In a recent interview with the Ubisoft Blog, Rainbow Six Siege creative director Leroy Athanassoff discussed new features of the game. During this, the director stated that if professional players are unhappy with the proposed features, then they’re going in the right direction.
For context, Athanassoff was discussing helping push players out of their comfort zone, and that professional players typically prefer to have a more rigid structure that they can learn thoroughly and apply to professional play. Athanassoff stated the belief that pushing them out of this comfort zone means the game is growing, constantly pushing all players towards improvement.
While this is a valid point, the statement faced a bit of backlash from the community. It seems all anyone paid attention to was the implication that unhappy players mean a happy Ubisoft Montreal. In response, the developers have taken to their blog to clarify their meaning more thoroughly.
Ça va bien aller.
There's a 🌈 in every House. pic.twitter.com/2f3tzhMHoq— Rainbow Six Siege (@Rainbow6Game) April 3, 2020
“It is true that part of our balancing efforts is to push every player, professionals included, out of their comfort zone,” they write. “This does not mean we are going about things to be intentionally frustrating for these players, but instead make adjustments to ensure our professional players are the best at the game as a whole, and not a specific update or meta. We also have to consider the entire player-base, and while some aspects of professional play will trickle down to general matchmaking, not all do.”
The developers also discussed a few things about professional players, such as the following four points:
- Professional players are masters of the game as it stands, which inevitably will cause changes to be undesired as it will alter the mastery they hold due to the disruption it can cause to composition, strategy, and performance.
- Professional players are able to see things that the developers can’t from a gameplay standpoint, which is useful for balancing but also presents challenges when balancing for the player-base as a whole.
- The developers intend to bring more professional input into the title for balancing.
- While professional feedback is important, they’re far from the only aspect being taken into account. Ubisoft Montreal will continue making decisions based on professional feedback, player feedback, and their own collected data.
At the end of the day, this makes sense. If you balance the game only for the absolute best of the best, where does that leave the casual player just trying to get a few rounds in? Without any changes, how long until the meta gets stagnant? If developers bow to professional opinions each time, will they have a good game or a good esport?
Athanassoff’s statement makes perfect sense in context, and with this further explanation of insights into how the developers intend to carry on, Rainbow Six Siege is looking great.
