"There are way too many things being manipulated behind the scenes in Apex."
I go one way on this subject on any given day, and on the next I go the other. Sometimes you can have something that looks suspicious or even sinister, and in reality it's just plain neglect and ineptitude. Sometimes.
But where I'm really going with this is here: Maybe they manipulate things, maybe they let the chips fall where they may, but WE have more latitude to manipulate our experience than most of us realize. The one thing you absolutely cannot do in this game is enter every match thinking things are fair or that there is any such thing as an easy time in this game. Matchmaking will punish you, but as long as you avoid ranked then you can look at the skill curve for the match and instantly quit and re-queue if you don't think what you see is viable. Or fair. You also have the option to develop a play style that puts you less at the mercy of bad or hyper-aggressive or over-confident teammates. You have the option to develop a play style that allows you to assess enemy capabilities before you get so close to them that the only possible outcome is vaporization.
Most players believe the game consists of "finding enemy," "shooting at enemy," "winning or losing," "waiting for res or quit & re-queue." But there's a lot more to it than that. IF you have the patience to explore those aspects of the game, learn those aspects of the game, and use them to your advantage. Your squadmates will think you're dumb. Or crazy. Or "afraid." I always love that one. And the idea of playing counter to the groupthink may not be something you have an appetite for. But if you do then you'll learn to solo without getting killed, or maybe even seen, until engagements are on terms you choose or become unavoidable. If you're really lucky your squadmates may even still be alive. Either way you decide at every turn whether the match is still worth pursuing, and when you decide that it no longer has anything to offer but a free kill for your enemy, then you leave the match. The more you demonstrate to the game that you're not willing to just wade into any engagement no matter how bad the odds then the more you're taking control of your own experience. And the more the matchmaker says, "Hey, I guess I should probably stop throwing this guy at master tier three stacks."
I guess the short version of this is: some shooters are for shooting, but battle royale is for THINKING. And sometimes shooting. But a lot less for shooting than most people think. And the less you shoot, assuming a basic level of competence has already been attained, then, I find, the more satisfying engagements are. Even when I lose them. And I still lose 'em a whole lot.
And if you're ready to manipulate your experience to the next level then you can start a new secondary account every week. You can get a xim or a Cronus or a Titan or any strike pack or aim box. Or a PC, the cheaters' platform of choice. None of that is a road I'm willing to go down, but it isn't hard to see why people do. Oh, and I almost forgot the most important gaming accessory of all that isn't an actual cheat: Adderall. If you don't think half these kids are strung out on Ritalin or Adderall or actual amphetamines then you're living in a fantasy world. I swear you can easily tell when a player is flying high. Pretty sure ALGS is a pharmacological spectacle.
Manipulate away, my friend!
I’m disgusted by developers who prioritize profit over fair gameplay. Don’t get me wrong . I have no issue with devs making money. I don’t even mind if they make a lot of money. What bothers me is the order of priorities. When someone says, “Hey, let’s do it this way, we’ll make more money,” and the response is, “Some players might hate it,” and the answer becomes, “Doesn’t matter, they won’t even notice” that’s the real problem.
My goal in playing isn’t to always win, or even to win at all. I just want fair matches against players of equal skill. What you mentioned earlier about cheats and comparisons to drug use I don’t care about any of that. It’s irrelevant to me. Fair play means integrity in the game, and that simply doesn’t include those things. My goal is to make average players aware that they’re being deceived.
Matchmaking deceives them. It makes them believe they’re bad at the game, that they can’t aim, can’t move, and need to improve — but that’s not true. The majority of the player base has a KD below 1, and that alone proves the system isn’t fair. Just scroll through any Apex Facebook group: every post is about players with 3, 4, 5 KD ratios dropping insane damage and 10+ kill games. But that 4.0 KD comes at the cost of ruining the match for four other people, because the system deliberately puts them against someone way above their level.
And that’s not a rare thing — it’s the norm. As long as average players remain unaware, they won’t push back. That’s why I’m speaking up — here, on Facebook, and soon in a video that will break it all down clearly. It’s time people understood how competitive games like Apex — and others — are manipulating the majority of their players. Respawn isn’t the only one, but they’re a textbook example.
