When one thinks what makes a game fun to play, many would probably answer something like "variety", "balanced", "interesting mechanics", "different ways to approach a game/match", "personal achievements", "rewards", "customization", and so on. Everyone has something that they consider as fun in any kind of game they play. Games are also good especially if you want relieve stress from a hard days' work.
Today I am going to give some reasons why WolfTeam isn't as fun these days as it may have been in the past. I'd like to say before some may think that these don't apply to you: While some of the reasons may not mean much to you, keep in mind that there are people who may simply not find enjoyment in playing WolfTeam as they may have in the past due to aggravating designs of the game. Some people may definitely find it enjoyable playing with stacked cash items and overpowered items. I am not one of those, personally.
Without further ado...
1. Balancing
If you have played WolfTeam post 2016 or so, you may have noticed sort of a trend how the game has turned and what kind of items have been released. The game currently has a lot of so many different cash characters/weapons it's hard to keep track of at times. Generally, from what I've seen, you mostly see players with 300+ cash characters with stacked armor stats and weapons in class of Legend, Elite and Royals, Vempr, etc. Here is a cash weapon to demonstrate how stacked it is in terms of damage
As you can see, Elwrci M6A2 Legend Royal is boasting 87 damage with a 350 headshot damage. This weapon is primarily available with cash only.
Let's look at a gold weapon's stats, in this case, AUZ A2 Covra
AUZ A2 Covra is boasting a 65 damage with a 280 headshot damage. The average gold weapon damage is around 60 mostly, more or less. 280 headshot damage is also near average, if stricly speaking about assault rifles.
Overall, you can tell how much of a gap there actually is in just damage department, but possibly in other areas as well. M6A2 Legend Royal is currently the top performing gun in the public games and gold weapons are hard-pressed to find a solid ground to combat this. As it is now, it is difficult to try to use weaker guns as they don't perform as well as the cash ones, therefore it makes you think: Do I really have to spend x amount of money to get these strong weapons and then have "fun" killing people in-game matches? Probably, if you're into that. For free-to-play players this kind of thing is pretty frustrating and really kills the fun in trying to enjoy various weapons when they're heavily outclassed.
 |
Currently the definite best weapons in the game. Thumbnail image from this video.
These are primarily available with cash and can sometimes be given as gifts when you login to the game. |
Here is also a comment from around a wolfteam history video by GameClanOnline(Noobszle)
Let's talk about the characters
Basic characters are currently really, really outmatched against cash characters. Basic character armor allows you some breathing room but you have to invest gold into them and they're sometimes pretty hard to come by if you're not well stacked with gold. Cash characters with either their innate armor or special/wolf look parts are just disgustingly strong. If there's one silver lining to say, it's that special/wolf look parts are at least manageable to fight against if you're good at aiming. A strong, effective weapon is a perfect fit against them. It is a different story if you're fighting the recent 300hp characters with their boasting tank-like stats. You're practically going to have at least some fun if you happen to have these cash characters and possibly their parts-packages.
2. Gifts and level-up rewards
Most type of MMO games may have gift- or log-in rewards system where a player receives a gift in their gift box upon logging in. Usually these login rewards are something small, to help players either get stuff done faster or give them a small boost in their games/matches, etc. From what I've seen on some of the MMO type of games, the login gifts are small in their value but go along the hours that the player puts in. Eventually the gifts pile up into something...bigger, in a sense. You can then use the gifts you gained and boost either your experience or gold gains. In MMOFPS's you may get some small gear items such as weapons, grenades, or something like boosters, etc.
In recent years of WolfTeam, due to how unbalanced the game feels, developers have practically been forced to put out gifts that give out medium to high value items for the players to use. Level-up rewards also cater the same sentiment with the higher rank you achieve, you get something more useful, also in medium to high value. While this is understandable, it really doesn't solve the issue of the game being "fair" and "balanced" in people's eyes. Gifts and levels up have been turned into a grab-fest of getting better gears either for a limited time or permanently. To illustrate the rank up rewards, here is an image.
 |
If we're going to be focusing in valuable items that you gain, then look no further:
You are now eligible to get Wolf Look Package's permanently.
Some of the weapons seen in this picture mostly edge out a lot of the gold weapons in terms of
power and overall effectiveness, especially older weapons such as AUZ A3 MC, MP7's and Robinson's at least. |
It is understandable to adjust to newer times, giving players these items to better balance out the gap between playing for free and paying to win. However, all this does is enforce the idea of having to rely on sheer strength of the items.
3. The 'Meta'
Most MMO games tend to have something that is often called 'meta', as in a definite way to play the game or what's currently considered 'the best'. During the early years of WolfTeam there wasn't a definitive meta but there were definitely weapons that were strong, so in that sense, yes, there was a meta. Still, in my opinion you could definitely use a variety of weapons. I think after WolfTeam Aeria's merger with the other servers may have eventually disrupted the meta to more chaotic and oppresive.
I believe back in the years of 2008-2013 you could play the game slowly (deathmatch excluded) and make really clutch plays. You could use mostly gold-purchased weapons (EF, AUZ as rifles) to simply grind it out as f2p. You could outplay premium content players pretty well if you had the skill enough for it. Now...Well, everyone is basically stacked to the brink with premium items(armor, weapons, tattoos, etc). The meta eventually turned into really p2w, strong weapons to just pop people off left and right. Fast paced game is now the current standard in public games from what I've briefly seen. Of course there is still slow-play but I think it's more common in clan wars as there is more coordination in play (voicecoms).
...
To close this out for now:
Players may still like the game as it is because of how much previous cash items is now pretty much possible to get either as rewards or in general to get them from shop with gold or wolf coins. Ranking reward systems offer a lot of very decent items for a duration or permanently. If you're thinking about the meta as it is currently: It's cash-favoured. Fast paced gameplay in public with remnants of slow-paced. Camping in deathmatch is still pretty strong strategy if deatmatches in WolfTeam is your thing(pretty fast). Slower game-modes are probably more interesting like ice hold or conquest but there isn't enough people to go for a whole long duration (not worth apparently). People tend to play short games a lot in WolfTeam currently because of miminal population in AeriaGames WolfTeam, which sucks to be honest.
Comments
Post a Comment