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Okay. Yes. Let's talk about this. I'm exceptionally glad you brought this up because this opens a very, very good point about why I'm against mirror matches.
First let me say that this is a subject that I've been giving a lot of thought ever since the possibility of mirror matches came up. As someone who is both a player and a longtime shoutcaster, I absolutely understand the thoughts from pro players that say that mirror matches could lead to a greater possibility of COH2 being accepted as an e-sports game. I also fully support the hope that one day that COH will become a great e-sports title that people around the world compete in. That being said, I sincerely believe that allowing mirror matches in any way is the wrong way to try to achieve this. The ends do not justify the means here. In fact, I think it destroys the game. I also find it a little insulting. But more on that later.
First let me ask all of you: Why are any of us playing COH (Or COH2) in the first place? I can think of several *extremely* popular RTS games that are more refined and much more balanced than COH. Starcraft 2 comes to mind. Hell Starcraft 1 comes to mind, too. Ultimately, I expect there is a myriad of great answers out there as to why we're all attracted to COH, and all of them are valid. Perhaps it was the game mechanics. Perhaps it was the amazing sound and graphics. For some it's the unique retreat and cover systems. But the one thing that I think we can all agree on is that COH is NOT perfectly balanced. Especially the OF factions. So I don't think that anyone can say that they're drawn to COH for the "amazing balance." But there is one thing that we all have in common as COH players. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. And that's that when we play COH, we're all playing a World War 2 real time strategy game.
And that leads me to Tychocelchuu's point. Is COH a very realistic WW2 game? Absolutely not. Is COH a very realistic war game in ANY way? Not really at all. The combat and physics system lend themselves more to an arcade game than any kind of actual real combat simulator. But while COH may not be realistic at all, it IS *authentic*. Every single unit modeled in COH was used in World War 2. The King Tiger didn't see much combat until the end of the war, but it existed, and the thing was a beast. The 101st Airborne dropped into Normandy, and some of them were armed with recoilless rifles. And the Wehrmacht was one of the first armies in the world to use a true assault rifle, the Sturmgewehr 44. Do ANY of these things behave in real life like they do in COH? No. But they existed. And they're included in the game in the *exact same context as they were used in real life*. You can't use the King Tiger as the Americans and the German's aren't driving Shermans in COH. The game functions under a very strict set of CONTEXTUAL RULES.
When you allow mirror matches, you destroy any authenticity that the game hopes to achieve. You also destroy any context in which to play the game. For the sake of trying to make a game more balanced, you have actually destroyed any possibility of the game being seen as World War 2 experience. For me, the setting in which this game takes place is *extremely* important. I'm attracted to this game, in great part, to the fact that it's authentically World War 2. Playing a game on Angoville reminds me that an actual World War 2 battle took place on the Angoville farms in France. Did it look anything like the game I'm playing right now? No, but it's couched in historical authenticity. When I shoutcast a game, I shoutcast it using the historical knowledge that 70 years ago, these two armies actually did fight, and the units involved actually went head to head in some way in France and Germany.
Why is any of this important, you might ask? Well ask yourself this question: Are you playing this game because you simply love the mechanics, or are you playing this game because of something more? If Relic kept the exact same engine, the exact same unit types, and the exact same mechanics, but made it a game about Kittens vs Puppies, would you still play it? Every single unit on the Kitten team behaves exactly like an American unit, and every single unit on the Puppy team behaves exactly like a Wehrmacht unit. The mechanics are all the same. If this is true for you, then you don't really love COH...you just love the rules system that Relic built. And let me tell you, you'll be even happier with other RTS games out there. Because there are better ones. Heck, you can even Sci-Fi it up with DOW2.
If you allow the Russians to fight the Russians and the Germans to fight the Germans in COH2, what's to stop us from really changing *anything* about the game for the sake of balance? It becomes trivial to introduce totally non-authentic concepts and powers to either side, since you've thrown any sort of historical authenticity out the window. If we get mirror matches, I hope someday in future DLC we'll be seeing the Japanese vs the Germans, the Americans vs the Brits, and the Italians vs the Chinese. Maybe we'll throw in an alternate universe DLC pack that includes a Martian invasion of the Third Reich, because it doesn't matter anyway, we're not actually dealing with World War 2 anymore.
The bottom line is that when you allow mirror matches in *any* way, you are destroying the very spirit of the game in the hope of achieving balance and fame. I personally don't want to play a game that's not couched in a World War 2 setting. And when I choose the Russians and end up fighting more Russians, I realize I'm just playing a set of mechanics and rules. There is no longer any immersion, there is no longer any perspective.
And finally, I think it's insulting to think that players wouldn't care or notice that a group of developers would travel all the way to Eastern Europe, visit the sites of battles, interview historians there, and even record the actual sounds of weapons being used in this great conflict, only to try and pass off to these same players that mirror matches somehow makes the game a more fulfilling experience. Why on Earth would you go to such great lengths to achieve this level of historical immersion only to throw it away with a fantastical voyage into bizarre army matchups?
TL;DR If developers are going to make a WW2 game, it's incumbent upon them to keep it historically *authentic*. Otherwise, just make a game about puppies and kittens.
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Relic Entertainment
cblanco ★ 
보드카 중대 
VonManteuffel 
Heartless Jäger 
