Is Apex MM Fair? A Critical Look at How Casual Players Are Left Behind

The revenue stream from this game has been affected dramatically by the game's inability to retain players. The last six months have caused a lot of pain at EA. I too would like to think that pain is all that's required to motivate them to fix the problems. But I honestly think it will only cause them to address the fact that they exist. Whether they are even capable of understanding the why of the problems is up in the air, much less if there is anything they're willing to do about it.

And if I was them? I'm not sure I'd poor money into this game at the six year mark. EA's best move right now is to lay the groundwork for a replacement. They've already talked openly about Apex 2.0 and said that it's probably two years out. A: still not convinced they have any understanding at all of what Apex 2.0 would have to be or do in order to solve the problems of Apex 1.0. And B: two years is about 23 months too late. Their cash flow is already a shadow of what it was, and a two year wait won't even hold things steady where they are now. It will just dry up to nothing. Sooner rather than later.

This is just text book greed and mismanagement. It's what happens when developers hand over control of their properties to a publisher. Epic doesn't have this problem and that's why Fortnite goes from strength to strength while EA starves Respawn of the resources they need to maintain the game. But hey, late-stage capitalism at its finest. A company churns out a good product which it then neglects into obsolescence, but no one in command cares because they still get their ludicrous, board-approved pay packages, until they screw up so badly that they get fired. Then they get their golden parachute buyout. What idiot created a system where failure is rewarded as much as success? If only the game worked that way....

"Who would ever have imagined that a game type where 57 people out of 60 lose by design would somehow create an army of satisfied players... drank very heavily at lunch that day."

You had me going... what... then you had me rolling. 

But yeah, this ALL rolls back to my "5 Types" thesis. 

I just want to point out that the For Honor community protested their game by not playing for honor for a day for reason far less then we are allowing respawn to treat its average player. i have a 0.5 kda this season and i have been consistently going against preds and masters. I can't even say it's exhausting anymore its just boring, and im quickly losing interest in this game. i really wish we could either fix this match making or come together and not play this game until they fix the match making, the cheating (i haven't dealt with cheaters but I've seen others complain about it so it must be out of hand), and server issues.

EA Positive Play is a big, stinking pile of crap. I don't insult my teammates or opponents though, I criticize the morone matchmaking or Respawn directly. Most of the toxic behavior can be attributed to the fact that even after six years, Respawn still has no idea what fair play means.

This was my first match of the day, I just left it. We had zero chance of winning. Thanks, Respawn, you really made my morning.

They just report me for abusing the kd system when they specifically say there's no EOMM involve. So who's lying now ? 

Of course there’s EOMM in this game. The fact that they outright deny it only makes it obvious that they’re lying about other things too. For example, they claim that most players have a K/D "around 1", which is clearly another lie.

And even if I generously accepted that as true, then how do you explain why in almost every single game I run into opponents who knock me in two seconds while I barely even scratch them? There are way too many things being manipulated behind the scenes in Apex.

I genuinely don’t think there’s another mainstream game with matchmaking this unfair. At this point, beyond never spending another cent on them, the only thing left is to get their single-player titles through means that don’t put money in their pocket. They’ve already made it clear that loyalty or fairness means nothing to them.

"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.

A system that forces players to lobby dodging to have a decent time is plain bad. It is crazy that 9 out of 10 lobbies you are placed in the bottom half of the skill distribution. Apex won't last another year.

This kind of matchmaking is the fly in my soup, the stick in my bike wheel. Sometimes I just want to ask: "Hey buddy, are you the one who coded this matchmaking system? Cool — let’s have a boxing match." I’m 95 kg and have been in the sport for 20 years. You can hit first, no problem. But let’s do it under your definition of fairness. Your rules. How long would you stay on your feet? One second, maybe? Because that’s exactly how long I lasted in this match — instantly knocked down. Is that fair? What do you think?