unfa🇺🇦Jul 15

I'll try to write a micro-article here on Mastodon. Let's see how it goes :D

Why aren't the classic arena shooters so popular today? Is it just things being better "in the old times"? Why do modern #FPS #games suck? Did arena shooters suck too? Do they suck now?

Asking a lot of questions is fun. I am gonna share some facts that will hopefully help you answer them.

The first problem is that classic arena shooter game design is incredibly brutal.

Think #deathmatch in #Quake 3 or #UT'99 ...

Show threadunfa🇺🇦Jul 15

... the goal of the game is to score the most frags (kills) on your opponents. The more and faster you can kill, the better you are at the game.

Newbies give you same bang-for-blood as untouchable experts of the game. So why make things hard? You plow through the n00bs!

This means that unskilled players are the primary target. Just by joining a server where nobody knows you, and showing little skill paints a huge bulls' eye on your back...

Things are about to get SO much worse for you ...

Show threadCheesenessJul 15

@unfa Maybe my experience of these games was different, but it was much less common to be playing with people you didn't know than it is today. When you have social context for the people you play with, those dynamics carry different weight/have different meaning. At my LANs, picking on newbies wasn't seen as a fun or rewarding experience.

I'd suggest that these things feel more brutal in today's online matchmaking dominated world than they were at the time when it comes to skill differentials

Show threadGRGJul 16

@Cheeseness @unfa Most of my arena battles were with people I already knew. They knew how it worked: 1) more players means more fun 2) picking on noobs would make them quit, thus reducing the number of players.

The modern 'anonymous' internet changed a whole lotta things.

Show threadCheesenessJul 16
@JammerGRG @unfa Absolutely! I cn't help but feel that social context and social accountability were a part of how these games were designed to be played. Even with pre-matchmaking TF2, I was a regular on a couple of pub servers, and there'd always be people willing to show newcomers the ropes so that everybody could have better experiences in the long run.
Show threadMazzo

@Cheeseness @JammerGRG @unfa

yes, totally depends on the community as well, there are the good, the bad and the uglies when speaking of public servers to join a game of choice.. very cool XP i had with Tribes:Ascend (CTF), that came to mind as i was reading this thread.

Jul 16 at 3:24amWeb
Show threadCheesenessJul 16

@Mazzo @JammerGRG @unfa I think that's part of it though - if you're not getting what you need out of the community, you stop spending time in it?

I think matchmaking ends up putting people with different needs in the same bucket, and that creates/amplifies friction points?