Video games are most fun when everybody sucks and nobody knows what's going on

ez mental boom·11/5/2018, 8:37:26 PM·69 votes·14,344 views

This has been true for my entire life

First Mario Party, then Dark Alliance, then Soulcalibur, then Halo, then Call of Duty, then every other multiplayer game I've ever played

When I know what's going on, I'm actually competitive about it, and it stops being fun

Even stupid shit like DS download play on Metroid Prime: Hunters or Lunar Knights (outstanding, incredible games btw) stopped being fun once I had an idea on how it worked

29 Comments

Jamaree11/5/2018, 9:13:15 PM17 votes

Basically yeah.

Rewt11/6/2018, 2:09:25 AM16 votes

I disagree. For me the best time ive ever had in gaming was when everyone knew how to play at a fairly decent level, but everyone was there to have a good time.

This was like 3 years ago in CS GO at the Master Guardian ranks.

Everyone was a pretty decent player with good aim and good game knowledge. everyone had developed to a point where they knew their strengths and weaknesses and they played around them. Many players were just guns on the field. Others had better game sense. I was one with game sense over skill. which meant I naturally gravitated to IGL (In game leader) And would call strats.

But again Master Guardian was the party rank. it was essentially plat in skill level. But it was the rank where people just wanted to have a good time. before that rank people try harded to rank up. Above that rank you were really trying to improve as players and so they took the game more seriously. MG 1,2 and E were just people having a good time.

And to make this clear. I never once qued with friends at this rank. When i was a MG players I was a 100% solo player and have incredibly fond memories of meeting really nice people in that rank. Very few bad experiences. almost all good. Sadly those days are long gone and there isnt really a party rank in CS anymore thanks to Valve's De rank fiesta.

Also. It wasnt like people werent taking the game seriously. Everyone was playing to win. But we understood that you can play to win and still have fun. It really is what instilled that in me. And now i get tilted off the face of the earth when people say "its just normals" cause thats the wrong mentality. the right mentality is to play to win, but have fun doing it.

Vuxem11/5/2018, 9:30:55 PM12 votes

I remember when GTA 5 game out, no one knew what the fuck what they were doing and it was a blast.

ModCaptainMårvelous11/6/2018, 6:19:26 AM8 votes

I think it's one of the things people often forget when they want something like Vanilla WoW/Season 1 league back.

It fundamentally won't be the same because people will know the stupid OP stuff. But you can't write out that OP stuff because then you're not actually bringing back Vanilla WoW. You can't just delete bugs or little things like hunter dead zones, that was part of the experience. Sadly this means that any experience you have with "bringing back the good old days" will either require additional new content (ala OG Runescape) or confined to that small subset who will play the OG version.

As a friend put it: If you don't miss Vanilla WoW, you don't have a heart. If you want Vanilla WoW back, you don't have a brain.

FCJAAAAGOOOO11/5/2018, 9:24:54 PM6 votes

Well, it's less about the "established meta" and more about being ABLE to easily know exactly what the established meta is that makes it suck. Counterplay is one thing but knowing which 10 champions to play every game for the winningest record is another.

If there's no possibility of any reason to play differently, you're playing the same game twice. And what's the point of that?

The LCS is literally just people who work for a living mastering the same given meta over and over.

Look at Mango's last top 8 run at GTX, if you're into smash bros at all. That'll give you some concept of disparity between fun metas and well-known metas like LoL.

I played Hunters online too and that game's online pvp was dumb, especially 1v1's lol. Still a great game; agreed. Lots of fun with friends. Single player was pretty good too.

stone the blacks11/6/2018, 12:24:02 AM6 votes

you see thats where Mordekaiser comes in becuase what even is a huedekaiser

KFCeytron11/6/2018, 5:19:26 AM2 votes

Why mention Mario Party? At the end of a game the results are basically discarded and a random player is chosen as the winner.

Jarring11/5/2018, 9:33:02 PM2 votes

dark alliance? that the baldur's gate game for ps2? I loved that game :3 diablo clones rock

flibitydoo11/6/2018, 4:30:46 AM2 votes

disagree

every single pictionary-clone online game I play, it sucks when people don't know how to draw.

the people who don't know how to draw, what they do instead is they just write the word. Spell it out. Letter for letter. It's never fun when that happens. The whole point of the game is to draw and to get people to guess the drawing. The main reason why the game is fun is because often it connects people since the whole point is to see if everyone else catches what the drawing is referring to. If they are on the same wavelength, if they watch the same things, follow the same cultures. This is a game about being creative. Writing the word down because you don't know what the word is, is lame.

Blackii711/6/2018, 1:57:01 PM1 votes

and this is exactly why, URF is fun. You can never know what's going on, game is too fast to do so at least.

Jarring11/6/2018, 2:28:23 PM1 votes

i don't think LoL ever had a time like this.. not truly anyways.

HoN and DotA 2 certainly didn't. Even when I first starting getting into DotA Allstars, it was very rare to see someone who truly didn't know what they were doing. People who started on DotA Allstars already knew how to micromanage. Shit, they were used to playing an RTS that was a LOT harder to micromanage. The only reason people may think LoL had a time when nobody knew what they were doing is because of how forgiving it is.

It does remind me of the difference between pubstomping and playing in TDA. I occasionally played in private professional TDA games and despite owning as a carry mid practically every game I played in pro DotA, I didn't enjoy it as much because I wasn't allowed to pick for myself... Too high pressure. It's just not as fun when I have to win "for the team" instead of "for myself". There is a huge difference in the atmosphere. Not only do they put pressure on me, but I'm not allowed to make choices for myself.

Andrey034511/6/2018, 3:31:02 PM1 votes

Well, if you are new to the game, it obviously is very fun to play and learn what's going (especially if the game is good) but I don't think game stops being fun if you get competitive, you know that you are now a decent player and trying to become even better. And for me it's kinda the only thing that pushes me to play ranked because even though I hate current meta, it's still nice to realise you are playing with other high-skill players and actually competing for being better, no matter the game being a bit boring, it still takes quite a lot of skill to be good at.

Power Cosmic11/6/2018, 6:25:52 PM1 votes

I enjoy gameplay depth and the ability to explore and learn it.

Violet Fields11/6/2018, 6:53:46 PM1 votes

This game was more fun when nobody knew how old Urgot worked so everyone called him trash.

Krynnˉ11/7/2018, 5:53:32 AM1 votes

League was most fun when I played MasterYi Top building item 3142 item 3006 item 3087 item 3031 item 3072 item 3022 ... Good times... I can't get that same feeling I had playing the game back then :/... lol now I know how cocaine addicts feel as extreme as that may be.

NoDiscussion11/7/2018, 7:26:12 AM1 votes

This is so true. Unfortunately, it won't ever really happen again. With the internet being how it is, guides being rampant, and people being so competitive to the point where they want to get that edge up on others by finding whatever is the best meta.

Oh yeah, and at the beginning of most multiplayer games(not so much these days) usually there aren't many organized teams of players, which means everyone's a stranger, and it was fine that way. Seriously, look at league. You can't play a single game without at least one pre-made.

Arenaeus11/5/2018, 9:51:51 PM1 votes

Agree

LightningShado11/6/2018, 2:21:43 AM1 votes

Yes, a bunch of friends screwing around is actually the most fun thing ever. Play Duck Game with more than 2 people and you're gonna have a good time.

PICKLE RICK REEE11/6/2018, 4:40:57 AM1 votes

counter strike source bro

then csgo came out

Vacus11/6/2018, 5:02:37 AM1 votes

I think this is related to my 'games that have stupid bullshit are more fun' theory of design.

Essentially, a fully competitive 100% serious experience simply is not that much fun. Whether the players are messing around, or the game itself messes around, there needs to be something to prevent it from being pure srs business at all times.

Worst Brad Japan11/6/2018, 5:26:52 AM1 votes

they are also fun when your victory doesn't depend on 4 other backpacks

SanKakU11/6/2018, 9:02:36 AM1 votes

I can see how some of the fun gets taken out by solving the meta or whatever but I don't think all the fun is eliminated at that point. At least not for me. For me, games tend to not be fun if there is some poor design problem or if players are just being bad sports.

Frog goes moo11/6/2018, 9:32:11 AM1 votes

That's why the only fun meta was the one that was that the majority of adc's complained about (I think around 8.10 0r 8.11) where adc's were nerfed and anything went bot lane because adc's had to learn to lane against other champions lmao. Bruisers went bot, mages went bot. It was so fun. Now it's the same old same old, but an occasional veigar apc, yasuo adc, or morde adc.

kinda sucks.

Jaegaer11/6/2018, 9:43:28 AM1 votes

Same man I keep restarting games like skyrim/ witcher for that reason. I just want to become a noob again so I can have fun. League used to be so fun learning about all the 150 champion unique kits. But now a years gone I cant even say league is that fun anymore. Its a chore to try and have fun.