Competition exhaustion

[Legendairy314]

This has been a recurring theme over the last few years of gaming for me. I'm just growing VERY tired of competition in video games. Now I'm not talking about difficulty versus the AI or beating your own high score. I'm talking about how I've grown very distant from the realm of PVP. Co-op and me get along just fine but when you bring that heart racing bomb plant against an entire enemy team it just stresses me out more than anything.

For games that have an extensive multiplayer focus (such as Call of Duty or Battlefield) I have to take comfort in being with a team and focusing on the more RPG like elements that manage to draw me in more than the actual combat. It's not that I hate fighting another person but that's what I see; another person. Someone who is just as focused on killing (or beating) me as I am them. I lose, it annoys me. I win, it annoys them.

Most likely another element of the equation is that I hate chance. Most PVP instances in video games rely on both player skill and chance. Two players that are evenly skilled, which can easily be found thanks to true skill matchmaking, involve even higher instances of chance. Roll the dice on recoil and I feel like I've been cheated on that death more than anything else. But it's being cheated against another person that truly annoys me. I'll gladly get killed by a critical hit from an AI opponent but immediately call BS when it's from another player.

Anyways, this thread isn't supposed to be about me. Does anybody else find themselves drifting away from PVP arenas and focusing more on Co-op and campaign types of games?

 

[StBishop]

Yes; it's why I don't like competitive martial arts, I prefer sparring to learn, not to win.

I also don't enjoy PVP when I think of it like that. The only way I enjoy PvP is when I see it as my team vs bots. Then it's fun.

 

[Legendairy314]

Yes; it's why I don't like competitive martial arts, I prefer sparring to learn, not to win.

I also don't enjoy PVP when I think of it like that. The only way I enjoy PvP is when I see it as my team vs bots. Then it's fun.

Yeah, I don't care for real life competition all that much either. And as far as Players vs. bots I'd call that Co-op more than anything else.

 

[Miles000]

I agree.
I'm finding myself enjoying more single player or co-op focused games....

Of course, if Battlefield 3 would ever let me play competitive, that might change -_-

 

[StBishop]

Yes; it's why I don't like competitive martial arts, I prefer sparring to learn, not to win.

I also don't enjoy PVP when I think of it like that. The only way I enjoy PvP is when I see it as my team vs bots. Then it's fun.

Yeah, I don't care for real life competition all that much either. And as far as Players vs. bots I'd call that Co-op more than anything else.

It is co-op. What I mean is that when playing Halo:Reach or HoN, I pretend that my friends and I are playing Co-Op against clever bots, which makes it more fun than accepting that I'm playing against rands.

 

[The Abhorrent]

I was never really into competitive multiplayer, and to be honest I find the mindset of those who populate it.... well, abrasive & annoying would be an understatement.

Regrettably, unless you're playing with friends in the same room? Expect to run into those same jerks in cooperative games as well; they're a permanent fixture of online gaming, be it co-op or competitive. The only thing which really changes is that rather than them ego-stroking off of killing the opposition, they proceed to try and out-perform you and proceed to boast & brag about that instead.

Unforunately, for many people (especially in the online arena) it's all about winning. Even if the point is to work together, they'll still try to "win" and establish their superiority; often by any means necessary. It's pointless in that context, but they still want to "win" for some strange reason.

So yes, I've grown tired of competition. Not the usual variety (deathmatch-type games) most are thinking of, but it's still present in the cooperative modes. It's more-or-less made me tired of online gaming in general; single-player offline or co-op with close friends only for me.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

I think a lot of people are feeling that way these days. I have no proof to back it up, but I'd wager that is why "Horde" modes have become more and more popular in recent years.

After a while multiplayer just starts to feel the same. CoD, Halo, and the like are good fun. But Firefight, Nazi Zombies, and Horde mode 2.0 are the options that have been giving me the most memorable gaming moments played with others.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well as a hotheaded teenager I was all about "pwning the nubz, cuz I 1337" but now that I'm past it I only want competition in moderation, I want my game to come with a bit more heft (group play, tactics, branching paths, objectives, ...).

But multiplayer all comes down to community, so then you go online get surrounded by hotheaded teenagers who just run around shouting racial slurs, and that is the biggest reason why I usually turn away from multiplayer.

 

[skywolfblue]

I'm this way as well. I'd prefer to play stuff where everyone comes away happy then a zero-sum game where one side always loses.

So I like playing SC2 co-op vs AI, or Gears3 Horde/Beast mode, or do raids in WoW, or other co-op vs AI modes. I like those a lot.

 

[BiggyShackleton]

I still enjoy the competetive side definitely. On games like Fifa and Street Fighter I still enjoy outright winning against someone else, just cause I'm competetive I guess.

In games like CoD, BF and Gears though I'm starting to get bored of how many people transfer that 1v1 mentality into team games and thus lose. It's an annoying cycle, especially on games like BF where people will not play the support role properly and thus are a detriment to the whole team. In that aspect yes, I'm sick of playing with over competetive randoms in team games. I'd rather play with a team of friends or a co-op mode such as Horde.

 

[Zerazar]

It's very, very fun when you're winning. Especially if you're a selfesteem starved runt like me =P.

After beginning to play more WoW at expense of Heroes of Newerth, I do have to agree that it's much more relaxing to play singleplayer/coop. Then again, HoN is quite possibly the most enraging multiplayer game out there.

 

[McPulse]

There is nothing more awkward than holding a LAN where you have one too many people to all fit on one team. Watching the humiliation in Real Life of the guy you just Gangst... Nah, not worth it.

 

[ElPatron]

Yes; it's why I don't like competitive martial arts, I prefer sparring to learn, not to win.

I also don't enjoy PVP when I think of it like that. The only way I enjoy PvP is when I see it as my team vs bots. Then it's fun.

Yeah, I don't care for real life competition all that much either. And as far as Players vs. bots I'd call that Co-op more than anything else.

That's PvE, I think. It's not really PvP if the opponents have no humans in their team.

 

[Tanakh]

Most likely another element of the equation is that I hate chance. Most PVP instances in video games rely on both player skill and chance. Two players that are evenly skilled, which can easily be found thanks to true skill matchmaking, involve even higher instances of chance. Roll the dice on recoil and I feel like I've been cheated on that death more than anything else. But it's being cheated against another person that truly annoys me. I'll gladly get killed by a critical hit from an AI opponent but immediately call BS when it's from another player.

Anyways, this thread isn't supposed to be about me. Does anybody else find themselves drifting away from PVP arenas and focusing more on Co-op and campaign types of games?

If you hate chance play Frozen Synapse, SC II or Bloodline Champions, zero chance there and it's just about skill, no gear or randomness and if you lost if because you just were worse. But TBH there is no PvP focused game where chance plays a big role, at most it gets out of hand when PvP is an aftertought like WoW.

And nop, sometimes i PWN, sometimes i get raped, still love my PvP. But i don't PvP with anyone, and try to avoid doing it with real life friends.

Finally, there is nothing wrong with going carebear, PvP is more stressful and it is not inherently better or worse than killing bots; that said at the upper levels PvP is harder than killing a bot.

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

It depends on the game, most games now are luck based, COD and Battlefield for example. When I play those games (if ever, I've stopped playing FPS's) I don't give a shit, there is no point giving a shit because even the most skilled player can get killed by some guy lying prone, or a grenade that lands at their feet. I don't think it's exhaustion from competition, it's that competition is becoming less and less skill based, at least in FPS's anyway. I can acknowledge skill on a game like UT or Quake, not so much on a game where everyone dies within a few shots that can't even be avoided and can be aimed anywhere on the body.

My most recent example of this is playing BF3 on my brother's PS3, I went prone under a truck so I had somewhere safe to hide whilst I went for a piss, when I came back the bases had changed and everyone was running through a tunnel. I killed 17 people lying under the truck before being killed. It didn't even feel good, I did fucking nothing. They had their backs turned, they died in like 2 shots aimed in the general direction of their head. Shit's weak.

I haven't completely abandoned playing competitively, I just don't hold much faith in video game developers delivering good competition, so I don't search for it. That doesn't mean I don't play PvP though, I just don't take it seriously. WoW for example, lol at the state of that game.