While Marvel Rivals has been incredibly popular since its release, and especially since the launch of its first season, questions have risen about the game’s future for more competitive-oriented players. Creative director Guangyun Chen revealed in an interview with Metro that the developers at NetEase Games want Marvel Rivals to be a game that appeals to every kind of player.
When it comes to competitive multiplayer, one of the biggest questions tends to be about how the game and its developers would handle tournaments. Chen talks about how the ranked mode-playing competitive scene for the game could potentially co-exist with a more casual player base that primarily tends to stick to quick play.
“We’ve actually been thinking about this on a broader scale, looking at the picture as a whole,” said Chen in the interview. “We really hope that when we do the competitive modes or tournaments, they will co-exist with our quick play. That’s because we’ve been seeing a lot of other successful titles being able to pull off a competitive environment and a quick play environment both healthily at the same time. We’ll be taking a lot of references from them to ultimately let both player pools thrive.”
Chen ultimately declares that the important thing for Marvel Rivals is that every type of player enjoys the game. The studio does not want to sacrifice the enjoyment of casual players for the sake of competitive balance. However, this doesn’t mean the studio won’t release balance patches. This is especially important since, for other competitive shooters, balance patches can often be released because of the results of professional players that are winning tournaments.
“The team wants every kind of player to enjoy the game in their own way,” said Chen. “So instead of just zeroing in on either tournament results or quick play, we’re going to take a broader look at the overall balance data on all the heroes in all the modes.”
The studio wants to instead pay attention to Marvel Rivals as a whole, and the win rates for its various heroes. Analysis of whether some heroes are winning more matches than they statistically should, especially when compared to other heroes, will be more important in deciding the game’s balance.
“Moving forward, we will be looking at hero pick rates and win rates in different scenarios,” he said. “Once we have some more detailed analysis and through thoughtful consideration, we’ll definitely make necessary balances and adjustments. It’s all about creating a good experience for our players. It hasn’t been that long since our launch, so we’re going to continue to monitor everything and make sure everything feels right.”
In the same interview, Chen had also previously revealed that the studio wasn’t yet interested in bringing more heavily-defined role locks or role queues to the game’s matchmaking. Currently, players can pick heroes from across the game’s three roles – Vanguard, Duelist and Strategist – however they would like. Bringing in role locks or role queues would block players from changing their role in a match.