Putting the TL;DR at the top so I can add in suggestions from other posters.
TL;DR unfortunately GW2 will most likely fail as an e-sport.
- It need better camera controls, currently it is too jarring
- health bars could do with a slight vertical increase for ease of viewing
- more in-game stats like kills/assits/heals/captures/damage taken to identify key players.
- show the capping bar
- show the players target as a portrait top center and their health bar + buffs and conditions.
Just watched the EU finals and I’m not sure GW2 will work as an e-sport in its current state.
LoL is the biggest e-sport in the world by far, then SC2, counterstirke, DotA2 – all are successful for different reasons.
LoL has a pacing that is easy to follow and easy to understand therefore anyone on any skill lvl can watch it. Even in a 5v5 fight you can see what is happening most the time.
SC2 even in late game with all the units you can see what is happening. The effects aren’t so over the top that subtle plays get lost.
DoTA2 loses out to LoL as an e-sport because its a more complex game, the more detailed graphics and spell effects can sometimes be overwhelming and the action gets lost. But it does have nice shoutcasting support options available like graphs and GPM.
Counterstrike isn’t that easy to understand the movement of all the players but it does allow you see the skill of each player through a first person view. This was the same with CoD, individual skill could be appreciated.
Now MMO’s… WoW’s failure with Arena as an e-sport is an indicator of what will likely happen to GW2. WoW was dropped by tournaments, its reasoning was the character balance but I believe it was more than just that.
Reasons: Its very hard to follow the chaotic action even if you play GW2. So much information is happening at once you can’t see the good plays. The camera is spinning wildly around, sometimes zooming in on players due to walls, objects, etc. The camera movement added with the speed of the players is almost headache inducing. The health bars could do with a vertical increase so you’re not having to focus in on the character – information should be easy to absorb.
also remove that disgusting overlay, that big white smudge bottom left is far too large and the contrast is over the top.
Another thing you need is an in-game leaderboard. Damage done, biggest crit, heals, assists, kills, captures, defense kills. The more information on stats the more people will learn who are the people to watch. Throw this up when the action is in a lull. People want to know who are the stars of each team. People like to follow personalities just as much as teams. i.e. people like watching Na’vi (DotA2) but that has a lot to do with Dendi their star player.
Capping a point should be a more exciting moment. You should be able to see a large bar at the top swinging back and forth. There should be moments where “blue have almost got the point… clutch blink into the zone from a red player saves the capture!” this should be visual on screen.
