@aaiuap1This happens in any competitive or "esport" type game. After a while, only the better players tend to stick around playing every day. So while they get better, they leave less room for casuals. On top of that, there's the cheaters of course.
We need games to start being designed in ways that are less about being competitive, and more about getting a team together to go do a quest, explore, extract, or whatever. Apex has the potential to do this, and hopefully they are working on something like that.
I see people complain about PvP maybe being introduced into co-op games being developed, and I think the fear stems from other games being too punishing for dying. It shouldn't be a big deal to die in shooters, if it is, then your game isn't designed well IMO. This is how Apex won me over, even though it was a BR, and at the time, I hated them. This last season they leaned into that even further, and I love it.
I don't think your solution of not resting ranks would work. What if you take a break and come back? Or, let's say you had it where if you left for a season then it would reset, but then people will just alternate accounts?
As someone who exclusively plays PvP games, I completely understand your frustration. People have gotten increasingly competitive the last few years or so, and cheats have become more prevalent, and it's due to games being more competitive. Then there's actually money to be made as a streamer. Like I said earlier, part of the solution to all that is the fundamental design of the game. Make it so it's entertaining to go explore with your friends, get the group together, and not be so hyper focused on winning every round. Personally, I don't enjoy PvE games, so the extraction element that's being explored in shooters is really exciting. I think it's the next step in evolving shooters after BRs.
I agree, it's dying a bit lately, but there's a lot of ways they can save it. Hopefully they listen to the games devs that actually play their own game rather than the suits in charge. That's been hurting these companies lately, they don't let the people with the actual imaginations cook.