TL;DR This is an opinion piece about the utter hatred of some of this community that is venomous and lacking any constructive merit simply because ‘Fuck Illfonic’ am I right? Nothing of particular gameplay related substance
So I don’t know what mosh pit hate orgy I missed but I’ve noticed there is a ever so subtle animosity towards Illfonic which has manifested itself in a fairly obscure manner in that a lot of what I have seen here on this forum is rabid, foaming at the mouth, mega hate rabies fueled disgust and scorn for every single action this company has taken with this game. This game has been out for about a week now, having some issues balancing a rather precarious system which could easily be tipped in either direction wholly unintentionally and I am seeing levels of absolute rage towards it which is a first even for me. And I’ve played online survival pvp games where only the most toxic of the toxic dare to venture forth and this is kind of shocking to me.
Even before this game was released as the trial was underway I saw much of this but brushed it off. Perhaps since it was beta they were experiencing isolated issues or perhaps they were simply anxious and nervous based on said experiences and so forth. I rationalized some of it, agreed with some of it and discounted the rest as just naked cynicism that even I was not subject to myself. However now that it is released and in that short time span an update that has redressed a fair bit of the issues, not all and there are some issues with this not working properly or that have simply not been taken care of by this, and for what it set out to accomplish what mostly successful. It may not have been the huge overhaul some of us wanted or what it needed but it was a solid step.
I myself was quite surprised but given my cynicism I dared not give it too much credit. I looked over the notes and said to myself, “Ok Illfonic. We’ll see about that.” And with that profound cynicism in mind I set out into a private match with my other half to run some experiments to corroborate much of the claims of this patch. And much to my surprise I was indeed pleasantly surprised and found myself quite excited by it, against my less than cheery disposition.
I had effectively given up on it quite literally the night before this patch released. I joined this forum mostly with the intent to vent my frustrations so I could leave without any thoughts of ‘what if’ and nothing unresolved with myself and my crushing disappointment. Fireteam had quickly lost its appeal due to a lack of any real challenge and Predator, while it was occasionally fun, was largely a stressful and exhausting endeavor. Having to, effectively, wipe out Fireteams twice over if I didn’t kill them all instantly because poking and harassing was utterly useless I was still able to win more matches than I lost but it took something out of me each time.
So I was prepared to put the sticks down and cut my losses. I figured best case scenario they fix some of these issues in two to three months. Imagine my surprise then, in that context, when this occurred literally within hours. I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to play it so I spent most of my time playing Fireteam and found that that tension I had come to adore in the trial, where everyone was getting the hang of it still, had largely returned. Predator on the other hand was still a challenge but it felt far less strenuous. If I took a bad engagement because of the old fog of war bit or whatnot I wasn’t totally fucked and I no longer HAD to force the engagements so hard. I could actually widdle them down and pick them apart. The first match I had the entire team escaped but it was easily the most fun I had had in my entire experience and I still felt accomplished. It was an actual fight.
So I come on here to see what people think and… a lot is positive but more than a little is just massively negative. To such a degree that I don’t think hate is a strong enough word. Much of what I have seen is pure venom. Not just the run of the mill toxicity I have come to know and contemptuously turn my arrogant nose up upon but pure, venomous intent. Absolute poison. It serves no purpose but to kill what it targets and in this case it is Predator: Hunting Grounds, or more generally Illfonic itself.
I don’t know what all this is about. I played the Friday the 13th fairly late after it was released. I never had any problems. Maybe it was a disaster for years or some shit, I don’t know. And frankly, I don’t really care. For a game that has been out as long it has it is vastly superior for what it is than so many other games that are twice as expensive and have so much worse flaws, I’m looking at you Wild Card.
The reason I call this not toxicity, not hate but venom is because absolutely nothing these people offer is off any constructive value. They never give anything resembling logical rationality for why they are so rabidly furious with whatever changes that have been made. I honestly don’t even know if a single one of them has even played the game. It’s largely plausible in my opinion that they have just been watching videos or reading scoops on the webs about it and are feigning awareness of the game for no other reason than to see it melt because… something something Friday the 13th.
The people just have nothing but absolute contempt for this entire company and for all I know it could be well deserved. However, piss off. I don’t give a fuck what happened with Friday the 13th. And even if I did I probably would simply be eyeing with the same measured cynicism I have now. While I am pleased to see this progress being made so soon I am not exactly about to call this a trend for the future or some great omen of things to come. It’s kind of like a good book to me in a sense that had a rough start. I was about to put it down, decided to flip one more page to see if anything changed without expecting much and was surprised so now I’m gonna give it a fair shake and see what happens. Will anything more come of this? Will they find that perfect formula? Or even just one that everyone can be happy with?
Well, so long as you people are around… that’ll never happen. But I hope it does if for no other than to spite you so that you may taste your own bitter venom. Because honestly this is just obnoxious seeing so much scorn over a game that hasn’t even left the fucking nest yet and much of which was present from the very moment it was announced even before the trial I’d wager. So put those hate boners back into your teeny little panties, it is very big and that is nice and I am sure you are very proud but we don’t need you pissing all over our experience by bashing every single change that is made for no other reason than simply to tank what could be a terrific game before it even has a fucking chance. I’m a cynical piece of shit that has deeply misanthropic tendencies and an effectively nihilistic view of the world and I am calling you venomous, let that sink in… and kindly piss off away from this community while you’re at it.