Adding a Quick game mode

[onealexleft]

(01-04-2014 10:56 PM)Mag!cGuy Wrote:  Okay :/

But wouldn't those signifcant efforts be worthwile? The number of new players thanks to that mode would be so big.. ^^

Any effort to improve the game would be worthwhile from a design and creative standpoint. Sometimes those don't align with business reality. A lot of times they're only realized in a sequel or follow up game.

As for quick game mode:

One of the major reasons outwitters was asynchronous was to increase the user base. Not the other way around. I'm pretty confident that outwitters would be a shell of its former self if it was purely a real time game. And adding a real time aspect, while cool and desirable, wouldn't give a huge boost to player numbers honestly.

Just on the basis of availability:
- In asynchronous, your "availability" pool of players is the vast majority of anyone playing the game at your skill level.
- In real time, your pool is now: the cross section of users who happen to be in matchmaking at that very brief moment in time AND your skill level. And since timezones are now relevant you'd play less of a global audience. This is a tiny percentage of the overall userbase, and unless you have a massive userbase, your online community shrinks extremely rapidly.

There are multitude of other reasons why a separate quick play mode wouldn't be as popular as most hope. Sorry if that sounds all pessimistic. But in the bright side....

...if there was a real time component added it wouldn't be a separate mode. It's be integrated seamlessly into the normal experience. It wouldn't enforce the quick 1 minute rule that most want, but real time play for those that wanted it would be convenient and far easier to play with by just sitting inside a single game and watching things update and seeing "who is in this game with you".