Apex needs more social features and a stronger sense of community

Well I think it's hilarious EA wants €100 or so for FIFA or EAFC or whatever it's called now, glad I quit that game.  You think Apex is toxic.... that is toxic ground zero.

I will be, and have been, the first to say that good matchmaking is a virtual impossibility. With that in mind I can agree that it's not exclusively a Respawn problem. But there is a lot Respawn could do to make it better (eliminate smurfing being only the biggest and most obvious) that they refuse to do. So they deserve, imo, a good deal of the heat they take on the subject.

Overall though most of the blame for the mismanagement of this game can be laid squarely at the feet of EA. I take the trouble to distinguish between developer and publisher because while Respawn has made more than their fair share of fumbles over the years, EA has routinely, systematically, sometimes idiotically, made one bad, short-term decision after another with no other objective in mind than to maximize shareholder value. By all means, make some money for your investors, but don't kill the golden egg-laying goose in the process. I can't sugar coat it: EA is a company that deserves its inevitable failure. I don't know if it will come tomorrow or in twenty years, but it will come. One day gamers will wake up and realize what a rip off are all those annualized money pit sports games. And they'll stop buying them. And EA will end. As it deserves to. If you haven't already noticed, I can't say enough bad about EA.

Apex is a unique and great game.  I have my frustrations (currently it's unplayable for me) which is unfortunate but i've had some really good times in it.

I would not give devs too hard a time.  If you look at the forum it's probably pretty depressing reading for them as all people do (myself included) is complain.  I'm a computer scientist and I can appreciate the challenges they have.  Matchmaking must be a nightmare as you can't say too much about it as people will just game the system.  Some people have figured that out on their own.  It's a never ending battle (like fighting cheaters... each anti-cheater success a workaround will be found shortly after, etc).  People are part of the reason we can't have nice things.  We don't work together, we just constantly fight amongst ourselves.  Human nature?

Good ideas. And the irony is that none of them would cost the dev a whole lot of money or resources to implement. Of course they won't do it, any of it, or much of anything else, because the dev can't see the game through fresh eyes to see what it really needs. And because right now they're probably focused on Apex 2.0, though I haven't really heard anyone talking about it much lately. They said originally that it would happen in the wake of BF6. Well, EA, here we are in the wake of BF6 and what is Apex getting? A lot of deathbed desperation in the form of horrendous balance decisions, the worst matchmaking in the industry, and not much else. Apparently. I guess EA is preoccupied figuring out how to pay off the debt they accrued when they were bought a few months ago. You got give a nod to late-stage capitalism where x borrows money to buy y and then overnight y is in debt by exactly the amount that x paid to buy y in the first place. Plus extortionate management fees and the gaming gods only know what else. Well, I'm not gonna lie: if this buyout ends up being the beginning of the demise of EA then I won't shed any tears. I'll miss this game, but not a lot. It's just too painful to watch something with so much potential be squandered with such a curious combination of ruthlessness and ineptitude.

Yeah just tried wildcard again, I gave up after 2 games.  First game we did ok and a team dropped about 80m away and lasered all of us in about 5 seconds... all of dead, instantly down.  game over.  2nd game was just getting smashed over and over (6 or 7 deaths to 1 kill).  I just quid mid game in frustration (there were only 2 of us anyway).  Just not worth the grief.

Some really interesting suggestions.  I think the biggest problem is just people.

I stopped playing the BR mode some time ago.  I quit ranked a few weeks ago.  I got to gold and it was just toxic ground zero with loads of abuse (to myself and team mates) and not really great team work.  I found it just unpleasant and wasn't much fun.

Wildcard was good for awhile but the difficulty seems to have gone up and there are some teams that just smash the lobby.  You come up against them and you might as well quit cause it ain't gonna happen.  I've found team mates quit wildcard quite a bit or just go AWK and don't do anything all game.

Not sure how to fix this.  Day zero player and I dont' play much at all anymore outside of occasional wildcard and even that time is starting to dwindle.