Competitive Gaming at a Crossroad: Prioritizing Fun Over "Git Gud" Mentality

A Critical Look at the E-Sports Arms Race and the Need for More Accessible and Enjoyable Gameplay

Perhaps one of the most toxic, gate-keeping, yet common phrases uttered in the gaming community is ‘get good.’ Games without a doubt are competitive. Multiplayer games are obviously competitive, but people will find a way to play even single player games competitively. Difficulty is a right of passage, and the gaming glory of “getting good” is so pervasive entire game genres are held up on top of that saying as a pillar. While I do think the gate-keeping nature of games can be intense at times I personally don’t think that making a game easier for those who want to experience it detracts from your personal experience. I think the souls games have gotten better at this over the years with Elden Ring being the best example of accessibility in a “challenging” game that I’ve seen.

The place I think that has suffered from the “get good” mentality has been the multiplayer gaming space. Multiplayer games by their nature are competitive. Competitive games and E-Sports are on the rise. E-sports are the future, whether you like it or not. Like I talked about previously with Counter Strike 2, what we have right now are the stepping stones for new sports, new sports casters, personalities, and each company wants a piece of the pie. You may not see it, but on the internet a war is going on with games attempting to cement themselves as the next “sports” with arenas, teams, sponsors, fans, the works. I think e-sports are great, and welcome any new disruptors to upset the tired old impenetrable monoliths that have cemented themselves as staples. It’s the life cycle of media.

My issue with the e-sports arms race is that, many multiplayer games, in an effort to make these games as competitive as possible, they forget to make them fun. In order to have a good time playing these games you need to have a full squad of dedicated people that want to play the game %100 seriously. Or a squad that’s ok with losing. I’ve put my time into competitive games. I’ve hit nearly the highest rank in Rocket League someone can achieve in a lifetime, but that doesn’t mean I’m having fun anymore. Often times I find myself more frustrated at the games, by the games, and the other players than I am enjoying myself. From toxic team-mates trying to go pro to systems designed to punish players who are doing poorly, I find myself spending most of my playtime dead watching from the sidelines.

I am a hyper competitive person, and not a bad gamer. So as easy as it is to point a finger at me and say “get good” like a neanderthal, it’s not addressing the real issue at hand. If this is my experience, how many other people are being alienated by the systems that these “competitive” experiences provide? I’m 26 and my reaction time is only going downhill so I don’t expect to get any better at first person shooters any time soon. But I still look forward to participating in playing competitive games from time to time, I just wish the developers had put more work into making the game fun for everyone.

I feel silly even bringing it up with how popular hyper competitive games are right now, but it’s important to remember that they don’t make up even close to a majority of the gaming market. As big as those games feel, they are still dwarfed in size by mobile games. They have a lot of room to grow and expand if they werent so determined to gate-keep the bad players off of the experience. This is why I believe a game like Fortnite has been so successful. Sure there are tons of factors, but one of the main ones is that Fortnite’s target market of “children” caused them to take a look at the moment to moment gameplay and have them ask themselves.
”How can we make this fun for a child who will get no kills?” So they add tons of optional mechanics and objectives, like dirt bike tracks, fishing, driving, water-skiing, and the kitchen sink to make it appeal to as many people as possible.

It’s funny for me to write this, because I am usually against mass appeal, but for me mass appeal in gameplay is different. That just means adding more mechanics that ultimately make the game more interesting. The opposite of that is an “Uncharted” like game that make the mechanics as simple as possible to appeal to a wide demographic. I prefer when games add additional depth in other areas. One of the best examples I can think of for this is TF2. A game with multiple different playstyles each is valuable and necessary to the team. My favorite class in TF2 was always the engineer. I was never great on the front lines, but I liked to be able to help and support the team in my own way. Overwatch took some notes from this, but I get tired of getting yelled at for playing Torbjorn so I usually stop playing.

Apex Legends is another game I’ll point to as being very “get good.” I like the battle royale formula, and I’m happy for its success. In anything competitive “random” elements are actually quite good at leveling the playing field and giving worse players a chance at achieving victory. Battle Royales appeal was how random the starting conditions were for each player. But god damn if Apex Legends didn’t get rid of that whole dynamic. You can either choose to drop in at a place with real guns where all the people who are trying really hard drop. So you will most likely die right away. Or you can drop somewhere more deserted, get crap weapons, and spend the entire game just running until you finally get in an engagement…. and die. You do nothing else, and I’m so bored by the time that I finally get to an engagement when I die I feel that I’ve just wasted my time.

Rainbow Six Siege, Valorant, and CSGO all have the same issue for me. I am nowhere good enough to be an asset to my team while holding a weapon. I actually really enjoy round based games, but with no alternative I have no way to practice. Rainbow is also the only one in this category that punishes its current players for having bought the game already by holding off the best deals only for those who are new with no way of upgrading. I think of these three the one I’ve had the most fun in is Siege because there are a handful of operators that I can still participate with while hiding in a room somewhere.

I remember a time when games just wanted to be fun. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with the kinds of competitive games that are out there right now, but I’m sad to see no other attempts to make anything different or fun. New competitive games continue to come out, then fail, because as the staples continue to cement themselves people who have already invested tons of time in “their game” won’t want to switch to a new main game. They may switch temporarily as a change of pace, but I think the time is right for some smaller multiplayer titles to come along and allow people a fun alternative that won’t replace their main game.

That’s my rant. Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed it please subscribe to my newsletter! Don’t forget to follow me on my social medias, and join my discord!

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