 What's up everybody I'm TheMangus, you are awesome and Ranger, the lead for Team Soul Leave, recently released a message pertaining to Over Prime. Basically the message says that they've had significant drops in player numbers, they're aware of the problem, they're analyzing the data and they're gonna try to fix it. The message also asks that players please be patient if patches don't come out as fast as expected. I of course have a few theories as to why there has been a dip in the player base, as well as a few thoughts as to how they can correct the issues going forward. I think the answers are pretty easy, however the solutions may be somewhat difficult. Bottom line up front, in order to retain the player base and grow the game, they need console ports, controller support for PC, and an actual AI mode for beginning players. I think there are also some other problems with the game, however I don't have good answers to those, so I'll just talk about them and maybe you guys can come up with some solutions. As always if you find yourself enjoying this video please leave a like and consider subscribing for more 3rd person MOBA content. I think the biggest step they could make to both attain and retain player base is console release. Out of all the Parazombie games we've seen, Paragon the Over Prime has shown us the most concrete evidence of console ports. They've showed us the game being played on the PS5 like a year ago, and ranger posted pictures of them receiving a PS4 dev kit, and they've also talked about porting the game to Xbox. Why is console release so important? Well as I and many other content creators have pointed out 70% of Paragon players were from the PS4 community. I don't think getting those particular players back is all that important to the growth of the game, but it shows that there is a market for a free to play 3rd person MOBA on consoles. There is very little competition on consoles for the MOBA genre in general. Historically speaking we can look at Smyte. Smyte was on a steady decline in player numbers until they released on Xbox. It was the Xbox port that saved Smyte from extinction and has kept that game healthy for years. Smyte brings up another point though. I know many Smyte players, but only maybe one or two that actually enjoy the game. Why do they still play? I'll fuck if I know, but they're looking for an alternative. If Soul League can release PTO on both PlayStation and Xbox, they will not only access a new market, but they'll almost certainly bring in a host of Smyte players. No matter what they do to get new players into the game, they still need to keep those players and that comes down to onboarding in a robust versus AI mode. You can play versus AI in over prime now, but the AI is really dumb. To the point that a new player will probably just learn bad habits from that mode instead of what they should be doing in a MOBA. It's kinda hidden too. There's no message out there that says hey, if you want to play by yourself versus the computer, set up a custom match versus AI. Soul League included a variety of tutorials for the game and they're great, but most people just skip them. And I don't think any tutorial, no matter how detailed, will ever teach a player as much about the game as a few matches of versus AI. Not to mention, there are some folks that just want to play versus AI. They don't want the pressure of PVP. I think the best course of action is to refine versus AI and add helpful in-game tips to assist new players. They should then make versus AI a very clear option for new players and then set things up so that if you win a game of versus AI, then you unlock a hero for the role you played with, with a final 6th hero unlocked when you win a versus AI mode in each role. That way, maybe, just maybe, I won't get a Chimera in competitive cues that has no idea that there is a starter jungle item with an active smite. Something else they could do is add a 3v3 ARAM mode for the more casual players. This was risky as it could just divide the player base even further, however, I've played Soul League's version of this on a map they created back before they were picked up by Netmarble and it was amazing. A mode like this would give new players a pressure-free way to learn heroes while giving veterans a way to just get a few quick games We again look at smite to see that less complicated low-pressure game modes can be far more popular than the standard way the game is meant to be played. Another thing is controller support. This is mainly for them to appeal to the para-refugees. It's also just a major oversight that's a smudge on their reputation of completeness. While many Paragon players found the game via PS4, they've either migrated naturally to PC or have straight-up purchased gaming rigs specifically so they can play the para-zombies. Most of these players still prefer to play the game using controller as their input. I'm not sure how many people they can appeal to or retain by adding controller support, but in any case, it would just be nice of them to offer the ability to the player to select how they want to play the game. The problem I don't really have a solution to is old-school Paragon players crushing people that are new to the game. This wasn't as much of a problem in Paragon since the game was pretty new, and everyone was all just learning together. However, and this applies to predecessor as well, Over Prime has a unique situation where there is a core community of experienced players being matched with and against people that are brand new to the game. This creates problems for both. The new players don't get to have fun because they are being supremely outclassed, and the para-refugees are getting pissed that they have a jungler that is just farming random lanes. There's a division in the community right off the bat. Hell, if you look at the top ranked players for competitive queues at Over Prime, you see a ton of names you'll recognize if you played Fault. Even the most Dogwater Bronze Elo Fault player, thinking of myself here, will completely dominate someone that is brand new to the genre. I'm not sure how they're doing internal MMR, but it needs to start at 0. Over Prime in its current state and predecessor when they go free to play need to learn from one of Fault's failures and that was setting new players MMR at a mid-number so that they were matched against vastly more experienced players. People need to start at the bottom and work their way up so the cream rises to the top faster and the skim can learn how to play the game against equally experienced players. Now for a perceived problem that I don't think is that bad and will correct itself, matchmaking in ranked. I know many people are pissed that they get shit teammates in ranked mode and the lowering of the level requirement is to blame, but I think this is just straight up growing pains of a new game. Over Prime is brand new and this is their first ranked season so they have very little information to work with. Think of it this way, you're given a thousand people and told to create a competitive basketball league. Without knowing the skill levels of anyone, how are you going to match them up? Do you think every game is going to be great? Fuck no. As you watch them play, you'll very soon see who's good and who's not and be able to create more even games as time goes on, but it's going to be a fuster clock at the beginning. Now imagine you're given a shot at a season two with the same players plus like maybe two hundred more, I imagine you'll do a much better job during the second season. I'm not saying that Soul Leaf should do nothing to correct this issue, but I do think it's a self-resolving problem. And that's it. I'm personally pretty concerned with the decline in numbers but I'm glad they addressed it. I'm a huge fan of Over Prime who's been playing the crap out of it, really enjoy the game and I really want to see it succeed. One thing I do want to add is that the main decline in player based numbers seems to be in Asia so my personal experience with the game hasn't really been affected. I still get around the same queue times from a quick match and competitive and honestly I would not have been able to tell that they were leaking players if I hadn't already been tracking steam charts. Hopefully Soul Leaf could pull up on the stick and correct the nose dives soon and I think the suggestions I put forward can help them do that, but for now this is the Mangoo signing off. You guys have a good one. Mangoo's!