Penny Arcade - Comic - Vexoprimal

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Penny Arcade - Comic - Vexoprimal

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

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barcs

love that first panel! such great shapes!

Elric4985

This isn't far off from my experience in similar games. "We can't all be DPS! I'll be the Tank and someone else can be Healer... or not. I'm sure four DPS and one Tank will be fine."

Overkillengine

I'm just surprised it is all tanks. Usually the issue in games is no one wants to swap off DPS since that usually gets the easiest e-peen points.

YoungFrey

Overkillengine wrote: »

I'm just surprised it is all tanks. Usually the issue in games is no one wants to swap off DPS since that usually gets the easiest e-peen points.

Yeah. In World Of Warcraft, DPS was a dime a dozen. I believe the need shifted over time from healers being the rarest to tanks. Or maybe just competent tanks.

GSM

I think they may have accidentally a word in the third panel.

Grendus

YoungFrey wrote: »

Overkillengine wrote: »

I'm just surprised it is all tanks. Usually the issue in games is no one wants to swap off DPS since that usually gets the easiest e-peen points.

Yeah. In World Of Warcraft, DPS was a dime a dozen. I believe the need shifted over time from healers being the rarest to tanks. Or maybe just competent tanks.

I remember the dual-spec update being a huge deal in that regard. Being able to have a healer or tank spec for groups as well as a DPS spec for doing solo stuff was great. Heck, I used to run around as a Restokin/feral druid so I could do ranged DPS/melee DPS/healer/tank depending on what was needed. Worked great on 10 man's, I could fill whatever we needed. Only problem was people started complaining that I had so much DPK I could win any gear auction I wanted.

Ahh, to be in college with no social life. I miss it in the same way I miss exam anxiety and really bad hangovers - tastes best with a thick helping of nostalgia.

Ringo

Having both Tanks and Healers be in high demand was great for me in The Secret World. I could start a Dungeon queue and only have to wait on whichever one I wasn't playing and I could set the pace in order to teach the newbies the mechanics

Overkillengine

Grendus wrote: »

Only problem was people started complaining that I had so much DPK I could win any gear auction I wanted.

Funny thing is my sympathy wanes in the face of them having access to the same option and not using it.

Lucascraft

It sounds like ExoPrimal is actually pretty cool, but maybe is not going to last very long because very few people bought it, and even during peak concurrent users basically nobody is playing it during launch window. Sad to hear really. Good on Capcom for trying something new.

I think probably some of the tank/healer issue is because the pool of active players is just so small.

That's the risk of releasing an always online multiplayer shooter game into this current environment. Everyone is trying to monopolize gamers' time with live services and battlepasses and engagement metrics. And there's just not enough time in the day to support all these online games.

Djiem

I tried Exoprimal with Gamepass and hated it. I feel like it could have been excellent if it had been some campaign-based L4D-like game, but they just had to make it a PvP only shooter live service game. Even when you play PvE it's actually PvP.

taliosfalcon

Lucascraft wrote: »

It sounds like ExoPrimal is actually pretty cool, but maybe is not going to last very long because very few people bought it, and even during peak concurrent users basically nobody is playing it during launch window. Sad to hear really. Good on Capcom for trying something new.

I think probably some of the tank/healer issue is because the pool of active players is just so small.

That's the risk of releasing an always online multiplayer shooter game into this current environment. Everyone is trying to monopolize gamers' time with live services and battlepasses and engagement metrics. And there's just not enough time in the day to support all these online games.

It's hard to say, it is on gamepass so i'd assume the majority of people play it there and thus it wouldn't show high concurrent users on steam. Anecdotally matchmaking is very quick on it atm.

palidine40

Todays comic blog update brought to you by Jason Mewes character, Jay XD. Jerry's really digging whatever he's into right now, a digging acolyte, a lover of the lord of dig :P

Steel Angel

Overkillengine wrote: »

I'm just surprised it is all tanks. Usually the issue in games is no one wants to swap off DPS since that usually gets the easiest e-peen points.

Genre makes a big difference. The DPS infestation is more pronounced in MMOs in my experiences. The only MOBA I played was Heroes of the Storm where having exp be shared took away the existence of a carried dps role but there was still a dearth of tanks at times depending on which were on the free rotation (some were more fun to play than others) and because knowing when to jump in and start a fight is a learned skill.

It's not been so skewed in FPS games (caveat: I don't play Overwatch so this is games predating that) where suddenly the possibility of being sniped makes being a squishy damage dealer a lot riskier. And a lot of the tank models tend towards big beefy dudes often in power armor which visually appeals to a lot of players. Getting players to play support still remains an issue.

Monkey Ball Warrior

Overwatch started explicitly bucking the MMO trinity in favor of four vaguer categories: Tank Support Defense Offence. I though calling it Tank was a mistake because it would make people think of PvE tanking which is not what they mean here. Heavy would have been a better name.

Anyway all the people with imagination and originality eventually left blizzard and it just sort of devolved into The Trinity. Eventually they made it official, reorganizing everything and implementing Role Queue, which is basically when Overwatch 1 died.