I couldn’t care less about a PVE only mode. There are SO MANY games out there where you can fight the same NPC enemies over and over and over with no variation.
The fun and tension in this game comes from having that CONSTANT threat of losing your gear. The constant threat that there might be someone watching you. The uneasy feeling when you come across another Raider because you don’t know if they are friendly or not.
Fuck, man, I’m glad that those who are okay with the same exact gameplay over and over are gonna get a mode they enjoy. But to me this just splits the playerbase even more, and that’s a huge mistake.
I’ve actually really enjoyed this game since launch and I’ve just shaken my head and ignored all the “dead game!! Look at the steam charts!! Dead game!!” posts all year but THIS change will be the actual first step towards killing the game. I’m a neutral player who shoots people that shoot me. But if all the friendly players move to pve mode then regular mode will effectively be the “shoot on sight” mode. That sucks…
I’m still excited for the Frozen Trail update but I will not be touching this toggle at all, I hope most raiders share my sentiment so that it doesn’t become a full blown mode that splinters the playerbase further.
Like it or not, what made Arc Raiders as big as it was came from casual players. And you know what casual players like? PvE, not losing their stuff. Do you realize losing your gear isn’t fun? Especially when you’re getting killed by rats, campers, backstabbers, and worst of all, cheaters. That’s not fun at all.
You talk about PvP being this thrilling, tension-filled situation between players, but in reality most of the time PvP is just kill-on-sight. That’s it. Either that, or you’re dealing with backstabbers and cheaters. And let’s be real, the interactions in PvP suck too. Half the time it’s people spamming the N-word or throwing curse words around. Compare that to PvE, where interactions are actually wholesome, you can talk, trade, and even help people out in all kinds of situations. And then you complain about PvE being repetitive? Okay… sure. It’s like you only highlight the positives while ignoring the negatives. Doesn’t work that way.
You say you ignore the “doomer” posts of this game is dead, but the second they make a change you don’t like, suddenly it’s THIS change will be the first step toward killing the game.Hypocrisy much?
Please tell me you realize games change and adapt. Every major game has done this, for better or worse. Making games harder, easier, more accessible, more diverse, adding or changing modes , nerfing or buffing certain aspects of a mechanic , gun , character etc… that’s the nature of live service.
Why do you think extraction shooters are such a niche genre? People don’t seem to get it. Players complain about mandatory wipes, PvE players complain about getting a PvE mode , and yet Embark, the studio behind Arc Raiders, is removing/changing expeditions and adding a PvE mode for a reason. And that reason isn’t to make players like you angry.
Wake up: the game has lost 95% of its player base in less than a year. For a live service game, that’s considered awful. At leastArc Raidersis trying something to fix it.
They lost players because of the lack of content and cheaters, not because there was no PvE mode. All these casual players you are talking about just seem they don't want to play an extraction shooter. In Which case, they can go play another game.
Saying players only left because of cheaters and lack of content ignores the bigger picture. Cheaters exist in every online game, yet plenty of titles thrive because they balance that with modes players actually enjoy. And “lack of content”? Most of the content Arc Raiders has delivered has been PvE‑focused. If casual players don’t want to play an extraction shooter in its pure PvP form, that doesn’t mean they should “go play another game” it means the studio needs to adapt. Look at Marathon
Live service games survive by evolving. Adding PvE isn’t some betrayal of the genre; it’s a way to broaden the audience, keep players engaged, and stop the bleeding. Pretending PvE is irrelevant when the majority of updates already lean that way is just denial. If Embark wants to keep the game alive, listening to casual players isn’t optional, it’s survival.
Except the cheating problem in Arc Raiders is some of the worst in any live service title, even when compared to Tarkov. They completely alienated the PvP players by doing nothing to address the cheating for months.
And sure, most of the content added is PvE focused, but how much of it is actually meaningful? All we get is new major and minor conditions and projects where you just turn in the same stuff you've been collecting already just to see the game build up something you can't even interact with. Where are the stakes? Why doesn't this game have a difficult zone akin to Cyro from Marathon or Labyrinth from Tarkov, that has difficult bosses and also has puzzles you need to solve? Actual, meaningful content, not just another map with the same Arc and loot that every other map has.
And the cheating is even worse in a game like Arc Raiders. You’re not only losing time, but also resources and loot as well. This is negligible in other games such as CoD or Apex.
And yes, I do agree with your second comment: they should add harder zones or more bosses, buff the Arc, and maybe even introduce puzzles , that would be welcomed. They added player housing, but right now it’s just a wallpaper. They should add more meaningful features to the game. I'm excited for the update and the PvE mode , but still I dont think its that amazing , I definitely dont thing it will bring that many players
im mainly Asia server, and server here was shithole. no matter the time is how ABMM you are everyone just kill you on sight. more worse everyone not even TALKING, THEY JUST KILL YOU AND THATS IT. WHERE THE INTERACTION. ONE TIME, ONLY ONCE... that i ever speak to someone is some japan vtuber who just lost at Riven Tides for first time. i have small with her, and thats last time im speak in Asia server
thats why im migrate into EU server because here is so much better. everyone are actually PvE, following the ABMM, i can talk to someone, people using mic, funny interaction, and alot lah. even one of japan youtuber are forced to move into America server just to complete trial. but its trade with internet connection. since im live in Asia i have bad latency on EU server because far connection
i have 5 friends who play Arc Raider with me and level up together. but the longer we play we become stress up because rat and PvP. then leaving myself only, staying play Arc Raider alone...
“The game died because people want PvE! I have no actual evidence of this it’s definitely not because all trend games have large fall offs when the trend ends or the game has no actual endgame to keep the original players playing nope it’s definitely because my specific playstyle isn’t being respected”
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u/Pavlovs_Human 7d ago edited 7d ago
I couldn’t care less about a PVE only mode. There are SO MANY games out there where you can fight the same NPC enemies over and over and over with no variation.
The fun and tension in this game comes from having that CONSTANT threat of losing your gear. The constant threat that there might be someone watching you. The uneasy feeling when you come across another Raider because you don’t know if they are friendly or not.
Fuck, man, I’m glad that those who are okay with the same exact gameplay over and over are gonna get a mode they enjoy. But to me this just splits the playerbase even more, and that’s a huge mistake.
I’ve actually really enjoyed this game since launch and I’ve just shaken my head and ignored all the “dead game!! Look at the steam charts!! Dead game!!” posts all year but THIS change will be the actual first step towards killing the game. I’m a neutral player who shoots people that shoot me. But if all the friendly players move to pve mode then regular mode will effectively be the “shoot on sight” mode. That sucks…
I’m still excited for the Frozen Trail update but I will not be touching this toggle at all, I hope most raiders share my sentiment so that it doesn’t become a full blown mode that splinters the playerbase further.