Arc Raiders and the PvP vs PvPvE vs PvE dilemma

I played Arc Raiders in the second and last playtest before release and enjoyed the game loop of the game. I was very aware that due to it being a playtest there still were not all the people playing the game that would be there on day one and therefore there was still some wiggle room to play as I wanted to play. I had watched some streamers play the game and there was the surprising and completely unexpected notion in solo queue that people were not playing the game as a PvP game but rather as a PvE game. This was not everyone to be sure, but even hardcore PvP streamers took on the idea that the game could still be fun if they didn’t kill everyone they saw and instead either joined up to achieve some goal, or at the very least they left people alone to get on with what they were doing after an agreeable quick chat and exclamation on how good the game was.

But there were a few things to this that made me pause and question the authenticity of this and more importantly the long term sustainability of this friendliness and comradery that people were experiencing.

First off, I wish to say that this was not my predominant experience while playing. After seeing people act this way I played probably 20 games. Of those, half of them I never saw anyone else and it was just me and the Arcs and the loot loop. Of the other 10 games I only managed to extract with someone once and never had an interaction where the people didn’t just shoot even when I stipulated I was friendly. The extraction was a fluke as I ran into the lift as the person was extracting and hid while saying I was friendly. The screen went black as he slowly peeked around the corner to stare at me. I believe we didn’t start fighting only because I caught him off guard and the lift was going down before he could do anything.

Another example was where I saw someone being overrun by Arcs and I destroyed 2 of them for him while he destroyed the third. During this I was repeatedly saying I was friendly and that I was going to help him. When the arcs were dead and I had suggested to him that we extract together (as we were right by a lift) he promptly sniped me and killed me. This was my experience overall of the PvPvE of the game. There was never a time that the other person either joined me, left me to my own devices or even spoke to me at all. They just shot me when I wasn’t looking.

As I have said I enjoyed the gameplay loop. I liked the premise of the game. I liked the enemy design, and I knew there would be many more interesting enemies to come. I will admit that I do not like PvP at all. I play too many games and enjoy variety too much to play only one or two games exclusively and therefore I will never reach the pinnacle of getting the elusive ‘Gud’. I have long realised that any PvP game is not for me as I fast become irrelevant and there is the experience of people who play the game for hours that know hidey spots to camp out extraction and spawn points, or the places to stand to see around the corner into people’s blind spots or just play enough to be good.

I continued to watch a few people play at launch and contrary to my experience people in solo were sometimes playing along with each other or just having a friendly chat and leaving each other be. There was a call for a PvE only server where people like me would play and enjoy the experience of either going solo or joining up with someone to achieve some goal. Of course this was refused., not only by a portion of the community, but by the devs as well. I can see where the devs and the people who were against it are coming from, but I disagree with them. I feel they miss a very important point. PvPvE only benefits PvP players. It does not benefit PvE players at all. PvP players find their fun in the battles and fighting others, irrelevant whether they want to or not. They don’t feel anything when killing someone who wasn’t even battling back, a point that I feel defeats the object as it is not a PvP game at that point but rather Player vs Player who is not even playing. I struggle to see the sense of achievement when there was no actual achievement to be had. PvP players enjoy fighting and killing in games like this in order to feel superior to others. This is no different to someone winning a race or playing a sport. But how much fun is it if the other person racing isn’t racing you at all? How much fun is it if you play a sport against someone who isn’t even taking part? For most it is irrelevant whether the person was taking part, for them it is the winning. I don’t enjoy hollow victories myself. Even when I play games against my kids, I play them to my fullest so that when they eventually beat me they know that they achieved something and it wasn’t me letting them win and therefore a hollow victory.

I never bought Arc Raiders for this exact reason. As soon as the game released and suddenly everyone (or most people) were playing friendly, I knew what was going to happen. The PvP players were enjoying the novelty. They even started to camp the campers in the game. There were stories of good players helping others and killing people who were griefing and playing unfairly. I saw many of the people who played many hours start taking one if not more defibrillators and armour regenerators for the sole purpose of reviving strangers. Everyone was amazed at the non-toxic community of the game. I even saw many of the top PvP streamers change their gameplay style and join in with this new fad. It seemed to be shaping up to be a great game to play.

But I had a strong suspicion that this friendliness would not last. Slowly this is coming to pass. More people are camping the extractions and spawn points, more people are pretending to be friendly and then shooting people when their back is turned. More people are just not engaging with the PvE element of the game. This is mostly because, as with all live service or forever games, people play the game until there is nothing left to do and then look for other distractions in the game. In Arc Raiders this is returning to pure PvP and extraction gameplay they are comfortable with.

Someone like me who if I started playing at the same time, would still have hours of playtime left to complete the all the current content, whereas someone who plays 30-50hrs a week would be through all the content, have all the skills and have top tier weaponry and equipment. Although Embark have made strides to compensate for this, the disparity between someone who has way more hours in the game and someone who plays casually is vast. This is not specific to Arc Raiders but an inherent problem with these sorts of games. This is why many people do not play these kids of games and why they were excited about Arc Raider which was initially made to be a PvE game.

There is no such thing as a PvPvE game. This is a misnomer as it is really a PvP game with AI enemies. Now that may seem like the same thing, but it is not. PvPvE suggests that there is a PvE element to the game, but it will always be overshadowed by the PvP element. I do not think Embark are misleading people, but the term itself is a misleading one. PvP players will always take over in games like this because there is no agreement that if someone does not want to PvP then they don’t. If there was a way to turn off PvP and if someone shot you it did no damage that would then allow for PvPvE.

The other option is PvE only servers. People and the devs are of course against this as it would ruin the game for them and I am left to wondered why? There is no loss for the PvP players as they can just play against other PvP players. PvE players would be able to play the game as they wished and therefore, as far as I can see there would be no issue. I have seen the argument that it would destroy the tension in the game, but I cannot hold to this argument. If you want that tension playing as a PvE player, then play on the PvP server. There seem to be a significant number of people that want to play this as a PvE game. The calls for a PvE only server have been very vocal. The devs will not do this as they say the game is their vision as is but again it started as a PvE game and the swivel to a PvPvE game was a late one.

Now people will just say this is just not a game for me and to a point they are correct. But there are so few PvE co op games around and the ones, like Helldivers 2, do very well. There is also a portion of the community asking for PvE servers as they love the game but just don’t like toxic PvP players who have a well-earned reputation for running games and destroying the fun. This is borne out in many other PvP games.

I also don’t really think it fits their lore either. You have humans struggling to survive hidden underground fighting for every little scrap to ensure that their society survives, and then the raiders go above to collect fiercely needed supplies and while there they do the Arcs jobs for them by killing each other.

Embark are free to do what they wish with this game but already the numbers of concurrent players have halved on Steam. This was not stopped by the recent season update. A game like Helldivers lost players predictably, but there is a spike whenever new content drops. Time will tell the impact in the change in player attitude towards PvE and the, what I feel is predictable, move towards a more toxic PvP gameplay loop. I feel they will continue to lose the PvE focussed players, many who were pulled in by the PvE loop and are not interested in the competing in a PvP focussed arena. I think the PvP players will continue to find ways to force people into the PvP arena as it is what they enjoy irrelevant of whether people want to. There will more underhanded PvP tactics used like camping extraction and spawn points or finding hidey-holes where they can kill people without being seen. They will focus more on the combat and killing other players than the loot loop or Arc fights. This will be the things that the PvE players will dislike.

I do hope Embark open up a PvE server at least as a trial to see what will happen. They are, I am sure, unwilling to separate their player base but there are at the same time many PvE centric players who would appreciate it. I feel there would be many people who would buy the game who have not and will not buy it at present. I am one such player.