It can be. I’m generally very competitive. I like competitive fps games. I can do ok or well and I’m fine. But if I lose hard a few games in a row I am definitely not relaxed.
You’d be surprised how often I play ranked with friends who complain about the other team for “trying hard”. It should be obvious but… somehow its not ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Meanwhile we had consistent lobbies of varied skills on Counter Strike decades ago. It let us build communities, weed out cheaters ourselves, and provided a far healthier social environment.
Sure that one dude on the server could actually 360 noscope you (sometimes) but you also had people who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn still joining lobbies for years.
During Covid I played planetside after trying it in 2018 briefly, then putting it up in 2024/25, the game gasping for air begging for daybreak to pull the plug allowing the sweet embrace of death to take it.
Anyways my point is it was pretty fun when I was into PvP games as there were so many people my skill level, the salty vets leading squads of dumbasses, and getting that cheap lucky drop on the guy who’s been playing since 2012 felt so sweat. Basically I think mixed skill games are fun with the right conditions until you get sniped by the heavy 400m away or an air to ground mosquito cus some vets need arbitrary number that doesn’t matter to them to up, holy shit are vet shitters capitalists
I have great memories of throwing together maps and even small mods for my buddy's cs 1.6 server, what do 9 year olds have to do the equivalent today? Roblox? Minecraft isn't exactly mod friendly, but I guess you can build stuff?
Sometimes people stay low because they are inconsistent, often because they have an attitude problem. It's kind of ironic that people that rage against their teammates for being bad are actively causing their teammates to be bad.
There was an actual study that demonstrated, with data, that bad players are more likely to be misogynistic towards female players.
Relatedly, I would bet all the money I own that bad players are the most likely to scream at their teammates and make wild accusations about who's ruining their game. That's been my anecdotal experience playing MOBAs recently.
Hardware bans do not work (easily faked), so it's kinda obvious why devs don't use it. And even if they did, if the cheaters sell their hardware and replace it with the same from someone else (essentially just shipping cost), the only thing that happens is some poor schmuck is banned from a game for no fault of their own, just because they bought used hardware.
I see you have never played CS or rocket league before 😂
Either very clear smurfs or literally one team full of low silvers against the enemy team with 1 silver and the rest high gold or EMG full 5 man squad.
Just play single player games, they are much less stressful. I used to play StarCraft and Warcraft 3 when I was younger, but now I'm too slow for those games and for some reason there are no no RTS games since StarCraft 2.
Bots are dumb, though. Bad AI really takes me out of a game, and every game has bad AI. Once I figure out their behavior patterns, the fun is completely gone for me. I prefer online gaming because human opponents are unpredictable.
Oh no doubt. I hated Dragon's Dogma 2 for a lot of super bad design choices and, while I see a number of little niggling design flaws in CD, it is basically what I actually expected from DD2. Just without pawns.
If you like Command and Conquer style RTSs, give Tempest Rising a shot. It came out last year and it feels exactly like a C&C game, but with modern graphics and QoL improvements.
This is the main reason why I don't pick up FPS games, even when they're on a crazy sale. Back in the day, when they had proper campaigns, rather than barebones tutorials for online matches, I could at least enjoy working through a campaign at my own pace. Now that everything seems to be just about multiplayer, by the time the games get down to a price that seems reasonable for something I'll only play on occasion, the only people left are the ones who seem bent on making a career out of playing that game. It's just no fun, but there's also no chance I'd be willing to drop the stupid amount of money those games cost at release to be able to play against others at my level.
Oh well, these days, I also haven't really got time to be playing a bunch of games at once, so my limited gaming time goes towards other genres, anyway.
Most competitive multiplayer games are free nowadays: cs2, fortnite, apex, warzone, pubg, rainbow six siege are all free. You are not forced to buy any skins to be any better in the game.
Unfortunately for the ones that haven't gamed that much over the years, the skill level is insanely high in most. But there's a thing called skill-based matchmaking in most anyways. Free games adds the downside of people smurfing/ cheating. But I would say most of those games try to combat it even though it ain't easy to do that (except for cs2).
Singleplayers from indie devs are king rn and usually the cost is around 30$, or just don't buy on release and wait a year or 2 for insane price drops.
I don't really understand the complaint tbh. The only game that fits your complaint is CoD multiplayer.
Lol had this happen to a discord buddy of mine recently. He's Master rank Guile on Street Fighter 6 and he loaded up a ranked match with no warmup after work one day and got a Guile mirror match as his first opponent. He got completely stomped and thought to check the opponent's name... it was Tyler1.
So he loaded up his stream, and since it's on a delay he got to see the end of his own match and have Tyler1 shit talk him after the fact.
Admittedly, cold loading into ranked is probably never a good idea, but when you have a real 9-5 and limited time to play video games in the evenings I understand the desire to just belt out a few ranked matches before bed or whatever.
I felt secondhand frustration after I heard about it.
I tend to agree with most of the other commenters in this thread - PvP games are just not for me anymore. I used to like them, but now it's almost anxiety-inducing. I avoid them mostly, or if I do play I will dabble in the most casual of modes available to me and I'll flee at the first sign of sweaty gamerbros or toxic attitudes.
I much prefer solo or co-op games where the only opponent is an AI. There's less pressure to perform well and as a result I can relax and have fun rather than stress about not letting my team down or getting humiliated and verbally abused by my opponents (and sometimes teammates, depending on the game).
Never said he felt like it was undeserved. He loses to better players who are not famous streamers all the time in Master rank. Nobody really likes getting verbally abused just because they had one bad match. I know that the FGC loves their trash talk, but it's juvenile as fuck. Life is hard enough without having to get beaten while you're down doing something that is supposed to be fun.
Also, the point of the thread, and my post, is pointing out that skill is only one part of the equation. My friend has a job which he dedicates 1/3rd of his waking hours to. Tyler1 is a professional streamer and can easily grind out games for 12+ hours per day. I don't think there is a reality in which he could compete with someone who has such an advantage in hours played.
Side note: The only comment he really made on the match itself that could even come close to be considered complaining/copium was that Tyler1's playstyle is very frustrating to play against. He turtles up and plays defensively, which is a super safe, low risk method of stacking up wins. The Guile mirror match did not make things any easier. A lot of people complain about him using Modern controls, but my friend thinks that if T1 dedicated some of his time to learning classic controls, he could become as absolute monster since he's already really good and has mastered the fundamentals.
Tyler1 has such a vile personality. I know it's largely a bit (I watched a video on the story of OnlyFangs and he "breaks character" a few times) but I just don't understand how people can enjoy watching such an obnoxious and loud shit talker
When I'm doing well competitively, I'm just not having as much fun. Have to take it too seriously to compete and particularly in strategy games the best strategy is often not the most fun.
Playing with known friends in a small instance is decent, but playing in an open scenario just feels exhausting.
Basically any games with public multiplayer will end up full of tryhards. I sometimes do multiplayer with friends, I mostly just play single player games. Often that are at least ten years old.
I played Enlisted for a few hours a day up until last year. It stopped being fun when I realised I was getting frustrated at topping the scoreboard in most games because my perception was that my teammates were bad or weren't trying hard enough. The problem was me playing too much and having end game gear which gave me a huge advantage.
I also have a personal rule against playing team-based multiplayer games - losing because the other team was more skilled was tolerable, but losing because half of my team was goofing around and not even trying to win (or winning because the other team was doing that) was just a frustrating waste of my time.
This is why I don't play PVP games these days. Either I'm bad at it, so it's not fun, or I start to get good enough that it starts to feel like a chore to keep up with the meta.
This whole thread is absolutely stupid. Going PvP probably brings out the dumbest, most obvious biases and insecurities out of people.
First like you say, literally all games today match you with similar players. So you're going to roughly win 50%. So it doesn't matter how good you are (except the literal best/worst), you're always gonna lose and win the same amount.
Then also, if you are playing with someone that plays 10 hours a day, then either they are really bad for how much they play or you're really good for how little you play. Either way, the match is fair again.
Then of course it literally doesn't matter if you win or lose, games are about having fun, and you can have fun winning or losing. Coupled with the fact that you're basically forced to lose 50% of the time, you better have fun losing, else why would you play a game that you just straight up don't enjoy 50% of the time?
There's literally no reason to "keep up with the meta", it's just an arbitrary excuse that "sounds reasonable". You can play literally every PvP game without ever looking at what other people do, and still be good, or just not care if you're not in idk, the top 10%. But people can't handle it ego-wise if they're not in the top 10%, so an excuse to not play at all is much less painful.
And if you bring up any of these points, it's like politics, people don't even listen to you because their mind is already made up or their ego prevents them, it's useless.
All true, then they act like it's a problem they dont olay their game. It's video games it's to waste time, if you dont play them literally nothing of value is lost, so play them or don't it's just not a big deal either way we have real problems in this world unfortunately
I mean I disagree with you there, I would say it is certainly a problem that they can't play their games. Games are not meant to waste time, they're meant to train real life skills, just in a lower stake, more approachable, abstract manner. And they actually do that really well (depending on the game), so if you can't even play those, how are you expected to deal with all the stuff real life throws at you? If your ego keeps you from enjoying a simple game, what real things does your ego keep you from as well?
My dude, i love video games with a passion and i benefit greatly from having been a kid who mess with .ini files and making cracked software work, but the actual playing of video games does not train you for anything besides that particular genre of video games. If you aren't having fun then just stop, maybe find a new game.
So you don't think playing team games teaches you real life cooperation? That playing flight simulators teaches you about flight? Strategy games about multi tasking and resource management? Manager games about how to handle spreadsheets and optimization? Impostor style games about lying effectively?
No, except flight simulator which is not a game lol
Team computer games teach you how to be extremely toxic teammate that would get into a fistfight playing a real sport, strategy games teach you how to abuse minmax imperfect game balancing, manager games teach you how to abuse computer accepting dumb trades, impostor games hmm yes they do teach you how to be a lying sociopath so maybe it would be good training for CEOs.
There were games I was practically godly at, I preferred being matched with similar skilled players. Though you can learn unique tricks from newer players too. Then I started to get older and had to work more, lived alone so all chores were mine to do, and hours varied. I eventually realized I can't perform at that level anymore and it was getting frustrating. There really isn't much division in skills with PvP elements so I avoid it. I've learned coop games are some great fun or if it's PvP it's something that's goofy fun.
I play mostly Space Station 14 where the culture is overwhelmingly enthusiastic about helping new players learn the ropes. Like, the nature of the game makes it genuinely enjoyable to welcome new folks into the fold and train them on various jobs and game mechanics. It's so awesome.
Many servers have actively enforced rules against powergaming, as well.
I would say it's a bit easier to get into, with generally less lag and slightly better UI. The game is still extremely complicated but at least the wiki for each server is packaged as part of the game now and is pretty easy to navigate
14 is a remake of 13 in C#. I never played 13, tho I tried to get it working on linux a few months ago with no success.
14's active player count I believe has surpassed 13 and I regularly see folks on 14 who are playing 14 for their first time after playing 13 for years, and they seem quite happy with it.
Hell, there's collaboration between (I think) monke station (ss13) and Starlight (ss14) because monke is working on moving to 14, based on Starlight's fork, and Starlight had a big influx of players from that server who wanted to check out their potential future.
It's fucking amazing. I mostly play on Hardlight, an 18+ furry erotic roleplay allowed server, which is also pioneering saving ships with big stashes for items, and seamless round transitions (you evac back to CC after a round, but if you have your own ship it just FTLs to CC and you remain in the world instead of going back to the new round screen, and you just FTL again to the next station). But I also have a TON of time on Starlight Alpha which is also amazing (and not ERP if you're not into that :P)
The big differences are that ss14 runs a lot better but ss13 has a lot more content, but the content difference is rapidly shrinking. ss14 is definitely the way to go now.
Highly recommend you check it out! Can get the launcher on steam and it's like zero effort to install and launch even on linux
Oh 100%, thanks for taking the time to explain that, I appreciate it. I was fascinated by ss13 years ago, but the setup and player count ultimately led me to other activities. At the price of free, I will certainly give 14 a try :)
This is far more rare than you'd think. When you're playing games at the highest level it's not just skill, there's a layer of play where you're basically exploiting because you're so in tune with the game you can take advantage of effects that last milliseconds.
When I played competitively if I joined a random server, I'd sweep about 1/3 rounds. I took the moniker fishy because I'd been banned from so many servers for "hacking" and an admin said "IDK if you're hacking or not but you're fishy..."
Yeah, beating someone who takes a game super serious is super unlikely...
About the only exception was seeing some people who took fighting games seriously in some fighting games the rando pressing random buttons was hard to beat.
You can always use vpn in roblox, connect to country where most people are at work at that time, jump into fps game and go on continous kill streak playing against the kids.
I like playing multiplayer games as long as the purpose is to play the objective, team work, strategy, shoot enemies and enjoy the scenery.
Unfortunately most multiplayer games are about coordinating your mouse DPI with the screen FPS and ensuring that your graphic card coolant is flowing at the proper gallons per second.
If I cared about single pixels or abusing the game engine and hardware I would be playing 8bit games. I really don't get why AAA developers keep making these games for people to win by boring skillless optimization
It would be really easy to simply 'skill match' players by the amount of time they've spent actively playing a live match of the game.
But that would do 2 things:
Make Pay2Win players exceedingly obvious
Make people who've been playing a long time but do infact just suck... it would make them very mad.
Oh! A third thing!
It would make it too obvious which games actually reward and encourage things like teamwork and coordination via well designed gameplay, and which do not.
Don't yell 'but smurfs!' ... come on, every big online game has you log in first, you think they can't grab your MAC address and hardware ids with their anti-cheat?
Most competitive video games skill match players using a system based on ELO, which is basically just the number of games you have played vs the number you have won. But then they slightly tweak that to give a really bad player like 1 win outta every 10 games or so just to keep them from quitting.
In no man's sky. They just release a pokemans game mode they call xenoSomething. I had a weak little lvl 19, and decided to do the multiplayer and battled a team of 30s. My little lvl 19 beat 2 of this guy's lvl 30s.
Good thing that my comfort game is an RTS game where I play 10v10, and you could easily see the level of players in the lobby. So, I usually join with other experienced players to ensure I win and possibly finish the game quickly, to get a dopamine hit for de-stressing.
I just can't enjoy Rust anymore. I used to love playing on low pop friendly servers buy to spend all arvo harvesting resources and building a neat house only for someone to raid and greif it while I'm at work made it a sisyphean hell.
All I wanted to do was build cool and interesting structures, maybe bag some unsuspecting players into a barred cell and force them to fight to the death, or pave the map with landmines, fun things like that.
The thing is, it doesn't matter if you work or not, at some point everyone has to sleep. Even the no job people get offline raided all the time. If you can't handle it, then the game is just not for you.
Also, literally everything is Sisyphean hell if you think about it.
If you like, you can team up with people from other timezones or with the no job people yourself, and then you can also take shifts.
And obviously it's badly designed. I literally said the game might not be for them, it's also nothing for me, either.
All I'm saying is that the perceived "problems" are not actually problems at all if you just go with it.
Also, give me one example of a game that is not "Sisyphean hell", along with the definition of "not Sisyphean". The whole of our existence is Sisyphean, that is literally the point of the fable, so obviously all games are also.
After running into those fuckers in other game modes, I can only imagine what it would be like going against multiple teams of them every round for 45mins.
I tried the Finals, for like 2 weeks... I just can't with it. It's too chaotic, weapon balance is non-existent, everyone is playing team deathmatch because maybe only 4 people in the whole lobby know what the objective is, and those 4 people are the sweatiest, nastiest, most toxic people in gaming. I have been in several matches and heard players yelling n-slurs like it was a 2006 CoD lobby.
I wanted to like it. The character customizer is super detailed with cool stuff... but the microtransaction economy of it sucks giant donkey balls. You'll never make enough playing for free to buy anything more than some finger nail colors.... and you'd have to take out a second mortgage to buy enough "points/coins/gold?" to buy all the things you want.
Basically, fuck everything about the Finals.... neat concept ruined by a greedy model, toxic playerbase, shitty balancing, and confusing gameplay. That's why the playercount is dogshit, and it'll be yet another games-as-a-service shutdown within the next year.
EDIT: and shit, I forgot to mention the invisible OHK stabby bullshit that no one, in any FPS game finds fun.
It is a heavily chaotic game with an extremely high skill ceiling. Essentially a mix of overwatch and Battlefield. Overwatch, in that if you don't play with your team, it is highly likely you will lose. Battlefield, in that you will die a lot until you learn the game flow.
I have been playing this game since launch and I can say it is fairly rare for me to run into players slinging slurs. Maybe it is just the server I am on. It is fairly common to see racist or bigoted usernames though.
By way of the cosmetics, they are all cosmetic. There are plenty of free earnable cosmetics if you play the game consistently. When compared to other live service micro transactions, their prices are VERY affordable for what you are getting. The cosmetic bundles you can get are able to be used as multiple pieces, (I.e. pants, shirt, head gear, shoes) and can be put on every class as opposed to one character. It is a free to play live service game, so it makes sense they need money to continue improving the game.
Most live service games, aside from Warframe, don't really make improvements to the overall game as they get money from MTXs. The Finals has changed so much from what it launched as, and it has been less than 3 years.
It has it's cons (Like the ai voices for two in game characters), but this is the best live service PVP FPS I, personally, have ever played when it comes to character customization, gun play, and developer dedication to improving the game.
125 Comments
samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 103 pts · 115d
Playing competitive games if you're trying to feel better after having a bad day at work sounds like a terrible idea.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 115d
It can be. I’m generally very competitive. I like competitive fps games. I can do ok or well and I’m fine. But if I lose hard a few games in a row I am definitely not relaxed.
Cityshrimp@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 115d
Competitive is fine, just don’t play ranked. Nothing but tryhards.
baguettefish@discuss.tchncs.de · 27 pts · 115d
well, yes, that's sort of the point of ranked. to try hard.
Cityshrimp@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 115d
You’d be surprised how often I play ranked with friends who complain about the other team for “trying hard”. It should be obvious but… somehow its not ¯_(ツ)_/¯
captcha_incorrect@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 114d
¯\_(ツ)_¯
Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 115d
Ranked gets you a balanced game though, unranked is usually a shit show and just as hard to win because your teammates might be trolling
ieGod@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 115d
Depends on the game, depends on the rank even. F2P games are rife with smurfs.
teft@piefed.social · 84 pts · 115d
Play a game with a proper
ELOElo system. You shouldn’t be in a game where the sweaties play against the noobs. That’s not fun for either person.Cypher@aussie.zone · 70 pts · 115d
Games with elo matchmaking are rife with smurfs.
Meanwhile we had consistent lobbies of varied skills on Counter Strike decades ago. It let us build communities, weed out cheaters ourselves, and provided a far healthier social environment.
Sure that one dude on the server could actually 360 noscope you (sometimes) but you also had people who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn still joining lobbies for years.
FlihpFlorp@piefed.zip · 10 pts · 115d
During Covid I played planetside after trying it in 2018 briefly, then putting it up in 2024/25, the game gasping for air begging for daybreak to pull the plug allowing the sweet embrace of death to take it.
Anyways my point is it was pretty fun when I was into PvP games as there were so many people my skill level, the salty vets leading squads of dumbasses, and getting that
cheaplucky drop on the guy who’s been playing since 2012 felt so sweat. Basically I think mixed skill games are fun with the right conditionsuntil you get sniped by the heavy 400m away or an air to ground mosquito cus some vets need arbitrary number that doesn’t matter to them to up, holy shit are vet shitters capitalistswonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 115d
Is that like a speed dating event to the tune of Electric Light Orchestra?
Yeah, smurfs there would really kill the vibe...
Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 115d
No it's a ratings system invented by Dr. Arpad Elo
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 114d
i found your first match
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 2 pts · 115d
I have great memories of throwing together maps and even small mods for my buddy's cs 1.6 server, what do 9 year olds have to do the equivalent today? Roblox? Minecraft isn't exactly mod friendly, but I guess you can build stuff?
Anarki_@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 13 pts · 115d
What do you mean Minecraft isn't mod friendly?
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 2 pts · 115d
It has support for adding mods, but you have to know java to make mods for it, last I knew.
Anarki_@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 115d
Okay yeah, that's fair.
xylol@leminal.space · 8 pts · 115d
How is Minecraft not mod friendly, that's like where most people I know started with mods
TachyonTele@piefed.social · 6 pts · 115d
Minecraft has a dedicated mod menu on the title screen. What are you talking about
saigot@lemmy.ca · 13 pts · 115d
Sometimes people stay low because they are inconsistent, often because they have an attitude problem. It's kind of ironic that people that rage against their teammates for being bad are actively causing their teammates to be bad.
Speculater@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 115d
I see you also play Rocket League.
grumpusbumpus@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 114d
There was an actual study that demonstrated, with data, that bad players are more likely to be misogynistic towards female players.
Relatedly, I would bet all the money I own that bad players are the most likely to scream at their teammates and make wild accusations about who's ruining their game. That's been my anecdotal experience playing MOBAs recently.
Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 115d
It's Elo fyi, named after its inventor Dr. Arpad Elo
Crashumbc@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 114d
Look at this tryhard smacking down a poor guy on Lemmy!!!
P.s. just kidding, acting a interesting fact.
RamenJunkie@midwest.social · 4 pts · 115d
Yeah, I try, but unevitably the ELO just gets wider and wider as the game sheds players becsuse the devs refuse to hardware ban smurf cheaters.
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 114d
Hardware bans do not work (easily faked), so it's kinda obvious why devs don't use it. And even if they did, if the cheaters sell their hardware and replace it with the same from someone else (essentially just shipping cost), the only thing that happens is some poor schmuck is banned from a game for no fault of their own, just because they bought used hardware.
JustEnoughDucks@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 115d
I see you have never played CS or rocket league before 😂
Either very clear smurfs or literally one team full of low silvers against the enemy team with 1 silver and the rest high gold or EMG full 5 man squad.
FireXtol@piefed.social · 1 pts · 115d
How do you expect the noobs to learn? From other noobs?
Haha. Noob.
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca · 33 pts · 115d
Single player all the way.
Or, if you MUST play something online, play against bots.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org · 7 pts · 115d
Or play against friends!
Zorque@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 115d
Or play something cooperative!
BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 115d
Did I hear a rock and stone?
Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 114d
Or one of the other bazilion co-op games.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 31 pts · 114d
Quit your job and git gud, scrub.
FosterMolasses@leminal.space · 3 pts · 114d
I love your comments lol
Rusty@lemmy.ca · 21 pts · 115d
Just play single player games, they are much less stressful. I used to play StarCraft and Warcraft 3 when I was younger, but now I'm too slow for those games and for some reason there are no no RTS games since StarCraft 2.
Psythik@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 114d
Bots are dumb, though. Bad AI really takes me out of a game, and every game has bad AI. Once I figure out their behavior patterns, the fun is completely gone for me. I prefer online gaming because human opponents are unpredictable.
GameOverFlow@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 114d
Play crimson desert and feel exactly stressed :D
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 4 pts · 114d
Regular enemies are weak but annoying with how they just seemingly never stop spawning.
Bosses are annoying because they constantly teleport or become immune to damage or require some gimmick that is not at all well telegraphed.
The system for combat is good. The balance of the enemies in said combat is fucking ridiculous and pretty close to the worst I have seen.
GameOverFlow@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 114d
Yes, and the game explains itself very bad. (But is stil awesome because of other things)
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 2 pts · 114d
Oh no doubt. I hated Dragon's Dogma 2 for a lot of super bad design choices and, while I see a number of little niggling design flaws in CD, it is basically what I actually expected from DD2. Just without pawns.
xelar@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 114d
What about opensource red alert https://www.openra.net/
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 114d
Been rocking out to Plannetary Annihilation: Titans and having a great time.
Glytch@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 114d
If you like Command and Conquer style RTSs, give Tempest Rising a shot. It came out last year and it feels exactly like a C&C game, but with modern graphics and QoL improvements.
hraegsvelmir@ani.social · 17 pts · 115d
This is the main reason why I don't pick up FPS games, even when they're on a crazy sale. Back in the day, when they had proper campaigns, rather than barebones tutorials for online matches, I could at least enjoy working through a campaign at my own pace. Now that everything seems to be just about multiplayer, by the time the games get down to a price that seems reasonable for something I'll only play on occasion, the only people left are the ones who seem bent on making a career out of playing that game. It's just no fun, but there's also no chance I'd be willing to drop the stupid amount of money those games cost at release to be able to play against others at my level.
Oh well, these days, I also haven't really got time to be playing a bunch of games at once, so my limited gaming time goes towards other genres, anyway.
br14n@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 114d
Most competitive multiplayer games are free nowadays: cs2, fortnite, apex, warzone, pubg, rainbow six siege are all free. You are not forced to buy any skins to be any better in the game. Unfortunately for the ones that haven't gamed that much over the years, the skill level is insanely high in most. But there's a thing called skill-based matchmaking in most anyways. Free games adds the downside of people smurfing/ cheating. But I would say most of those games try to combat it even though it ain't easy to do that (except for cs2). Singleplayers from indie devs are king rn and usually the cost is around 30$, or just don't buy on release and wait a year or 2 for insane price drops.
I don't really understand the complaint tbh. The only game that fits your complaint is CoD multiplayer.
Furbag@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 115d
Lol had this happen to a discord buddy of mine recently. He's Master rank Guile on Street Fighter 6 and he loaded up a ranked match with no warmup after work one day and got a Guile mirror match as his first opponent. He got completely stomped and thought to check the opponent's name... it was Tyler1.
So he loaded up his stream, and since it's on a delay he got to see the end of his own match and have Tyler1 shit talk him after the fact.
Admittedly, cold loading into ranked is probably never a good idea, but when you have a real 9-5 and limited time to play video games in the evenings I understand the desire to just belt out a few ranked matches before bed or whatever.
I felt secondhand frustration after I heard about it.
KuroiKaze@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 115d
I mean as a fighting game player with a real life, I can tell you that I play exactly zero matches of ranked online and am much happier for it
Furbag@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 115d
I tend to agree with most of the other commenters in this thread - PvP games are just not for me anymore. I used to like them, but now it's almost anxiety-inducing. I avoid them mostly, or if I do play I will dabble in the most casual of modes available to me and I'll flee at the first sign of sweaty gamerbros or toxic attitudes.
I much prefer solo or co-op games where the only opponent is an AI. There's less pressure to perform well and as a result I can relax and have fun rather than stress about not letting my team down or getting humiliated and verbally abused by my opponents (and sometimes teammates, depending on the game).
KuroiKaze@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 115d
I suggest against the storm and ball x pit as well as blue Prince for the games I've been enjoying immensely lately
Fizz@lemmy.nz · 3 pts · 115d
Whats the issue? He lost to t1 and he thinks it was undeserved or something. T1 is one o the few streamers who is really good at games.
Furbag@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 114d
Never said he felt like it was undeserved. He loses to better players who are not famous streamers all the time in Master rank. Nobody really likes getting verbally abused just because they had one bad match. I know that the FGC loves their trash talk, but it's juvenile as fuck. Life is hard enough without having to get beaten while you're down doing something that is supposed to be fun.
Also, the point of the thread, and my post, is pointing out that skill is only one part of the equation. My friend has a job which he dedicates 1/3rd of his waking hours to. Tyler1 is a professional streamer and can easily grind out games for 12+ hours per day. I don't think there is a reality in which he could compete with someone who has such an advantage in hours played.
Side note: The only comment he really made on the match itself that could even come close to be considered complaining/copium was that Tyler1's playstyle is very frustrating to play against. He turtles up and plays defensively, which is a super safe, low risk method of stacking up wins. The Guile mirror match did not make things any easier. A lot of people complain about him using Modern controls, but my friend thinks that if T1 dedicated some of his time to learning classic controls, he could become as absolute monster since he's already really good and has mastered the fundamentals.
glimse@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 114d
Tyler1 has such a vile personality. I know it's largely a bit (I watched a video on the story of OnlyFangs and he "breaks character" a few times) but I just don't understand how people can enjoy watching such an obnoxious and loud shit talker
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 114d
you feel bad because you had a shitty day
I feel bad because my life is worthless
we are not the same
jj4211@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 114d
I've found competitive games just aren't for me.
When I'm doing well competitively, I'm just not having as much fun. Have to take it too seriously to compete and particularly in strategy games the best strategy is often not the most fun.
Playing with known friends in a small instance is decent, but playing in an open scenario just feels exhausting.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 114d
Basically any games with public multiplayer will end up full of tryhards. I sometimes do multiplayer with friends, I mostly just play single player games. Often that are at least ten years old.
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 114d
I had to stop playing dead by daylight because even that, which is not a competitive game, became too unfun to play casual matches
Alberat@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 113d
git gud nub
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 114d
Oh gee, I wonder how it feels to be The Best Player In FlobsKnight: Cry of Obligation, kicking dirt on little old me!
I am the greatest FlobsKnight player on earth!
man_wtfhappenedtoyou@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 114d
That last part is too real 😭
Made me think of trying to climb the ranked ladder in Hearthstone.
Anchorxiety@reddthat.com · 9 pts · 115d
I played Enlisted for a few hours a day up until last year. It stopped being fun when I realised I was getting frustrated at topping the scoreboard in most games because my perception was that my teammates were bad or weren't trying hard enough. The problem was me playing too much and having end game gear which gave me a huge advantage.
I just stick to singleplayer games now.
ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 115d
I also have a personal rule against playing team-based multiplayer games - losing because the other team was more skilled was tolerable, but losing because half of my team was goofing around and not even trying to win (or winning because the other team was doing that) was just a frustrating waste of my time.
Spacehooks@reddthat.com · 8 pts · 114d
Do PVE not PVP
socsa@piefed.social · 8 pts · 115d
This is why I don't play PVP games these days. Either I'm bad at it, so it's not fun, or I start to get good enough that it starts to feel like a chore to keep up with the meta.
Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 115d
I mean yeah but it should match you with similarly skilled players so it doesn't matter if you're good or bad?
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 114d
This whole thread is absolutely stupid. Going PvP probably brings out the dumbest, most obvious biases and insecurities out of people.
First like you say, literally all games today match you with similar players. So you're going to roughly win 50%. So it doesn't matter how good you are (except the literal best/worst), you're always gonna lose and win the same amount.
Then also, if you are playing with someone that plays 10 hours a day, then either they are really bad for how much they play or you're really good for how little you play. Either way, the match is fair again.
Then of course it literally doesn't matter if you win or lose, games are about having fun, and you can have fun winning or losing. Coupled with the fact that you're basically forced to lose 50% of the time, you better have fun losing, else why would you play a game that you just straight up don't enjoy 50% of the time?
There's literally no reason to "keep up with the meta", it's just an arbitrary excuse that "sounds reasonable". You can play literally every PvP game without ever looking at what other people do, and still be good, or just not care if you're not in idk, the top 10%. But people can't handle it ego-wise if they're not in the top 10%, so an excuse to not play at all is much less painful.
And if you bring up any of these points, it's like politics, people don't even listen to you because their mind is already made up or their ego prevents them, it's useless.
Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 114d
All true, then they act like it's a problem they dont olay their game. It's video games it's to waste time, if you dont play them literally nothing of value is lost, so play them or don't it's just not a big deal either way we have real problems in this world unfortunately
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 114d
I mean I disagree with you there, I would say it is certainly a problem that they can't play their games. Games are not meant to waste time, they're meant to train real life skills, just in a lower stake, more approachable, abstract manner. And they actually do that really well (depending on the game), so if you can't even play those, how are you expected to deal with all the stuff real life throws at you? If your ego keeps you from enjoying a simple game, what real things does your ego keep you from as well?
Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 114d
My dude, i love video games with a passion and i benefit greatly from having been a kid who mess with .ini files and making cracked software work, but the actual playing of video games does not train you for anything besides that particular genre of video games. If you aren't having fun then just stop, maybe find a new game.
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 114d
So you don't think playing team games teaches you real life cooperation? That playing flight simulators teaches you about flight? Strategy games about multi tasking and resource management? Manager games about how to handle spreadsheets and optimization? Impostor style games about lying effectively?
Etc etc etc
Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 113d
No, except flight simulator which is not a game lol
Team computer games teach you how to be extremely toxic teammate that would get into a fistfight playing a real sport, strategy games teach you how to abuse minmax imperfect game balancing, manager games teach you how to abuse computer accepting dumb trades, impostor games hmm yes they do teach you how to be a lying sociopath so maybe it would be good training for CEOs.
bequirtle@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 114d
What do you expect? You want them to let you win? You're not a child and they're not your dad lol
Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de · 20 pts · 114d
No, I want all the tryhards to be pooled together so they don't ruin the fun of other players.
But instead they create smurf accounts because their life is so miserable, they have to find worse players in order to feel better about themselves.
FatVegan@leminal.space · 2 pts · 114d
Ugh, sweaty tryhard.
Sorry for existing in a way you don't like
bequirtle@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 114d
aren't you the one hating on "tryhards" for existing in a way you don't like??
teslasaur@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 114d
Excuse you for trying to put your emotional garbage on somebody else that is just having a good time.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 114d
Hey now. Maybe they're literally 12.
BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 115d
There were games I was practically godly at, I preferred being matched with similar skilled players. Though you can learn unique tricks from newer players too. Then I started to get older and had to work more, lived alone so all chores were mine to do, and hours varied. I eventually realized I can't perform at that level anymore and it was getting frustrating. There really isn't much division in skills with PvP elements so I avoid it. I've learned coop games are some great fun or if it's PvP it's something that's goofy fun.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org · 5 pts · 115d
What game are we talking? AFAIK some games' matchmaking is just that bad.
TachyonTele@piefed.social · 5 pts · 115d
Super Mario Wonder
It's crazy out there
noxypaws@pawb.social · 5 pts · 115d
I play mostly Space Station 14 where the culture is overwhelmingly enthusiastic about helping new players learn the ropes. Like, the nature of the game makes it genuinely enjoyable to welcome new folks into the fold and train them on various jobs and game mechanics. It's so awesome.
Many servers have actively enforced rules against powergaming, as well.
techt@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 115d
I didn't know there was a... sequel? How does 14 compare to 13?
Cease@mander.xyz · 2 pts · 114d
I would say it's a bit easier to get into, with generally less lag and slightly better UI. The game is still extremely complicated but at least the wiki for each server is packaged as part of the game now and is pretty easy to navigate
noxypaws@pawb.social · 2 pts · 115d
14 is a remake of 13 in C#. I never played 13, tho I tried to get it working on linux a few months ago with no success.
14's active player count I believe has surpassed 13 and I regularly see folks on 14 who are playing 14 for their first time after playing 13 for years, and they seem quite happy with it.
Hell, there's collaboration between (I think) monke station (ss13) and Starlight (ss14) because monke is working on moving to 14, based on Starlight's fork, and Starlight had a big influx of players from that server who wanted to check out their potential future.
It's fucking amazing. I mostly play on Hardlight, an 18+ furry erotic roleplay allowed server, which is also pioneering saving ships with big stashes for items, and seamless round transitions (you evac back to CC after a round, but if you have your own ship it just FTLs to CC and you remain in the world instead of going back to the new round screen, and you just FTL again to the next station). But I also have a TON of time on Starlight Alpha which is also amazing (and not ERP if you're not into that :P)
The big differences are that ss14 runs a lot better but ss13 has a lot more content, but the content difference is rapidly shrinking. ss14 is definitely the way to go now.
Highly recommend you check it out! Can get the launcher on steam and it's like zero effort to install and launch even on linux
techt@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 115d
Oh 100%, thanks for taking the time to explain that, I appreciate it. I was fascinated by ss13 years ago, but the setup and player count ultimately led me to other activities. At the price of free, I will certainly give 14 a try :)
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 115d
This is why I won’t touch anything with PvP.
FireXtol@piefed.social · 4 pts · 115d
Also known as pwnin n00bs.
Agent641@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 115d
Git gud nub lmao ezpz
GeekMan@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 115d
Ugh THIS. SO MUCH THIS.
dejova281@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 114d
And on the flip side of this there’s people who barely spend any time in the game beating no-lifer’s causing them to finally rage quit the game.
fishy@lemmy.today · 8 pts · 114d
This is far more rare than you'd think. When you're playing games at the highest level it's not just skill, there's a layer of play where you're basically exploiting because you're so in tune with the game you can take advantage of effects that last milliseconds.
When I played competitively if I joined a random server, I'd sweep about 1/3 rounds. I took the moniker fishy because I'd been banned from so many servers for "hacking" and an admin said "IDK if you're hacking or not but you're fishy..."
jj4211@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 114d
Yeah, beating someone who takes a game super serious is super unlikely...
About the only exception was seeing some people who took fighting games seriously in some fighting games the rando pressing random buttons was hard to beat.
man_wtfhappenedtoyou@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 114d
I was the press random buttons guy that kicked ass at Soul Caliber 2.
fishy@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 114d
The strat for those people is make a gap and be cheap as hell with ranged specials.
dejova281@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 113d
Who says every no-lifer is actually good at the game? That’s who I’m talking about.
xelar@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 114d
You can always use vpn in roblox, connect to country where most people are at work at that time, jump into fps game and go on continous kill streak playing against the kids.
bstix@feddit.dk · 4 pts · 114d
I like playing multiplayer games as long as the purpose is to play the objective, team work, strategy, shoot enemies and enjoy the scenery.
Unfortunately most multiplayer games are about coordinating your mouse DPI with the screen FPS and ensuring that your graphic card coolant is flowing at the proper gallons per second.
If I cared about single pixels or abusing the game engine and hardware I would be playing 8bit games. I really don't get why AAA developers keep making these games for people to win by boring skillless optimization
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 115d
It would be really easy to simply 'skill match' players by the amount of time they've spent actively playing a live match of the game.
But that would do 2 things:
Make Pay2Win players exceedingly obvious
Make people who've been playing a long time but do infact just suck... it would make them very mad.
Oh! A third thing!
It would make it too obvious which games actually reward and encourage things like teamwork and coordination via well designed gameplay, and which do not.
Don't yell 'but smurfs!' ... come on, every big online game has you log in first, you think they can't grab your MAC address and hardware ids with their anti-cheat?
Ajen@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 115d
It would also hurt their best customers while helping the people who only buy games on sale, which isn't great for their bottom line.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 1 pts · 114d
Most competitive video games skill match players using a system based on ELO, which is basically just the number of games you have played vs the number you have won. But then they slightly tweak that to give a really bad player like 1 win outta every 10 games or so just to keep them from quitting.
ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 115d
sirico@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 115d
Even co-op always that one friend that turns up like golden homer and the rest of the party just got new underwear.
kevin2107@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 114d
just play 1 of the thousands of solo games. why tf would you play with sweaty jobless nerds
Eddbopkins@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 114d
In no man's sky. They just release a pokemans game mode they call xenoSomething. I had a weak little lvl 19, and decided to do the multiplayer and battled a team of 30s. My little lvl 19 beat 2 of this guy's lvl 30s.
wrinkle2409@lemmy.cafe · 2 pts · 115d
Just play offline ez
bitjunkie@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 114d
I can smell the BO reading some of these comments
TachyonTele@piefed.social · 2 pts · 115d
I decided to fire up Rocket League since years ago. Only playing casual, I'm not touching competition when it's a f2p fortnight bonus game.
It's still a lot of fun in casual. There are a few crybabies, but not as bad as i thought there'd be.
TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 115d
Good thing that my comfort game is an RTS game where I play 10v10, and you could easily see the level of players in the lobby. So, I usually join with other experienced players to ensure I win and possibly finish the game quickly, to get a dopamine hit for de-stressing.
Cease@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 114d
BAR?
TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 114d
Warno
Agent641@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 115d
I just can't enjoy Rust anymore. I used to love playing on low pop friendly servers buy to spend all arvo harvesting resources and building a neat house only for someone to raid and greif it while I'm at work made it a sisyphean hell.
All I wanted to do was build cool and interesting structures, maybe bag some unsuspecting players into a barred cell and force them to fight to the death, or pave the map with landmines, fun things like that.
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 114d
The thing is, it doesn't matter if you work or not, at some point everyone has to sleep. Even the no job people get offline raided all the time. If you can't handle it, then the game is just not for you.
Also, literally everything is Sisyphean hell if you think about it.
Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 114d
Those no job people switch turns sleeping.
That game is just badly designed. If no one from a base is active on the server, they shouldn't be able to get attacked. Period.
Allowing all your hard work to be deleted just because you have a life outside the game is dumb. I'd never play such a game more than one session.
99% of games are definitely not a Sisyphean hell at all. You should broaden your horizon more.
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 114d
If you like, you can team up with people from other timezones or with the no job people yourself, and then you can also take shifts.
And obviously it's badly designed. I literally said the game might not be for them, it's also nothing for me, either.
All I'm saying is that the perceived "problems" are not actually problems at all if you just go with it.
Also, give me one example of a game that is not "Sisyphean hell", along with the definition of "not Sisyphean". The whole of our existence is Sisyphean, that is literally the point of the fable, so obviously all games are also.
wildcardology@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 114d
Reminds me of Shroud
SoupBrick@pawb.social · 1 pts · 115d
The Finals is so fkn sweaty sometimes. But it is also so fun when my team is not getting deleted in 0.2 seconds.
BananaIsABerry@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 114d
Did the ruby grind 2 seasons in a row and burnt myself out of ever playing it again. Top 500 sweat is crazy.
SoupBrick@pawb.social · 1 pts · 114d
After running into those fuckers in other game modes, I can only imagine what it would be like going against multiple teams of them every round for 45mins.
SailorFuzz@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 115d
I tried the Finals, for like 2 weeks... I just can't with it. It's too chaotic, weapon balance is non-existent, everyone is playing team deathmatch because maybe only 4 people in the whole lobby know what the objective is, and those 4 people are the sweatiest, nastiest, most toxic people in gaming. I have been in several matches and heard players yelling n-slurs like it was a 2006 CoD lobby.
I wanted to like it. The character customizer is super detailed with cool stuff... but the microtransaction economy of it sucks giant donkey balls. You'll never make enough playing for free to buy anything more than some finger nail colors.... and you'd have to take out a second mortgage to buy enough "points/coins/gold?" to buy all the things you want.
Basically, fuck everything about the Finals.... neat concept ruined by a greedy model, toxic playerbase, shitty balancing, and confusing gameplay. That's why the playercount is dogshit, and it'll be yet another games-as-a-service shutdown within the next year.
EDIT: and shit, I forgot to mention the invisible OHK stabby bullshit that no one, in any FPS game finds fun.
SoupBrick@pawb.social · 1 pts · 115d
It's not for everyone.
It is a heavily chaotic game with an extremely high skill ceiling. Essentially a mix of overwatch and Battlefield. Overwatch, in that if you don't play with your team, it is highly likely you will lose. Battlefield, in that you will die a lot until you learn the game flow.
I have been playing this game since launch and I can say it is fairly rare for me to run into players slinging slurs. Maybe it is just the server I am on. It is fairly common to see racist or bigoted usernames though.
By way of the cosmetics, they are all cosmetic. There are plenty of free earnable cosmetics if you play the game consistently. When compared to other live service micro transactions, their prices are VERY affordable for what you are getting. The cosmetic bundles you can get are able to be used as multiple pieces, (I.e. pants, shirt, head gear, shoes) and can be put on every class as opposed to one character. It is a free to play live service game, so it makes sense they need money to continue improving the game.
Most live service games, aside from Warframe, don't really make improvements to the overall game as they get money from MTXs. The Finals has changed so much from what it launched as, and it has been less than 3 years.
It has it's cons (Like the ai voices for two in game characters), but this is the best live service PVP FPS I, personally, have ever played when it comes to character customization, gun play, and developer dedication to improving the game.
h4lf8yte@lemmy.ml · -1 pts · 114d
And this gentleman is how we get cheaters.
FatVegan@leminal.space · 11 pts · 114d
What a weird way to excuse cheaters
h4lf8yte@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 114d
Who did excused anything ? I just named a potential cause.
glimse@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 114d
Everyone who is better than me is a sweaty tryhard with no life.
I do not believe that someone can beat me without dedicating their life to this game.
No one ever just gets lucky or goes on a hot streak.
I should be winning games as easily as I did at lower ranks despite not making an effort to get better