As many League of Legends players will tell you, when any online game has several maps or modes available, queue times will naturally be longer or shorter as maps fall in and out of favor with the player-base. Anyone looking for a good game on Twisted Treeline or Dominion can attest to that (self included). Eventually, even those who like the less popular maps will give up because it simply takes too damn long to find a game. Blizzard got around this by taking out the element of choice and making each game take place on a random battleground. While this approach presumably allows Heroes of the Storm to have a great deal more maps and game modes than its competition, it brings its own set of limitations.
With the addition of three new battlegrounds to the Nexus, comes a serious case of deja vu for players. While the new maps have their own unique twists, the objectives seem to be made up of recycled elements from the original four. Tomb of the Spider Queen takes the payment mechanics from Blackheart's Bay along with a nod to Cursed Hollow's lane pushing, just instead of weakening enemy minions, it buffs your own through the webweavers. The same can be said for Garden of Terror, a blatant hybrid of Dragon Shire and Haunted Mines. Sky Temple is slightly more subtle by comparison but the remote base destruction and holding specific points comes from Black Heart's Bay and Dragon Shire respectively.
It's easy to shout accusations of being unoriginal but consider this: if each randomly chosen map were completely different, how much would dumb luck, rather than strategy, decide a game? For skill to be the deciding factor, there has to be an element of consistency.
Even with a full premade team with perfect communication, planning a strategy for one of seven drastically different maps would be a challenge. If a battleground encouraged specific team composition, the game would be tilted in favor of the team who just happened to choose the right heroes for that map. As the Heroes of the Dorm tournament makes clear, Blizzard wants to build a competitive scene for this game, which would be all but impossible in this case.
Casual solo queue players wouldn't have a much better time. There would likely be a longer wait while the matchmaking system picked a map and arranged a proper team around that, and it would increase depending on what roles needed to be filled and what players were online who met that criteria. Granted there will always be someone to play the support or tank role, but how long would you like to wait to find them?
While the objectives on the original four maps are fairly diverse, even all those share core concepts that make it easy for players to jump from one to the other. Each battleground is designed around a race to secure an objective, defend it and prevent the enemy team from doing the same. The results are frequent team fights and a strong incentive for players to coordinate in whatever they do. The details may change - be it collecting coins or skulls, defending an ally collecting tribute or disrupting an enemy from turning into an axe-wielding dragon - but the essential goals of capture and hold remain the same. The result is that a team need only adapt their tactics to a specific map, but apply an overall strategy to all of them.
I agree that some of the mechanics on the latest battlegrounds may be a little too blatantly recycled, however Blizzard has stated repeatedly that there will be many more maps, to the point that some will be rotated in and out of the game. There's a good chance we will see some new types of gimmick objectives that still adhere to the game's basic template.
And before you get too impatient, for god's sake remember the game is still in Closed Beta.
With the addition of three new battlegrounds to the Nexus, comes a serious case of deja vu for players. While the new maps have their own unique twists, the objectives seem to be made up of recycled elements from the original four. Tomb of the Spider Queen takes the payment mechanics from Blackheart's Bay along with a nod to Cursed Hollow's lane pushing, just instead of weakening enemy minions, it buffs your own through the webweavers. The same can be said for Garden of Terror, a blatant hybrid of Dragon Shire and Haunted Mines. Sky Temple is slightly more subtle by comparison but the remote base destruction and holding specific points comes from Black Heart's Bay and Dragon Shire respectively.
It's easy to shout accusations of being unoriginal but consider this: if each randomly chosen map were completely different, how much would dumb luck, rather than strategy, decide a game? For skill to be the deciding factor, there has to be an element of consistency.
Even with a full premade team with perfect communication, planning a strategy for one of seven drastically different maps would be a challenge. If a battleground encouraged specific team composition, the game would be tilted in favor of the team who just happened to choose the right heroes for that map. As the Heroes of the Dorm tournament makes clear, Blizzard wants to build a competitive scene for this game, which would be all but impossible in this case.
Casual solo queue players wouldn't have a much better time. There would likely be a longer wait while the matchmaking system picked a map and arranged a proper team around that, and it would increase depending on what roles needed to be filled and what players were online who met that criteria. Granted there will always be someone to play the support or tank role, but how long would you like to wait to find them?
While the objectives on the original four maps are fairly diverse, even all those share core concepts that make it easy for players to jump from one to the other. Each battleground is designed around a race to secure an objective, defend it and prevent the enemy team from doing the same. The results are frequent team fights and a strong incentive for players to coordinate in whatever they do. The details may change - be it collecting coins or skulls, defending an ally collecting tribute or disrupting an enemy from turning into an axe-wielding dragon - but the essential goals of capture and hold remain the same. The result is that a team need only adapt their tactics to a specific map, but apply an overall strategy to all of them.
I agree that some of the mechanics on the latest battlegrounds may be a little too blatantly recycled, however Blizzard has stated repeatedly that there will be many more maps, to the point that some will be rotated in and out of the game. There's a good chance we will see some new types of gimmick objectives that still adhere to the game's basic template.
And before you get too impatient, for god's sake remember the game is still in Closed Beta.
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