Ninja has been streaming ARC Raiders since the game came out, participating in the recent ‘streamer war’ and exploring every facet of the all-new extraction adventure from Embark Studios. The game has proven to be a monumental success, attracting hundreds of thousands of viewers from across the streaming space.
The popular creator, with origins in games like Fortnite, revealed the one thing that he thinks would ruin ARC Raiders.
Don’t Make ARC Raiders Competitive
During a recent stream, Ninja stressed that making ARC Raiders competitive and introducing tournaments would make the game unbearable, simply because people would start ‘min-maxing’ to sweat the game and become the best they could be at it.
Right now, it’s the most casual extraction title on the market, boasting accessible mechanics, a socially-focused gameplay loop, and forgiving combat elements.
Ninja’s concern is that if you add tournaments and the ability to earn money from playing ARC Raiders at a ‘pro level’, you’ll destroy those elements and just make the game too challenging for casual players.
Nah, the second they try to make this game competitive, it would be so bad. I hope there are never tournaments for it.
I want them to keep it as casual as possible.
Also, there’s too much desync for this game to legitimately be competitive. They better never make this game competitive, ever.
Even like, joke tournaments. Like Escape from Tarkov has tournaments and stuff, I don’t know how they work, but like… The second you start throwing money in this game, people are going to start competing and it just encourages people to just min-max and become the best at this game, and…
It rapidly increases how quickly people get good at games when you start throwing tournaments in, it’s what happened to Fortnite.
Here’s the full clip:
Players appreciate how approachable ARC Raiders is compared to other extraction titles, and while there’s definitely a skill gap, it feels like every weapon and approach is viable when it comes to combat. Introducing a strict meta and pushing for a competitive or ranked loop might push out the more casual players who are enjoying this game because of that fact.
That being said, Embark Studios also developed The Finals, a competitive arena shooter title with a more traditional ranked loop that includes high-stakes tournaments. It’s unlikely that any official tournaments would surface in ARC Raiders while the team is focused on making The Finals a competitive, esports-backed product.
Do you think ARC Raiders should get pro-level tournaments with cash prizes or a ranked mode? Let us know what you’re thinking on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
Actually a very fair point