Players are increasingly reacting angrily to a small but significant change in the current patch for Paragon. This is again about a well-known issue.
The Topic: Game Duration
Epic Games’ MOBA Paragon, which has been in the open beta phase for just over a month and is being developed for PC and PS4, stirred many players this week with a small change that has heated their moods. This involves yet another reduction of the Prime Orb Guardian’s health to now 10,000 points with the background of further shortening the match length.
But is this goal even being achieved? What problems does the change bring with it? How much longer do they want to reduce the duration? And what defines a MOBA anyway?
For some time now, the duration of a match in Epic Games’ MOBA Paragon has been at the top of the priority list. According to developer and Creative Director Steve Superville, the goal is to achieve an average value of 35 minutes. At one point, they had reached 37 minutes. However, new maps and heroes, along with their associated mechanics and playstyles, repeatedly change the flow of the game and the duration of a match.
It is well known that finding the perfect balance directly is not easy. Especially in the current open beta stage of Paragon, this seems to be becoming more and more of a problem. Many players are puzzled and enraged that developer Epic Games is focusing so much attention on match length while seeming to overlook other aspects that come with a reduction.
A Problem – Two Extremes
By now, adjustments have been made at many corners and ends, many things have been tried and partially revised to reach the average goal of 35 minutes. However, with the current renewal of the HP reduction of the Prime Orb Guardian, voices are rising that this leads either to extremely short games in the range of 20 minutes or the complete opposite, namely matches of over 60 minutes. Even up to 2 hours and more are reached when teams are evenly matched and neither side wants to give up.
In both cases, however, it is a problem. When extremely short matches occur because one team is clearly superior, the opponent is down a player due to a player’s premature exit, or for whatever reasons, this may be an easy victory.
However, this does not bring any real joy about the success, as one can hardly build up his card build with his character in such a short time to eventually unleash his full strength.
Another negative factor of short matches is the reward, which is generally determined by the length of a match and thus is very low.
Missing Balance
The opposite case of seemingly endless long games is, however, an equally big problem. When two balanced teams face each other, this can drag on due to the short respawn time of the Prime Orb Guardian. Here’s an example:
If a team is behind and has lost several, or even all inhibitors, it can restore them by capturing the Prime Orb, which should slow down the opposing team and their minions and perhaps lead to a turn-around.
However, this Prime Orb Guardian respawns after just 6 minutes. With the current change to only 10,000 health points, 2 players are already sufficient early in the match to send him to the eternal hunting grounds, while the remaining members can continue to push or defend.
As the duration of the match increases, the heroes earn more card points, come closer to their full build, and become stronger. This, however, results in the Guardian being easily taken down solo by some characters and thus his important buff being quickly taken aside.
There are voices calling for a strengthening of the Guardian so that it must be attacked as a team again, which would again lead to more team fights on site, which, in the case of one side’s loss and death, leads to greater consequences due to the death timeout. However, for previously mentioned reasons, this is currently rather rare.
What Does One Want to Be?
Now the community is divided into two camps: Those who approve of another reduction in match length and those who view it with suspicion. This raises a core question: What does Paragon want to be?
Does it want to be a hero shooter with MOBA elements like Battleborn, or a true MOBA that wants to position itself alongside giants like LoL and Smite? The developer has already answered this question multiple times: They want to be a MOBA. And not just any MOBA among many, but THE ONE, a model (eng. “paragon” = model) for others.
But isn’t this goal being undermined by the continuous reduction of match duration? Aren’t the longer games precisely what give you a good feeling after a tough fight, having turned the match in your favor? Aren’t such nerve-wracking matches inseparably linked to MOBAs in general? And shouldn’t the developer’s focus be better placed on general balance?
The Author Thinks:
It goes without saying that developers should keep an eye on the duration of a match and that a certain average value should be reached and maintained as much as possible. Personally, I believe that 40-45 minutes is quite reasonable, but it becomes a bit tedious after 60 minutes.
The character needs time to reach its peak, and this only works, depending on the role, if there is the opportunity to gather enough experience and resources to generally buy and upgrade items. However, this is currently proving to be rather difficult.
Especially because the developer Epic Games has an ambitious goal for the still young and evolving MOBA Paragon, many things are being tested. However, it seems that with the recent changes, they are rather achieving the opposite or unintentionally causing more extremes and losing sight of game balance.
Nevertheless, I remain optimistic that these problems will be brought under control sooner or later. However, this requires, you can probably guess it, time. Therefore, it remains to be seen what conclusions will be drawn and adjustments will be made to ultimately achieve the set goal and develop Paragon into a true MOBA model.
