Anyone else just not understanding Battle Royale games?

I feel like I’m just not getting something that most others are out of these games. I’ve played a bunch of PUBG and Fortnite because I feel like I have to be into them because everyone else is (including friends) and it’s just not clicking. I load in, run around for 5-10 minutes, get killed, rinse and repeat. Its pretty much the least fun I’ve had in games. It’s not even that I’m bad at shooters, in Overwatch or a COD game or whatever I can hold my own quite well and even if I do poorly I feel like I’m at least doing something. What is it that others find so appealing about these games that I just don’t get? Is anyone else feeling the same way?

There's a tension to the genre (Pubg especially) that it seems like isn't there for you. People talk about how amazing they feel after conquering some boss in Dark Souls, I've never gotten anywhere close to the feeling they would describe by beating hard games, until I got into the top 10 of a Pubg match. The highest high I've gotten from a video game was when I won my first chicken dinner (it was solo). Honestly, no video game has given me a more visceral feeling of triumph and relief as that chicken dinner did.

It's ok if you aren't into the genre, but the tension of Pubg is what really does it for me. I also like less esoteric parts of the game as well such as everyone starting on the same level gear wise, the way the circle makes you change your plans, making the best with the loot you can find. I'm very excited to see what a studio like Dice will do with the genre.

@sloppydetective: I guess my problem is I never get anywhere near a chicken dinner. I just run around a bunch and get murdered and that’s it. No tension whatsoever. Don’t even have the slightest clue how to get better, because I’m typically pretty good at shooting people in games.

Disclaimer: I'm 5 tall boys deep so Im buzzed.

The flow of a Pubg game (I prefer Pubg to Fortnite so I'm gonna pretty much just talk about it) is much different than a typical shooter. Engaging an enemy is more than just being good at shooting. You got to know when to engage and when not to. Also how you are going to engage, as shooting and running towards them will only work against unskilled players. You have to consider your gear, map layout, other enemies, etc. There's kinda three phases to a game. Looting, so only engage if you have to, traveling/surviving/more looting, and shit popping off (late match). The guns you have in this game means more than most shooters in my experience. Also healing items play a bigger role in this game than most. How you position yourself in the circle is also another layer of strategy--I'm really rambling at this point, huh?

If you want to get better I would suggest watching some early Breakfast and Battlegrounds (Austin and Patricks Pubg streams). The GB crew are bad at the game (in a mostly fun way) and Danny's crew are operating at a level that is so ice cold it won't help most (I highly recommend Danny's Extra Life though, some great play there). But Waypoints streams are a good combo of serious and light hearted. Austin and Pat are great at turning failures into lessons and they are better at communication than GB so it's less frustrating in general. They also get pretty good at the game and win more than a few.

For me the appeal of Fortnige which is the one I play most is entirely about having a fun way to hang out with my friends without having to worry about leveling up or progressing.

We had good times with Destiny and Monster Hunter recently but there is always the point where everyone is at different levels and there is some compromise that has to be made to play together. In Fortnite we can get together in any sized group at any time and jump straight in and have a good time. We aren’t great but have achieved the occasional win and he huge number of players means it feels less like you are coming up against only people who have a massive skill advantage over you.

I've only played PUBG.

While it certainly has its issues, the chicken dinners I have gotten have been up there with the most satisfied I have ever felt with a game. Very few games make my heart race like engaging in a firefight in PUBG, or when I'm down to the final 4 or so.

Sloppy mentioned Dark Souls. While I've been indifferent to the Souls game, I really liked Bloodborne. Making it through some sections or bosses elicited a similar feeling.

PUBG I still ocassionally drop in, play 1 - 5 rounds and then do something else.

@sejouyiwss: Not sure what the point of just copy+pasting my question is.

It’s just a changing of the times. Back when HL death match was popular along with Unreal a tournament and other quick respawn arena shooters, Counter Strike came out and a lot of people just didn’t get the appeal of waiting until the end of the turn to respawn again.

This is a new thing and while personally it does nothing for me I understand how for many people out there it’s a really interesting mechanic.

If you want to improve, why not change your tactic? The key to success is not the shooting, it's positioning.

Assuming you're playing Solo, try finding some space to yourself when you land to loot up. If you want to be aggressive drive into the middle of the next circle and hold a building, you will most likely end up in the top 10. See if that introduces any tension.

@haneybd87: don't get killed for about 20 minutes and then tell us how you feel. :)

in all seriousness, late game is where it gets really fun. It becomes a mindgame trying to outwit your opponents.

The easiest way to do that as a solo is to approach the game like a stealth game instead of a shooter. Never give away your position unless you are sure about securing a kill, a kill that you have to take. Because if you shoot somebody, there's a good chance someone else will hear the shots and come hunting you.

I've gotten as high as second place before without firing a shot solo. If I try to fight anybody and everybody that I see right away, it's often super short. That's a valid to play it too, but in your case since you aren't excelling currently doing that it makes sense to play the game the more tactical way.

you've only got one life in this game, so protect more it dearly.

@humanity: I still don’t get Counterstrike TBH.

As others have pointed out, there's a lot more tactics and strategy involved compared to a typical multiplayer shooter. You constantly have to decide on your approach and positioning and you'll constantly make mistakes that you'll learn from. Mistakes that have consequences, which is part of the appeal. I enjoy the challenge and the tension. If you play games to relax and have some mindless fun then the genre isn't for you.

Also don't play solo. The experience is far more fun when you're in a group, even if its a group of randoms.

I keep banging the same drum I do with most other multiplayer experiences:

"I bet I'd like this with bots!"

Otherwise, I find the formula more fun to watch than to play. But the concept is extremely cool and I'm very genuinely looking forward to seeing how it translates to other, more established games.

I specifically don't understand Fortnite. Its building interface seems clunky and clearly designed for the more slower paced, original Save the World mode. I think it's just dumb bullshit the way you have to rapidly spam a bunch of wood to build vertical towers in the end game. I've watched competent streamers play the game, but after a bit of trying out the game, I just have absolutely no interest in learning how to use that building interface that seems like it wasn't ever meant for PVP.

PUBG and Realm Royale seem alright, in very very different ways. Fortnite is probably the most polished in terms of features and visuals, at present, but I'd still take the other 2 games I mentioned over it.

I get the appeal, I just don’t get the appeal of playing a Battle Royale over and over and over. And over. It just feels like a novelty made for a separate mode in a AAA game.

I don't have the patience for it. I don't even have the patience for watching it.

@fotosmjixl: What’s with all the people copy pasting sections of my post and just posting that?

@haneybd87 Hey, you’re not alone!!

I feel the exact same way. All my friends are playing so I feel I have to, so I have. Now though, I’ve stopped. I don’t enjoy them and as much as I like playing with friends, I’ll skip that because I hate playing these games.

Many in this thread point to the “feeling of victory or accomplishment” after getting into the top 10. Or the fact that there’s more strategy than just shooting a guy, that it takes time to learn the ins and out. My thing, and I’m thinking it is yours too, is that I just don’t care enough to slam my head against the wall over and over until I finally get that one feeling. I don’t like it enough to even get there which means I don’t think I would. I’ve put about 50 hours due to my friends, so I’ve tried,

It’s just not for me. It may not be for you either. In the end, that’s okay. Go play a game you do enjoy.

@haneybd87 said:

Spam bots post in existing threads, randomly copying and pasting a pre-existing sentence to avoid detection (almost always from OP, I think). Once their account has done this enough times then they're allowed to create new threads, they spam the forums with whatever thread titles they're supposed to spam.

Oh, well, there you go lol. I was literally coming in here to say it's basically the same thing as Counter-Strike, just on a much larger scale. Join a server with only starter money, find better weapons, survive the murderin, be pulled into conflict by the objectives and the timer, and then finally win/lose and do it all again.

I'm not much into these games either, but I figure that's mostly because I got enough of this feel of multiplayer gameplay from growing up playing Counter-Strike, even if it's not exactly similar.

Anyways, as others mentioned it's about tension. It's a survival mode in essence, which naturally brings with it a different atmosphere than a deathmatch mode or such. You drop to a location and at this point it's about getting kitted up. Finding ammo, good guns, better guns, et cetera, all while staying cognizant of the potential for enemies to be around any corner, as well as the looming threat of the map's occasional constrictions. Once you've got a pretty decent loadout, the focus shifts more towards surviving, and then you do just that! The shrinking active zone on the map keeps you moving, funnelling players towards lethal engagements, but where and when you'll be up in someone's face--or getting picked at from seemingly everywhere--is still unclear, which just ratchets up the tension as that area of play gets smaller and smaller, and the certainty of conflict (not to mention the potential for victory) grows ever greater.

Then you're in the end-game and it's palpable. Whoever's alive, you know you're all about to face off, and that by the whole bloody end of it one of you (or I guess upwards of how many can be in a squad) will come out of the subsequent shoot-out having endured an arena that once held 99 other human players, all of whom came in vying for that very same title of "the final survivor."

So it's like there's the dangerous scavenging aspect that's the early-game, then a bigger emphasis on risky mobility stuff while everyone else has good shit too and the world is getting smaller, and lastly the dreaded final showdown where a winner is determined one way or another.

It sounds cool, but it just dudn't do much for me. I'd rather co-op some monster hunts or somethin. But I hope you can imagine how someone else might enjoy it!

I'm personally not much of a fan, but I do think I kinda get it. Battle Royale strikes the middle ground between too casual and too hardcore, which makes it accessible to a huge amount of people with different views on it. It's a distinctly skillbased and competitive game where you get the thrill and satisfaction of winning, but it has just enough aspects based on luck and circumstance to even the playing field. It always feels like you have a chance to do well in spite of the odds. And it gives room for people to improve and play around without just getting headshotted instantly every round in a Counter Strike game. There's also the thing where you feel more like a blip in a sea of players with much less eyes and attention on your performance. It's much less scary to do poorly in a Battle Royale game, because no one is really going to notice. If you do poorly in competitive team games like CS or mobas, then not only are there fewer people total in the game so there's more attention on you. You also carry 20% of the teams performance, so doing poorly is very noticable. It's terrifying, especially if you are weak to performance anxiety.

And there's also merit to the rise and fall or general tempo of Battle Royale. There's a slower ramp so you have more time to prepare and play at your own pace. People have enough time to lull themselves into a sense of security, so ambushes and surprise attacks are much more varied and effective. In regular shooters with short timers and small maps, you will always know that someone is around the corner and not let down your guard. Battle Royale provides an environment where that can happen frequently.

I dunno there's a lot of reasons. Intentional or not, I think the genre struck gold in how widely accesible it can be. It's very smart design honestly.

I figure I'd be into them 10 years ago, when I was happy to play online games despite generally being a bit shit at them. Now I just want to have the illusion of being an unstoppable machine, which happens much more often in single player games where if I get frustratingly stuck I can just cheat without ruining it for everyone else.

I do not get PvP Fortnite. The controls are loose, it’s bunny-hoppy as hell, and it just doesn’t feel right for PvP. The building, admittedly, is more than I’m willing to dedicate the time to (I think it’s goofy in a PvP setting).

I think the PvE is cool.

I haven’t played other battle royale games, but it reminds me of how I preferred shooters during my heyday. I’d play Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six. Team-based. No respawns. 1-3 shots to a kill.

It was fun, tense, and people tended to not act like idiots as when you’re out, you’re out.

My favorite memories were original Ghost Recon. No HUD notification when someone dies. No waypoints. You had to use the map, compass, and waypoints. You had to call out positions and coordinate. You had to check-in on the radio to make sure people were in position (and not dead). Super fun.

I liked the tension in PUBG but i don't feel anything while playing Fortnite PVP i only enjoy the OG Fortnite not that dumb mod somebody made in a "fortnite".... And the major success only deepens my belief that the average human has bad taste in videogames this game and pokémon go .

@haneybd87: It sounds like you should watch YouTube tip videos on how to get better at PUBG if you actually care enough to do so. There's a lot of good stuff out there. I wouldn't play a game just because it's popular in the world or with my friends and I didn't enjoy it.

People here have already mentioned the draw of PUBG: tactics and tension. I don't like Fortnite at all, it feels too kiddy and the controls feel like PVE controls, not PVP. Sometimes it felt like I was playing a PVP mod of Sunset Overdrive. I haven't seen any other BR games I'd want to checkout. Battlefield doing it sounds good, but I'd rather it be modern day.

I get it. I just don't want to do it. It's like StarCraft II multiplayer and horror games where watching it is more fun than participating.

There's nothing like the feeling of being "in the zone" with a competitive shooter. I got that way with Battlefield 4, Battlefield 1, and then with PUBG. With PUBG specifically there is a pacing and tension that I believe is unique to video games. It can be like Call of Duty, die-respawn-repeat, and it can somehow also be the scariest horror game you have ever played.

BUT to have a good time with it, and not be frustrated, you need to not be murdered viciously at every single encounter with another player. No competitive shooter is fun if you feel like cannon fodder. If you want to give PUBG another shot, try this: Fire it up solo. Drop military base every time on the original map. Treat it like call of duty. Do this for an hour straight. Be aggressive and when you die reload and drop military base again. When you hear gunfire, run towards it, not away. Two people shooting each other are worried about shooting each other, not the third guy coming in.

Every competitive shooter has a baseline level of "twitch" skill that the average player has. Getting there makes PUBG fun, so that when you encounter players out in the world you have a halfway decent shot at taking them out, and taking their sweet sweet loot. Don't loot 18 bathrooms. Kill the other guy, so that he will have looted 18 bathrooms for you.

Also watch level cap gaming's Youtube channel for PUBG inspiration on improving.

OP, I am with you. To me, these games are more fun to watch than actually play. Not to be reductive, but they are all like free-for-all death match, with big, open maps, and that is my least favorite game mode in a competitive MP game. I get how the big maps change things, but not enough for me to be interested enough to play. I play Rainbow Six: Siege. That game gives me all the tension I need.

The enjoyment i got from PUBG stems from wanting to enjoy games like DayZ but 1. It being disappointing in many ways and 2. Not having the time.
I have plenty of friends who wanted the same experience and we had some really good times playing PUBG, but after 134 hours the novelty has very much worn off, general player skill increased to a point where it became less fun, and where PUBG used to be the "quick" Battle Royale experience it started to feel long and slow.
I have no beef with PUBG, and i'm not really looking to other BR games to get into, i just feel like i had my time and now i'm back to playing the fast immediate action in TDM shooters.

The only thing I don't understand is people thinking if they understand why others enjoy something they don't, they'll suddenly start enjoying it. Just because others like something you don't, doesn't mean there's anything there to understand. Just move on. Also, I wouldn't feel the game is enjoyable, either, if I were dying within the first ten minutes every time.

I understand their popularity and have enjoyed watching GB and Polygon play PUBG, but after trying PUBG and Fortnite it's clear that battle royales are a perfect storm of everything I don't like in games. Competitive multiplayer combined with no substantive progression and long stretches where nothing happens just isn't something I want to spend my limited leisure time playing. I just wish I had figured this out before I had played four hours of PUBG and couldn't get a refund...

@flashflood_29: Some people are just interested in game design concept and such, others just want to be open to a variety of gaming. There was a time when turn based games made absolutely no sense to me but if someone would have explained the tactical allegory they present then i probably would have appreciated them more back then.

This is basically what i wanted to say. The Battle Royal mods were basically refined versions of survival mods. Boiling combat survival games down to their basic components and forcing the action along through area restriction. You get a lot of the suspense and ,"war stories" feel out of the games but with a much faster pace.

I'd say it's similar to the way DOTA refined RTS games.

@flashflood_29: I just feel like I’m missing out on some major thing here. There’s definitely an element of FOMO here. I think the last time something in video games was as popular as BR had to be Pokémon. At least as a kid it was. I was able to get way into that.

@BaneFireLord: Yeah, I guess I’m just the type that needs way more stimulation in my gaming. I guess there’s a reason I love games such as COD and Overwatch.

@haneybd87: The only thing you might be inhibiting your understanding of why the game is enjoyable is that you're dying often and early. If you play more conservatively, you'll probably get to experience more stages of the matches which may be more appealing to you. You say you die-play-die-play "rinse repeat," and you feel like you're doing something in other games where you die often. What that reads to me is that you're not enjoying it because you're not performing well. Battle Royale games are punishing because in each match you only get one life. If you feel the learning curve is not enjoyable, then the game is just not for you.

@flashflood_29: Yeah I guess with those faster paced shooters if I die it’s so much faster getting back into the game and trying to remedy what I did last time. Also even when you’re dying you have a lot more time to get used to the feel of the gunplay in that specific game. In PUBG I’ve probably had a total of maybe 10 minutes of actual gunplay but hours of just running around, looting and hiding. Part of the problem is I just don’t have the feel of the shooting down in this. I get that dropping down into popular areas should help me with this but half the time I can’t find a gun and get shot in the face while I’m trying to punch somebody.

This is where the enjoyment of tension is and why some people have jokingly referred to the game as horror/suspense, rather than shooter. Most the of the time, the enjoyment is in the possibility that around every corner, behind every cover, at every second, there is a possibility someone will be there to try and eliminate you. This creates a constant index of suspicion and alertness. Towards the end of the match, that chance of encounter and suspicion gradually increases to very high likelihoods which ramps up that adrenaline release.

If you go into a match expecting to die, there is no tension. If you go into a match expecting to survive for long periods and not die randomly (regardless of skill level), then every second is tense, because you've set that high regard to your one life.

To be honest, I'm surprised battle royale is as popular as it is because I figure this type of play would be very niche.

To me the draw of Battle Royale games is that they're the only shooters where not engaging the enemy is just as valid of a strategy as attacking. They sort of incorporate stealth game elements into a multiplayer shooter and that's cool. Also, I've always hated the CoD model of PvP games with progression so that's a plus too, but that's not unique to this genre.

Count me in on not understanding the Fortnite Royale either. I get that it's free and kids love it because it's basically just an upgraded version of Minecraft Hunger Games, but hoo boy does the success amongst grownups go over my head. Like already said, the shooting feels bad, the building is clunkier than it should be, there is no tension and the graphic design is one of the laziest I've seen in a long while.

With that said, I'm not really that big into any of these games since nowadays I tend to play games to wind down and competitive PVP games are do the opposite for me.

@flashflood_29: @retris: That was pretty much the vibe of early "shooters" like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and SEAL Team. For a while there after, it seemed like a lot of violent games were designed to be nerve-racking because non-gamers would've otherwise been disgusted by the idea of running around and killing everything. As games got more popular / movie-like / realistic, there was a sense that non-gamers cared more about the humanizing aspects of their entertainment than about geeky game stuff.

But anyway.

I think the appeal of Battle Royale games sort of goes back to the idea of the thinking man's shooter that was being marketed in the 90s.Battle Royale games are some of the few games with mainstream appeal that have executed on that idea without a lot of excess baggage.

Games like Hunter, SEAL Team, Cannon Fodder and Doom laid the foundation. Team Fortress, GoldenEye, Navy Seals, Quake 2, Half-Life, Action Quake 2, Spec-Ops and Deus Ex flirted with the idea. Rainbow Six, Delta Force, Hidden & Dangerous, SWAT, Operation Flashpoint, Ghost Recon, and Söldner Secret Wars pushed it to the extreme at the cost of playability. Counter-Strike was a big hit, but carried some of the hardcore tactical shooter baggage. Halo,SOCOM and Battlefield pushed the concept further into the mainstream. Then military shooters took off with Modern Warfare and instant gratification was the thing again. Now longer games, high stakes, strategy and team play are the thing.

I think players always want more interesting games with better play and greater depth. They want games with a sense of narrative, a sense of urgency, a progression and lots of water cooler moments; where thinking and socializing is encouraged and creativity, strategy, skill and teamwork are rewarded. I think Battle Royale games do this well to a point, and it's great that massively multiplayer action-strategy games are having a lot of success... they're just not my cup of tea because it's hust the same old geeky game stuff that we've been hearing about for decades.

Funnily enough, Nolan Bushnell even pitched a Battle Royale-type game to John Romero in 1997, only for Romero to reject the idea that shooters would turn massively multiplayer in 1999 (poetically, this coincides with the publishing of the Battle Royale novel).

With the amount of these types of games that come out. I am losing more and more interest.

For me it's more for me that I do not enjoy playing games with people online. I grew up playing games online with all kind of weirdos online with stuff like Doom and Unreal and it was a huge part of what kept me out of a lot of trouble. These days I just do not find playing online let alone 100 people online enjoyable at all, if anything, I find it very stressful and lose interest after a few hours and never go back to these kind of games.

I've come to like a little permanent progression in games, so they're not for me, but I sure do enjoy watching people play them in short bursts.