Breaking Game：Reason is not only Axel

I'm coming more and more to believe that it is absolutely their intention to break the game. If I were to try to spin it in a positive way, I would say they mean to shake up metas, drive people out of their comfort zones, and raise the skill ceiling.

If I put the spin aside and say plainly what it is I think they've accomplished, I would say that they have successfully shaken up metas and driven many players out of legends they would otherwise have stuck with, and out of gameplay habits that are no longer viable.

The problems are two-fold. First, knowing what needs to be new for the sake of novelty and excitement and knowing what needs to remain stable for the sake of retention... are two very different things. And it's a difference no one at Respawn understands. Second, the last thing this game needed was a higher skill ceiling. There are already too many players in the game who can only function successfully by cheating, and with the addition of more SPEED as the game's new defining characteristic, the developer is actively encouraging more people to explore their cheating options. Is there any other legitimate counter to an Axle boosted squad bearing down and leaving you no actual time to even consider options or escape?

Developers build their games, especially shooters, around ever-higher skill ceilings because that's what they believe competitive players want. But competition drives cheating. And the higher the ceiling then the more intense the competition and the more intense will be the cheating. It's a snake swallowing its own tail. I know my preferred fix would be a game with a much, much lower ceiling for mechanical skill so that the real competitive differentiator becomes intelligence and thoughtful strategizing. But try selling that one to twenty million ADHD eleven year old kids who haven't spent a day off Ritalin since they were six.

And that's where we are.