For Honor Bans

[CritialGaming]

So in light of Overwatch players in danger of bans for "abusing" experience farming custom games, For Honor comes through with a massive ban on players. 1500 players bans from the For Honor service, a game that doesn't have a very large concurrent user base to begin with, getting hit with such bans can't be good for the game.

http://www.polygon.com/2017/3/15/14933112/several-thousand-get-temporary-bans-as-for-honor-battles-experience-farming-exploit

What I want to know is where do you guys think For Honor ultimately falls in the gaming history books. Will it fade out into nothingness? Or do you think there is enough there that it is possible to have a surge of players whenever Ubisoft releases an update or fighter pack of some kind? Sort of how Rainbow 6 Seige is sustaining itself now.

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, it's not within my general sphere of interest, so I personally won't think anything special of it. When I think, 'For Honor', I think of Lord of the Rings or Dinobot from Beast Wars.

 

[Pyrian]

1500 players bans from the For Honor service, a game that doesn't have a very large concurrent user base to begin with, getting hit with such bans can't be good for the game.

I think it is good for the game. For one thing, AFK players don't exactly contribute to making the game better. In fact, they go a long way to making it worse for everybody else playing. Getting rid of them is almost certainly a net-positive for the community, which is why they did it. Companies don't like to ban their own customers, generally speaking. They usually have to feel that it's a necessary evil.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

Well people like them only drive others from the game so this should only help really. If you're relying on afkers to keep a game afloat then lolu

 

[CritialGaming]

When I checked this afternoon there was a little under 9000 players playing on steam at the moment. So if you consider that 4000 got warnings and 1500 got outright bans, that means over half of the PC player base is potentially abusing the game.

This of course means nothing for the console versions, but it is just an interesting frame of reference.

 

[Pyrian]

When I checked this afternoon there was a little under 9000 players playing on steam at the moment. So if you consider that 4000 got warnings and 1500 got outright bans, that means over half of the PC player base is potentially abusing the game.

Why, no, CritialGaming, the number of people you happened to see playing on a Wednesday afternoon does NOT constitute the entire active user base.

 

[Fallow]

I think it's good.

But then again, I've already abandoned the game for it's absolute cornucopia of bugs,exploits, abuses, and problems. The game is in a polished alpha state, it should never have been released. More than 60% of the initial playerbase has already left, and the game will soone be nothing but a few diehard cheesers all playing warlord and warden, raging about disconnects every other game..

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

On my list of multiplayer pet peeves, AFKers rank right up with cheaters/hackers. I don't have any problem with developers/publishers deciding to crack down on those particular asshats. None at all.

 

[CritialGaming]

When I checked this afternoon there was a little under 9000 players playing on steam at the moment. So if you consider that 4000 got warnings and 1500 got outright bans, that means over half of the PC player base is potentially abusing the game.

Why, no, CritialGaming, the number of people you happened to see playing on a Wednesday afternoon does NOT constitute the entire active user base.

Sorry...CURRENT player base.

It's just a frame of reference man. Jeez.

Fact is, the player numbers for a brand new AAA Multiplayer game are not very good. The Witcher 2, not 3, fucking 2! Had more users playing at the time I checked.

And checking right now, against shows 8900~ people currently playing the game. When you compare that to the 30K players playing Raindbow Six Seige, which again had the similar launch issues yet maintained an increasing playerbase based on content updates.

Not saying For Honor is fucked, but it doesn't set a good track record. Also considering that holding a fighting game audience is rather tough if your game doesn't click with the community fairly quickly.

 

[Elijin]

When I checked this afternoon there was a little under 9000 players playing on steam at the moment. So if you consider that 4000 got warnings and 1500 got outright bans, that means over half of the PC player base is potentially abusing the game.

Why, no, CritialGaming, the number of people you happened to see playing on a Wednesday afternoon does NOT constitute the entire active user base.

Sorry...CURRENT player base.

It's just a frame of reference man. Jeez.

Fact is, the player numbers for a brand new AAA Multiplayer game are not very good. The Witcher 2, not 3, fucking 2! Had more users playing at the time I checked.

And checking right now, against shows 8900~ people currently playing the game. When you compare that to the 30K players playing Raindbow Six Seige, which again had the similar launch issues yet maintained an increasing playerbase based on content updates.

Not saying For Honor is fucked, but it doesn't set a good track record. Also considering that holding a fighting game audience is rather tough if your game doesn't click with the community fairly quickly.

Measuring it as a "triple A Multiplayer game" seems sort of dishonest. Its gameplay fix is super niche. And has an audience which reflects that.

 

[josemlopes]

When I checked this afternoon there was a little under 9000 players playing on steam at the moment. So if you consider that 4000 got warnings and 1500 got outright bans, that means over half of the PC player base is potentially abusing the game.

Why, no, CritialGaming, the number of people you happened to see playing on a Wednesday afternoon does NOT constitute the entire active user base.

Sorry...CURRENT player base.

Still very wrong since the 1500 bans werent part of a current player base.

Sorry, but your original post really did go nowhere.

 

[CritialGaming]

Measuring it as a "triple A Multiplayer game" seems sort of dishonest. Its gameplay fix is super niche. And has an audience which reflects that.

Except it was heavily advertised, promoted, and given the budget of a full on AAA game. Regardless of the nicheness of the potential audience, it wasn't marketed to us in that way. They hyped people on the game, and yes, ultimately they released a very niche product. But the downfall is in WHAT they marketed with For Honor. They made a heavy, clunky, slow, but solid 1v1 fighting game. Yet the promoting the big 4v4 dominion mode more than anything, hell they didn't even talk about the single player campaign hardly.

It just feels to me like everything they did with For Honor was throwaway, like they didn't give a shit. These experience problems are in the mode that is garbage anyway. Say what you want about the combat and how good it is, that 4v4 mode is a pile of frustrating uninteresting trash.

And speaking of niche, would you say Stardew Valley is a niche game? Euro Truck Simulator? Football Manager 2017? Those games are pretty niche. Yet all of them have hundreds, even THOUSANDS more people playing them right this second than For Honor.

Niche indeed.

 

[CritialGaming]

I love you for this.

 

[Enrathi]

Just a few things to point out. The outright bans were only 3 day bans, it's not like Blizzard that goes around permabanning on first offense. And I have nothing against Blizzard doing that, especially since they've been doing it long enough that if you choose to cheat in one of their games, you deserve what you get.

Also, since neither the article nor Ubisoft specifically called those numbers out for PC, those bans and warnings are across all platforms so your numbers have to take into account all players, not just the 9k on Steam. Admittedly the 1500 outright bans probably are for people using cheat programs, so that number is most likely PC specific. I'm guessing the other 4k are people who put a rubber band on their PS4/XB1 controller to walk in circles for the match. Again, just my speculation of course, since Ubi didn't release hard numbers for each platform, but I really don't think the 5500 users were strictly PC.

Either way, I think it's good overall. Maybe the cheaters will stop cheating (or leave altogether) and new players will see this action as a sign that Ubi takes it seriously and wants everyone to have fun.