two full games myself, but now have three wins recorded.
So I think that if a cheater is found, everyone in the final round with them is given a free win. Which is kinda nice, but also waters down what the win crowns mean.
I can’t stop playing Supergiant Games’ Hades. I waited for it to get out of early access, which finally happened and now I’m just hooked on it. For those who don’t know what it is. Hades is isometric Hack and Slash roguelike where you play as son of Hades who tries to escape Underworld with help of randomized boons from Olympian gods and other upgrades. Death sends you back home stripped of said boons and money, but keeping some materials used for permanent upgrades. And at halls of Hades you can catch up with friendly characters, chat up some not so friendly ones and take some sneering comments from dad.
There was a bit where I had reached the final boss few times but felt like I had no idea how to deal with it, at which point I was getting frustrated. Getting through the quite trivial early parts of the game felt like waste of time when I just wanted to practice the boss. But then I managed to beat it, and then I did it second time in row with different weapon, and as I realized that any run, even on that seemed to be laid with bad luck, could be a clear, I was motivated and that hasn’t run out yet.
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Fall Guys fans who have yet to win a game want silver crowns.
A choice line:
Some players want Fall Guys to iron out the randomized parts of its gameplay to become more of an esport
That’s exactly what Fortnite did, and then undid after they started losing players.
The quote at the end is good:
“I love Fall Guys so much,” Lauren said. “It’s not like I want to be salty. But I worry that when games are all about skill, even if they’re fun, eventually I get left behind because I’m not watching YouTube tutorials or practicing all day. I feel like I fell out of Overwatch because that game slowly became more about pleasing the best players. I worry the same thing will happen to Fall Guys.”
It’s interesting in that the mass market of gamers do not want, have never wanted, and will never want skill-based competition. They want activities and interaction. Overwatch isn’t doing anything in particular to “please the best players” and has plenty of entirely non-competitive modes.
But the reality is that if the skill input is there at all, then people who lack that skill feel the lack and are driven away.
The people, like myself, who primarily seek competition, are a much smaller market.
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They also, interestingly, care a lot about cosmetics. Hence how the industry has broken its back trying to monetize and accommodate cosmetics.
I do agree that adding silver crowns would greatly reduce the allure of a “win” in Fall Guys.
“It’s nice to want things.”
That’s so true. I really like the mix of randomness and skill in Fall Guys. It makes it fun to play with friends who are way less skillful than me and still be equal enough to not have them just watching me storm ahead.
In the end I stopped playing PUBG with friends because of a team air hockey problem. Once you are relying on others, and they suck, it’s really not fun. And if you are on a team with a much better player, you just feel like you are letting the side down. Or if you are on a team with someone who sucks but doesn’t know it or doesn’t admit to it… bad all round.
But we can all play Fall Guys together.
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I wish I had the PUBG skills I have now, back when there were thousands of players who weren’t yet driven away by the high skill input.
Haha, this is part of why I play FPSs so much. I started in the upper 1/4th(ish) of players in Overwatch day one just due to having played so many similar games before. And there were a lot of terrible players. I got to experience the game broadly without having to drill or train, and I could form groups from existing social circles easily.
As I get older, I tend to focus on games where I already have a strong foundation and tend to avoid games where I am starting from nothing.
Same with sports. I may yet look into paraskiing as an extension of skiing. But I would never really look into surfing at all (unless I lived somewhere like Bondi).
Me playing Star Wor in two days after not having played a freespace shooter since… I don’t even remember.
Learn your Thatch Weave and be ready to form up. You’ll be fine. 
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If you are a juggler, you start from scratch all the time. And fail so much.
I was going to make a video essay about how Getting Over It isn’t an interesting experience for jugglers, as it provides no new feelings or levels of frustration.