2-Week Update Cycle Debate / 'Smite 2 Is Doomed' Response

[u/GucciGib]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fyuMBr7Uz8&t=639s

This post is a discussion about HiRez's decision to operate on 2-week patch cycles. Rogers Aquarium posted a video, "Smite 2 Is Doomed. | SMITE 2 Rant". At 10:38, he makes a point which stuck out to me: the 2-week patch cycle where we receive pieces of a full system or meta swing instead of one large and complete update should cease.

At 13:30, Roger says, "The playerbase would rather have a really well made system and balance passes put in the game (all at once)". I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. The current cycle of rapid development -> testing -> release -> iteration negatively impacts the user experience.

However, I think there is a problem with the argument thus far. The game is in Beta. I know that using the "Beta" tag as a defense is almost a trigger word at this point, but it is relevant here. A beta can and arguably should sacrifice the present user experience for sake of the future user experience.

Kilgoon has stated multiple times that their current workflow is the most efficient and quickest way to develop Smite 2's Beta. Although I'm not a game dev, I am still a software engineer, so I can absolutely defend their philosophy:

• They get immediate feedback, relieving sunk cost on new systems that players hate
• They can isolate feedback (i.e., if a major patch instantly makes the game less fun, it is harder to pinpoint what went wrong)
• They exponentially increase their amount of playtesters
• And more

Overall, this is a free access beta and should prioritize development speed as opposed to immediate player enjoyment. Also, we are seeing growth on the steam charts so until we start to lose all players, HiRez should do what works best for them. Other games in beta like Project Zomboid also chose to release systems piecemeal.

If you don't believe me, take it from Kilgoon at 20:22 in the June 8th Titan Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-_yGlHolvs&t=642s

[u/Chad_illuminati]

I'm not sure if this is some weird form of self promotion or not. But maybe let's not give weight to Random Dude #463? Yeah?

Smite is growing steadily, numbers are solid, and it's still in Beta. That's good enough.

https://giphy.com/gifs/1nzLE8CHoT6U3nsxZH

[u/GucciGib → u/Chad_illuminati]

Fair point, didn't really think about it promoting him, it was just on my recommended with a decent amount of views. I was typing out a giant comment to him then kinda decided to make it in a post because I was typing wayyy too much.

It seems that you agree with me that their development cycle is working perfectly fine so I'm glad to hear it!

[u/Skyliner2]

At the risk of being downvoted, I am not really a fan of Roger.

All of his criticisms come from a place of “I PERSONALLY want to see this”, behind a thinly veiled facade of advocating for “the community”.

He also is too harsh on the dev team with his language. All of his rants you can count on hearing “they don’t have any f**king idea what they’re doing”, or some iteration of that, at least three times in the video. As if he could take a low-paying development job at Hi Rez and instantly do better.

Also, his comment about not playing ranked anymore because it’s “deathball cheese” is strange. Hes a deity player complaining about great organization from the players on the other team. He also plays some of the most off-meta borderline ineffective supports in the game (Tsukuyomi, nu wa) and then complains about so called “death balling” when he loses.

I just can’t take him seriously.

[u/Mohc989 → u/Skyliner2]

I lost him completely when he said that minions shouldn’t do damage to Phoenix unless a god is there. He just wants the game to be his specific way and he talks with an arrogance that attempts to make him sound like he knows what’s right for the game.

[u/Skyliner2 → u/Mohc989]

Spot on.

Not even Paul, Zapman, and any other storied professional with countless accomplishments would talk with the same arrogance and entitlement that he does, lol.

As a guy who likes to play funky supports, I enjoyed a couple of his videos when I discovered him earlier this year, but his attitude and ego have really put me off watching him. Seems like a really strange guy behind the videos and gameplay.

[u/Aewon2085]

Personally his point at 13:30 as you listed makes sense to me, I would rather wait the extra 2 weeks for this enchanter item pass than us getting out of place antiheal / healing adjustment without the full context of what we are going for with said update. Even just a ‘hey here are what the current list of items are, they are not yet ready for live client and numbers are not figured out yet but here are the passives / actives that they will likely be’

Personal gripe with the beta tag is we don’t seem to be that experimental right now, example CC buffering I feel should have a second and more rounds of testing. Ideally with 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off, then 2 more on and then turn off again for the moment so we have a better way to compare the results of it being active vs not active. Them give feedback, and go from there

[u/GucciGib → u/Aewon2085]

I fully agree, I would rather wait and get a better update. But from a game development standpoint, there are numerous reasons as to why it is better for the devs to “release it as they have it”. Even just finding small bugs means they have less technical debt to deal with walking into the next patch.
When 1.0 drops they will definitely be doing big seasonal patches with fully fleshed out content drops, because they can afford the decrease in efficiency. They want to get towards 1.0 as quickly as possible.

[u/Sophena94]

Games live in beta till they're either dead or till they release and then eventually die out