CloudKiller said:
Multiplayer games are enormous amounts of fun, I think we can all agree on that but whenever people play together elitism is inevitable. Nowhere is this more prevalent than when a new player picks up a game for the first time and is greeted by a torrent of losses, or in some cases abuse from over players, simply because they cannot play the game at same level of proficiency as its long standing community members. This is both annoying and disheartening.
I know what you're gonna say, "Of course they're gonna lose at first while they're learning the game but they'll get good eventually." Except that takes time and dedication that the new player would be less likely to devote to the game or genre if they believe that the game is too difficult for them, based on the artifical difficulty they're facing based purely upon the people they are facing, or that the community for that game or genre is toxic.
There are loads of examples of this in today's gaming communities. If you tell or team mates in a MOBA thats its your first time playing, will they be helpful and give you advice? I'm sure a lot of players are and do but i'm certain even more will just abandon that game immediately. How many people asking for advice on the forums for From Software games are told to basically "Git gud noob".
And yes most multi-player games do match people up based on their win:loss ratio or level or w/e but all of those systems get abused by those of us who are determined to fight only when we are certain of victory. Whether its tanking your ranking or to use a specific example Levelling only your gear in Dark Souls/Bloodborne and not your character level so you get match with someone who couldn't possibly stand a chance.
Hearthstone is the perfect example of a game where new players are treated harshly by both the players and the developer. A new Hearthstone player who completes the tutorial and is about to set of against other players is about to enter a world where not only can they not compete but cannot even improve. If you play the casual option for your first few games in Hearthstone you'll be annihilated by people you use legendary cards that you can't compete with. No matter, you just have to get yourself some legendaries of your own and if you can afford to buy the card packs then sure you can buy your way to victory and Blizzard has been kind enough to provide daily quests to earn currency for those who can't afford it. Great, except that the quests require you to win 2 games, doesn't sound like much but winning even one game is hard enough when you can barely compete.
So what, if anything should be done. Should people stop being dicks to other people, yeah but that'll never happen. Therefore as comunities are harder to change should developers change there designs so that the playing field is more even at all levels of play? Or are the current systems fine as they are and people just need to bare with it until they're competitive?
I'm calling bullshit on Hearthstone on being harsh on new player by other players and dev alike.
I'm a strictly F2P player, and still run non-legendary decks up to rank 12 no problem. Hell, I started a new account just so I can have an equal footing against some friends that got into it recently (like ~a month ago), guess what? I still kicked their ass even that one of damn buggers pulled a Rag on his 3rd pack or something from Tavern Brawl. The key here is LEARNING HOW TO PLAY AND DECKBUILD. If you don't know the theory and math behind it, nothing is gonna work out for you, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU TRY TO BLAME IT ON SOMEONE ELSE. Case in point? Arena and Tavern Brawl is the great equalizer, everyone get the RNG treatment, and aside from one or two brawls, decks were PRE-BUILT. If that isn't newbie friendly, I don't know what is.
But see, people that think they are hot shit WILL get humbled, and if they ain't gonna be humble, they gonna whine about everything about the game except themselves.
Now, let's go into other games where it is ACTUALLY NOT newb friendly, then you'd have a better leg to stand on. Unnecessary toxic assholery are abound in those cases, depending on the targeted demographics (you'd be hard pressed to find that "toxic stuff" in something like... Dwarf Fortress with multiple rulers, since the crowd tends to be older ppls).
"Nowhere is this more prevalent than when a new player picks up a game for the first time and is greeted by a torrent of losses, or in some cases abuse from over players, simply because they cannot play the game at same level of proficiency as its long standing community members. This is both annoying and disheartening."
That's why various games have newb zones or casual sections. The "abuse" is bad, but a player playing bad is just as bad if not worse, especially in games where there's cooperation involved with multiple people. A crappy player feeling bad is just one person, this one person can make 2-39+ other people feel bad cause that ONE person is ruining the entire experience for everyone else. And that's more annoying and disheartening cause it's more often than not that ONE CRAPPY PLAYER DON'T SPEND THE TIME TO GET GOOD ENOUGH AND BLAMES IT ON EVERYONE/EVERYTHING ELSE.
There's only really 3 solutions that aren't really solution.
Better matchmaking - There will never be a flawless one until we make some super AI or something that can distinguish the eternal newb from people abusing the system by tanking their metrics.
Restrict crappy players to only playing with friends/bots until they aren't as crappy - Crappy players will scream that it's restricting them from something they paid for... and then complain when they suck facing better ppls.
Enforce tiers - Crappy players will complain that it will hurt their feelfeels because they are listed as lower skilled player than others.
Optional Solution that occasionally spawns - crappy players realize the game isn't for them or that their time should be spend on something else and move on.
With all that said, there are things to help with the assholery. Something like opt-in interaction would be a solution as well as just better game designs. But that's more easier than done since pioneers have to invest additional times that others can just copy for free further down the line (in-game chat patents would be next to impossible to get, let alone enforce).
