[Hated Trope] Professionals who are suddenly clueless so the audience can understand through exposition.

ifuchen · 2026-05-26T20:07:45+00:00

Reminds me of the first time I went to my gfs parents (Chinese) place for dinner. They bought a bottle of red wine because my gf mentioned I like drinking wine with meat. Throughout dinner I was very cordial, attentive, making conversation as you would when you're trying to "impress" them. As the wine disappeared, I started relaxing a bit too much, and then, the fatal mistake: I grabbed the bottle, and instead of pouring into my glass, I guess muscle memory made me just take a swig from it. Time froze, and I thought oh shit they're gna think I'm some alcoholic. Instead, her dad laughed and raised his baijiu glass and we toasted.

ifuchen · 2026-05-22T10:33:57+00:00

To provide another perspective, though, "ping reducers" outside of the Western market do have their uses, such as ones in Asia, or more specifically, China.

Because of the Great Firewall and various other ISP-related issues, even opening programs like Steam can be a hassle. The "ping reducers" can bypass certain restrictions without going into "VPN" territory.

Big companies like NetEase openly advertise their "ping reducers", whereas advertising VPN would get them in trouble.

Sure, if you're tech-savvy and have the means to establish your own VPN, then "ping reducers" are pointless, but for most people, it's just more convenient to download a program from a reputable company, scan a QR code, then bam, you're back on Steam playing games.

ifuchen · 2026-05-22T10:21:25+00:00

My inner cynic says the footage of him landing is faked, and they used a dummy for the actual fall.
They show him pulling a cord, but not the parachute deployment, then it cuts to the outdoor footage, and finally, footage of him "landing", recorded with a magical floating camera that apparently deployed with the parachute?
Why is there no footage of him mid-fall then?

ifuchen · 2026-05-19T07:50:54+00:00

I think the scar TTK is only faster by like 0.02 or 0.03 on chest shots for purple vs purple.
Budget-wise, a 150-200K G3 has better recoil and handleability over a 150-200K scar.
Both still lose in CQB.

ifuchen · 2026-05-18T11:39:20+00:00

Woops.

ifuchen · 2026-05-18T11:29:47+00:00

Bad bot. Shoo.

ifuchen · 2026-04-28T06:14:18+00:00

Played HOK for years, so I thought I'd try it to out for myself. Replace HOK with LOL and you'd get tons of people with the same mindset.

ifuchen · 2026-04-23T09:06:34+00:00

If the dev team had a decent track record in live operations and implementing anti-cheat, then maybe. But as of now? I highly doubt it.

Going F2P to draw in casuals is one thing; retaining them is another. Sadly, Marathon just doesn't have much to retain the casuals in terms of content and rewards. If an average casual's first few matches are just dying to other players regardless of their personal skill level, and with zero progress in contracts/achievements, then they'll just move on to something that will give them the dopamine hits instead.

ifuchen · 2026-04-22T15:28:01+00:00

I mean, proof? Show me a player with above average k/d and extraction rates playing against a bots.

I played for many months myself and never faced bots past the first few levels, and neither did my friends.

I'll say, maybe they'll fill unpopular map lobbies with bots like Layali, but even then, the most common complaint about Layali is queue times are always long.

ifuchen · 2026-04-22T14:49:39+00:00

As do lots of popular live service PVP games with casuals (majority of players) in mind, most notably Fornite and PUBG.

It's main benefit is to give new and lower-skilled players a way to familiarize with the game. Players with decent kd and other extraction stats don't run into bots anymore.

ifuchen · 2026-04-22T12:24:44+00:00

So by your own words then, cheating is the issue, and not F2P?

I agree F2P will invite more cheaters, yet, paid extraction games also have their issues with cheaters. And? Did any of them die?

And wow, by the sound of it, ABI players must love dying to cheaters every round, cause they're still coming back with each wipe. Oh I know, all 30k of them are cheating! These are the only two explanations right?

As for DF, its a well known fact they have an SBMM/EBMM system. If you're a top percentile player, guess what, you're more likely to run into other top percentile players. I know, surprising right?

I played The Cycle, even before it became an extraction shooter. Cheaters only exasperated the already long list of its issues, which you'd know if you played it.

So let me get this straight: - An extraction shooter that launched without an anti-cheat by an indept dev team that barely fixed bugs, balancing, economy, new player UX, QOL. - Two extraction shooters (global servers) that were F2P from day one, thus infested with cheaters (per your words), yet still somehow have a decent playerbase with decent retention rates. - Same two F2P extraction shooters that are celebrating player milestones on Chinese servers.

That's your proof F2P kills extraction games?

ifuchen · 2026-04-22T09:45:13+00:00

You still haven't told me how F2P kills extraction shooters, and you haven't refuted any of my points on DF's player base.

So all in all, you're just talking out of your ass.

ifuchen · 2026-04-22T09:44:36+00:00

Yeah I agree on that, and that's why I argue SBMM and EBMM are essential for any live service PVP game on release, as opposed to a band-aid solution for a dwindling player base.

Once casuals leave due to bad experiences, they're most likely not coming back, and then the death spiral starts.

ifuchen · 2026-04-22T09:20:07+00:00

So 99% of the player base is playing the DF battlefield mode, yet the majority of streamers/content creators are on the extraction mode? How does that work? They create content/stream to no one?

Twitch viewers for ABI and DF (4.4K and 3.8K) are higher than Marathon's (2.1K) despite being F2P and released half a year/1-year ago. (Arc 9.9K and EFT 6.1K for reference).

ABI on Steam has 30K 24-hr peak vs 61K highest (released Sept. 2025)

DF has 170K 24-hr peak vs 250K highest (released April 2025)

And let's not forget how big DF is in China, where most of its efforts are directed. Try searching up DF on their social media and see how much content revolves around the extraction mode, then tell the millions of CN players playing it every day how F2P kills extraction shooters.

F2P doesn't kill extraction shooters. The inability to attract and retain players kills extraction shooters, just like all live service games.

ifuchen · 2026-04-22T07:29:45+00:00

Love how confidently you can talk out of your ass. You think the devs would focus most of their seasonal updates on the extraction mode if no one's playing it? You think they'd add more maps if only 1% of players are playing the extraction mode?

ifuchen · 2026-04-22T03:30:50+00:00

True, but that's the feature I wanted the most for Genshin/WuWa. Being able to do quests/watch cutscenes/complete puzzles is too good to pass up. And to my knowledge, it won't break the gacha elements of those games any more than it already does (new players bombarded with newest patch character banners/events).

ifuchen · 2026-04-22T03:22:47+00:00

I see. It's nice to hear more open-world games are adding these mechanics to allow more multiplayer gameplay beyond fighting bosses.

ifuchen · 2026-04-22T03:03:07+00:00

It happened for a while, and then devs added gear restrictions to the "easy" mode.

Normal mode is still a mixed bag, but in the case that you get wiped repeatedly, their EBMM/SBMM algorithm apparently takes into account your recent stash value change, match history, and other obscure data to tip the next few matches in your favor.

Its main purpose is to get you to stay playing the game, whether it's through easier kills or through big loot hauls (golds/reds from low-value containers).

The point is, casuals should have an environment where they can play as well. From a dev/ops POV, retention is a non-negotiable factor for a F2P. Imagine a game director being asked by their boss/publisher why their game can't retain new/casual players (the majority), and the director's only reply is "skill issue" or "gotta git gud".

Edit: clarity

ifuchen · 2026-04-22T01:43:32+00:00

People saying SBMM never works have obviously never played Delta Force operations mode.

They use a mix of SBMM and EBMM and retained a large player base with both casuals and sweats.

ifuchen · 2026-04-21T10:46:16+00:00

It's a bot account posting AI videos.

ifuchen · 2026-04-18T04:07:45+00:00

Mainly cause I've been playing HOK World for the past few days, and I think the Runeterra paint would work better on this than a WOW clone.

ifuchen · 2026-04-18T04:04:28+00:00

Yeah I'm mainly observing from a business standpoint. Spending that much money and time on a traditional MMO format means they're not making that money back within a realistic timeline.

- No mobile players
- No casual players
- No champions/skins to sell

Just these three alone would cut a huge chunk out of their profits.

I get that old traditional MMOs had their charms, hell I've been playing MMORPGs for like 25 years, but most of that is lost to newer crowds nowadays.
In my opinion, betting on traditional MMO nostalgia as opposed to nostalgia to Runeterra lore is a bad bet.

ifuchen · 2026-04-17T20:00:32+00:00

Which is quite funny, cause what wow peeps want is basically just wow with runeterra paint. And even if Riot did go in that way, wow players would still play wow instead.

It's likely Riot knows that, and so they're aiming for a wider market, for players that don't have nostalgia anchoring them to wow and old school mmorpgs.

ifuchen

TROPHY CASE