As I get older, it’s fascinating watching history repeat itself or seeing the same phenomenon in many different examples. The latest one to catch my eye is PVP games and player excuses.

I remember going to the arcade and playing Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat III and witnessing a variety of player excuses for losing. “You just spammed Hadokens” or “Kabal is cheap and unfair”. It was always the game or the unfair strategies fault you lost! This was before the internet though, so each pocket of the world had it’s own strategy that was unfair and witnessing it live was pretty cool to see.

Then it was Starcraft for me. Getting into that game and dealing with Zerg rushes when you liked to play Terran was just unfair and not fun. Why should I adapt when this strategy is clearly broken and shouldn’t exist? But of course, for the real greats, Zerg rushing was a noob stomping strategy and learning how to deal with it was a big step in actually getting good at the game. The internet was still relatively new so it was harder to find sources to improve, but when you finally beat it and your opponent FF’d, it was so satisfying!

Now in modern times though, the same thing occurs where it’s easier to blame the game and the strategy for losing a PVP game, but the current internet gives you reinforcement for that opinion, rather than incentive to improve. It’s easier to go on social media and complain about a 52% win rate champ and have hundreds of people agree with you, than it is to device a strategy against it.

Or better yet, with the concept of patching, demand the game and rules change. Get the unfair strategy nerfed in the next patch if you can get enough people to agree with you! If that doesn’t work, advocate for a ban to the strategy, and change the rules. Maybe Steve just needs to not be allowed so the game can be fun again.

It’s really fascinating to study how modern communication has changed the approach to PVP across the entire gaming industry. I’m not smart enough on the human psyche and how it interacts with social experiences to have a solve, but it’s definitely an interesting topic to see how different games tackle it. Watching the Tekken scene, or TFT, or CS, or whatever, all have a different approach and seeing how their players respond. One thing is true no matter what game it is though…if you want to get good, you have to learn and adapt. That hasn’t changed in more than 30 years.

Ok, that’s it for today. Hope everyone has a great week! Patch rundown is up, patch is on Wednesday, and then we get to talk Artifacts! Until next time, take it easy 🙂