How many of you actually play the game?

Tl;dr - Do y'all actually play the game or are you just being outraged by headlines and outdated information?

Also disclaimer at no point do I complain about PvP, and the cheater issue in PvP leaning lobbies is horrible and I hope they fix that soon and more permanently.

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I mean actually play it, and I'm not talking about sweaty NEETs who grind out everything in one day and say the game is dead.

I mean get home from work, and play between one raid or a few hours. Play it on the weekend or your days off. A casual, normal videogame session.

I'm a mostly PvE player, or 'carebear' if you like. I have a full time job. As of this post I have about ~650 hours of playtime. I've been playing since launch.

I will defend myself if someone decides to fuck around and find out. Sometimes I lose that fight. It happens rarely, and it doesn't bother me if it does. The gear isn't yours, you're just borrowing it.

My question comes from the recent arguements over the PvE toggle.

**Because it feels like I'm playing an entirely different game to the people on this subreddit.**

Every time I go into a raid I have a great time. I have never once felt bored. I spam emotes with other players, I help people with quests, I revive people who get downed, I get revived by other people, etc. Some of my most fun gaming moments happened in Arc Raiders. Being social, and fighting the robots together, *with other people.* Other grown men telling me they love me because I had a piece of trash they couldn't find. The number of times I've been called habibi by people I barely share a language with.

Ocassionally someone murders me for my Bettina or Jupiter. I get it. It's fair. **That's not a complaint.** I can get another one.

I genuinely love this game.

So explain how ABMM killed it exactly? I mean not the imaginary way you think it did.

I never wait more than 20-30 seconds for a round, even late at night (where I find there is an increased chance of being attacked probably due to the lower matchmaking pool).

"Dead game", "PvE players all left", "there's nothing to do in the game". And yet every almost evening I extract with a group of random people playing guitars and being super chill on prox. Multiple times.

"Arc are too easy" yeah if you have a Jupiter, and the perfect spot to hide. Tell me with a straight face you've never been caught out in the open by a Vaporizer, or wombo-combo'd by a Hornet and Firefly, or just mag-dumped by a Bastion because your positioning was bad or you got too cocky. Tell me the Turbine isn't complete shock and awe when it enters the map, or shoots at you. The sound. *The sound.* The sounds in this game in general TBH.

I am not slandering PvP enjoyers. You do you boo. I'm glad that's how you enjoy the game.

**I am asking what the fuck you people are talking about.**

They're testing a feature over a third of the community wants. Nobody kicked your dog. Nobody slapped your mom. Nobody is saying you can't keep being nice to some people and randomly attack others. They are making the game more accessible to more people.

There are people who have gear fear, who have anxiety, who have social phobia - who just like fighting the robots and search through drawers. That's fine. If that's how they have fun, it doesn't hurt you. You have no way of knowing, or dictating if a PvE toggle will be fun for other people.

**So why do you think you get to decide how other people have fun?**

I love that Embark is giving those people a way to experience the game. Videogames are for leisure for regular people.

Embark does not have a gun to your head. You do not have to click the PvE toggle.

You are freaking out over imaginary scenarios over a thing that hasn't happened yet, and might not be permanent.

Maybe there will be an influx of people. Maybe because of the ABMM the normal game mode will turn into only a range of Mixed and PvP lobbies. Which is what people want? Right? And the mushroom dads will be having fun in their own room where you don't have to worry about them. Maybe it will be boring! Who knows!

What I do know is that I have friends who have watched me play the game, that are now showing sincere interest because of even the possibilty that they can experience the game without the PvP aspect. It's like a dream come true.

They are not better or worse because they "bought a pvpve game and complained about the pvp". They didn't buy the game at all because of the anxiety of PvP. Now they might. I'd call that mission accomplished from Embark.

Let it be. Learn to enjoy things again.

Thanks for coming to my tedtalk.