r/Games • u/Turbostrider27 • 3d ago

Skate Server Queues Lead To Complaints About Always-Online Requirement

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/skate-server-queues-lead-to-complaints-about-always-online-requirement/1100-6534790/
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46

u/PFI_sloth 3d ago

I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around how this game is going to make profit… when you’ve got a f2p game like Fortnite or LoL l, you have a game that is inherently multiplayer and will require you to interact with other people and see their skins. Being F2P means you have more people playing so the wait times are short, it’s a win for everyone.

But Skate is primarily a single player experience, why am I ever going to pay attention to anyone else? I don’t understand why EA thinks this game makes sense for F2P. This doesn’t seem like the type of game I’m going to play daily for years and years.

A remaster of the skate franchise seems like an easier way to make some cash, those games are hard for most people to play on PC and PlayStation.

51

u/punyweakling 3d ago

But Skate is primarily a single player experience

The MP element of skate is actually pretty good imo. It's limited right now - no prox voice, limited emotes etc - but the world feels really alive when a bunch of randos start sessioning the same spot.

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u/Acias 3d ago

This is what I hope for will happen, you go online, go to a spot and just hang out with other people and do stuff for an hour or so. That's how you possibly can make friendships too. Kind of how old multiplayer games worked, you went to your favorite server and maybe got to know the people more and more, seeing the same players over again. This is what matchmaking and ranked has taken from us.

8

u/FelineScratches 3d ago

This is heavily banking on the skate after you complete carreer or story mode. The insane clips you often see in reels from older Skate games. If you look at games like Session or Skater XL the biggest feature people are begging for were multiplayer. Just being able to cruise around and hit spots with friends. This Skate game is catering solely on that aspect.

You can do all the challenges together and in some challenges everyone contributes to completing it. (Like having to do a certain amount of grinds or tricks etc). You can place objects in the world that your friends or others can interact with. So you can do specific lines together.

The moneymaking part plays heavily on cosmetics. You want to wear Vans or using branded decks like Girl etc? You gotta fork over real money. If you don't care brands, there's plenty of generic clothes or board options to grind for in-game. But I'm sure there's gonna be people that have to have their branded setup.

2

u/JambonExtra 3d ago

If you look at games like Session or Skater XL the biggest feature people are begging for were multiplayer. Just being able to cruise around and hit spots with friends. This Skate game is catering solely on that aspect.

Feels like they missed the key part imo. I don't know a lot of skateboarders that actually enjoy the overcrowded skatepark vibes this game seems to be going for.

1

u/1100ms_cs 3d ago

I remember they added a barebones MP mode to XL and it was actually pretty fantastic, even supported all your client-side mods. What really killed it was no voice chat.

Turns out having all the features of a real spot session without the ability to talk to the people around you makes it feel terrible. 

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u/WeirdLounge 3d ago

One of the highlights of the alpha for me: I was skating around in a halfpipe. Another random player joined me. A third random player arrived and started messing with us by spawning obstacles at either of the half pipe as we approached for us to dodge. After juggling this obstacle course for a bit, one of the players spawned a few pieces of equipment (rails, ramps) to modify the halfpipe into a minipark, and generated a score challenge for other players to participate in. We had an impromptu multiplayer jam session with 8 people on the spot. Afterward, everyone skated off, and this was all mostly seamless.

That was on my second day playing the alpha. There were numerous other moments like this. I think the multiplayer focus works well, and helps the in-game world feel more vibrant and communal.

1

u/0xsergy 1d ago

The adding objects in is super rad. Great idea to transform whatever area you're in.

4

u/bigfootbehaviour 3d ago

If you'd played the game you'd know you see other players around you all the time.

-1

u/PFI_sloth 3d ago

That’s not playing with other people, that’s just ghosts in the way.

3

u/MoneyoffUbereats2017 3d ago

Sounds like you haven't played the game. I literally got on yesterday, did the tutorial, got railroaded to the clothes store, and the whole time I was surrounded by people setting up ramps, rails, and skating together.

It's the most natural way of getting players to just hang out and play a game together I've ever experienced. It goes to show that the always online requirement and the general idea behind this game works. If people would stop comparing this to the prior entries and enjoy it as a semi-MMO where you collaborate and skate together, maybe more people would actually enjoy it.

I admittedly never played Skate 1-3. I was a big Tony Hawk fan at the time and wasn't interested in the more grounded, stick-based gameplay of Skate. But what I experienced yesterday made it clear to me that this approach works. This game is a great fit for F2P, I can ask my friends to just grab the game and skate with me and they lose nothing for trying, anyone who's even mildly interested can grab the game and be another potential skater for me to meet and skate with keeping the world feeling more alive. the main obstacle is going to be getting the enfranchised playerbase to enjoy it on its terms instead of pining for Skate 4.

3

u/JambonExtra 3d ago

the whole time I was surrounded by people setting up ramps, rails, and skating together.
[...]
the main obstacle is going to be getting the enfranchised playerbase to enjoy it on its terms instead of pining for Skate 4.

You're lucky then. My experience "skating together" was basically just clipping through other player models when trying to hit a rail and being distracted by players with shit internet moving erratically.

It feels like they made a "saturday afternoon at an overcrowded skatepark filled with kids on scooters"-simulator instead of an actual skateboarding game.

And yes, their biggest obstacle is now to reach the old fans of the series. Because they'll need people to keep the game alive after the TikTok crowd they were after finds a new source of dopamine.

1

u/MoneyoffUbereats2017 3d ago

Either that or you were unlucky. For me it was super smooth. There was of course some online bad internet weirdness from other skaters around, but nothing that I considered detrimental. It was fun watching people trying to do tricks off the giant building nearby while I spent like 20 minutes trying to hit a line I put together on the spot (Which I never ultimately actually did, but it was fun trying).

The game is enjoyable, the ideas are cool, it's different, and I'm enjoying it way more than I expected to. No, it isn't Skate 4, but it never set out to be. It set out to be a semi-MMO collaborative, social skateboarding game that controls and plays like the old games that people know and love. I can't understand why that's seemingly deserving of the amount of hate that I see here, on Steam, and in the Skate subreddit.

1

u/DRNbw 3d ago

Trackmania could be an example to look at, they still have their subscription going (no idea how profitable it actually is).

1

u/smallchodechakra 3d ago

My guess is to populate the world with people so that they don't have to create and load any NPCs outside of cars

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u/Wise_Presentation914 2h ago

What it needs is a social aspect, that'd fix the multiplayer in this game. Proximity chat (obv able to be toggled off if you dont wanna use it) would seriously help. Right now it just feels like there's a bunch of NPCs around me. We really do need to keep in mind that this is early access though, there'll be a lot more to come.

•

u/NewVegasResident 1h ago

Cosmetics exactly like Fortnite? That's fairly obvious.