Blog Post 2: Why be Reborn?

I get this question surprisingly often. Or, surprising to me at least. I've long wanted a port for Aftermath, for various reasons. The argument against is basically "it's good enough", and I'll grant that. Barring the occasional CTD, the game works. The arguments for... Are more varied, of course, because it depends on what you port to. Things like fixing cluster-rockets not counting as team-kills, or more relevantly, fixing pill-pouch breaking when you move it to another slot. They're pretty much guaranteed wherever you go, but porting to DotA2 or SC2 (the two big, obvious choices) is just going to replace those with other bugs like >60 minutes resulting in a lot worse than just jitter. Porting to your own engine will have fewer, but weirder, bugs. (I don't have a particular example here, but I'm sure you can imagine. Goat Sim, anyone?) More control, less work, no Blizz EULA, etc. etc. But there's one reason that stands out above all the others, and this one requires only that it be remade, irrelevant of what to: Exposure. The single biggest problem that Aftermath had was a small playerbase, that kept dwindling. To those who were there during that time, those two reasons should be pretty obvious. Firstly, "it's old". While it's a rather weak argument, a lot of naysayers would stick to this as their reason for never joining in on it. WC3 is a very old game, and some people can't get past the prejudice and see that it has stood the test of time. This is the main problem that gets addressed with a remake; we can say to those people "it's not old anymore, it's well up with the times". This is part of where our 'same game, new look' approach comes from; the more of a facelift it gets, the more convincing this will be. The second reason, and this is honestly far more critical, is the learning curve. Part of what makes SWAT such a great game is the complexity. Not in the "you need to know 400 abilities across 100 heroes so you don't die randomly all the time" way, but in a more intuitive, yet somehow even more deceptive, way. There is a lot to pay attention to, and even though it fits together, it's still a very daunting part of starting out. This is where I'd like to specifically call out to the community. We're getting players in, but we're clearly not retaining them very well. Newbies are quite dense, yes, and you're more than welcome to vent about them - in private. Whether it be in whispers to your buddy in the game, or having a good old rage about them in voice chat with some other vet players, that's a lot better than yelling in their faces. Some newbies are a lost cause from the getgo. They're not worth your anger, nor your attention. And for those that have a chance, try to capitalise on it by being welcoming, helpful and calm. It's better to make friends than enemies.