I would like multiplayer shooters to move away from individual progression towards team progression

[Brawndo]

It seems almost every multiplayer shooter since Call of Duty 4 uses an experience system that is used to earn or purchase upgrades, perks, and equipment. This kind of system encourages individualistic gameplay which, IMO, negatively impacts team-based competitive multiplayer (most players play team games over free-for-all deathmatches).

What I propose instead of individual experience and upgrades is team-based progression. For example, instead of rewarding individual players with kill streak abilities, the entire team earns them together, and then unlocks abilities or upgrades for the team as a whole. Instead of unlocking weapons through an experience system, the team will gain access to better weapons as they progress through gameplay. All abilities and upgrades would only apply to that game and not persist after the game. How the team progresses would depend on the game mode being played:

- In a capture/domination game mode, the team gains points or progress by capturing and holding territory
- In a team deathmatch game, the team progresses by combining all of their players' kills and support actions to gain points

However, in order for this team-based system to work, we would have to get rid of individual unlocks (besides mere cosmetic ones), or else they would unfairly tip the balance at the beginning of each game. I'm not sure if players would be receptive to this, because let's be honest, a lot of gamers are addicted to the skinner box gameplay of experience points and persistent unlocks.

 

[Lilani]

Eh, I dunno. I think that would cause a lot of insular turmoil. At this point, most gamers are used to sort of doing their own thing. It would go against how they've been programmed to play, which is not always something you want to work against (that is why green barrels don't explode [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_297/8712-Green-Barrels-Dont-Explode]). And having individual unlocks and goals keeps a person from hitting a wall because they keep getting paired up with terrible teams.

Maybe with a close-knit group of people a game like this could work, but in a system of randomly paired teams? There's too much room for error. When you put the entire team's success on the ENTIRE team, so that if a few people fall short of the mark the entire team gains nothing, that will generate a community that is very hostile to newcomers and very full of anal-retentiveness and mistrust. Not to mention making someone fail for someone else's mistake never generates good feelings. Yes players can get addicted to achievements, but that's only because they are being proportionately rewarded for their efforts. Put x effort in, get y reward out, in which y is equal to x. Proportional. But a game like this could cause a player to put in x effort and get y reward, in which y is worth zero. And that is very much against the concept of the skinner box.

 

[hoboman29]

Team Fortress 2 has a strong teamwork element where teams that don't work together generally end up losing.