My Opinion on why the Darkzone failed
A large part of why people hate the DZ os on Massive in how unbalanced the gear sets were, percieved griefing, and thier lack of anti cheat software. Im going to ignore that for now and concentrate on how Massive lack of understanding of human psychology contributed to the DZ as a whole being rejected by a large portion of the player base.
Growing up I come from a 2D fighting games background. I have and still play Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, etc. 2D fighting games are not popular as they use to be becuase the learning curve to too hihh for most people. People now dont want to learn about frame data, hit boxes, punishes, etc. Eventhough being good at those games does not translate to being good in The Division it does help curb a human trait that hinders people from reaching thier true potential.
What Im talking about is Loss Aversion. Loss Aversion in simple terms means people have a fear of losing even if its at the expense of potential gains. People who experience Loss Aversion hurt twice as much on a loss than experince joy in a gain. Thats where the feeling of "salt" comes from. One thing that you learn from playing fighting games competively is that unless you're born an EVO Esports champ you're going to get you're a** handed to you.....alot. Why on Earth would people subject themselves to such punishment. Its becuase playing the CPU can only take you so far and you need to play human players to get better.
Where The Division messed up is the 1-30 experience is a relative PVE safe space. If you die...nothing really happens and its very easy stay alive. Then at Level 30 theres this Frankenstein PVEVP thing that is both punishing/fullfilling but gives the player a way out but still reap all the rewards. I do acknowledge that people enjoy PVE content and have no desire to PVP. However there's no denying that PVP requires a different skill set and improvisation.
PVP games like Call of Duty you can skip the single player all together and go straight into the fire. PVE games like Diablo has endgame content thats fulfilling. The Division doesnt have any of that. PVE is safe but unfulfilling and PVP is dangerous but fulfilling.
In conclusion: If they do make The Divsion 2, from the very beginning it needs to establish what it is. If its a Dark Souls type challenging experience then you cannot offer the player a way out. You cannot cater to everyone becuase it divides the player base. I really dont want to say "get good" but the only way people get better is to learn from losing. Even being ganked is a learning experience becuase you learn how to avoid groups instead of never returning to the DZ.
If you want a one size fits all game then the DZ shouldnt exist. Just make a PVP arena. Most of this was probably rambling but its what I think about when I read most of the posts on this forum. People complain about griefing and you dont even have a clue what real griefing is.
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