The Dynamic Shift

The early adopters were the crew who enjoyed this genre. My first hours were spent helping others, sharing loot, and exchanging tips. What kept me in the game were the wholesome clips online, strangers becoming friends. The rarity of PVP which kept it tense and unpredictable.

The game got big, clips all over YT shorts and Instagram, streamers were on it, and now I fear the competitive PVP get-clips-for-clout crew have set in. My last 10 hours of gameplay has been me calling out to ask others questions, about missions etc only to be met with no mics and shooting on sight, to kill.

I’m seeing more and more clips of people trying to turn this into CoD with optimising movement exploits and weapon changes, bragging about their 10 Raider-kill rounds on Stella.

I’ve been helping a new player recently, and the extreme difference in experience he’s having with me, contrasted with my experience at launch - is wild. We are chatting with no one. He’s simply not getting that same unique experience that we had in our first 60 hours from launch until now. His perception is mostly that it’s a PVP game because everyone is hostile.

I liked it because it wasn’t a “get-gud” sweat fest. I’m okay to engage in PvP every now and then. But when that ratio tips and every single round, 90% of the people you encounter are mute, and are there for the little ego boost of dropping you, the experience really shifts.

Some people prefer it that way. Some don’t. Finding balance in the last week has felt impossible. Maybe it’s a rant, or maybe it’s just the natural evolution of things: see enshittification.

Can we have nice things?

Roast me if you want, I’ve been scorched enough recently in PVP, there’s nothing left to roast but my smouldering remains.