Arc Raiders Has A BIG Problem

Arc Raiders has a really big problem that at times makes me want to uninstall the game and commit a crime.

A problem that I feel if it continues to fester will be catastrophic for the game's longevity.

Now, what could this conundrum be?

Could it be the fact that I will still clip through the ground losing the hull cracker I just bought that was simultaneously both made more expensive and nerfed into the ground?

This is the face of a bitter man.

This is also the face of a man who's never had sex.

Could it be the fact that it would appear every player is phasing through doors like they're on their way to Hogwarts, gaining all the best loot that they did not earn?

And and by the way, I I do it too.

Oh my God, please, please no.

Could it be the simple fact that this game's hype has somewhat overstayed its welcome and players are realizing that they don't like extraction shooters?

Maybe, I could see an argument for all three of those reasons, but I do not believe that is the core issue at hand here.

The problem I am seeing with Arc Raiders is a culture problem.

I am talking about the rapid change in player psychology that is making this game unfun to play.

And the worst part is the solution to this issue might cause even more problems for the game.

But before I tackle this philosophical query, we need some much needed context before I elaborate any further.

Since the game has come out, there has been a very heated argument amongst players.

More specifically about the PVPE aspect of the game.

You see, like a square, you have two distinct sides of the aisle.

I could have used a coin for this metaphor, but fuck you.

On the one side of this square, you have players saying how much they hate the PVP aspect of the game.

These are often players that were following along since the very beginning of the game's announcement and they were promised a PVE co-op game.

These are players that absolutely hate the rats and the KOS players that flood every server you get into.

These are the types of players that would much rather band together to kill the clankers as fellow citizens of Speranza.

They want to team up with randos to take down the Queen or the Matriarch.

And I cannot be the only one that finds those two boss names a tad redundant.

These players seem to hate the direction Embark Studios took with this game.

They feel a little bit ripped off, like they were promised one thing and now instead of the thing they wanted to get, they just get turned into Swiss cheese all of the time.

I don't think so.

It's an interesting psychological question to ask and when it happens to me, I absolutely imagine them as someone who hurts animals.

By the way, my mother told me that some of these jokes might make it very hard for me to be employed.

And she sent that to me via email.

But I have a news flash for you.

Neither of these playstyles are incorrect.

Because when you look at Arc Raiders, take out the P's and the V's and the E.

And just look at this game as a really intricate social risk management simulator.

For the PVP exclusive KOS players, isn't it kind of nice to just not do that sometimes and buddy up with a rando to take down one of the big bosses together and now you have a forever friend?

Don't you get a little bit of enjoyment out of teaming up with randos in a solo queue and now you got like a squad of six that can just take down the world?

And for the PVE loyalists, is it not even more fun when you encounter a rat that tries to kill you, but you manage to turn the tide of battle around and win that fight?

Feels pretty good, doesn't it?

Doesn't happen often, but when it does, is there anything better?

Even if it wasn't in self-defense, isn't it also fun to just, I don't know, cut loose and just be a villain for a day?

No, okay, just me.

Of course, if you're not really used to the PVP element of this game and you try it for the first time, it's much more likely you'll just be killed over and over again.

And when that happens to me, it fills me with nothing but sheer rage and vexation when I get killed by some twat hiding in the dark.

For me personally, I would describe my psychology when I approach this game as someone who wants to get into a PVP gunfight.

I want to kill other players, but I don't want to be some asshole that shoots first.

I want to get shot at and then turn the tide of battle.

But the problem with this strategy is that you are always on the back foot.

You are in theory going to be shot first far more than you shoot first and your chances of winning this fight go down to like 30%.

Okay, okay, okay, I've been killed seven times in a row.

Maybe I'll enter into this next game with the sole goal of collecting as many souls as I can.

But I'm going to go right back to how I normally played because I'm not some permanently jaded individual.

I'm not going to be a KOS player forever, right?

As you can see, this hobbit here went on to lose the Turente, his blueprint and all those exotic modules he so desperately wanted to keep, becoming the most heinous dog shit player imaginable.

What the fuck?

I mean, just look at him.

It's fucking I can hear you, disgusting.

You see, what this little goblin man just described to you is the core issue with the game.

The players that are causing the problem with this game are the players like me.

Whoa, yeah, the lukewarm players.

The players that deep down want a PVP fight, but we still have a conscience and we don't want to just shoot little old Jimmy here because he's doing a quest.

We want to shoot the rodents and the rats.

Now, if Jimmy says some slurs, Jimmy's going into the dirt.

With our game plan, we're constantly being shot first, our trust is constantly being betrayed and we are constantly losing our good valuable shit.

When we know a lot of the times players that did kill us are far worse than us, they just happened to lie better or sneak around in a dark corner and not announce themselves.

Which then causes us to hop into another server and try and kill anyone we see.

And I've got to say, it's been getting fucking unbearable.

How many losses can you take? How many times can your trust be betrayed?

How many times can you lose all of your loot before you say fuck it, if you can't beat them, join them?

How many times are you going to encounter someone that says they're friendly and wants to extract with you and as you're extracting, they kill you and say some of the corniest shit possible?

You're chill, right?

Okay.

All right, then let's get out of here together.

Hell yeah, dude.

Let's get out of here.

Oh, no.

Welcome to Speranza, baby.

Welcome to Speranza, but shut the fuck up, loser.

The constant thought of if I had just shot that Neanderthal first, I would be the one taunting him.

I would be the one looting his body and I would be the one saying some corny shit.

Now, many people see the KOS players as the real problem with the game, but that's just not the truth.

Those players are always going to play like that.

And I'll touch on more on why they're not the issue with this game in a second, but I want to tackle the core issue at hand.

The lukewarm players always define a game's culture.

The middle ground is the largest part of the ground.

So what exactly is the problem?

The problem is that the middle is getting thinner, but not in equal directions.

I have seen a drastic amount of players that will kill on sight without hesitation and then feel bad about it later.

Or many players that kill you and then say nothing.

And while this is super boring, it's mainly because if they don't speak their vile actions into existence, then it never even happened in the first place.

But I know who you are.

God's not going to let you in.

You just face fucked a man that was trying to extract, you're not getting into heaven.

I want you to take a look at an example of what I'm talking about.

This here is a solo player I met that we got to talking and he agrees the player culture is changing for the worse.

He thinks the KOS style of gameplay is getting a bit too saturated in every server he plays.

Huh, finally, another scholar.

Another individual of intellect, oh my God, he's air fucking a man that just so happened to walk into the same room as him.

Uh-huh.

This is happening not only more frequently, but more painfully.

I've experienced several moments where players will just sneak up behind me and kill me and when I ask them why they did that, they were not anticipating someone with a mic to plea for their life.

And they respond by saying, sorry dude, I've been fucked seven games in a row.

I just didn't want to let it happen again, I'm sorry.

That player right there just killed me, but he's apologizing for it.

That's a problem.

I'm not saying you should go and kill people and then say nothing at them.

I'm just saying this is unveiling a peek into the psychology of the player base as a whole.

There are even little mini wars going on based on what skin you wear into the game.

We are witnessing players in real time develop PTSD just like veterans.

Oh no, oh no, that's that's not good to say.

We are witnessing players become racist.

Fuck, that's worse.

That's not, nope, didn't, I didn't say that.

We are witnessing players become mean.

When the game first came out, players were much more willing to team up with other random solos.

But then the KOS players took advantage of this trusting nature of other players.

And again, that's not the issue.

The issue is that it unfortunately permanently changed many of those nice players at the beginning.

I want to talk about why we need the rats and the KOS players.

Again, a lot of people will say it's their fault the game has kind of turned into this goopy sludge of kill, kill, kill.

But a game like this only works because it has its villains.

If every player was just so nice and so supportive and so holier than thou, this game would be boring as fuck.

You need those rodents that try to kill some random player and you can band together with another solo to police the server and kill that piece of shit.

Again, some of my favorite moments was hearing gunshots of some trigger happy player.

Running into another solo that had nothing to do with that fight and us both agreeing, hey, let's take this fucker down.

This game needs its aggressors.

They are the ones that will force you to sharpen your instincts and really pay attention to what you're listening to.

Did I just hear a Raider get killed by by another Raider or was he face fucked by a shredder?

And if you want to be able to tell distinctly what happened, you're going to need a set of really nice earbuds to listen carefully.

I think you know where this is going and I'm sorry.

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Now back to some Walmart Frodo talking about something that's probably not even a real issue.

And by the way, if it is on Stella, it's for sure going to be exclusively a bloodbath.

To be honest, the culture of Stella Montes never changed.

I think as soon as that map was released, it was just PVP, just kill, kill, kill.

But I cannot be the only one that loves the sheer fear and uncertainty you experience when you encounter another player.

If 95% of the players you encountered were nice, but 5% of them killed you and took everything, you're going to be thinking about that 5% forever.

And that adds such a sweet layer to this game.

When you meet a player, you start asking them questions, you start analyzing their behavior and you become this crackhead Sherlock Holmes.

This player here is begging for his life and he says if I res him, he will team up with me.

He could do that, or he could take advantage of my generosity and shoot me in the spine.

The KOS players in this game add so much to the game.

It makes it like no game I have ever played before.

So, to the KOS players, the rats, never change, my friend.

We desperately need you.

We need our villains, yes, we just don't need villain to be the status quo.

And I worry that's the issue us Lukey Warmy players are facing.

I'm sorry, I'm I'm sorry.

I see a path where every player is a KOS player and you never really have any more uncertainty about other Raiders in your lobby because you know exactly what they want to do.

And that's kill you and take your shit.

While from a gameplay perspective, this is not a big issue with the game, but it takes away a lot of the nuance that I absolutely loved when I played this game for the first two weeks straight.

That 95% nice, 5% dickhead has been shifted to like 50/50.

And I'm not so sure that's a good thing.

But again, that is another issue because of players like me.

On the one hand, I see this as a real problem with the game's future.

But on the other hand, I fucking love PVP.

I'm not going to lie, I love hopping into Stella Montes with the sole goal of collecting as many souls as I can.

You know I'm hitting that free loadout button like it's nothing but pure dopamine.

A part of me can't help but like the direction this game is going.

I kind of like getting into scraps.

I like shooting other players and I like that risk.

Oh, that adrenaline rush you feel when you're the last man standing.

And what enables me to do this far more frequently than anything is one of the core games mechanics.

And that's the free loadout mechanic.

Now, this is the trickiest part because I don't really know how I feel about this.

If you took away the free loadout, yeah, every player in the game would be risking a lot more when they encounter another player, which would then lead to significantly less gunfights and the culture of the game would probably be reinstated.

However, the free loadout is amazing because it's an extraction shooter.

We have all had those moments where we've spiraled and lost fucking everything 10 games in a row.

And now what?

If we don't have a free loadout, what are we supposed to bring in?

Just our pickaxe, fuck that.

The free loadout acts as a sort of a safety net, which I think is critical for this game.

But many players are not treating it as a safety net.

Many players with like a shit ton of loot are still going in with free loadouts because, yeah, we're cowards.

We don't want to lose this stuff we've earned.

But if we hop into a server with a free loadout, there goes our conscience.

Let me ask you a question.

Yes, you, you in particular, not the other viewers, just you, Mark.

When you go to Stella Montes, what is the ratio in which you bring in your most kitted shit versus a free loadout?

I would be willing to guess it's something like 80/20 if I'm being generous.

I rock the free loadout because I want to cause some fucking havoc.

And I love that shit.

Now, I made this video and I gave you a big conundrum.

So obviously, because I'm a YouTuber and because I look like Frodo, I must have a solution to this problem.

But you would be surprised to know that I I don't know fucking anything.

I don't know jack shit.

I don't know how to fix this, I know how to observe it, I know how to point it out, I know how to be a consumer.

But if you're looking for solutions, I've got one that I can pull out of my ass right now.

Maybe if the free loadout had some kind of timer on it, or you were only permitted so many a day.

Maybe that would work, but it also could be catastrophic for the game.

Embark Studios has a bit of an impossible challenge ahead of them.

And also in their defense, many would say this is not a real problem yet, nor will it even turn into one.

Because I still do have a fairly significant amount of games where I am chatting shit with other players and everyone seems chill and we all extract with some goodies.

That does happen quite frequently.

It just doesn't happen as much as it used to.

Yeah, I'd say now it's just a fucking cesspool.

And I've my hair has been turning gray because of the amount of times I am just killed instantly.

This is an example right here where I was ganged up on by four people.

And I was helping them.

Let me let me express that again.

I was helping them kill someone that was shooting at them.

And what do they do?

They beat me to death with their pickaxes and gloat and taunt me.

And they hold a trial for my execution, but they don't even let me plead my case.

And yeah, the more pressing issue and why this is so tough to fix is because, yeah, killing other players is fun as fuck.

But I recently tried to get back into my old ways.

I stopped just queuing up Stella Montes over and over again and I went back to the old maps.

And I just focused on looting and I forgot how fun it is just to find cool shit scattered around the map.

And sometimes I don't even encounter another player.

And I felt fulfilled.

But despite that, I still felt that monkey on my back.

Reminding me that there were several games where I would go around the entire map not looting a single crate and the only good shit I got was off other players' corpses.

It's almost like a drug that I can't seem to quit.

I know it's a problem, I know I'm contributing to the issue, but I can't get enough of it.

Gunfights in this game are incredible, really well tuned.

What do I do?

Now, while I am talking about the game's culture and how I wish it would just go back a couple weeks, that's mainly with solo queues because I absolutely do love how much of a blood cesspool trios is.

And how no matter what kind of culture you want, trios in this game will never change and I love that.

Will Stella Montes just forever be some kind of weird Battle Royale that never changes?

Maybe, maybe.

And if Stella Montes is the dedicated map for PVP, okay, that's fair.

I'm totally okay with that.

But I just wish that didn't bleed into all of the other maps in this game.

With this conundrum, I see a future for this game where the wire born have won.

The clankers have claimed victory because us human players are doing nothing but fighting one another.

And that seems kind of bleak.

Am I taking all of this a tad too serious?

Maybe, so here's a bit to remind you that this was supposed to be a funny video.

Is that a dancing fucking monkey?

But it's honestly gotten to the point where I've been killed by someone who claims they're friendly while I'm trying to extract so many times, it has made this game really difficult to play again.

I'm worried that that's just going to be the status quo.

Players are just going to kill each other and kill each other and maybe even stop using their mic entirely.

And if that happens and this game turns into just nothing but PVP, yeah, I'm probably going to stop playing.

Which really does hurt my soul because I've dedicated a lot of time into it.

I cannot seem to stop.

Now, despite this whole video and how it is mainly just doom, doom, doom, it's not all bad news.

I have seen a bit of a shift in player culture where many solos are self-policing.

They're actively looking for rats and they're not the ones to shoot first.

I've been seeing a hint of it and I hope that seed continues to grow.

If that becomes the case, there's going to be a really interesting dynamic this game has for its future that I am absolutely all for.

There have been times where there's just some asshole on the top of a tower just sniping people.

Doesn't even look like he's going to collect people's loot, he just wants the kills.

All right, I guarantee you're not fun to hang out with at parties.

And everyone takes notice and we all plan to kill this fucking guy.

Yeah, that's awesome as shit.

I don't want that magic to ever fade.

Time will tell.

Look, this may not even be a problem.

Months down the road, the culture can shift back and forth and if I see that it's like ebbing and flowing in directions I love and then directions I hate, that to me is still a success.

I don't mind that whatsoever.

I only will hate this game if it stays in the pits of hell.

But we still have good players and it's nice to know that we have not lost our heroes.

Man, this is corny as shit.

But what do you expect?

Look at me.