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(Opinion) Why NRS caused the polarizing customization crisis.

Silence speaks volumes and propagates speculation. Allowing a beta with full customization without limiting expectations fueled the fire. Having kombat kast's and character breakdowns essentially teasing the entire community threw more wood on the blaze. While I agree there should be preset variations I UNDERSTAND THE FRUSTRATION COMING FROM THOSE WHO WANTED FULL CUSTOMIZATION. Why did we not see an outcry of this magnitude with MKX or Injustice 2?

The previous two entries into the NRS game library had systems similar to the one coming in mk11. Beyond the surface there were many moves spread out over variations or only available in gear status yet we did not have anything like the current polarizing crisis on every NRS social media outlet. People are losing friends over this! It all comes down to one thing, managing expectations. If this was know from the start it should have been made very clear. The breakdowns on the kasts should have been similar to MKX and they should have shown the set variations. The beta should have been set variations.

Lets think about this for a minute. If injustice 2 never made it clear that some moves would be gear and there was only one clear-cut variations, then proceeded to give us a beta and allow Dr. Fate to have his air projectile and a slow tracking orb I would have been on cloud 9. The cloud would have burst and I would have fallen back to earth without a parachute when they clarified the tracking orb and air fireball are not going to be usable. There was no out cry, there was no twitter or tym crisis. NRS managed expectations appropriately.

Although I am a huge proponent of set variations and think there are too many variables in play, I will have to concede here and say let full customization rock because of the way NRS managed expectations. Just be warned that this will be a game that can only be balanced by making every character broken. Any attempt to do otherwise will result in a few extremely broken characters, majority of mid tier characters and a lot of useless characters.

Anyway you spin this, this is a textbook PR example of how not managing expectations can shoot yourself in the foot.
 

Rizz091

Noob
It took until playing the beta for me to think that custom variations were a good idea for competitive play, so yes you are right about that for sure. It was very disappointing news. Although I'm disappointed, I'm ok with set ones as long as I can find ones I like. I know either way it's gonna be a great game and I'm wondering if they may change their mind in the future but we'll see.
 

Pakman

Lawless Victory!
You guys know that the bigger issue is having variations in the first place right?

And that if we just had "complete" characters without variations, this whole stupid debacle wouldn't exist?

But let's just ignore the actual crux of the issue and continue having these stupid debates instead...
 

Shark Tank

I don't actually play these games
Sidenote: Up until Kombat kast 5-6 I thought 16bit was showing us the pre-sets. Then I found out he made custom variations so I'm wondering if they changed their mind on the whole thing back from the Ed Boons interview, it was like 1-2 months before release so why hadn't they shown characters true pre-set variations unless they didn't know or they flipped? Then the news hits yesterday and I'm pretty crosseyed. So I really don't care which route but I lost interest in the kast unless they tell us actual variations and then go on to give us the casual special moves usable in customs.
 

Jynks

some heroes are born, some made, some wondrous
Why did we not see an outcry of this magnitude with MKX or Injustice 2?
ummm. we did.

People were talking about how cool full move customization would be back in MKx days and in IJ2 it was probably the biggest gripe and complaint I saw... why you couldn't use gear moves without gear. effectively being custom variation system. In fact people were expecting IJ2 to be like MK11 with free move lists you can mix and match at will.
 

Agilaz

It has begun
I think any argument made against custom variations can also be made against preset variations. Balance is not an issue since NRS was smart enough to add an additional layer of balancing, besides touching frame data and damage values: the slots.

Kabal too strong? Dash cancel and restand now take two slots each. Still too strong? Restand now takes 3 slots. So you can still have it if you really want it, but it comes at a hefty cost.

Having only presets legal also doesn't solve this idea that "customs force people to build OP versions". What's gonna happen to Jade? Why would you play any variation of Jade that doesn't have the air glaive?

Then there's the x-factor & labbing and training vs moves rather than variations. Bad argument, because some characters will naturally have few variations, and others, like Raiden who has a million specials, will either end up with 6 or 7 variations, or 3 or 4 extremely overloaded variations. If my character has only two variations, how is it fair I need to study all 7 of yours just to be ready for whatever you decide to play?

That is of course assuming they don't pull an Injustice 2 and just leave a whole bunch of moves outside of presets entirely, making them effectively non-existent for anybody who plays ranked/tournaments mainly.

Yes, NRS is at fault because, as I've been saying this entire time, their approach to giving us information has been abysmal this cycle.

I'm still excited for the game, gonna play the shit out of it and compete as much as I can, but I'd be lying if I said this news didn't maul my hype boner something awful.
 

Jynks

some heroes are born, some made, some wondrous
That is of course assuming they don't pull an Injustice 2 and just leave a whole bunch of moves outside of presets entirely, making them effectively non-existent for anybody who plays ranked/tournaments mainly.
They have said many, MANY times, including a interview with Boom at the release event, that the pre-sets will cover ALL the moves for the characters. I do not think there is a reason to doubt what they said... but I guess you never know... still they HAVE confirmed many times that this is the case.
 

Shark Tank

I don't actually play these games
They have said many, MANY times, including a interview with Boom at the release event, that the pre-sets will cover ALL the moves for the characters. I do not think there is a reason to doubt what they said... but I guess you never know... still they HAVE confirmed many times that this is the case.
I've heard this before. Do you have a source for this that I can have on hand. Many people are unclear on this and it would be good to have to clear up confusion.
 

Agilaz

It has begun
They have said many, MANY times, including a interview with Boom at the release event, that the pre-sets will cover ALL the moves for the characters. I do not think there is a reason to doubt what they said... but I guess you never know... still they HAVE confirmed many times that this is the case.
I seem to remember reading/hearing somewhere that Geras' timer scam wouldn't be a standard variation move. I might be misremembering it thoughj
 

Peter Quill

You’re No Fun
You guys know that the bigger issue is having variations in the first place right?

And that if we just had "complete" characters without variations, this whole stupid debacle wouldn't exist?

But let's just ignore the actual crux of the issue and continue having these stupid debates instead...
Here’s the thing


NRS can’t go back in time and STOP or REDO the system they have now.

We have variations. That’s how it is.

They can still FIX this.

So we can talk FANTASY about “Oh, it shouldn’t have ever been like this to begin with”

OR

We could discuss the system we DO have, and we can work with that. The thing that CAN change
 
ummm. we did.

People were talking about how cool full move customization would be back in MKx days and in IJ2 it was probably the biggest gripe and complaint I saw... why you couldn't use gear moves without gear. effectively being custom variation system. In fact people were expecting IJ2 to be like MK11 with free move lists you can mix and match at will.
No way. People were not going crazy on twitter, TYM wasn't sending out lying tweets, people were not losing friends over it. This is unprecedented compared to MKX and I2.
 
They have said many, MANY times, including a interview with Boom at the release event, that the pre-sets will cover ALL the moves for the characters. I do not think there is a reason to doubt what they said... but I guess you never know... still they HAVE confirmed many times that this is the case.
This is false. Extremely false. Nearly every top player has been begging clarification via tyler and other outlets. The kombat kast did not show characters variations. We had a beta with full customization. I2 did not. The expectations were not set.
 
You guys know that the bigger issue is having variations in the first place right?

And that if we just had "complete" characters without variations, this whole stupid debacle wouldn't exist?

But let's just ignore the actual crux of the issue and continue having these stupid debates instead...
But that's not the game they built. They specifically designed all the characters in the game so that players could mix and match different abilities to have the same character play in different ways.

After going with that design decision, they should stick with that design decision instead of deciding the nerf it and not let players actually do that.
 
Here’s the thing


NRS can’t go back in time and STOP or REDO the system they have now.

We have variations. That’s how it is.

They can still FIX this.

So we can talk FANTASY about “Oh, it shouldn’t have ever been like this to begin with”

OR

We could discuss the system we DO have, and we can work with that. The thing that CAN change
I agree with you. However, people got their hopes up and then smashed. I like variation system but like I said, you almost have to concede now and let full customization rock bc of the way NRS handled the information, beta and kombat kast.
 

portent

Noob
I'm surprised that anyone even thought that KV's would be a thing competitively. After seeing the beta allowing KV's, I was a little disappointed, thinking that KV's would be allowed, but I knew, way back when they introduced KV's that they'd be tournament-banned.

Surprised that anyone who plays competitively thinks otherwise.
 

Jynks

some heroes are born, some made, some wondrous
This is false. Extremely false. Nearly every top player has been begging clarification via tyler and other outlets. The kombat kast did not show characters variations. We had a beta with full customization. I2 did not. The expectations were not set.
It is not false. They have done it many times in those early interviews. I can not be bothered to go look through them.. but just watch all the Boom interviews form the launch day... and you can see for yourself.
 

portent

Noob
I agree with you. However, people got their hopes up and then smashed. I like variation system but like I said, you almost have to concede now and let full customization rock bc of the way NRS handled the information, beta and kombat kast.
Unfortunately, that's not how you sell games to the masses. The competitive community does not come close to being the majority. MK will always sell well, but the kasts just get people foaming at the mouth. It's all a sales pitch.
 
I'm gonna give NRS the benefit of the doubt in that custom variations were in consideration, they weren't talking about it because the were still deciding, but ultimately they decided to run with presets.

My evidence is the very existence of the slot system. Why go through the effort of creating what is essentially balancing mechanisms - abilities that take multiple slots, abilities that conflict with each other, abilities that depend on each other - if the intention was always that it was for a casual mode where balance doesn't matter? You don't see nearly the same effort to balance augments in that same mode.
 

Saint Op Omen

Savagely beating his super-ego with his id...
It is not false. They have done it many times in those early interviews. I can not be bothered to go look through them.. but just watch all the Boom interviews form the launch day... and you can see for yourself.
www.gameinformer.com/interview/2019/01/17/ed-boon-talks-mortal-kombat-11s-variations-changes-and-roster%3famp

its all there....& yeah just read tons of reveal interviews & vids, they always say everytime set variations, everybody want set variations, & everyone did until the betas really so can't say you didn't know & its easy to change last minute.
 

Johnny Based Cage

The Shangest of Tsungs
Isn’t it up to TO’s how the game is played at their tournaments in the end anyway? We tried preset variations with the last MK and it didn’t work so well to say the least, so why not just run tournaments the way the competitors and fans overwhelmingly want (if they in fact do) despite NRS’ own intentions for how the game should be played?
 

Saint Op Omen

Savagely beating his super-ego with his id...
I really thought it was obvious that NRS was going to restrict us to set variations. Is everyone really that surprised?

Nrs feels this is the way to go for balance reasons most likely. We dont even know what most of the characters have. Let them do their thing.
They literally said it nonstop & most agreed & wanted it that way until a short time ago, I get wanting customs after playing it & such (I do too) but this going crazy about it & not expecting what we got at this point when the opposite was indeed said several times (whether you ignored it or not) comes across as some other shit....I get saying hey we changed our mind can you do it this way maybe? But the reaction is so petty. ..