An Opinion Piece On Smite & HiRez

HOW TO FIX SMITE, AN OPINON PIECE

INTRO

In recent months, mismanagement and greed on the part of Hi-Rez has exasperated pre-existing problems within the game of Smite and is causing it to hemorrhage players at an alarming rate. What was once a novel, fun, and on average well designed game has turned into cash grab for a company who seems to have changing priorities.
What some may call incompetence on the part designers and managers within the dev-team seems more like indecisiveness within the upper levels of Hi-Rez as a whole; they can’t seem to figure out where to allocate resources and focus (whether it be on Smite or Paladins). The only thing that seems certain currently is that Hi-Rez is trying to line it’s pockets with little to no regard for the health of Smite as a whole.
It goes without saying that Hi-Rez needs to turn a profit to support themselves however the method in which they are attempting to do so is counter-intuitive. Instead of focusing on increasing the quality of what was already a good and relatively successful game (Smite), they seem to be using it as a beast of burden for the commercial failure that is currently Paladins (at the expense of Smite itself).
While the purpose of this opinion piece is not to bash Paladins, it goes without saying that continuing to allocate the lions share of monetary and human resources to a game that was not successful to begin with while choking out the development of the already successful game Smite is not the right decision.
If Hi-Rez wants to remain above water they need to make some very large decisions very soon, or we might all find ourselves in a universe without Hi-Rez altogether.

HIREZ, AN IDENTITY CRISIS

A simple google search and a bit of reading at Glassdoor.com will tell you quite a lot about HiRez as a whole. The common consensus seems to be that designers and programmers are saddled with insane workloads and deadlines given to them by managers who have no tech experience and who prioritize bulk content over quality. These managers (according to quite a few reviews on Glassdoor) have earned their positions by having connections to higher ups rather than actual merit. This conundrum would certainly explain the large amount of skins released versus the small amount of actual real game content. Poor and greedy management are diluting the amount of real content designers would usually release with skins and loot boxes.
This disconnect between the designers and managers is compounding in-game problems by tying up resources on new skins and cash-grab items that would otherwise be used on bugfixes and new content. On top of this, the designers themselves are shuffled through the different departments of HiRez at an alarming rate; most of the talented and experienced designers are sent to work on Paladins as opposed to Smite.
Lack of consistency and differing priorities between managers and designers alike is a huge factor in HiRez’s ability to create quality content, retain and increase the player base, and make money.

IS QUALITY POSSIBLE?

It would be a comforting thought at this point in time if the only problem HiRez was facing was ineffective management, but that is not the case. The designers are seemingly unable to take advantage of rare and sometimes fleeting opportunities to add quality content to the community.
Since probably around the latter half of Season 4 to now the contents of each new patch have been muddled, confused, and sometimes annoying. New gods are often broken, unfun, and unoriginal. Item fixes and balances are confused and directionless, sometimes without thought for the current meta or playstyle. Bugfixes are rare and the number of bugs in the game is borderline unprofessional. This could be attributed to the previously mentioned problems however a lot of the in-game issues seem to be obvious.
From the birth of Smite to around Season 4 HiRez never had any major problems with outputting creative and fun new content. It should be noted that HiRez managed to publish and popularize a MOBA style game at a time when League of Legends and Dota 2 were monopolizing the genre. A dev team that can keep a third person MOBA game in competition with some of largest games ever created for 5 years should certainly be able to release quality content. However, it seems that developers have either become complacent and arrogant or have simply lost sight of what it means to make games.

WHO CARES ABOUT PROS?

An integral part of all MOBA’s and competitive games currently is esports. From its inception in beta to now Smite Esports have been adequately produced broadcasted and for the most part is quite enjoyable to watch. The pros themselves are typical among professional gamers; they are passionate and competitive about Smite. This makes it more confusing that HiRez would sign away streaming rights of Smite League games to the no name Mixer in lieu of Twitch, the biggest game streaming service on the planet. HiRez went for the easy in hand money as opposed to the more profitable in the long run signage with Twitch.
This choice is quite dangerous as it seemingly devalues and important part of the game that is the pro scene. It is also confusing that HiRez would do this while also promising salaries for pros (I’m not actually sure if this came to be, feel free to comment whether it has or not). Either way there is no angle this can be looked at from that screams positive results.
Throwing the competitive scene and the players who built it under the bus is a harsh blow to anyone who cares about the game. Any company who chases away diehard fans of its products does not deserve to last long.


HOW DO YOU FIX IT?

Anyone with two eyes can clearly see that HiRez is in it for the money. There is no denying it and probably no way to change it. However, just because a company prioritizes profit does not mean their product has to suck. Below I am going to outline a few things I think need to change. I will probably post a larger in-depth writeup at a later point.

• Restructure management and reward managers on merit as opposed to connection.

• Quit poaching experienced developers from the Smite team to the Paladins team.

• Cease the money grab exercise with skins and bundles. EA already did this and lost millions. It doesn’t work you fools.

• Increase the polish and overall quality of patches.

• Do not resign with Mixer.

• Pay your pros (like you said you would).

• Listen to pros and the community.

• Realize that you have a great game to work with and therefore a responsibility to the players that love to play it. Don’t (continue to) screw it up.

Interesting piece, was a good read. I especially agree on the increasing trend of churning out skins and content and label them "exclusive", having you buy them in expensive bundles and chest rolls.

Good to see you again, by the way!

Good to see you again too. I've been away for a long time but kept up with the game. I'm less salty and ragey in general now FTR :P

I agree with almost everything written. I especially feel it would be best served if they spent 1 month just cleaning up the code and fixing bugs with UI and other known issues that have gone on for a long time.

I partially agree with listening to pros/community. In some ways, I feel they've done this more than in the past, so I think the direction there is good.

I do have a question...do you have a resource for finding out player base? I'm curious to see the trend of average players logging on monthly over the last 2 years or so. I hear people saying the game is losing players, but I don't know if that info is assumed, repeated from hearing others, or finding actual resources.

@Bran, DukeSloth actually did video on whether or not SMITE is dying, bring up numbers of this year's monthly players in relations to previous years. It shows a trend of the numbers decreasing around the mid of the year, during the summer because vacations, then increasing back up during finals and Odyssey time, where people are sheltered in due to winter. This year however, has seen a relative decrease in numbers overall, signifying that people have full on quit the game never to return.

I would like to say that this game is dying, but not dead. One thing about very profitable games is that its less about the cash and more about the content. Games where you are immersed in it, and feel that you will commit to it bring in money themselves. Look at games like Grand Theft Auto V, while not a MOBA, is a game jam packed with content and time to kill activities, and is easily the most profitable game of all time, aside from any game Nintendo brings out. If Smite were to less capitalize on wel, capitalism, and were to focus on the aspects that attracted people in the first place, then the money would bring itself.

The things that are saving SMITE currently is its uniqueness. One article somewhere I read a long time ago about what sets SMITE apart, or maybe a Game Theory video, is that instead of the characters being based off gods, mythologies, and ideologies, those things are directly in the game. Take one look at Brand fro League and Agni from SMITe, and ask yourself who is based of whom. Another one is that its third person WASD, which brings you into the action, and is multi platform, so spans a wide range and community of players. This is a formula for success, and has been until season four, where skins after skins and chests after chests just started to get poured. If they would really like to bring in money, the real answer is just direct purchase. It has been proven that loot boxes and gambling are out, and skins like the Mortal Kombat Ravana skin, while not a thing anymore, was beloved by the community, and was mourned as a loss, because it was the first directly purchasable skin in a long time. MOre skins like those, with quality effects and voice lines, and a reasonable gem price tag, and Hi-Rez will definitely not have to worry about money.

All the things I've talked about have been said time and time again. It's been the community that's been saying it that doesnt want this game to die, and it seems at this point that HiRez is deaf. Lessons are usually learned through tragedies, but I don't wanna see this off the Steam Store anytime soon just for Hirez to admit they ****ed up somewhere along the road.

I do agree with you man. It's what one BR Smite Youtuber said: Hi-Rez does not deserve Smite!

Unfortunately, I guess they will only change when they lose almost everything, going into a deep crisis.

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That might be a general trend, but not completely true. People come back to the game after 2+ years sometimes. Can't say what will happen in the future, that they will never return. The player base is not static. Also, some older players may not come back, but new players may also start playing.

@Tlaloc, yup, overall DM's ideas sound great to me. I have been developing a soft spot for Clash, but if reducing # of game modes means better matchups (which it would), then I'm okay with it.

I still think Joust should be kept as the solid 3v3. Not sure what exactly he means by elimination 3v3...basically deathmatch like the new Medusa mode?

@Tlaloc, I don't like this idea of removing game modes. I think it's essential to the game has some different modes, I just think they could rearrange the modes like in 3 types: Casual, Ranked and Arcade.

• Casual has the normal 3 modes (Conquest, Arena and Joust) and no rankings.
• Rankeds has the 3 ranked we have nowadays.
• And in Arcade they put the Adventure, The game mode of the day, Siege, Clash and other non-competitive modes just for fun.

Besides it, I totally agree with the other ideas, mainly with the boots, they are soo boring but at same time a must item in almost every god.

@IceColdPappsi I think it's too precipitate to say SMITE is dying. As Bran said, there are a lot of new players that starts to play and a lot of old players that revive the game and play sometimes. Hi-Rez should find a way to make SMITE more popular, just like other MOBAs, but they don't care about it :v, all they do is make expensive bundles and skins. I'm seeing I will have to waste my money on this Medusa Adventure to get the Cupid Skin.

Agreed, some people are die-hards for non-conquest game modes.