Can discussions surrounding the game be more about actual gameplay please?

[RN Neeko]

Yes sure pronouns in the character screen is silly and criticisms for the character designs are fair but none of those things affect gameplay. Pronouns will not affect your gameplay experience. As long as the character models don't cause visibility issues it won't affect gameplay. The game looks like Destiny + Overwatch which is perhaps not the most inspired concept ever but as long as gameplay is solid what does it matter? Why are people crying so much about the game being woke as opposed to what it's like actually playing the game? From the outside looking in it looks extremely pathetic. I don't really care whether this game fails or succeeds, I just hope it'll be a fun game. Such an outrage over absolutely nothing.

[legion]

Well I mean you need to also have likeable characters for a game to be enjoyable no matter how solid the gameplay is. Like for example I don't think super mario brothers would of been a success if mario was a pedo and liked to murder animals for fun.

[Bradshaw]

Because that is what they are showcasing as the selling point of the game. It is a Hero Shooter set in some rando universe that no one cares about and where no one wants to associate with any of the Heros. That is a MASSIVE problem. They designed a game centered around characters that the majority of gamers do not relate to or find appealing.

[RN Neeko]

Originally posted by legion:

Well I mean you need to also have likeable characters for a game to be enjoyable no matter how solid the gameplay is. Like for example I don't think super mario brothers would of been a success if mario was a pedo and liked to murder animals for fun.

I get what you're saying but you're jumping to quite the extreme there. What makes the characters so unlikable? I've seen a couple that people might find annoying but then again I haven't seen all the characters being used yet.

[JT]

Another person who still doesn't know what gamers want. Did you defend suicide squad as well?

[RN Neeko]

Originally posted by Bradshaw:

Because that is what they are showcasing as the selling point of the game. It is a Hero Shooter set in some rando universe that no one cares about and where no one wants to associate with any of the Heros. That is a MASSIVE problem. They designed a game centered around characters that the majority of gamers do not relate to or find appealing.

I used to play Overwatch and I never really felt like I cared about any character in particular in that game either. I just don't really care. I use characters based on their abilities and playstyle, not for their personality and looks, because at the end of the day that's what will determine your gameplay experience, not the look of your character that you will only really see when you die and in the character screen (aside from the small portion of your arm and when using an ability that makes you go into 3rd person). It's not like Marvel Rivals where you're constantly looking at your character on screen.

[RN Neeko]

Originally posted by JT:

Another person who still doesn't know what gamers want. Did you defend suicide squad as well?

Suicide who? Doesn't that game suck for many reasons actually relevant to gameplay? When playing a game I care about how the game plays. I do not care about politics. Doesn't mean I agree with everything, I just simply do not care. Read my original post again. I talked about this.

[legion]

Originally posted by RN Neeko:

Originally posted by Bradshaw:

Because that is what they are showcasing as the selling point of the game. It is a Hero Shooter set in some rando universe that no one cares about and where no one wants to associate with any of the Heros. That is a MASSIVE problem. They designed a game centered around characters that the majority of gamers do not relate to or find appealing.

I used to play Overwatch and I never really felt like I cared about any character in particular in that game either. I just don't really care. I use characters based on their abilities and playstyle, not for their personality and looks, because at the end of the day that's what will determine your gameplay experience, not the look of your character that you will only really see when you die and in the character screen (aside from the small portion of your arm and when using an ability that makes you go into 3rd person). It's not like Marvel Rivals where you're constantly looking at your character on screen.

I also used to play overwatch but thank god I stopped and yea I didn't care about most characters either or any of their backstories but when I first played I choose dva because even though I knew nothing about her or the other characters she just look liked fun based on her personality and over time I grew to like her play style and stuck with her.

With concord I chose IT-Z as my first character because I liked what I saw in stylosa's video and also because she's like the only character who's smiling and has a fun personality. Everyone else is either frowning or couldn't give two ♥♥♥♥♥ about being in the game and I don't think people would want to play as characters who look sad as hell or the fat ♥♥♥♥ in the blue jacket who looks like he's gonna run out of breath every 10 seconds. It's just not appealing to people

[Bradshaw]

Originally posted by RN Neeko:

Originally posted by Bradshaw:

Because that is what they are showcasing as the selling point of the game. It is a Hero Shooter set in some rando universe that no one cares about and where no one wants to associate with any of the Heros. That is a MASSIVE problem. They designed a game centered around characters that the majority of gamers do not relate to or find appealing.

I used to play Overwatch and I never really felt like I cared about any character in particular in that game either. I just don't really care. I use characters based on their abilities and playstyle, not for their personality and looks, because at the end of the day that's what will determine your gameplay experience, not the look of your character that you will only really see when you die and in the character screen (aside from the small portion of your arm and when using an ability that makes you go into 3rd person). It's not like Marvel Rivals where you're constantly looking at your character on screen.

To be fair,

a game's gameplay could be top tier but if the demographic they are marketing to doesn't find the agenda/theme/characters appealing and no one plays it, does it really matter?

It's still a massive failure.

I understand that you might not care too much about OW characters but I believe that the vast majority of gamers do. Why else would we have extensive libraries of R34 content relating to OW characters? /s

[Termix]

Originally posted by RN Neeko:

I get what you're saying but you're jumping to quite the extreme there. What makes the characters so unlikable? I've seen a couple that people might find annoying but then again I haven't seen all the characters being used yet.

I mean you have Roka - she is kinda like Pharah from Overwatch, but she looks like she forgot her armor.
Then you have Daveers or sth. (obviously a play on diverse?) - comparable to Junkrat, while Junkrat looks genuinely good, the Concordrat looks like it put a plastic bowl on its head.
Teo is Soldier 76 without any cool attire and also a manlet version of him.

Do I need to go on?
The characters lack detail, they lack coolness, the outfits look like a cheap knock-off brand.

[Getty]

"please stop complaining about the boring, ugly characters in the hero shooter game"
if you think the character designs are not one part essential to a game like this you're delusional. come back a month after release and look at the player stats numbers

[Guzma]

The issue I have with the characters, is that they are pretty generic and are overusing certain color schemes with such a limited roster.

Starting with Baze, Jabali, Kyps and Vale, you are given four characters that wear glasses or variant, you'll be hard pressed from looking at their portrait which one is the healer, which one is the melee expert, which one is the spy-like, and which one is the sniper. Eventually, the bigger portraits you can find on the net displays the weapon of Baze so you understand she is a melee-centric character, but that's your only clue. Nothing else in her displays that it's her job, same with the other (except arguably Kyps as these goggles are common in spy movies). That's already four characters.

It-Z, Teo and Lennox have nothing interesting in their design. They do not have anything outstanding at all, even compared to the rest of the cast. Which is, I suppose, the way of saying "they are the all-rounders because nothing makes them stand out", but being the basic character does not mean you should make them boring to look at.

Duchesse and Haymar are two asian women wearing robes that take inspirations from obscure cults in other medias with their default stance showing them having an attitude. It doesn't point out they have totally different gameplays, again. They didn't try adding some sort of genuine difference between them on a superficial level, the design is too similar for two characters on a base roster and, once again, does not focus on what they do much.

Out of 16 characters, it's already 9 characters that don't have much personality.

Daveers- A lady in an anti-explosion suit using grenades as her main weapon. Not super original, and frankly, she looks plain, but at least in her design, it works to explain what she does.

Daw- OK, it's a dude that's pretty large, so he must be... Wait, it's a healer? Literally nothing in his design indicates that. Bad.

Emari- Her design it self explanatory, I would have removed the blue lipstick. Why they decided to make her fat is beyond me, but, genuinely and without sounding woke, it might not even be the worst design of the cast. It's just boring and not original to have an armored character that just happens to be a fat black lady. It's like Daveers, bland and using a character of a different skin, age group or gender doesn't mean much, especially when the rest of the cast IS filled with black ladies, or elder ladies.

Larx- We are getting somewhere. She looks like a mushrooms, looks infected... Yes, her powers are about spores. At least this is cool, but once again, it's a humanoid character instead of allowing themselves to go slightly wild. She is a mushroom people, give her maybe extra limbs, or facial features, or something. Her outfit is also pretty basic, like a basic space scavenger that the rest of the Alien characters are mostly wearing.

Roka- The rocket launcher character. Since she is wearing a helmet, nothing much to say, would depend on her voice lines I guess. I spared her from joining It-Z, Teo and Lennox but her design is also nothing exceptional and very bland/basic. An anis/absinthe suit, a helmet with a red visor. If the rest of the cast was well-done, you might take it easy with her, but so far, they didn't earn that in my eyes.

Star-Child- A big hairy blue dude wearing a belt filled with shotgun pellets. From his design, you guess it's a Melee centric character using some close range weapon, and for this one, they nailed it. He is exactly that, and doesn't look totally boring. Good, good.

1-0FF- The robot character. Since he is the only robot that doesn't look too humanoid (followed by Star-Child), he is by default the one who might be the most original character of the cast, though when compared to other medias, he is not an exceptional design, but in the closed ecosystem of Concord, he is decent.


Well, shortly put if you don't want to read everything, when you work on a design, you have a few things to do to make them feel different from each other; try using different colors, distinguishable outfits, differents races, different shapes, and use a pose to display the character's attitude. Five basics. You don't HAVE to use all five of those each time, hell some games can discard some of these (TF2 doesn't go too far in the color department, and there are 7 white guys, one black guy and one god-knows-what with Pyro), but you better ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ work well on the other aspects when making a hero shooter.

And this game failed at that for one of its core aspects. Overusage of purple and anis as colors, outfits extremely similar for a third of the cast, characters with the same skin colors having similar outfits and personalities displayed from their portraits, everyone but four have the same body type, and out of the four not mentioned, only one is not humanoid.
Mixed together, it makes for a not very memorable cast.

[RN Neeko]

Originally posted by Guzma:

The issue I have with the characters, is that they are pretty generic and are overusing certain color schemes with such a limited roster.

Starting with Baze, Jabali, Kyps and Vale, you are given four characters that wear glasses or variant, you'll be hard pressed from looking at their portrait which one is the healer, which one is the melee expert, which one is the spy-like, and which one is the sniper. Eventually, the bigger portraits you can find on the net displays the weapon of Baze so you understand she is a melee-centric character, but that's your only clue. Nothing else in her displays that it's her job, same with the other (except arguably Kyps as these goggles are common in spy movies). That's already four characters.

It-Z, Teo and Lennox have nothing interesting in their design. They do not have anything outstanding at all, even compared to the rest of the cast. Which is, I suppose, the way of saying "they are the all-rounders because nothing makes them stand out", but being the basic character does not mean you should make them boring to look at.

Duchesse and Haymar are two asian women wearing robes that take inspirations from obscure cults in other medias with their default stance showing them having an attitude. It doesn't point out they have totally different gameplays, again. They didn't try adding some sort of genuine difference between them on a superficial level, the design is too similar for two characters on a base roster and, once again, does not focus on what they do much.

Out of 16 characters, it's already 9 characters that don't have much personality.

Daveers- A lady in an anti-explosion suit using grenades as her main weapon. Not super original, and frankly, she looks plain, but at least in her design, it works to explain what she does.

Daw- OK, it's a dude that's pretty large, so he must be... Wait, it's a healer? Literally nothing in his design indicates that. Bad.

Emari- Her design it self explanatory, I would have removed the blue lipstick. Why they decided to make her fat is beyond me, but, genuinely and without sounding woke, it might not even be the worst design of the cast. It's just boring and not original to have an armored character that just happens to be a fat black lady. It's like Daveers, bland and using a character of a different skin, age group or gender doesn't mean much, especially when the rest of the cast IS filled with black ladies, or elder ladies.

Larx- We are getting somewhere. She looks like a mushrooms, looks infected... Yes, her powers are about spores. At least this is cool, but once again, it's a humanoid character instead of allowing themselves to go slightly wild. She is a mushroom people, give her maybe extra limbs, or facial features, or something. Her outfit is also pretty basic, like a basic space scavenger that the rest of the Alien characters are mostly wearing.

Roka- The rocket launcher character. Since she is wearing a helmet, nothing much to say, would depend on her voice lines I guess. I spared her from joining It-Z, Teo and Lennox but her design is also nothing exceptional and very bland/basic. An anis/absinthe suit, a helmet with a red visor. If the rest of the cast was well-done, you might take it easy with her, but so far, they didn't earn that in my eyes.

Star-Child- A big hairy blue dude wearing a belt filled with shotgun pellets. From his design, you guess it's a Melee centric character using some close range weapon, and for this one, they nailed it. He is exactly that, and doesn't look totally boring. Good, good.

1-0FF- The robot character. Since he is the only robot that doesn't look too humanoid (followed by Star-Child), he is by default the one who might be the most original character of the cast, though when compared to other medias, he is not an exceptional design, but in the closed ecosystem of Concord, he is decent.


Well, shortly put if you don't want to read everything, when you work on a design, you have a few things to do to make them feel different from each other; try using different colors, distinguishable outfits, differents races, different shapes, and use a pose to display the character's attitude. Five basics. You don't HAVE to use all five of those each time, hell some games can discard some of these (TF2 doesn't go too far in the color department, and there are 7 white guys, one black guy and one god-knows-what with Pyro), but you better ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ work well on the other aspects when making a hero shooter.

And this game failed at that for one of its core aspects. Overusage of purple and anis as colors, outfits extremely similar for a third of the cast, characters with the same skin colors having similar outfits and personalities displayed from their portraits, everyone but four have the same body type, and out of the four not mentioned, only one is not humanoid.
Mixed together, it makes for a not very memorable cast.

You make an excellent point regarding silhouettes. This is the kind of discussion I want to see. Design language that easily and instinctually makes the role of a character come across is very important.

[Scyris]

Originally posted by Getty:

"please stop complaining about the boring, ugly characters in the hero shooter game"
if you think the character designs are not one part essential to a game like this you're delusional. come back a month after release and look at the player stats numbers

Won't need a month, I mean the beta was down to 20-50 players by day 2 on steam, I doubt other platforms did much better. Open beta will have prob more people as well its free, and the only reason it is a open beta when it was orignally going to be closed is because they are in a panic as the sales completly sucked, and they are desperate to try to get any sort of a playerbase. A large part of the open beta players will prob be content creators making fun of the game, or people morbidly curious if its as garbage as they hear it is. Neither will buy this in the end, not when there is better free alteratives to it.

Only thing that might give this game any chance is if it was free to play, the fact you want people to shell out 40 dollars for this is a joke when there are better free alternatives to it.

[Tarious]

Hi, OP,
I hope you get to enjoy Concord. We see people like you in the suicide squad forum all the time. You make a post on how great a game is then a month later, you're magically gone and forgot you even played the game until someone reminds you in the thread.

[Reggit]

For me, it's a matter of time and money...
So many games - so little time!
I have to be discerning with my money.
If someone wants my money, they really have to grab my attention.
Any negative - even something silly - is still a negative.