Okay, so, this is another gaming culture war kind of topic. And....I feel like commenting on this. I've been mixed on the BF community in recent years, ya know, with the BF boomers haing dumb opinions about how we should go back to 2005 era game design. I'm not okay with that. I think multiplayer games in 2005 were pretty primitive by modern standards and just dont hold up at all.
....but what about 2015? Now that's more my speed. I have been vocal in saying I feel like gaming peaked around 2016 and it's all downhill since then. Of course, when I rate the years of gaming we can find even I can find newer years with solid games and solid game play, but yeah for multiplayer, I'd say 2007ish to 2016ish is the peak of all gaming multiplayer wise.
And what was my favorite franchise of all? Well, it's battlefield. Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Hardline, and Battlefield 1 represents the peak of multiplayer gaming from that era. What happened after 2017? PUBG. The rise of streamer culture. Everything being hyper competitive. And...honestly? That culture war has come to BF6.
Some old time BF veterans didnt like the movement of BF6 because during the beta because a lot of people were slide cancelling around all over the place. The streamer types LOVE that stuff. Look at BO6. Everyone slides all over the place and it's cancer. I hate that stuff. but then I get told to "git gud."
Well, the streamers basically got told no, and they aint happy. Again, this is another issue I've had with modern gaming. Ever since the rise of streamer culture, you got these hardcore esports bros coming into every other game and demanding it change for them. And every other game has tries to appeal to them, including the battlefield franchise.
A lot of these streamers not only want sweaty game play, they want a battle royale. But...part of the reason that BF5 and BF2042 were mixed was BECAUSE they tried chasing trends and appealing to these people. it's why the BF boomers exist in the first place. BF5 kinda tried to rebrand the franchise with the "woke" trailer with some amputee woman in the trailer that....didnt feel like world war 2. it felt like FORTNITE. And that's why people hated it. Not because a woman was in it, although they made it about that, it was because people wanted a gritty WWII game to follow the gritty WWI game...and we got....hypersaturated colors and cartoon characters.
And with BF2042, what did we get? More cartoon characters with the specialist system, more battle royale (hazard zone), more recoil on the guns, and more trend chasing. Like, that's what the BF boomers are REALLY fighting against. Because they're an older generation of gamers who resents the trend chasing these old franchises are doing. Now, they approach this poorly, claiming "classes make battlefield battlefield" and going on deranged rambling about call of duty. But...do they have a point when the issue is framed the way I specifically frame it here? Yes.
Because here's the thing. I too hate the rise of streamer culture and battle royales. IMO, that stuff is the downfall of gaming for me from its 2016 peak. Because you had these counter strike elitists start coming into every other franchise's games and demanding it cater TO THEM. And most of them have bent the knee.
Now, dont get me wrong, this isnt always bad. COD is considered endemic of this cancer, and yet, I think that franchise is in the best state it's been ever. Of course, given where it was throughout gen 8 it had nowhere to go but up. MW19 and Warzone revived the franchise and made it the best it's ever been, even eclipsing the 360 good old days that made the series popular.
BUT...not every game has to be that. And honestly, we've lost a lot in this transition. Some of us miss titanfall for example. Post titanfall 2 we had apex legends, and now titanfall doesn't exist any more.
I mean...that's where I resent these trends. I have nothing against battle royales, but when every game has to have one and it eclipses the old modes, those old modes suffer. When gun mechanics change to become more like counter strike or arma or pubg, i resent that. Hell, I remember loving pubg at launch and in the pre alpha in 2017 but then the balancing changes in 2018 on made it worse and worse. because it had to cater to these esports pros and their preferences.
Now, today, theactman had a video reacting to streamers reacting to BF6, and a lot of them werent happy. But it did put this "culture war" dead center in terms I could finally articulate my malaise with modern gaming and why I AM a battlefield fan.
And yeah, hes basically going on for 45 minutes about these streamers who just demand everyone just caters to them. Battlefield is going in the "wrong" direction for them....because it's doing everything right in my book. Oh, the movement is too sweaty? Well let's tone it down. People now complain it's gonna be just like BF3/4 now...WE WANT THAT, WE LIKE THAT. THAT WAS THE GOLDEN ERA OF GAMING FOR ME. Mechanics were new enough to be competent but it was pre streamer rot. It wasnt sweaty, and the sweats HATE it. And the video is right. These people are elitists. They think their content creator status and their skills makes them know better than everyone else. But, what did I say previously? Games shouldnt be made catering to the top 0.1% of the player base, they should appeal to the median. But that makes for boring content if youre a pro gamer who makes money streaming, so they dont like that. And they just have this entitlement attitude that everything caters to them. It HAS to have sweaty movement and recoil mechanics so they can just wreck normal gamers who cant even fricking shoot their gun full auto without looking at the sky at some point. It HAS to have a battle royale.
And...to be honest, Im over battle royales. Dont get me wrong, there was a point in time I loved BRs, wanted more BRs, but let's face it, i wanted more BRs because in 2017 we had pubg which gotten taken over by these same try hards and pushed me out of the game, and we fortnite, which was cartoony. So yeah, we needed new BRs. And BF had a BR with BF5, it failed. Titanfall had a BR, it was successful and filled that niche. And COD released warzone. So we've had BRs. We dont need more BRs. Theyre established, the franchises that were successful had them, and quite frankly, I'm over BRs. It's an interesting idea. Ive gotten my full. It was fun in 2017, it was fun in even 2019-2020, after that, I stopped caring. THe franchises got established, the skill ceiling went WAY up, i didnt like dropping in and dedicating up to 45 minutes for a single game and if you die at any time, you gotta start all over again. I wanna go back to deathmatch. I wanna go back to battlefield conquest. THAT'S WHAT I LIKE TO PLAY. This modern crap burns me out. And I got other priorities than grinding one game all day.
I understand for streamers that's their JOB, but for the 99.9% of us who arent streamers, we just wanna play for a couple hours here and there. I dont wanna dedicate my life to playing one game. Gaming enhances life. Life isn't gaming. For the majority of us, we play for fun. THese guys sweat 12 hours a day every day and they find these games boring. Most games arent designed to be played 12 hours a day and the fact the modern games are is a BAD thing. A lot of older gamers my age feel like gaming is becoming a job. because for the top 0.1% of them....it IS their job. And we are just fodder for their "skills" so they can entertain a young audience of zoomers who like that sort of thing.
So yeah. I really like BF6. And I like what it stands for. Theyre trying to appeal to the old faithful BF fans, without catering too hard too either the regressive battlefield boomer mindset that misdiagnoses the problems, or the streamer mindset that creates more of them. It's appealing to those like me who actually think the peak of multiplayer gaming was around 2010-2016. And it's great. I love that this game exists, I love that they moved on from their failures with 5 and 2042, and I love that i finally have new content that I enjoy. Ya know? A huge problem as I get older is a lot of games arent aimed at me any more. And the ones that are are often older franchises that are fewer and fewer in number. Because again, everything has to appeal to the streamers, the sweats, the try hards, the zoomers and even arguably gen alpha kids at this point, and I feel like my relatively casual preferences have been pushed out of gaming over the past decade.
Well, battlefield is back, baby, and I'm here for it. Im not saying BF6 is gonna be perfect, but it's gonna be the best battlefield game in at least 9 years now, and possibly the best ever, depending on post launch support. And if streamers dont like it, well, they can go farm content elsewhere. Go back to COD. Hell, I'll go back further, go back to fricking counter strike and stay there. God I miss the days where esports sweats were limited to a handful of games they spent 29482282 hours playing while looking down on us casuals and never interacting with our games because theyre "too boring." Wanna know whats boring? Dust 2. Over and over again. Memorizing recoil patterns where you know where to aim at someone's foot to get a fricking headshot. Your boos mean nothing, I've seen what makes you cheer. And yeah, that's my attitude on this one.
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