The Flow of Battle Royale and why 50/50 ruins it
There have been threads about 50/50 before, and its general unpopularity, but I want to more specifically explain why it's damaging to the game flow, and probably achieves the opposite of what it's designed to do.
The only explanation I have of what the 50/50 is for is to make the game easier for beginners. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. I only actively started playin GeoGuessr with the release of BR and got a pro account just for it, so I know what it's like to start from nothing. However, the game is kind of self regulating, so it never felt like a problem to me.
The beauty of BR is that in the first round, everyone can win. You get to wait and see what wrong guesses come in, take your time to look around. It's highly educational, too, since from the wrong guesses you can get an idea of what other people think this looks like.
As the round progresses, it gets more difficult, and yes, you might get eliminated (but what kind of game would it be if you won a majority of games against stronger players?), but then you can hop in and start the process over again. This is what I did and slowly went from knowing nothing, to winning a decent number of games. GeoTips helped, as well.
In a way, BR is self-regulating. Harder locations take longer, easier locations might be over after the prelock phase. This is awesome, and leads to some really interesting, dynamic rounds. However, ever since the 50/50 was added, I cannot enjoy the hard rounds anymore, because always at the back of my mind is a nagging fear that someone will just click 50/50 and get it. It has effectively removed my favorite part of the game. None of that tension of "who will get it first?" as long as someone still has their 50/50.
So I'm asking you, please remove or rework the 50/50, or give an option to play without it. You had something exceptional there, and I really hope you bring it back.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
The only explanation I have of what the 50/50 is for is to make the game easier for beginners. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. I only actively started playin GeoGuessr with the release of BR and got a pro account just for it, so I know what it's like to start from nothing. However, the game is kind of self regulating, so it never felt like a problem to me.
The beauty of BR is that in the first round, everyone can win. You get to wait and see what wrong guesses come in, take your time to look around. It's highly educational, too, since from the wrong guesses you can get an idea of what other people think this looks like.
As the round progresses, it gets more difficult, and yes, you might get eliminated (but what kind of game would it be if you won a majority of games against stronger players?), but then you can hop in and start the process over again. This is what I did and slowly went from knowing nothing, to winning a decent number of games. GeoTips helped, as well.
In a way, BR is self-regulating. Harder locations take longer, easier locations might be over after the prelock phase. This is awesome, and leads to some really interesting, dynamic rounds. However, ever since the 50/50 was added, I cannot enjoy the hard rounds anymore, because always at the back of my mind is a nagging fear that someone will just click 50/50 and get it. It has effectively removed my favorite part of the game. None of that tension of "who will get it first?" as long as someone still has their 50/50.
So I'm asking you, please remove or rework the 50/50, or give an option to play without it. You had something exceptional there, and I really hope you bring it back.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
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If however, both players arrive at the final with the 50/50 still intact then it gets removed from both players for the final, to make it a fully skilled showdown and not a rush to use the button. It would be evenly fair for both players and a good way to do the final.
By doing it this way it would also lead to some interesting strategy options about whether to use the 50/50 button as you get close to the final - for example players might be more hesitant to use it in the round of 3 before the final, if they prefer doing the final with the buttons taken away.