One reason why W:ET and ETQW were so friggin addictive was the xp-race that kicked off at the start of each campaign. It gave the game a sense of urgency, but even more so, there was strategy. Xp was an actual resource you had to carefully gather and use in the right way in order to keep up with the rest.
MOBA’s like LoL, Dota and Smite have the same principle. Levelling is an integral part of the strategy. It’s even more prominent than in ET. Players can even get angry and cause a fuzz over dying too easily to your opponents granting them more xp. They call it ‘feeding’.
Not looking for such a huge weight to levelling but it illustrates how huge this aspect of a game can be. My brother and his friends are currently all caught up in Smite. When I asked him why this game was so addictive to them they said it was because of the levelling per match “Like in Wolfenstein” (they never played ETQW so they actually compared it to what I used to playw ith them) and the account wide voice-customisation. The latter sounds odd but voice-commands are huge in Smite so everyone wants the most fancy accents in order to stand out amongst the rest (in retrospect Brink kind of let all that talent go to waste by not making the voice collectible).
I know Anti already mentioned a team-wide levelling system.
This is not enough.
The levelling in Wolfenstein and MOBA’s is especially because it’s on the individual level. It’s perfect game-theory at play. It’s competition within the team in order to increase team-wide performance and beat the actual opponents.
If you’re unconvinced about how this principle is a literal game-changer, check out how more and more system use this form of collective competition. Like traffic lights in Toronto.
I think Extraction needs to have this principle, individual, temporary levelling within one or several matches up and running. This is what sucks people in and keeps people playing. It’s not some gimmick, it’s an integral part of the type of tactical shooter SD is supposed to be making. You guys invented it, now don’t drop it.