(Opinion) Why NRS caused the polarizing customization crisis.

[theotherguy]

and they've been showing us nothing but custom builds for a game where customization isn't legal in competition...that's preeeeetty fucked up.

Look at the numbers that MK sells.... then look at the numbers of tournament entries (even combine all the tournies if you want).

Do you see the HUGE discrepancy between those numbers?

Well the majority of that huge number is the people that will be playing the game with the customisations, and that is the crowd that NRS is catering for.

To appease the small number on the right they're adding pre-set variations.

They've said from Day1 that they're still tinkering with ideas for tournament play and they'd announce it at a later date.

Just because there's been so much talk of customisation and people thought and wanted it in tournament play, it was never, ever explicitly stated that would be the case, and now everyone has the shits because of something they created in their own head.

 

[ColdBoreMK23]

The wind was kind of taking out of my sails when we had no ranked information so far. I actually skipped the beta eventhough I loved the stress test and played almost 400ish matches. Something just didnt sit well with me for some reason and I mind of lost interest in the game (well also because if Sekiro too lol).

Now after hearing this I'm kind of on the fence in general about the game and lost some of my hype.

 

[PLAYING TO WIN]

These are not challenging questions.

1. Because casual gear permitted online play was popular in injustice 2. Because the beta wasn’t invite only and made up of exclusively competitive players and they wanted to show off the new feature. Or maybe even they wanted to see if their were any bugs related to the move selection system.

2. Because they had an agreement with various publications to give them exclusive content reveals to drive clicks. Because they have been tweaking the preset variations up until now and didn’t want to be inundated with questions regarding which moves would be included in the presets and “why isn’t this move included?!”. Because though early in development they had decided to go with presets they started kicking the tires on full customization.

3. Again, because they’re showing off this cool new mechanic they’ve included for single player content and casual matches that has been central to the game’s marketing. Because they hadn’t locked in the competitive variations. Because they decided not to reveal those details pre launch to avoid scrutiny if it changed. Because they have some rollout planned with a partner media outlet.

Dude I agree that custom could be cool and that it seemed successful in the beta, but this is getting ridiculous. It’s not hard to have plausible answers to these questions you’re asking.

And none of your evidence changes the fact that boom explicitly stated that there would likely be presets but have no fear because they are going to try and ensure that all moves are included in the presets.

OK since you refute every good point with jiberish. What did we not see this level of out cry for mkx or i2? We didn't see sonic fox make 10 posts crying about the way it was in those games and is mouth piece twitter army follow suite.

 

[Cashual]

O

OK since you refute every good point with jiberish. What did we not see this level of out cry for mkx or i2? We didn't see sonic fox make 10 posts crying about the way it was in those games and is mouth piece twitter army follow suite.

None of your points were good though.

 

[Marinjuana]

That 99% of people who don't care about tournaments and ranked will be 90% players who won't really care about kustomization either, they are casuals who will play the game for a week and let it collect dust.

There's a large group of non-casuals who will spend hours and hours playing the game while customizing and optimizing their loadouts. They aren't casuals, but they might not be playing Ranked either. Those players will have little to no reason to care about ranked when one of the most appealing features of the game is non-existent in the competitive aspect of the game. Why would they ever make that next step to playing more competitive when they have to play a dumbed down version of the game to do so?

 

[pure.Wasted]

Recently on Kombat Kast’s when they were pressed for an answer they avoided it as it was obviously promised as a reveal to gameinformer but 2 months ago Ed Boon stated in an interview that pre-set variations would be used for tournaments.

This is what Ed Boon said 2 months ago:

We’re kind of still thinking about whether we want to make those three fixed. We can let you copy and paste and then build from there, but I’m personally leaning towards having some base ones, certainly for competitive and tournaments.

So... no. He did not say that. In fact he couldn't have been much clearer that they hadn't yet made up their minds.

 

[IamBatface]

This is what Ed Boon said 2 months ago:



So... no. He did not say that. In fact he couldn't have been much clearer that they hadn't yet made up their minds.

The quote I am referring to is from an interview with Angry Joe which was posted on the 20th of January and he said: "The game is going to come with three default versions, that's going to be used for tournaments and all that stuff where its kinda level playing field "balanced" and all that stuff like that." You can search Ed Boon Angry Joe on YouTube it's the first search that comes up and the qoute is at the 7:50 mark.
So...yeah. He did say that.

 

[pure.Wasted]

The quote I am referring to is from an interview with Angry Joe which was posted on the 20th of January and he said: "The game is going to come with three default versions, that's going to be used for tournaments and all that stuff where its kinda level playing "balanced" and all that stuff like that." You can search Ed Boon Angry Joe on YouTube it's the first search that comes up and the qoute is at the 7:50 mark.

If someone responds twice, once saying "yes," and the second time saying "I'm not sure," that doesn't get rounded up to a yes. It's rounded down to the "I'm not sure." Because now you can't be sure.

 

[IamBatface]

This is what Ed Boon said 2 months ago:



So... no. He did not say that. In fact he couldn't have been much clearer that they hadn't yet made up their minds.

If someone responds twice, once saying "yes," and the second time saying "I'm not sure," that doesn't get rounded up to a yes. It's rounded down to the "I'm not sure." Because now you can't be sure.

So if someone gives an indefinite answer to question but then gives a definite answer to the question we should take the indefinite answer? Even though the definite answer ended up being accurate? Okay, sure.

 

[OzzFoxx]

I always expected preset variations, but was still very disappointed after the GI reveal because of four words... “at least two variations.” Until that moment I assumed there’d be enough variations to cover all available moves. I think others that are upset are less so regarding a lack of customization but that they are only competing with a subset of the game. There should be no moves that are so good that they can’t be included in competitive play, in fact stupid shit like tracking projectiles and poison ivy’s slide made me give up gear moves in IJ2 almost instantly.

 

[Xelz]

So if someone gives an indefinite answer to question but then gives a definite answer to the question we should take the indefinite answer? Even though the definite answer ended up being accurate? Okay, sure.

It's probably fair to consider the entirety of NRS's communication on this topic.

• Boon said they were leaning a certain way, but hadn't completely decided
• Boon later said they were going with three preset variations
• Kombat Kasts only showed custom variations, said that tournament rules would be officially answered later
• Boon answered at C2E2 that the decision on tournament rules would be revealed later
• Beta releases with custom variations and clearly work-in-progress presets
• Edwards states in GameInformer that tournaments/ranked will use preset variations, but contradicts Boon saying characters will have 2 or more preset variations

You can't really blame anyone for interpreting NRS' communication one way or the other. If someone announces a decision, then says the final decision will be revealed later, some people will believe that the prior decision was not final. After all that waffling, some folks bought into waffle A, others bought into waffle B. Others were just confused.

Heck, I still don't know if I should believe that characters will have 3 presets, 2-4 presets, 3+ presets...

 

[stokedAF]

I can understand their hesitation. They want this game to have some predictablility at launch. They have said it will be easier to balance on the fly, even add moves. If Kasual is the place to be because of custom loadouts and the balance is realistic and fun then they will move it to ranked and make a tournament option.

It has to be popular though, if it’s like tag and nobody plays it then why ruin your tournament scene? It’s a great addition though, I’m confident it will make its way into ranked once it becomes more predictable in the wild. I’d say at least a year.

 

[pure.Wasted]

So if someone gives an indefinite answer to question but then gives a definite answer to the question we should take the indefinite answer?

Don't twist the timeline. He gave both answers at the same event. It wasn't a "let me think about it" > "I thought about it and here's the answer" situation.

Even though the definite answer ended up being accurate?

That's not how logic works. The outcome has absolutely no bearing on what was logical to think/assume at the time. If the Patriots play the Bucs right now, it is logical to assume that the Patriots will win. If the Bucs somehow manage to win, the correct response to that is not "obviously I should have assumed the Bucs would win all along." You were entirely right to assume the wrong thing, based on information you had available to you at the time.