Okay. Here goes.
I love this thinkpiece as a meditation on the value of hard competition. And there isn't anything untrue about it, though I'm not sure it covers the truth in its entirety - or at least as much of the truth as any of us can ever hope to see, even about something as basic as "competition" or "Apex Legends" or "video gaming in general."
It's true that this game is, by design, competitive. And competition isn't ever meant to be comfortable or necessarily even friendly. And this game is never the former, seldom the latter. And yes, to a point, with certain personality types, that competition will make you tougher. A better player. And the game is under no obligation whatsoever to make any of us a better person. Though in some limited ways it is even capable of doing that. But I feel like there is a lot of missed opportunities if the game doesn't seek to be anything more than just a crucible for Darwinian brutality. I thought that Bot Royale was an excellent step in the right direction. An early step, a tentative step, an incomplete step, but a big step nonetheless. Then it morphed into Bot Royale Evolved and became nothing more than the same Darwinian brutality that we already had in every other mode in the game. Watered down a little, perhaps, but still ugly and uncompromising and uncomfortable.
Sure, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. But that doesn't have to mean that there's no space at all within the game for anything other than agonizing grind. Some might say that if you want to get away from the agonizing grind then you should just put down the controller and go read a book. And they wouldn't be wrong. But is it really such a big ask that the developer make a space within the game where we can spare ourselves the toxics and the tryhards just for a little while? I long ago gave up on the idea of wanting or expecting sbmm to separate us out. It can't. Or won't. And that just is the way things are. But Bots, for the love of mike, does not need to be yet another space where less competitive players are exposed yet again, intentionally or otherwise, to the abattoir. And you would think that Respawn would get that. Is it not in their best interest to keep us in the game on whatever terms we're willing to stay? And is it unreasonable to want sometimes to stay only if staying can be without exposure to grueling, painful, dehumanizing, humiliating grind?
So again, let me take this noble discussion and twist it into a selfish demand on the developer: please, PLEASE, take the live players out of bot royale. They can be anywhere else. They can be everywhere else. Just leave one fun space in the game. Just leave bot royale to the bots.
I totally agree with that, If I ever want to play bot royale, Its probably because I just wanna chill and relax, Or im just basically tired of the competition and want to lvl up without trying my hardest. hmm maybe they could implement a system where only casual-mid players are being put and there should be like 2 or 3 squads at max, dunno just a little something. but with that being said Honestly and personally speaking, To an extent, This is a multiplayer competitive human focused game. Some games (like some installments of gears of war and halo) dont even have online lobbies with bots to begin with. I can see and visualize what the devs had in mind when they allowed high tier players into that, Basically from a developer POV (and especially apex devs) they want their game to be as tough and as hard as possible. I have lost so many games even though I was doing very good, But when it comes to apex. Bein very good is not enough at all. You have to be extremely smart and utterly precise in order to secure most wins (and notice I said most because you just cant win so many games no matter what). This according to respawn would basically mean that the game would be discovered and played to a much greater length. Dunno if its just me but losing a match makes me wanna join in the other as quickly as possible as a way to redeeming myself and proving myself worthy. If i kept on winning even for only 2 matches straight. Id have then proven my point and there will be nothing more worth doing. This also applies to any other online competitive game btw
"Dunno if its just me but losing a match makes me wanna join in the other as quickly as possible as a way to redeeming myself and proving myself worthy."
I love that. I re-queue as quickly as possible to escape the horror of what came before... in the expectation that it will not happen again. And it always does. Not sure if that says something about my indomitable optimism or my incredible gullibility.
"maybe they could implement a system where only casual-mid players are being put and there should be like 2 or 3 squads at max"
Only speaking for myself, but 2 or 3 live squads would be 2 or 3 too many. If I want live squads I can get them in any other mode in the game. Not to mention that I'm not convinced that the algorithm is capable of distinguishing casual players from anyone else. Matchmaking would suggest that it struggles with this. On a good day.
"Some games (like some installments of gears of war and halo) dont even have online lobbies with bots to begin with."
I can only speak to Halo, but in my opinion that game was at its absolute best when single-player firefight was in the mix. That was Reach and H4. Guardians tried to bring back firefight but made it exclusively team-based. Which made it almost as repugnant as team slayer. The bots weren't necessarily that hard to kill, but you had to race your teammates to get to them and that turned the entire mode into a speed run. Which is something that PvE can be, but not something it should be exclusively. My guess is that 343 made that design choice for the exact same reason that I think Bot Royale became Bot Royale Evolved: They didn't want to devote an entire server to the gameplay of just one person. Unlike the good old days of Reach and H4 where the game played out in your own console rather than in a data center somewhere. I guess "progress" isn't really always as progressive as we imagine it will be.
haha 😆😆 Back in the xb360 era, I remember buying a pirated copy of Halo 4 for my hijacked 360 when I was just a young student struggling financially. I was desperately looking for an option to add bots for my offline match (hijacked consoles cant connect to xbox live but there was a modification that allowed you to do so at the cost of only playing disks inserted into your xbox disk reader) and funny enough I ended up playing alone roaming the map and trying out vehicles and guns cuz that was only thing I could do 😂😂😂 I dont remember well but either that game didnt have split screen or my rude brothers were refusing to play with me haha. We were playing MK9 for the most part and I was owning them every **bleep** round with my beloved sorcerer Shang Tsung. Now I have Xbox SX and just yesterday we were playing MK1 and I literally won every game using a plethora of Kombatants while they only used Sub Zero and Scorpion lmao
It's funny (and sad) that almost every gamer you meet, over a certain age, has a great Halo story to tell. Now that franchise is in ruins and the only thing Microsoft can think to do is rebuild the old games. As if I would buy Combat Evolved for a FOURTH time. Sorry, Microsoft. Been there, done that. Not giving you any more money for something I've already been doing now for 25 years.
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