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Oh no I no longer can play the incredibly toxic matchmaking multi-player games and instead have to enjoy the automation, exploration, story, management and strategy games I’ve always loved
Factorio, my beloved
Yeah. Now I only have like 3 hours to play by day and I’m not gonna waste them in losing.
I’m the same way. I know some like the feeling of beating a hard boss after trying for hours, but I just don’t have that time.
The secret is they like the process of beating them too. It’s not all about “winning”.
Hmm should I try different party combos in BG3 to see how the dialogue changes or run around a COD map getting shot in the back of the head every 9 seconds while ads for mtx strobe flash my corneas?
Feel kind of lucky. They weren’t so toxic when I was good. The only place to really find that was from the notorious Xbox Live kids experimenting with their first ever swear words.
It was when gaming reached a broader audience and wasn’t just for “nerds” that toxicity became commonplace. Went from making friends with strangers all the time to just default muting mics and avoiding communities.
Nowadays, the less reflex-deoendent, the more you’ll be surrounded by players from those days and the less toxicity. Compare HLL to MW, for example.
As always, the closer a game gets to being a full blown simulator, the older the playerbase tends to be.
Almost like arcady bs with autoaim and automatchmaking and very short game round times and superhuman movement capabilities appeal to people with poor impulse control.
… of course you can then go way, way too far into fullblown sim territory and end up with actual geriatrics and/or turboautists, lol.
(I say this lovingly as a turboautist who has spent probably an unhealthy amount of time in various niche sim communities, lol)
Or you can graduate to milsims.
The controls and game mechanics tend to be so complicated that… well, people tend to have more realistic expectations from their teammates, and if you find a decent community, people tend to be more mature and friendly.
It actually requires a part time job level of commitment to be an exceptional shooter or tanker or pilot or even medic if you’re playing with a sufficiently complex health simulation… so, somewhat true to life, people tend to specialize and thus have much, much more incentive for decent communication standards.
Downside: Also true to life, a lot of games will end up feeling like 90% camping/hiking/road trip, punctuated, often essentially randomly, by 10% sheer terror.
…
You are not authorized for retirement unless you want a dishonorable discharge, soldier! If you need a wrist splint and vertical ergonomic mouse to continue your duties, check the nearest supply depot! Dismissed!
lol
What milsims would you recommend?
Well, you got Arma 3 or Arma Reforger…
Those are pretty much the most commonly played milsims, with tons of available mods and dlc, huge expansive maps, players have their own inventories, can customize your whole load out and such…
SQUAD is sort of a milsim lite, maybe? It evolved out of Project Reality for Battlefield 2, they eventually made their whole own game in Unreal.
It retains the round based, class base core concept, but greatly expands on the more arcady nature of the Battlefield series with many more realistic gameplay concepts, much of them revolving around playing a role in a squad.
The maps aren’t as big as Arma, but you can still end up with a whole game session taking an hour or two.
There are also other games that basically aim for what SQUAD does, but not in a modern combat setting, Hell Let Loose for WW2 as an example.
I think Gray Zone Warfare is trying to be a new sort of milsim on the block, but so far I’ve heard roughly mixed reviews of it… and there are tons of ‘tactical shooters’… but they tend to be smaller in scope and usually lack vehicles, or don’t include near as many, or simulate them as extensively… and a whole lot of them tend to be developed by basically people who vastly overestimate their ability to make a game, and can be very toxic / in denial about this… so be careful with those, haha, probably check youtube for some reviews before diving in.
There’s also Gunner Heat PC if you want a very tank oriented tank sim, and DCS if you want an excruciatingly detailed, combat oriented flight sim, and you also hate money, lol.
Oh right, for basically most of these, you’re probably going to want to try and find and join some kind of larger community on discord or something like that… usually they’ll have guides, tutorials, plan matches/games on a schedule, maybe even offer some kind of psuedo boot camp / training for enthusiastic noobs, hehe.
Thank you so much for the detailed response, a upvote wouldn’t be enough. <3
I threw in some more details after I made the comment, more context and hopefully more useful info =D
Jokes on you. I never had the skills to begin with.
MFW: you have given up PvP in favor of single player and PvE games as that live service treadmill and toxicity are too much now
I just never did PvP in the first place.
For me its more of a return to the fold.
I don’t care about toxic players and I never spend a dime on any live services… my chief issue is that I have to work for a living and online game matchmaking mix me with people (children) who’s primary stressor in life is trying to print out homework that doesn’t look like ChatGTP wrote it.
skill issue
It just means it’s time for solo 4x and single player RPGs.
A huge Rimworld expansion drops today. Solo game players have never had it better.
omg its out now! I know what I am doing all weekend then.
I’m stuck at work right now just dying to play it
Single player and PvE superiority
you cant lose what never had
Honestly the opposite happened to me. I’m 31 and I’ve been playing much better in terms of aiming than any other time ten or 20 years ago.
Same, maturing and looking at things more intelligently made me better at online games. Still average to be honest, but I was really bad as a kid
By the time, I got better at puzzle resolving games. Has been a while since a get stuck in a videogame.
Happened to me ages ago :3
I don’t play enough competitive games to care anyway tho
Wait, y’all had gaming skills to begin with?
I can barely play online games against anyone without getting wiped in 0.0001 nanoseconds if it’s a PVP game. Never had skills, so I’ll never be in denial about losing what I never had.
This is the real reason to have kids. I’m not up on the Mario Kart meta, but I’ll whup my seven year old around rainbow road any damn day.
Getting there. I’m introducing my oldest (3) to all the Mario games now.
Super recommend Mario and the Rainbow Stars! It’s a free fan game with a ton of fun moments. They’ll have fun watching, and you’ll get something new to keep your interest.
Never heard of that one, but will look it up. Thanks!
late 30’s and I’ll still whoop your ass at Street Fighter 6 or The Finals
59 years old today and still in denial.
From Atari’s Combat, through Tribes, and now Helldivers, the gaming goes on. There may come a day when I put away my mouse and controller …
BUT IT IS NOT THIS DAY!
I cut my teeth on games when being balls hard was the standard. I paid my dues. Nowadays I just put them on easy (and use save states for old games).
For me it was the Doom reboot. I discovered my twitch reflexes just weren’t what they used to be. Now I play only strategy games if anything at all.
I know what you mean I thought that too but I think it was more the way you move in the reboot. I went back and played old school quake and quake 2 and still had it.
Ah, OP makes more sense now. I’ve only ever played strategy and RPGs and was going to say I’m better now than I’ve ever been.
48 years old and I haven’t dipped yet 😂
Not only that but my shit talking is unmatched!
