Do Twitch Drops Ruin Tarkov?

(Intro)

It’s been about fifty days since Tarkov went 1.0. And since then, we’ve had a lot of opportunities to acquire free gear and items from all the different Twitch drop events that have occurred since the last wipe. Anyone who engages with this system benefits from it; players and viewers of Tarkov content on Twitch get to earn some free stuff by just watching, and those who are steaming the game benefit from lots of people tuning into their streams and hanging out. And while the drops this go around have been a little more substantial than they have been previously, a thought popped into my head about a week into the event. Free gear is cool, but does it ruin the experience of playing through Tarkov? And what I mean more specifically, there is obviously a specific progression curve built into the game. You do quests, level up and earn more powerful stuff at the traders the deeper you get into the game. But all of that kind of goes out the window when you open a box, and it has a full kit with powerful ammo ready to be thrown on and used. Most people are probably completely fine with the drops, and I can understand why. However, with the most recent wipe being the literal 1.0 release, have drops for Tarkov ruined that experience for everyone, especially players jumping into the game for the first time?

(How often we’ve had drops)

Drops originally started with the release of patch 0.12 and Reserve back in 2019. This was when the popularity and buzz surrounding the game hit critical mass. Suddenly, everyone was talking about the game, watching streamers, earning loot, and playing it. Before that, Tarkov had a niche but dedicated audience who were passionate about the game and seeing it progress through its development. And then out of nowhere, suddenly hundreds of thousands of players were introduced to a game that is hardcore, but with the means to keep themselves topped up just by watching others play it. Again, in reality, there are no losers to twitch drops except those who do not participate for one reason or another. But anyone that actively engages with the system, is going to quickly find their stash full of gear, barter items, and more occupying most of the space. And while normally, we got drops during the holiday season, this go around has been much more frequent. 1.0 released with a free drops event, and then after that initial event if you gifted subscriptions on Twitch, you got more drops, and now we have our second round of free drops in about a month and a half. It feels a little too frequent for them to just be this generous. But what is more concerning looking at drops as a whole entity is not just the frequency of the drops, but what’s inside them.

(Are the items in them a problem?)

The contents of the Twitch drops have been largely the same over the years, but have been more focused recently on giving you items that are either vital for leveling up your hideout, healing wares that you may find useful, or more often than not full load outs ready to go. And the more rare drops like the legendary ones you get for watching the longest, give you some pretty wild guns and ammo types. Sure, it might be just enough to fill the magazines the drop provides, but even still, if you’re a low level collecting all these drops, you most likely don’t have access to the ammo the crate is giving you. Meaning, you stand a fighting chance, even though technically, and people are not going to like hearing this, you shouldn’t. Now again, most people won’t complain about this and say it’s fine because you can find some of these ammunitions around the world in EFT. And while very true, I suppose I have two questions about that: how often are you finding those better ammunitions? And are you finding enough to fill multiple magazines? Because while you certainly can find boxes of very powerful ammo across certain maps in the game, it really comes down to the frequency of those boxes being found. And at least from personal experience, actively looking for good ammo, it’s not as often as these drops. But it goes beyond just ammo; even attachments like a variety of powerful scopes and suppressors are popping up in these things. Items that again, you don’t have access to if you are at a low level. I understand that people, especially new players, will most likely not be able to take full advantage of those kinds of attachments, but those that can go far with them. Unless Tarkov decides otherwise, which would most likely be another counter argument to this conversation; you might lose it within thirty seconds of a raid. Which sure, is most likely going to happen at some point, but with how long these drops events go on for, it won’t be long before you are gifted another one and can try again once more.

(Does it ruin the experience?)

At the end of the day, the biggest question and the one that matters the most is do these drops ruin the experience? And for many, the answer would be no. They provide a safety net for those who go on a losing streak and can rely on a free hand out every now and again. There’s a reason why most streamers of Tarkov get five to fix figure concurrent viewers when drops happen. People want them, and people want them badly. With how punishing this game can be, both fairly and unfairly, having boxes of gear ready to open definitely gives players a level of confidence that might otherwise not originally have. Either that, or they can liquidate the gear into cash, and then just buy what they actually want to run. Either way again, everyone wins here. But like I mentioned earlier, the progression curve is pretty much non-existent anymore because the drops have been around for so long. It would be one thing if it was a weekend event where you could earn some gear; I think that would be the healthiest way of going about this. But over two weeks of straight drops every day, begins to set a weird precedent. The timing of these drops also is interesting. I don’t want to put a tinfoil hat on, but to me, it feels as though these drops could be seen as a way of enticing players back into the game who might’ve left for one reason or another. Regardless of the real answer, drops for Tarkov aren’t anything new. Free stuff in a game that will take yours whenever it feels like it, allows players to stay in the fight and keep pushing on when they find themselves down in the dumps. Normally, that’s what a scav run is for. But for the last month or so drops have had your back. I’ve been selling a majority of what the contents have been because I just don’t have the space for all the backpacks and weapons they’ve provided. But to say that drops ruin Tarkov is definitely a little extreme. It certainly waters the experience down and makes most people much more dangerous than they might otherwise be based on their own progression. But eventually, the gear from all these drops will go away. I would say this isn’t much different from when BSG adds a new weapon with new ammunition into the game and gives players access to the good ammo at lower trader levels before moving the ammo to higher ones. But the damage is already done because people saw how powerful it was and bought thousands of rounds of the stuff. However, the game supposedly, isn’t wiping anymore on these characters, so, maybe it will have more of an impact than I am predicting. Only time will tell.

(Outro)

Twitch drops have been around for Tarkov since as early as 2019. From the first real major boom of the game with tons of buzz and hype around it, to now where most people didn’t have huge expectations for the 1.0 release but were surprised by how long these drops events have been going on for. Free stuff is cool when we know the game is going to reset at some point, and people feel more inclined to use that stuff sooner rather than later. But now, we don’t know if or when that is going to happen again; so, it begs the question of what about this time with drops? Will there be more of a lingering impact on the game from all the free stuff that people have acquired? It wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case. Either way, the gear is here; the economy has most likely been impacted at least somewhat, and people have had small amounts of access to things they otherwise shouldn’t have. A cool idea in theory, but for how long these things were around for, maybe we could tone down the quality of the drops next time, eh Nikita? 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 Twitch drops in Tarkov, do you think they have negative impacts across the game and be sure to subscribe for more videos about the outside influence of the developers pumping free gear and items into the game, even though they made explicitly attempts to try and reign that all in. I hope to see you in future ones.