There's a myriad of games that cater to those who put no effort into playing because of "useful life skills lol" or those who actually want to play but have real physical issues. Apex is one of them.
Apex has super powers to make people useful even if they are poor players and respawn beacons to bring them back when they die. Gibraltar can throw down a shield when getting surprised by a sniper. Lifeline can make sure the skilled shooters in the group are healed and properly armored. It's a great thing too.
One of my core squad mates is handicapped. His right arm doesn't function at 100% so playing at high levels is hard for him. It wasn't much of an issue over the years as games always let him respawn back into the action. When BR games first launched he was in a "watching everyone play when he died" cycle but in AL he lasts longer, helps us with powers and when we get jumped he can come back. It's a whole new world.
Dumbing down the core gameplay beats is a strict no no though. That's what almost killed Blackout and it's why you'll never see a weak player win a Fortnite match. BR games must reward skilled players/squads. If not they lose them and the games die.
The types of players you reference "life skills lol" casuals will screw around in popular games for laughs. Games only stay popular when they appeal to the correct demo though. Dumb Apex down and the players who make these types of games popular will move on to the next game and so will follow the goobers who they ruined the game trying to cater to. It's bad business.
Great reply man! Blackout is both friendly AND unfriendly to lower skill players because Treyarch unfortunately listened way too hard to the "life skills lol" crowd. The same crowd that's now meandered over to Apex because it's the new thing people talk about.
There's two parts to it:
1.) The low TTK means that a twitchy player will kill you before you even have time to see him. It also means you can get the jump on him the same way though.
2.) Treyarch buffing armor lowers the TTK on players who wear it theoretically to help them survive longer against more skilled players... But the more skilled guys are the ones who are going to get the armor first or take it from corpses. So you've now doubled down on your problem.
There's also the flashbang to consider. A gadget theoretically there to give you a tactical advantage that's again, abused by everyone to get total no skill kills.
Blackout has issues that all stemmed from trying to cater to the scubs but instead doubled down on the difficulty for everyone. This is the slope you slide down.
On high TTK games being +/- skill yeah it's not a science. I've always played both high and low TTK games and there's an adjustment period between them. I believe a game that allows you to have time to react to danger will ultimately favor a higher skilled player though. Halo Vs COD for example. I can usually kill the top player in a COD match multiple times because if for whatever reason I can catch their back turned, I can vaporize them without he/she being able to react. Shooting a seasoned Halo player will only get his attention on me and if he's a better shot than I am, I won't win. Period. This is Blackout vs AL in a nutshell. But adding in that if your fights take too long, other teams will get there to third party you. Or you run out of ammo. Or the wall creeps up on you.
Let me tell you, it took me a couple days to get into the AL groove. I was coming from Blackout having to play like a hyper, Coke addicted leopard to a game where I was literally running out of ammo fighting one other team on a hill. lol
I've grown to appreciate the differences a lot though. Our squad has to really work together now taking positions, pushing at the right time, focusing on those with the higher armor, synergizing abilities and etc.
And we still have Blackout for balls to the walls crazy fast fights.
Good times.
