and where are all the gods?
Where’s the street-wise Hercules,
to fight the rising odds?
OK, back to 2018. I’m progressing in PUBG duos, already at 2170 rating, #250, top 0.03%. That’s nice. But I’m playing less and less, because I find less and less duo partners. Considering that we are winning and everyone who plays with me are also rising in rank, I don’t really understand where have they gone.
Is it a generic PUBG lull? PUBG lost players in the last 30 days, which is the first time since its release. There are many reasons for that, devs aren’t fixing bugs, people generally hate the new, desert map and cheaters are running rampart again, at least in third person view.
But I’m afraid it’s rather with my project. Many players, even competitive players get bored by optimized, but not really “fun” gameplay. Jumping out alone (far from your partner) against duos forces players to not shoot, because even if they get the kill, the other guy will surely kill them. I gets boring after a dozen games. Not for me, the constant increase of rating is enough to make me satisfied and also, I’m reading news on the other screen when I’m hiding in a bathroom and no hostile sounds are to be heard.
I wanted duos this season to fill up the roster to be able to start squads next season, but now it looks like a pipe dream. The duo project this season is already a success, but I definitely want bigger one, getting to the toplist is a reasonable goal, assuming there will be teammates.
So if you are interested in outplaying all the “skillz” kids, join, even as a total newbie! After a few solo games you learn basic movement and after that you are a valuable member of the duo, even if you die before me 90% of the time. The other 10% you save me from a pretty bad rating loss.
Those who participated, just got a bit bored, please remember that the season won’t wait. We must reach high rating before it ends, because it resets again, while old season data will forever be listed.
For myself, it seems I have to start looking for the next game. Even if I can drag enough participants for this duo season, I have to realize that my PUBG playstyle won’t be a smash hit. It’s more likely that those who test it will consider the game “solved” and move on to other games, because staying isn’t fun and the win is already achieved (if you are in the top 0.1%, you can consider the game won). I’m eyeing Life is Feudal.
When are you typically starting to play? I seem to be missing you quite a bit.
Concerning the fun part, I have no problems with the not killing anybody, but the game feels really random at times. Sometimes you get to #10 by just camping on the same spot you’ve been at since the start, sometimes you die outside the circle no matter how hard you try to reach it.
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@Hanura: afternoon EU time.
Yes, sometimes the circle is bad. Then you have the choice to stay outside and collect medicine and still live till 4th circle, allowing your partner (who jumped far from you, so probably in a good spot) to take risks without risking early team death.
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Good riddance PUBG, that’s really not an interesting game to talk about on a blog.
“Look at me, grand master hidding!” is really not my cup of tea.
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@ECM: “I’m grand master in moving the mouse to the head pixel” isn’t more interesting. All games come down to some trivial task. The question is is there anything to learn behind the childish mechanics?
In PUBG I guess the thing we can learn how socials are both unable to play for win and quit where winning is not fun. I don’t judge the guy who prefers shooting, so he plays Battlefield 1. I judge the guy who prefers shooting and plays a hiding game.
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The game should actually be called “Player unknowns hiede and seek”. Most people play games for fun and no, that does not make them M&S. Playing games is done for recreational reasons and when playing a gem is not fun, but like a chore, people will lose interest. Even when the lamest strategy will give them victories, people will not feel like having achieved something, but will only be left with the hollow feeling that they just beat the subpar mechanics… I know that you will say that you don’t care about feelings as long as the rank tells you that you are on the top, but that is just the point. Most people have the fun during play sessions and not afterwards when statistics pop up, that is the difference between flow oriented and result oriented people…
Imagine if PUBG had been made available only to a small number of highly competitive players, you amongst them. You tested the game for 3 months and then every tester was free to write and publish an article about what this game is about and how to achieve the most. Imagine you wrote that this game is about hiding the longest possible, shooting the fewest people and just wait and let other morons do the killing for you…
Would you expect the same sale numbers for PUBG?
I think this is the reason why all those redditers will never agree with you, they have fun playing the game, you have fun watching the results… No insults meant, for all I care, anybody can play that game whicheve way he likes… I didn’t buy the game, fortnite battle royale is free and just as lousy as PUBG.
Oh, and LiF has still some major issues with glitches where ennemy players can glitch into ennemy buildings, log out and re-log when noone is online to defend… That is very pitiful… The devs know about it, but have not fixed it or banned people for that exploit afaik…
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@Smite: while I can’t call someone M&S for shooting, I can call him M&S for shooting in PUBG when he could play CoD, CS:GO, BF1 and whatnot which has much-much more shooting. If shooting is your fun and you pick PUBG, you are just dumb.
I’m aware that LiF has bugs, but which game doesn’t? (PUBG has atrocious bugs, including one that allows hackers teleport behind you)
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I may grab LiF just to laugh at it and figure out ways to abuse the PvP. Hey! A guy needs a hobby! And, as a bonus… they may have actually come up with novel solutions to some problems. That would be interesting too.
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2 thoughts for consideration, Gevlon.
One, there may be a reason why the devs don’t ban cheaters in a logical fashion. Apparently, the theory is that the cheater buys the game, sinking some cash into their pocket up front, then plays the game with cheats. They earn lootboxes, open lootboxes, acquire skins, sell skins, make money. The dev sees a little cash for these transactions on Steam. The dev then bans the cheater at some point, and the cheater just buys the game again on a clean account and considers it a business expense.
Two, the entire concept of Battle Royale is just a Last Man Standing mode with a lot more people than before and a bigger map. So it’s nothing but a shooter PvP mode.
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Honestly don’t bother with LIF – you can’t really solo there, it’s grindy and atm stale as fk (there was finally a little balance patch, 4 months after launch…), all good land is taken, castles built, but untouchable, just during Judgement Hour one can destroy stuff in outer claim (nobody has anything there anyway) and climb into inner (and then what, they just log off or hide in houses).
Seeing your base grow and industry to kick up was nice, but there’s no light at the end of this tunnel.
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I do not think you can attract many players with the hide & seek, but those you will attract should help you out more than 10% of the time…
If you get too many, you will get dead weight M&S that are there for the free ride only, without contributing much to what you are proving.
A small group of focused players sharing the same goal and your vision will be more efficient than larger numbers of M&S.
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Well Gevlon, as much as I would like to totally agree to your point, I cannot, since the assumption that mostly hiding will give you the best results is that the majority of other players will run and shoot from the beginning. In other words, you need the “shooters” to get killed early on so that the “hiders” can reap their “success”.
If everybody were hiding in PUBG then hiding would not be the most successful strategy. The most successful strategy depends on the strategy of your competitors.
It is comparable to “honourable” PVP in EVE, without hotdropping or zerging the opponent. The enemy fields a specific fleet and you field hard counters to his ships and quickly finish off the enemy fleet…
And your point is that people who run and shoot in PUBG are m&s since they could and should play a different game, where their playstyle would be more “efficient”. No, they enjoy their playstyle, as they are focussed on the flow, aka playing the game and not focussed on ranks, aka being focussed on results…
I think you fail to understand that there are different kind of people with different goals, who are entertained by different activities.
Maybe it is more clear if I try to explain this with movies:
Which movie is the best movie?
Weeeeelllll, that is very easy to answer, the movie with the highest revenues, isn’t it?
Ok then, the Michael Bay Transformer movies belong to the best movies… (nedd to take a break to throw up…)
The decision which movie is the best movie is purely of personal choice: Therefore box office sales are a poor choice when it comes to personal preference…
For example: everyone trashes Shamalan’s “Last Airbender”, but I liked it and was entertained.
When I watched Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers”, I left the movie theatre with a stomach ache, the movie really hit me physically. Was it good? It was a director’s masterpiece, but would I want to watch it again? Hell no.
On the other hand, I have watched Aliens 2 and Titanic several times and I was entertained every time I watched these movies…
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@Smite: being focused on the enjoyment instead of the result is one of the most telling sign of being a M&S and this mindset will likely lead to substance abuse as it gives enjoyment and results be damned.
Yes, Transformers “is” better movie than Last Airbender, as if you grab a random person, he is more likely to like Transformers (as evidenced that bigger part of mankind choose to watch it)
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