BSG Balanced the Fun Out of the Game

(Intro)

For a long time, EFT has been losing some of its spark when it comes to having fun with the game. And it feels as though recently, it’s kind of come to a head. The hardcore wipe was a solid idea on paper, but wasn’t executed in a way that felt fulfilling, satisfying or even remotely fun for many players. While most of us were excited to try it and see what BSGs version of hardcore looked like, and even with a gameplan in mind, things still didn’t play out how a lot of us wanted. But this feeling of the game just not feeling fun goes beyond hardcore; it’s more of a phenomenon that many have been experiencing for years now. And no, it isn’t because people are tired, bored or jaded at the game. It feels as though many aspects about EFT that players thought were fun have been slowly removed or balanced out over the course of the game's life. The game was never supposed to be fun, technically. And yet, hundreds of thousands of players found the fun in EFT. But now, the hardcore wipe has been a reminder that sometimes, less is more; you don’t need to artificially create problems to sell us the solution. Tarkov is unique because it’s really the only extraction shooter that has gotten the formula down. Risk and reward; it’s as simple as that. But let’s go over why Tarkov feels as though some of the fun has been balanced out or simply removed. Some of it will directly involve hardcore, and other elements, not so much. I remember this game being so much fun; where did it all go?

(Hardcore wipe and its flaws)

The elephant in the room is of course, hardcore. This wipe is anything from perfect. That much is obvious. But the problem stems from expectations not being measured or at the very least, understood by the players regarding what BSG wanted out of a hardcore experience. It’s not so much about the hardcore challenge itself, but the idea and its execution. Everything else changing constantly that is associated with the existence of hardcore. I mean at this point, with level four traders open, we might as well just go back to the normal game. For many, hardcore is just the antithesis of what people hate about EFT cobbled together; annoyances and stopgaps that get in the way of playing the game we’re so used too after many years. The loot is finally somewhat back after over a month of this hardcore challenge, and all forms of progress in the game feels like it comes down to rubles and nothing else. But it goes beyond how hardcore is being handled; EFT is almost impossible to balance perfectly to a point that everyone is on an even playing field and all the loot is evenly distributed across the maps. There is a scenario that all players are trying to chase whenever they boot up the game. Which is the perfect raid experience. Something that is so impactful to you that you feel the need to tell your friends about how crazy a particular raid was. We’ve all done it at one point of another. And while that is still possible today, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult. Tarkov has been slowly losing its fun factor. Again, not at the expense of playing it for too long, being bored/burned out, but because what made this game fun in the past no longer exists or has been changed in a way that doesn’t reflect the philosophies this game had established years ago.

(The perfect raid)

I just touched on the idea of the perfect raid; an experience in EFT that is so amazing, regardless of what actually happens that you want to share it with everyone. And this is something that everyone playing the game is chasing whether they are consciously aware of it or not. As the years have gone on, that idea of the perfect raid has been getting harder to achieve. While something like the hardcore wipe might enhance the experience when it does finally happen, for some, even a perfect raid under this ruleset still might not suffice the hankering that EFT can create. People play this game, they're unhappy because everything is super expensive, so they run trash gear, lose to someone who has a way better kit get frustrated and quit the game for the day. Hours later, they’re on their phone or computer watching clips of other people online playing having a blast, experiencing what they wanted in the first place. And what do they do? They hop back on and queue for another raid.

We’ve all done this. At least once. Whether it was during the more wild west era of EFT or the more recently restrictive era, this game has a way of getting in your head. You want to raid; being out there, completing quests, leveling up and taking gear from other players. But if the game is constantly adding new barriers for enjoyment, it really becomes harder to trudge through the murky waters and get to the other side. Hardcore wipe tested people’s patience levels, and for many, it hit a critical mass. Which I understand, and don’t blame those who gave up. I was excited to try hardcore myself but ultimately realized about a week into it that this isn’t what I at least had in mind. Many others probably thought of anything but this experience, and it’s been tough, but for the wrong reasons. Again, it isn’t just hardcore being implemented wrong, there is a long history of Tarkov adding things with good intentions but having those additions essentially be band-aid fixes for core gameplay problems.

(Tarkov’s long band-aid history)

Tarkov sadly has a long history of applying new fixes or mechanics to problems that are or were the current main focal point of conversation across the community. The biggest and easiest one was all the RMT restrictions to dropping items in the game. At one point, it felt as though you could either drop only one of certain items or none at all. They knew the cheating was terrible so to try and salvage the circumstance. They made it so no one could drop items for anyone unless it was found in that raid. Which, to be fair, anything to combat cheating people for the most part, are receptive to the idea. But with something that restrictive, preventing people from trading or just dropping items for their friends, it felt like trying to cure a symptom and not the disease.

We’ve talked about it before, but the weight system while an intentional mechanic they were planning on adding for a long time, wasn’t received well because of how poorly it was originally implemented. It took a lot of feedback and iteration to get it to a point that felt okay, and even to this day people would rather it not be in the game. The main reason for its addition? Player movement before was insanely busted. Not just being able to jiggle peak corners like a demon, but the way players bunny hopped across the map. Combine that with high strength and endurance skills, and you have players moving around the maps at speeds that shouldn’t be possible. Oh yeah, and they’re carrying upwards of one hundred plus kilos worth of loot. So again, it makes sense the weight system was inevitable. But it was a fix to a problem they themselves created. And the weight system created even more problems after that. There are many players who enjoyed the game without the weight restrictions, and it’s easy to understand why. There was a certain level of freedom that involved being able to carry pretty much anything. Even if you weren’t actively trying to break records of carry hundreds of kilos, just knowing you could with little to no penalty felt reassuring that you could always gamble for more. Nowadays, you take out one player and you will most likely need to just leave the raid. And again, it makes total sense for them to add a system to prevent this kind of gameplay, for many it felt as though fun was directly being taken away from them. And it wasn't even replaced with something that felt good or even reasonable until a lot of pushback and iteration happened. Which can be said for many mechanics and gameplay changes over the years.

(Outro)

The current hardcore wipe has exposed a lot of underlying problems that revolve around BSG removing the fun out of EFT. Whether you enjoyed the insane movement in the game before inertia, being able to carry anything in the world with no weight restrictions, or just being able to play the game under more normal circumstances, it has felt as though after years of working on this game many mechanics and how they currently work are a by-product of BSG making changes not to add fun or even try to remotely balance the game. It feels as though they sometimes feel lost; unsure of what to do or where to go forward. I mean we have 1.0 on the horizon but considering we still don’t have a release date halfway through August, for a while I've been unsure if they can still hit their self-made deadlines. Or, if we are going to see that date pushed into 2026. Either way, for many, hardcore has exposed how BSG has been removing the fun out of the game for years now. Even if it’s to be closer in line with their vision for the game, is it even worth it at this point? Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know down in the comment section below your thoughts on the fun has been removed from the game, what older mechanics of gimmicks you would love to see come back if you could return one and be sure to subscribe for more videos about the concerns and woes of a game that is unsure if it’s ready to fully release or not. I hope to see you in future ones.