But what I'm really upset about is that people aren't communicating and cooperating and being respectful of each other and working together and being social and pushing back the alienation and playing and finding joy.
I'm so fucking isolated these days. This is the closest thing that I have to a social outlet. And so many people in multiplayer games just have no interest in communicating or working together, or have no interest in, like... playing in a way that supports the team and works towards a cooperative goal? Like they're playing by themselves, in a multiplayer lobby, and I absolutely do not understand it and I hate it. I don't understand why people play multiplayer games when they don't wan to play with people.
Honestly there's too many "co-op" games that don't enforce cooperation, and rank players according to personal achievements rather than group effectiveness. Stuff like L4D and the warhammertide games are better because the AI directors directly punish groups that split up, and some stuff like Warframe have various mechanics that reward co-operation and sharing tasks, but even then you still encounter the odd asshole.
I don't get the impression a lot of darktide players even know the game punishes them for running off.