The Current State Of Apex

Yup. I see a game that no longer wants to penalize impatience. I see a game that no longer wants players to feel bad when they do things wrong. I see a game that wants to take away all negative consequences for poor decisions. I see a game that used to be the same thing to all players regardless of skill, and now is really two games: one for the average platinum Joe and another completely different game for the diamond+ sweats. And cheaters.

Yes, in the end the developer has a lot to answer for. So many bad decisions made in order to appease kids who would be far better served by team deathmatch lightning rounds, but somehow have to be made to feel entertained and successful when they can't sit still long enough to finish out an 18 minute game. And the way they've handled the cheating epidemic - or failed to handle the cheating epidemic - is just painful to witness. And the way they've delivered every average player directly into the hands of diamond stacks with their atrocious matchmaking is something that looks like negligence bordering on incompetence.

But if I'm honest, the biggest enemy of Apex isn't Respawn. It isn't even EA, though they have even more to answer for. No, the real poison in this game is the players. The streamers, the pros, the content creators, the cheaters, the smurfs... the list is seemingly endless. I've never played a competitive shooter that wasn't ruined by its own players sooner or later. Mostly sooner. We can definitely add Apex to that list now.