So call me an old man or a grump, but if there is one thing I have noticed, it’s that online shooter players don’t seem to care about winning any more. Players are perfectly happy as long as they have good exp, good KDR (kill to death ratio) and get closer to ranking up rather than winning the match. People only seem to get annoyed when a team is utterly destroying them online, so much so that rage quitting has become standard these days among shooters. In some occasions the winning team may have players who are annoyed as people were ‘stealing kills’ and ‘objective spamming’. This type of thing leaves me completely bamboozled, I mean we won the match and you’re annoyed? If other gamers acted this way they would be classed as insane, can you imagine a Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat player saying, ‘Oh well, I lost but at least I landed some sweet combos’. No chance, when playing a fighting game online the only important thing is winning. FIFA players never say ‘Ack, I lost but I have a great successful pass ratio.’ No way, FIFA players are always out for the win. Why, then are shooter fans so happy to lose a match as long as they are doing well with their kills or exp? The only reason I can see is the ranking-up system, people are so obsessed with ranking up that it means more to them than winning the match, and will happily let the game slide as long as they know they are in for some individual rewards at the end of the game. Be it free-for-all deathmatch or team-based capture the flag type games, only the win should matter. There should be no, ‘Oh my team lost, ah well I still kicked ass.’ No, if the team losses everyone should feel bad, the only time you get to smack talk is when you hear that big deep voice at the end of the game say ‘You win!’ Free-for-all is when you prove the real gamers from the casual scrubs. Being able to survive a 16-man server with people loaded to the teeth with insane weaponry and win the match is a rite-of-passage, and I honestly don’t believe today’s Call of Duty and Battlefield generation would be able to handle it. Playing an arena-based shooter does mean dying more than killing in most games, and in today’s world this would lead to rage quitting and verbal abuse from some squeaky-voiced teens and little kids about my mother. So, I finish my article with a thought, if arena shooters made a come back and went back to old school roots would you play them? If exp and ranks went out the window and the only thing that mattered was the endgame, would have the guts to step up? If you played a game where rockets came from every direction, bullets flew from every corridor and you died more than you killed, would you have the stomach to play to the end of the match? But most importantly, what if tomorrow the words second place meant dead last and only winners mattered? Would you enter the arena?
