30 ElevenVR TT Improvements

Random Observation/Comment #783: ElevenVR is so much fun as it is, but it can grow to be so much more.

Why this list?

The only games I ever got obsessed with were Half Life, Portal, Counterstrike, Diablo 2, and Guild Wars. I probably poured years of my life into playing them in college. Since then, I haven’t really played anything consistently except for ElevenVR Table Tennis. I think I play at least an hour a day just to get a good work out and to move in between meetings. It replaces my obsession with playing real life table tennis (plus, you can’t beat the commute or the back pain from picking up balls!) If you’re curious, this is my profile: https://www.elevenvr.net/eleven/384179

The game itself probably doesn’t need any help (it’s very highly ranked, has amazing stats and has an incredible discord community), but other games will likely catch up if there aren’t additional ways to make the game more fun or engaging.

  1. Profile head additional skins – I mostly see people with catheads or the spartan mask, but I would be more than happy to buy a specific skin from a Marvel character (partner with Disney) or other VR video games.
  2. Profile head accessories – It doesn’t need to be crazy customization, but it would be great to have glasses, hats, or other customizations to existing skins (e.g. change of colors even)
  3. Customization of paddle for penhold vs shakehand – I would love to see a skin for a penholder so they can show it matching their style.
  4. Customization of paddle with signatures or special colors – Rubber colors in real life has allowed for a few pretty cool combinations. I love Koki Niwa’s light blue and Aruna’s neon green.
  5. Mapping real life rubbers to paddle settings – A lot of real life players use Tenergy 05 or Hurricane on one of their rubbers. Some people play with short/medium/long pips. It would be awesome if we could see more preset settings to match a search of common rubbers. It honestly doesn’t have to be that in-depth, but a few more basic setting toggles would be super cool (especially if I would want to buy real life rubbers based on the way I warm up with it in the game)
  6. Mapping real life blades to paddle settings – This is probably a lot more complicated because the blade itself could have a lot of different combinations of carbon and wood that would slightly impact the speed and underlying physics settings. Even we don’t get this type of feature, I’d love to change the aesthetics of the blade to match my Zhang Jike ZLC.
  7. Customization of room with different digital assets – I always play the chalet (which loads differently for each person and their personal preferences). It would be super cool if I could create a customization of items that I can place into the room. Currently you can just change the color of the sky from the alps, but maybe there are preset places to put other things?
  8. Showing off room customization – I would love to be able to toggle a request during the actual game to join the other player’s customized room. At the moment, the room change happens right in the beginning of the player matching moment, but maybe I have a good conversation with the opponent and want to show-off my room setup.
  9. Tournament joining via game instead of through Facebook groups – I have been trying to join a monthly tournament every month, but I’ve totally failed every month. Sometimes I just don’t have time or might have a work trip, but I still totally want to play.
  10. Single player tournament with AI – I’m not sure how the collected data from my playing Input is being used, but I’d love to play an AI version of myself. I’ve found the “remove AI errors” is too difficult and 100% Legendary for matches are too easy. If there’s some combination of both where the AI error margin is adjustable then we can get a real set of games where it’s challenging, but not impossible. If these AI settings can be adjusted then I’d love to play a single tournament series and receive a reward at the end of it.
  11. Showing more stats in-game – There was a separate crazy in-depth ElevenVR stats dashboard website that included unranked games data (but I can’t seem to find it anymore). I spent some time just looking through the matches I had with different players. Maybe the web browser view is better than losing focus in the game with just browsing (but some people waiting for higher ranked 2500+ match-ups of ranked play would want something else to do).
  12. Learning more about Unranked playing – I get super sweaty and nervous when I play Ranked games for some reason, so I rather just hover to find 3000-level players in Unranked lobby and surprise them with some games. It would be awesome to learn more about my “fake” ratings for playing in unranked world or if they contribute to any achievements.
  13. Showing other badges/trophies/achievements in-game – Adding badging is really easy and also creates an incentive for playing more to unlock new achievements. As a long time player, I’d want to see something like “5-day playing streak”, “1-year anniversary”, “regular”, “plays in real life”, “played 100+ hours”, “played 1000+ games”, “coach”, “won a tournament”, “moderator”
  14. Browsing achievements and showing them off – Having an achievements page would be cool, but it’d be great to be able to see them on a screen or shown in different rooms. I would also love to have moderators from discord get a special emoji next to their name. The names that show up in the Unranked lobby could include other player preferences like “just having fun”, “looking for coach”, “coach helping with training”
  15. Customization of room or tables with trophies – Off of winning tournaments or any of the achievements unlocked, it would be super rad to see these shown where we play. Maybe there’s a special decal that you can apply to the side of your table? Maybe the arena rooms could have different banners on the side?
  16. In-game marketplace – I would totally buy aesthetic upgrades for head skins, colors for rubbers, specific blades, accessories in rooms, and even add-ons to head skins like glasses or hats. The micropayments could be connected to credits or directly to Meta’s payment mechanisms.
  17. Designer marketplace and APIs – It’s important to connect to the developer side of things as mods would love to get some of their integrations or skin upgrades connected. If there’s passthrough payments then I’m sure the marketplace itself would have an influx of ported over skins.
  18. Themed skins for holidays or supporting non-profits – I’d buy a Christmas hat or raise awareness for breast cancer with a pink ribbon or even rep blue and yellow for Ukraine colors.
  19. Bundling into packages – Mobile game trick with limited time offers bundled into packages for a combination of items. It’d be super cool.
  20. Watching tournaments live – I currently follow Twitch to watch it, but I’d be much more likely to watch big tournaments if I can sit in the audience. I don’t think you need to buy seats, but there could be something there.
  21. Spectating good players – If there are different rooms I can physically join with my avatar where I can watch good players practicing or sparring, then I’d probably browse how different people play. I don’t know if this is possible, but maybe you can call “next” on the table to play the winner? As long as it doesn’t disrupt the existing players or if they can open up their room for spectators to join.
  22. Recorded matches or simulated matches – It’s currently too many steps for joining your own room with a PC connection to the game via Steam or directly with Oculus software. I would love to just have a way to record important matches or better yet see a live replay of a simulated match that was recorded. It doesn’t have to be live, but if I can see a simulation of the play then I’d sit in the arena to watch myself or others play awesome matches. I’d even walk around to see the game from different perspectives.
  23. Indicating Great Points in the Interface – At pingpod, there’s a big red button you can press to inform the 24 hour cameras of a timestamp. At the end of the session, someone sends you a number of video files that show your point. If ElevenVR can create something similar, then after a great point, you can just spawn to right before the service and show a match highlight clip.
  24. Highlight clips shared with users and their opponents – Any joint matches with the “highlight” requested could be sent via notification to the two players and tag them. I would love to be able to “star” these highlights and show them in my profile.
  25. Extracting highlight clips to YouTube connected accounts – Even better than just viewing clips through the elevenVR interface would be allowing permissions for it to directly post to my YouTube account. I’d even do all the editing to show the game off to friends. I’d probably convince a lot more of my real life table tennis friends to test it out.
  26. Bundle relationship with Quest 2 Headset sales – There was recently a holiday sale for a discount and included Resident Evil game. If I could buy a full Quest 2 + Sanlanki 3d printed blade + ElevenVR game + headset strap improvement, then I would totally gift these.
  27. Creating a bundle set for physical table tennis locations – Table tennis clubs have a pretty bad business plan. They can barely stay afloat with the gym membership model and most of them are in the red. I’m not saying that VR is going to help it, but at least the community can somewhat stay in tact. I’m not sure if VR removing the physical interaction and post-game beers is great for the business, but I’m certainly not driving 45 minutes commute to a club anymore. If I were a sales representative, would I go around clubs and show people how to play? The reason I got interested was the Table Tennis Daily review by Dan.
  28. Practice with paddle before buying it – If the equipment representatives and designers of rubbers + blade combinations would play, then I would definitely preview new rubbers or play with a particular setup. If it could directly let me buy the blade and rubbers pre-built in real life, then I’d totally buy more physical goods.
  29. Seeing stats for serves or practice service games + game analysis – In the rooms, there’s a score screen that shows the specific spin revolutions/sec imparted to the ball. I’d love to better analyze my game by seeing where my serves land or arch through the game. At the end of the day, I’d be curious if I default to specific types of services in different areas based on my gameplay or points lead. I think the data collected in elevenVR has very high potential for honing the mental game that is a huge practice for professional/high level tournament players.
  30. Partner advertising (e.g. Pingpod or Equipment) – Advertising is never an easy decision, but the VR real estate is only going to be capitalized for showing ads somewhere (e.g. Butterfly showing new rubber releases or TVs showing pingpod replays).

~See Lemons Love ElevenVR