Are Elites Ruining Online Play?

[mannjon]

You know, I've noticed that. I know a lot of monster hunter vets that were pissed that it was easier than the old school games. But all the new players groaned about how difficult it was. I have friends that all complain about dark souls too.

I think there is a widening gap between more casual less skilled players and committed gamers. There used to be some gray area, but the market seems very polarized now. Pay to play benefits like loot boxes don't help either.

[Jersey Jimmy]

I think the best solution for these people would be to simply not play online. I can't speak from too much experience considering how new I am to the series, but I'm perfectly content with playing against the AI. If I haven't gotten sick of it in Mario Kart DS after 13 years, I don't think I'll get sick of it here.

Plus, it'd be cheaper, not having to pay for PS+ and all. So that's always nice.

[blackwiggle]

I find it hilarious that people find paying for a PS+ subscription an outrage, well TBH I used to be one of those people that thought the whole PS+ thing was a ripoff when it first came out, I can't remember what made me cave in, but I did eventually well before the PS4 was released, and serendipitously just when a whole load of great titles were given away for free around 8-10 moths in a row.

Being caught out before subscription renewal time, I found you need to be smart and always keep it paid up before your renewal date and buy a yearly subscription when it's on special at 30% off normal price, which happens several time a year at least [it is currently], which in Aus full price for a 1 year subscription is $79.95 pa you end up paying $55.95pa, which works out at 15cents a day.

I do this whenever I have the spare $$ and I am currently paid up till July 2020.

It sure beats getting a alert from Sony just before your subscription is due and finding that your don't have the spare cash to pay for it.

Even when Sony stop giving away free PS3 games later next year, you'll still be getting 24 free PS4 games a year, and even if you only liked and bothered to download 5 of those, it's still got to be worth more than what you have outlayed.

Anyway, back on to the main topic.....I went online the other night and there wasn't a sole playing on any of the servers, even the PS3 servers had at least 'somebody' on them right up until they closed them.
It's really quite sad to see this happening, and I put it down to the decisions made by certain people regarding the separate servers, and the issues this has caused.......I mean I see their reasoning, in that to have the best lag free online Wipeout experience, being on your particulars countries server is the best option, but if the vast majority of wipeout pilots are based in the same global area, and using the one server, and your sitting in your countries lobby like a mug waiting for somebody else to turn up, what's the point?
Far better dealing with the lag, [which can cause some very funny things to happen] and at least get a race, that's if your lucky enough not to get booted from the UK lobby if your from elsewhere.

I think the whole online population for wipeout has diminished since the heyday of HD/FURY 2009 - 2014/15........ It diminished a lot when wipeout was only a PSP/VITA game.
And the problem with that demise is that the vast proportion of pilots that could hold their own at Phantom speed online have gone with it.
A lot of use have, due to age, sunk too far into the couch cushions of time to grab a controller, the French wipeout arena site is still up but is basically inactive and has been for several years now, which is sad because a hell of a lot of the fastest phantom pilots were/are French based.

Looks like there is a need to find a way to replace those phantom pilots, and also find a way to give impetus to new pilots to get to that level.....it's not a easy task, for those that want more people to be playing the game, as those who can race at the fastest speeds know just how much effort it took to get there.

[eLhabib]

I have to say, I find the notion that the good pilots are ruining online for the beginners quite disturbing. If anything, online gameplay is ruined by new players who don‘t want to learn the game offline before blindly joining a phantom or A+ race, getting their ass handed to them and then pestering the good players with messages accusing them of cheating and encouraging them to go fornicate with their mothers.
So, in a language that these kids seem to understand: GIT GUD.
I‘m not putting up with any of that. I really can‘t help you any more than using a quirex agility and still beating you.

[blackwiggle]

I have to say, I find the notion that the good pilots are ruining online for the beginners quite disturbing. If anything, online gameplay is ruined by new players who don‘t want to learn the game offline before blindly joining a phantom or A+ race, getting their ass handed to them and then pestering the good players with messages accusing them of cheating and encouraging them to go fornicate with their mothers.
So, in a language that these kids seem to understand: GIT GUD.
I‘m not putting up with any of that. I really can‘t help you any more than using a quirex agility and still beating you.

I think a LOT of the really new pilots online are totally new to wipeout as a gaming experience, and have only just got it because they have bought a PSVR.
Problem with that is I expect 'they' are expecting everybody else that is playing online to be in the same situation that they are, and a huge shock when they find out that is not the case.

[mannjon]

Totally agree here. The vast majority of people I see are low level pilots in vr. You can tell by the new faces and the vr icon. They see me with the same icon and a relatively low rank and assume I'm new to the game. What they don't see is the 80+ rank I had on WOHD. Not saying that rank indicates anything at all because it doesn't. But to the eyes of someone starting out, they don't know that the difference between rank 1 and 30 is tons of hours.

Now as far as the phantom A+ speeds go, due to the lack of races at that speed I've gotten quite rusty at higher speed classes. Not terrible mind you, just not top 50 material like I used to be. Without other folks online, there isn't much of a chance to practice because the ai is a joke even at elite.

[T-301]

Another potentially controversial theory is that after videogames were finally popularized as a whole by the industry around 2009, the medium was flooded with people who were never that much into videogames and saw them more like a means of entertainment they could get quick enjoyment out of without putting much effort. Some may call this the "casual market". The industry shifted to appease them more when they became the majority of audiences, by producing "easier" games in general. It changed so much that games like Dark Souls and the recent Crash remaster were seen as hard games, even though they're no harder than what we used to have.
The same thing happened to computers in general around the same time when Apple launched their first iPhone, pushing their "The computer for the rest of us" slogan once again ever since the 80's.

[mannjon]

Dude, you just gave me the feels. I beat kid chameleon on the genesis recently on an emulator with no saves. People don't know how difficult old school games like contra, Zelda 2 and golden Axe really were.

I imagine that if WO was ever an arcade game that my records wouldn't be beaten. I think we have the Wii to thank for the casual trend. If you can't pick it up and master it in 5 minutes, why play?

[JABBERJAW]

It's the Quake syndrome. New players getting matched up with seasoned veterans, eating dust, then leaving. Most people choose not to get better nowadays, either because they don't have the time for it, don't have the skills, or just don't want to go through the effort. Games that run on raw skill aren't that popular anymore.

That is probably why Quake and Unreal Tournament don’t sell like the some of the dumbed down FPS’s, it was pure skill, no auto aim or close enough or any of that crap