Esruck Cype
...or just call me E.C.
Hey TYM,
TL;DR: SoulCalibur, still one of the biggest FG series of all time, had a stat system, even eventually being playable online. You could play two modes, one with stats on, or one with stats off. And it wasn't a big deal. At all. The end.
I'm E.C. Your resident old fart "used to be semi-pro" lover-of-all-FGs member. Injustice 2's Gear system seems to have all you whipper-snappers in a tizzy regarding balance and competitive play. Well, back in my day, I played a series that had a "gear" system. And the earlier versions originally were released in the arcade, which I had to go to by walking up a hill in the snow. Five miles both ways.
Way back when Midway started making non-competitive MK games of questionable quality, and Capcom said "fuck you" to all FG fans, Namco was still making bank and ruling arcades and local tourneys with Tekken and SoulCalibur. SoulCalibur II, in particular, was great, with the arcade Conquest mode eventually being the inspiration for MKX' Faction Battle mode.
But, curiously enough, something else from the venerable series seems to show up in a latter NRS game. See, SoulCalibur II for the home systems (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube) was offline only, but it came with these Extra modes (Versus, Arcade, Practice) etc. In these modes, when you played through the game, you earned new weapons for your characters such as Seung-Mina using a halberd or a broom or Link using a bug-catcher net. These weapons all had different stats and looks. And a lot of them were damned cool accessories, but the stats varied widely. Most chars usually had a joke weapon and a couple of weapons that were pretty OP. But, unless you explicitly wanted to play an Extra mode with stats enabled, they were just cosmetic only. Which was nice because certain weapons had particular goofy sound effects that stayed even during Normal modes.
Then finally, SoulCalibur IV came with online play, and holy crap, they overhauled things. They put in character creation from SCIII (never played that, bleh), and added in tons of different, dare I say, "gear" for your char. Different equipment for all parts of your char (head, arms, chest, legs, feet, etc) as well as different weapons and skills (stat boosts) that you could equip. All equipment had different stats that you use to customize your char's stats to your heart's content. Again, like SCII, some of the loadouts would be kinda OP. But, just like SCII, unless you explicitly wanted to play with these stats enabled (SCIV changed the name to "Special" instead of "Extra"), they were cosmetic only. Which was nice, because... holy shit, character creation!!!
As said, in both SCII and SCIV, outside of the Normal/Standard modes, the stats' balance could vary wildly. And that was the goddamn point. No one plays a "stats matter" mode in any type of multiplayer game for a level playing field; they play to kill lower-ranked players and make fun of them for having inferior stuff. Or to flex their "look at this awesome loot" e-peen. Even outside of the SoulCal series, look at a recent game like Destiny, where the we-really-wanted-to-make-this-fair Crucible online mode was met with a lot of criticism from players of "I spent so much time beating this raid, but this level 17 is owning my level 20 with his superior play rather than grinded-out stats! Waaahhhhh!" The result? Iron Banner, where level does matter, so the grinders can feel their level advantage against lower-skilled players. And the competitive players who want a far more level playing field can choose to just.... not play. Also, look at WoW; they have this as well. The Battleground mode, a clusterfuck with levels varying crazy that no one really took seriously. Versus the Arena mode, the competitive mode which was just the char balance bitchfest that you, reader of TYM, know all too well (sidenote: are Warriors still garbage? Or are they OP again?)
The backlash of Injustice 2 having a Gear system and the impossibility of being able to balance is, yet again, a lack of knowing history. THIS SHIT HAS BEEN DONE BEFORE. A LOT. The base character designs will likely be designed by one team, with absolutely no regards to what gear does what. The gear design will be others tweaking stat numbers based on overall level to minimize the likelihood of a gear loadout not being too OP. But even if some stuff ends up OP (which they will be), if you care about competitive fairplay, this should be the last thing on your mind. That's going to be a different mode.
Let the grinders have their fun. You have yours.
TL;DR: SoulCalibur, still one of the biggest FG series of all time, had a stat system, even eventually being playable online. You could play two modes, one with stats on, or one with stats off. And it wasn't a big deal. At all. The end.
I'm E.C. Your resident old fart "used to be semi-pro" lover-of-all-FGs member. Injustice 2's Gear system seems to have all you whipper-snappers in a tizzy regarding balance and competitive play. Well, back in my day, I played a series that had a "gear" system. And the earlier versions originally were released in the arcade, which I had to go to by walking up a hill in the snow. Five miles both ways.
Way back when Midway started making non-competitive MK games of questionable quality, and Capcom said "fuck you" to all FG fans, Namco was still making bank and ruling arcades and local tourneys with Tekken and SoulCalibur. SoulCalibur II, in particular, was great, with the arcade Conquest mode eventually being the inspiration for MKX' Faction Battle mode.
But, curiously enough, something else from the venerable series seems to show up in a latter NRS game. See, SoulCalibur II for the home systems (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube) was offline only, but it came with these Extra modes (Versus, Arcade, Practice) etc. In these modes, when you played through the game, you earned new weapons for your characters such as Seung-Mina using a halberd or a broom or Link using a bug-catcher net. These weapons all had different stats and looks. And a lot of them were damned cool accessories, but the stats varied widely. Most chars usually had a joke weapon and a couple of weapons that were pretty OP. But, unless you explicitly wanted to play an Extra mode with stats enabled, they were just cosmetic only. Which was nice because certain weapons had particular goofy sound effects that stayed even during Normal modes.
Then finally, SoulCalibur IV came with online play, and holy crap, they overhauled things. They put in character creation from SCIII (never played that, bleh), and added in tons of different, dare I say, "gear" for your char. Different equipment for all parts of your char (head, arms, chest, legs, feet, etc) as well as different weapons and skills (stat boosts) that you could equip. All equipment had different stats that you use to customize your char's stats to your heart's content. Again, like SCII, some of the loadouts would be kinda OP. But, just like SCII, unless you explicitly wanted to play with these stats enabled (SCIV changed the name to "Special" instead of "Extra"), they were cosmetic only. Which was nice, because... holy shit, character creation!!!
As said, in both SCII and SCIV, outside of the Normal/Standard modes, the stats' balance could vary wildly. And that was the goddamn point. No one plays a "stats matter" mode in any type of multiplayer game for a level playing field; they play to kill lower-ranked players and make fun of them for having inferior stuff. Or to flex their "look at this awesome loot" e-peen. Even outside of the SoulCal series, look at a recent game like Destiny, where the we-really-wanted-to-make-this-fair Crucible online mode was met with a lot of criticism from players of "I spent so much time beating this raid, but this level 17 is owning my level 20 with his superior play rather than grinded-out stats! Waaahhhhh!" The result? Iron Banner, where level does matter, so the grinders can feel their level advantage against lower-skilled players. And the competitive players who want a far more level playing field can choose to just.... not play. Also, look at WoW; they have this as well. The Battleground mode, a clusterfuck with levels varying crazy that no one really took seriously. Versus the Arena mode, the competitive mode which was just the char balance bitchfest that you, reader of TYM, know all too well (sidenote: are Warriors still garbage? Or are they OP again?)
The backlash of Injustice 2 having a Gear system and the impossibility of being able to balance is, yet again, a lack of knowing history. THIS SHIT HAS BEEN DONE BEFORE. A LOT. The base character designs will likely be designed by one team, with absolutely no regards to what gear does what. The gear design will be others tweaking stat numbers based on overall level to minimize the likelihood of a gear loadout not being too OP. But even if some stuff ends up OP (which they will be), if you care about competitive fairplay, this should be the last thing on your mind. That's going to be a different mode.
Let the grinders have their fun. You have yours.