bullying, harassing, or even "criticizing" them is an entirely pointless endeavor that does nothing but make you feel superior to another person. having a "minimum standard" for random matchmaking is OK i guess, but not having that standard met is the developer's fault for not having proper matchmaking, not the random shitty player just trying to play the game.

and it's a game. it fundamentally does not matter if someone is so bad you can't get your +0.2 second record or whatever. it does not matter if you can't win the difficulty you chose. everyone starts somewhere, and in games where different difficulties tend to be almost like entirely different games, this is even more true. if you want a game where you have an 100% chance of everyone involved being at the correct skill level you want, than don't play with explicitly random players. no one cares if you want to feel special because you can win more at some fictional game than other people. I respect skill, but if you think that's a reason to bully people than you should leave every game scene ever to save people from your presence

if a player stumbles into something but doesn't understand it it's the developer's fault 90% of the time. if a player doesn't want to "git gud" it's the developer's fault 90% of the time. every single genuine criticism made about a game's difficulty is inherently valid. every game should have an easy mode. players should default to helping new players rather than dismissing them. learning a game by playing it is always more intuitive than using google or reading blog posts.

  • barrbaric [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    You're right that nobody should be getting harassed, but I'm still going to get annoyed when an extremely low-level player decides to queue for challenge modes like Elite Deep Dives in Deep Rock Galactic.

    • EelBolshevikism [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      cope

      Edit: I have to deal with the fact I'm shit all the time in solo DRG and I'm fine with it. No difference between that and another player really given how hard it is to improve, except that I can improve myself, but that doesn't make much of a difference in just one match (or sometimes they can improve in one match, and in that case just teach them the likely small things they're missing!!) I can understand it's more annoying because it's harder to understand why exactly they're making mistakes, but that isn't really their fault

      First part of message was probably too callous, sorry

    • git [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      1 month ago

      Level 1 accounts are entitled to queue for endgame content actually. The players have no agency in making that decision and its all the developer’s fault. What, are you some kind of bully? I’m calling the cyberpolice and posting a wall of text to hexbear dot net.

      • EelBolshevikism [none/use name]
        hexagon
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        this but unironically
        either communicate it better or don't allow fucking level one players to play content that they literally cannot win due to progression

        also everyone is "entitled" to queue for everything, they bought the goddamn game, shit players are part of the gameplay. Are you just not good enough to play around it? Don't blame people who don't know what they're doing for your lack of skill

        This sarcastic and shitty argument that "the players have agency so it's their fault" ignores the fact that they make decisions in a completely controllable context the developers can modify at will and created specifically according to their image of the game. Developers have the entire gamut of human psychology to use and mold to their advantage and the advantage of their players; That's why things like game progression are effective as player motivation so much of the time. Anyone who is genuinely at fault for queuing for a high difficulty option is either a troll or doesn't know better, and I hope we can at least agree that a troll is not the same thing as a genuinely shit player.

        If you can't handle the difficulty of teaching new players than play a different game!! NoT eVerY GaMe is fOr EverYone

        • RyanGosling [none/use name]
          ·
          edit-2
          1 month ago

          If you can't handle the difficulty of teaching new players than play a different game!! NoT eVerY GaMe is fOr EverYone

          This is a stupid point coming from you because the game already exists to cater to certain people. Teaching and learning are two different things. If teaching other people isn’t part of the game, then why should they have to play something else because of bad players’ problems and inability to move on from a game they hate?

          Show

          • EelBolshevikism [none/use name]
            hexagon
            ·
            edit-2
            1 month ago

            because teaching people is part of the game. git gud

            also i'm trying to emphasize that the same "git gud" logic people use to shit on bad players can be turned on them very easily. I do not actually blame anyone for, say, wanting a mode that prevents newer players from joining. You just have to get off your high horse to ask that and stop blaming shit players for being shit players

            also having read your comment multiple times i have no goddamn idea what you're trying to say. co-op games intrinsically have a degree of learning and teaching even with experienced players, they have to figure out how to communicate with each other even at that high level and that takes an exchange of learning that goes both ways.

        • git [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          1 month ago

          Are you just not good enough to play around it?

          It doesn’t bother me personally as I’m used to carrying. I’m max level in Gears 5 and carry brand new players on the max level Horde matchmaking all the time. It bothers me at a systemic level that they’re allowed to queue for it because they’re clearly having a miserable time, a minimum level requirement is all I ask for but I guess that would be too much to ask and instead those newbies should just keep suffering while unintentionally ruining the experience for everybody else. It would be bullying to ask them to queue for a lower difficulty after all.

          I’ve had people send me hate mail and death threats for just suggesting they play a lower difficulty or even just the tutorial but that’s OK because it’s actually the developer who’s in the wrong. Silly me.

          Don't blame people who don't know what they're doing for your lack of skill

          If they could just go away and take the time to learn in the queue clearly marked “beginner” that would be better for everybody involved. My skill can only carry the game so far when they’re running into no-man’s land and unintentionally sabotaging the game for everybody else.

          But asking them to learn the game would be criticising them and might feed my god complex so that’s out of the question apparently.

          they bought the goddamn game, shit players are part of the gameplay.

          How does this work for free to play games like Halo Infinite where I get brand new accounts queueing for Legendary firefight who stare at weapon pickups trying to figure out which button to press?

          • EelBolshevikism [none/use name]
            hexagon
            ·
            1 month ago

            you literally just said you wanted a minimum level requirement, that is literally just what I'm talking about with taking the issue to the developers, you aren't even disagreeing with me

            people giving death threats is shitty, yeah, not going to defend that shit

      • m532 [she/her]
        ·
        1 month ago

        freeze-gamer using sarcasm to hide your frothingfash ?

        With extra strawman