this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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I've seen "competitive" games turn level-headed friends into seething piles of swears. They aren't having fun, they admit to not having fun, they acknowledge that they hate it... But they keep going because ranks, clout, commitment....
Games should have stakes, but modern ranking systems are designed to addict the exact same way that loot-boxes and other similar mechanics do. They hook and pull in deeper and the only way I've seen friends quit is when it gets so bad they go cold turkey. And only then do they look back at months or even years of playing a game, and see nothing but a waste of time and money.
But it works! These systems pull players into the grind like they're getting paid to play, even when they are hating every second.
I love some of these games, but I only learned to maximise my enjoyment of them once I began playing them casually. And it's such a pity that my friends who haven't learned the trick of not taking it so seriously, burn out on them, while I just keep going and having fun. I run out of people to play with on a regular basis because of this.
Just one factor of the design of these systems is that they have you feeling like you have to consistently win, in order to be worth something. And as that is obviously an impossibility, it leads to every loss taking three times more than what a win is able to give.
I mean yeah, there are always going to be people with problems. But the guy I was responding to was leveling complaints like "playing badly shouldn't impact the outcome", "it's bad that a team loses", and "people should be free to afk whenever". Like at that point, just play different games, these aren't your cup of tea.
And for what it's worth, I personally quite like the stricter competitive nature of many games. I like playing ranked games where everyone is solidly playing to win and competing on skill. Just because some people have a ego problem because of ranks, it doesn't mean the system should be scrapped.
There's a pretty wide gap between playing casually, and grinding to the point of burnout. It's plenty possible to take the game seriously, such that you care about doing your best and continually improving, without just dedicating your entire life to the grind.
I don't think the majority of people find that balance. And I think ranking systems are designed to exploit that. Who doesn't want to boast that people play their game the most? And wouldn't more playtime also lead to players to spending more?
I'm not agreeing with everything the original comment said, but the idea that we should be designing games to at least not make it worse, is something I resonate with.
I don't think they hate competitive games, nor do I. The opposite, people who think about how to make things better, even if their ideas are bad, are the ones who have gotten into things deep enough to start seeing the cracks.
We live in an age of vices, it's not just games, everything around us is demanding we spend our time on things, and all of it is trying its best to keep us from noticing we're acting on impulse, and taking back control.
That you and me are able to do it, is not a reason to refrain from helping those who can't.
The fact is, games exploit people in a myriad of ways, and that only a small minority is able to resists is not proof that nothing needs to be done, it's reason to do more.
Especially when the biggest demographic, by far, is children.
I disagree. Complaints like those in the initial comment I responded to are the most surface level "I saw people complaining about something once" type suggestions possible that entirely miss the whole reason people play one game as opposed to others. Games like league and Dota are, first and foremost, competitive experiences. To suggest that these games would be improved by rubber banding harder than Mario kart demonstrates a significant lack of either understanding or interest in the genre.
If anything, it's just a prime example of the dunning kreuger effect. He's not in deep enough to know how much he doesn't know about the games. It's like the bronze players complaining that yi has no counterplay. It says more about their lack of understanding than it does about the game.
Not everything needs to be shaved at the edges to cater to the lowest common denominator. Shave off the ranked system and general competitive nature, and a lot of players (such as myself) are going to start going to different games that do offer it. Hell, I know at least a dozen people who already moved from league to Dota entirely because of the increasing casualization and focus on making it simpler and easier for bad players.