Hi, I thought I'd write this directly to you as the lead designer because I have no interest in having a discussion on the forums about it. Also, I heard you like Secret of Mana so I know you are on the level! I just want to talk about the nature of competitive gaming and tell you about a concern I have with BLC, and why I am not playing it at the moment.

To start with a bit of history, I started competitive gaming with fighters on the Super Nintendo and enjoyed the exciting contest between two players to see who was the best, based only on each person's wits and skills. Years later I discovered competitive online games like Diablo 2 PvP, WoW Arena, and League of Legends. For me, the ability design in those games always seemed to render them critically flawed as competitive experiences.

My fighting game history gave me a very simple and solid definition of good competitive gaming; [b]An exchange of wits and skills between opponents to determine the best player.[/b] For this to happen the game must be made with one important consideration in mind -- the players must be able to [b]respond[/b] to each other's actions at all times. The choice of how to [b]respond[/b] to what your opponent is doing is what makes you skilled or unskilled, victorious or defeated. A good, deep game will feature many ways to respond at any given moment.

It took me some time to realize this but the reason I have a problem with the design of many online games, including those I mentioned, is that they are filled with four main elements that cause one player not to be able to [b]respond[/b] to the other. I'll go over them, leaving the one that primarily affects BLC for last;

[size=150][b]1) Excessive damage[/b][/size]

This one depends on the game. For games where you are intended to die in a few hits, or even a single hit like the Playstation 1 fighter Bushido Blade, it obviously doesn't apply. But in most of the online games I have played, the ability designs and resource models indicate that PvP matches are meant to play out over a sustained duration rather than a few seconds.

In such a game excessive damage is a problem because it robs a player of the opportunity to [b]respond[/b] to his opponent. If one player can deal so much undodgeable burst damage that his target dies nearly instantaneously, there has been no exchange of wits and skills - one guy just pressed some buttons and won.

This is not much of an issue in BLC. It's possible to die quickly but it means that the player was in a terrible position. This is good design!

[size=150][b]2) Excessive "crowd control"[/b][/size]

This is a huge problem in many games, particularly those in which the time it takes to kill an opponent from full health is less than or similar to the duration of the available crowd control. When one player is robbed of control of his character for an excessive duration, he cannot [b]respond[/b] to what his opponent is doing.

This is acceptable in many fighting games because there are opportunities to break out of combos, but in many online PvP games it is possible to simply click someone and prevent them from responding for five, ten, even twenty or more seconds. There is nothing they can do to respond to the actions of their opponent in this time. When this extreme prevalence of crowd control renders the actions you take against a human player the same as those you would take against a target dummy, the exchange can no longer be considered "PvP".

This is another area in which BLC mostly shines; since everything can be dodged and CC durations are short and mostly break on damage, it becomes a tool that must be tactically and skillfully applied at key moments rather than simply "stun locking" an opponent to death. There have been some exceptions such as the Seeker, but you have done a good job fixing most of those problems. When I discovered BLC I was playing high-rated WoW Arena as a healer, spending most of every match unable to control my character as my teammates died around me. Needless to say, I was particularly excited to see your designs for crowd control skills.

[size=150][b]3) Excessive range/zoning abilities[/b][/size]

When one combatant can attack from so great a range that his opponents cannot possibly respond, it's no longer "PvP" because there is no exchange between two players, just one attacking the other with impunity. League of Legends in particular is filled with this poor PvP design -- abilities which deal heavy damage from well beyond standard character ranges, or even from across the entire map!

The range is so excessive that there is no opportunity to close in on the assailant or prevent him from taking action against you. I'm not sure what planet this could reasonably be called 'PvP' on. Thankfully BLC has none of this garbage! Ranged attacks can be dodged and none of them have such great range that they are outside of reasonable closing distance.

A somewhat related issue is close-range zoning, which is a minor problem in BLC. I don't feel that it's good PvP design when a player is damaged simply for being in the vicinity of another character. There are not many examples of this in BLC, but one such ability is the Nomad's Wind Strike -- if a melee champion attempts to damage the Nomad, he will be forced to sustain a certain amount of damage when the Nomad uses Wind Strike. If it were an aimed knockback ability such as the Igniter's Crippling Flame and could be dodged, the damage component would be acceptable, but I feel it's poor design for an ability that quickly activates in an area around the user to deal any damage. The knockback is sufficient to fulfill the defensive purpose of the move, the melee assailant need not be forced to take damage without the opportunity to respond/dodge simply because he was within his natural combat range.

[size=150][b]4) Stealth/Invisibility [/b][/size]

To skillfully respond to the actions of your opponent you must be able to [b]see[/b] them. When one player can attack another while invisible the victim cannot possibly know how to [b]respond[/b] (movement, dodging, use of abilities to counter the actions of the enemy) because his assailant cannot be seen.

There are several different levels of severity where stealth designs are concerned. Purely defensive stealth abilities are least offensive but alternate designs should be considered.

The next worst implementation of stealth consists of the type that breaks upon action. This type of ability is not conducive to good PvP because it causes one player to have no information on how to respond to the movements of his opponent for the duration of the stealth. It is impossible to determine the enemy's exact position, movement, frame/animation data, or possible intent, so for a moment the game ceases to be PvP and becomes a [b]guessing game[/b]. Gambling is not good PvP -- a philosophy I am sure you agree with since you intelligently excluded dodge and critical hits from BLC's design.

When a player scores a critical hit, he has just gained an advantage through no action on his part. When critical hits and dodge are present in any measure, the game has become a gambling game to some degree. Likewise, when you fire an ability at a target that you cannot see, it is a sheer gamble. You are, in essence, rolling the dice and hoping for sixes. One can say all they want about prediction and estimation, but in a truly competitive gaming experience you are making informed decisions based upon your opponent's movements and frame data that you can [b]see[/b]. If you can't see, there's no information, and any successful or failed action taken in that moment is essentially the same as scoring a critical hit or a random dodge. Certainly skill is required on the part of the invisible player to continue dodging and confuse his opponents, but as I've said, PvP consists of more than one player and the exchange should be two-ways at [b]all times[/b].

In the case of the Ranid Assassin the counterplay is extremely limited. In fact, there is only one choice with which to respond; you must move (Space) away from the point he stealthed at. Using a defensive ability is not an option because with no information on the position or frame animations of the Ranid you cannot determine what he is doing. The Ranid can wait as your defensive move is expended and then attack once you are unguarded. You can use the defensive ability only to discover that the Ranid is attacking another player. Therefore, because the Ranid is invisible and there is no information on how to respond to his actions, the only viable counterplay is for all players within movement range of the Ranid to immediately move sufficiently far away to outrange his stealth duration. A single, blind response to an enemy action does not constitute compelling PvP. You could attempt to blindly hit him or zone him out, but again, this is purely an exercise in gambling and not the skill-based dodging and aiming that the game is founded on.

An even greater offense to the principles of good PvP is stealth which persists even as the invisible player attacks his opponent. [b]When one combatant is not visible to the human eye, an informed exchange of skills and ideas cannot transpire[/b]. This is not effective PvP because one of the players cannot [b]respond[/b]. It should be noted that the term "PvP" contains the letter "P" [b]twice[/b] for a good reason. :D

[size=150][b]Conclusion[/b][/size]

The existence of one or more of these elements causes the game to stop being "PvP" as I have defined it -- the continuous exchange of wits and skills between two players. The four elements I've listed are never seen in fighting games because such games are designed to yield the best possible competitive experience, both players being able to respond to the actions of the other at all times.

When I first discovered BLC I was overjoyed because I had finally found an online competitive game made by human beings capable of applying rational thought and logic to effective PvP design. I have enjoyed BLC more than every other online competitive game I have played.

During the beta, the "anti-PvP" elements present in the form of Ranid and Gunner's stealth mechanics were an annoyance but not sufficient to compromise the overall outstanding design quality of the game. However, with the introduction of the Stalker's EX Cloak ability I feel that the integrity of the game's design has been severely compromised. As I hope to have made clear, [b]when one combatant is not visible to the human eye, an informed exchange of skills between two human players cannot transpire[/b]. This is in opposition to everything that BLC stands for.

This sort of design is not conducive to quality, competitive PvP, and actually inhibits it. I hope that you will consider alternate designs for the few abilities in BLC that are harmful to its competitiveness, because you have created a one-of-a-kind game. In a market full of games made by designers with reasoning capabilities more suited to a job at the local burger joint, Bloodline Champions is a refreshing spark of intelligent thought applied to skill-based PvP design. Thanks to you and the others at SLS for making it, and I hope that I will be able to enjoy the game again soon.