Duh said:
I thought this site has a profanity filter!
On a more serious note, I can't say I really approve of the other stuff either: "Larger Focus on E-Sports, Ladders, Spectating Audiences, "Clean" Product"
Turning Mount & Blade into another sterile competitive game where it's all about your rank would in my eyes be a horrible move. While there is a really high skill ceiling (in Warband at least), I don't really think that's playing to the strong points of the series, nor do I think it is the really marketable side of the multiplayer aspect of such a game.
This feels like a case of joining the popular game mechanic bandwagon. Ranked Matchmaking is really common these days, and naturally people want their game on the front page of Twitch. However, I'd argue that's exactly why Bannerlord
shouldn't go down such a route. It should try to set itself apart.
As was said in the latest blog, Bannerlord is slated to support
even higher playercounts than Warband. And Warband's already insane in this regard!
That is where the marketable strength lies! That is something absolutely nobody else can deliver. Why throw that game design and marketing opportunity away by emphasising small-scale, competitive gameplay? Sure, it's small-scale, competitive gameplay
with swords, but it's still a totally missed opportunity. I think this does seem to be the course they've set though. Not only with Skirmish being a "replacement" for Battle, but also with the way Captain Battle seems to eschew maximising scale and spectacle in favour of clinical map design. Being able to make things even bigger to me would mean "let's make a mode that is like you're controlling a Total War unit from the ground", not "capture the flag points on a corridorised map".
Obviously, if you were to emphasise scale, then a mode like Battle becomes mandatory.
I want to emphasise that I'm not against the implementation of competitive elements, but I am against de-emphasising the less "serious" part of multiplayer in its name. If they can make great modes designed for tons of players and a generally epic scale, I'm pretty sure that would make the game sell like hot cakes. This isn't something that should be left up to the mod community, and Siege is definitely not enough. As PUBG showed, huge servers and easy matchmaking can be a very powerful combination, and I'm assuming modded-in modes won't be in matchmaking