Why only old players stick around?

blockblack · February 16, 2020

Why in APB Only old players stick around, I've found out that most APB players play since 2012~2014 and some of them play since the game's release, What I want to know is why... just why only old players stick around, why do they rather APB and don't move to any other game? and why new players always quit in the first few days or the first weeks?

illgot · February 16, 2020

because we old players probably own every gun on Armas (or the equivalent) and have personalized our characters. We also aren't starting on the bottom, entering a low population game, learning how to work around the broken game mechanics and latency issues and going against a full team of golds over and over and over and over.

Any new player can pick one of hundreds of shooters and get something that plays better as a shooter than APB (one of the worst shooters I have ever played).

Edited February 16, 2020 by illgot

PotatoeGirl · February 16, 2020

16 minutes ago, blockblack said:

Why in APB Only old players stick around

That is pretty common thing for many games. They stick because they have years of experience so they are going to be better than most people.

30 minutes ago, blockblack said:

and why new players always quit in the first few days or the first weeks?

Because the game has very steep learning curve and it doesn't helps that they will be matched with mostly veterans either. It is easier just to jump on another game than trying to learn a game that others are playing for years and you can't really learn much by being dead all the time.

Lato · February 16, 2020

why do we ask ourselves stupid questions?

ShaiShai · February 16, 2020

44 minutes ago, blockblack said:

Why in APB Only old players stick around, I've found out that most APB players play since 2012~2014 and some of them play since the game's release, What I want to know is why... just why only old players stick around, why do they rather APB and don't move to any other game? and why new players always quit in the first few days or the first weeks?

tell me a game that has the same custom options for toon / car appearance, to this date i haven't seen a single one

Edited February 16, 2020 by ShaiShai

blockblack · February 16, 2020

6 minutes ago, Lato said:

why do we ask ourselves stupid questions?

Because... we are APB Players. APB Made us idiots... like, DUH

CookiePuss · February 16, 2020

49 minutes ago, ShaiShai said:

tell me a game that has the same custom options for toon / car appearance, to this date i haven't seen a single one

You mean pixelated car decals?

Tuxedo t-shirt style clothing?

And female hairstyle #2?

PotatoeGirl · February 16, 2020

46 minutes ago, CookiePuss said:

You mean pixelated car decals?

Tuxedo t-shirt style clothing?

And female hairstyle #2?

Why is everyone forgetting the cat ears?

With all the seriousness, there really aren't that many games with this kind of customization even if it is just stickers.

VickyFox · February 16, 2020

APB was more or less GTA Online before GTA V existed.

APB has an unrivaled level of customisation back when it was first released, and even now in 2020 it is still unrivaled with symbols/decals, vehicles, clothing, characters and music.

Taking the cops and robbers old school yard concept and dialed it up to 11 with bounty hunters and gangsters, But forget marshal law because the City Security Act is in affect*.

Unfortunately it hasn't aged the best.

The community is too competitive to the point of then becoming toxic, and previous management felt maybe pressured, intimidated and overwhelmed by the community at times.

Over the years the experience carries over as new weapons, vehicles and mods come out, the META changes and one adapts but no one can deny that it is a steeper learning curve now than it was back when it was first released.

So you ask why is it veterans that only stay.

It may be a bit late for valentines but It's not word of a lie that I love APB.

At the same time I hate what it has become in some aspects and what others, do, but why do people drink and smoke if it only hurt them in the long run? It's addictive.

More needs to be done to help newer players have a fair starting point.

TheMessiah · February 16, 2020

7 hours ago, blockblack said:

why only old players stick around, why do they rather APB and don't move to any other game? and why new players always quit in the first few days or the first weeks?

Gonna give you the answers you already know.New players quit fast because the game is unplayable and im not talkin about the lack of content for years.Matchmaking is broken(lack of players makes it actually)and thats the entire game.Bronze district is full with more experienced players(like me)and most new players don have a chance.Theres nothing else you can do in this game besides playn vs other players and when matchmaking is broken how you want new players to stay.Its nonsense.Theres no pve elements or anything(customization the only thing else u can do but is boring)Plus when you add the constant warpin and lags..how u want them to stay

About the old players stickin around.I play since autumn of 2011 and im still here(never left for more than couple of weeks)because have some sort of bond with this game.Maybe not very healthy but still..i guess most old players have same reason(and because of hundreds of dollars they spend probably)Im not type of guy who swithches between games often.Besides APB i play only 2 other f2p games -Warface(another broken asf)and PUBG lite.Doesnt matter how lagy and how long we gonna keep waithing for the engine -im stayn till APB dies..

Merged.

4 hours ago, VickyFox said:

APB was more or less GTA Online before GTA V existed.

Yup the millions of players hungry for new gta game was playn apb before gta v came out..

4 hours ago, VickyFox said:

The community is too competitive to the point of then becoming toxic, and previous management felt maybe pressured, intimidated and overwhelmed by the community at times.

Yup it was the toxic community fault that this game failed and not G1 decisions one of which for example to bring the game to consoles first instead upgradin the PC to 3.5 and thats it.But yea the toxic community is guilty which actually still keepin this game alive o dou is broken asf and dont have content for years

CookiePuss · February 16, 2020

2 hours ago, HawtGirl said:

Why is everyone forgetting the cat ears?

Damn it, I totally did.

2 hours ago, HawtGirl said:

With all the seriousness, there really aren't that many games with this kind of customization even if it is just stickers.

This is definitely true.

Amaineko · February 16, 2020

Cuz we had lots of fun when game was living and we still have fun/hopes it gets better.

APB is very unique vedeogemo~

PingOVER9000 · February 16, 2020

4 hours ago, blockblack said:

Why in APB Only old players stick around, I've found out that most APB players play since 2012~2014 and some of them play since the game's release, What I want to know is why... just why only old players stick around, why do they rather APB and don't move to any other game? and why new players always quit in the first few days or the first weeks?

I am a casual player so I am not always playing a lot.

But APB in this side is quite good, I mean a time u have some mods/permanent weapons, u have just to log in,TURN OFF the brain, GET THE FUN and kill everything red, no too much headache, of course u have to accept to lose sometimes.

The important is getting some satisfactions and laughing, NOT WINNING , this is the soul of the game and of a gamer.... too bad a lot arent of this thought

I just hope (as a lot here) my investements give something in return, MATT MAKE GREAT APB AGAIN

Bye

sneekface · February 16, 2020

4 hours ago, illgot said:

APB (one of the worst shooters I have ever played).

Name one third person multiplayer shooter better than APB? IMO it's the best one there is.

El-Neko · February 16, 2020

Honestly I like APB... I enjoy it and its one of the few games I cant take serious at all so I tend to stick around and just have fun.

Raichu · February 16, 2020

Many of us are really attached to our characters cause we have had them since 2011 and hardly any other game lets you have a character like this one. APB has always been my go to pvp shooter game because imo it is the best one in terms of movement and gun play. Sure its got its problems in many other areas but all the guns always feel so satisfying to use and require enough skill for you to always know that you did good or bad in a fight unlike the feel I get with other games.

Also all the friends I have made from this game over the years keeps it close to my heart, even though hardly any of them play anymore.

Flaws · February 16, 2020

There are a few reasons for that in my opinion. This first one might be debatable depending on opinions but I think that years ago gamers weren't as used to games holding your hand and being as polished as today (I am aware that there are incredibly successful exceptions to "polish" such as PUBG still). So more players were fine with finding out how to do things on their own without any real proper tutorial that tells you to press WASD and M1. A lot of games nowadays are pretty fast to get into and are very polished (for example Fortnite, Apex Legends or even GTA Online, if you want to compare with a somewhat similar game). So when new players get into APB they see features similar to GTA where you steal cars and shoot civilians but they often don't know about how missions work and a lot of them don't read/do the tutorial. They just wanna hop in and game which doesn't work with APB at all right now. This is likely one of the reasons BR games are so popular these days, because you can get into a match very quickly. You open the game and you hit play and you're instantly in a match already, even on mobile devices. With APB you can't even join the right district if you don't already know a thing or two about the dysfunctional matchmaking system.

Secondly, it is in the nature of online games to have some amount of players when they first come out and there is a level of hype and if it's overblown like some newer titles nowadays, a lot of people flock to them. But then as time goes by and the hype dies out, more and more of those players leave the game to go play something else and only the players who have continuous interest in the game will remain committed for the next years. In APB you can be competitive or you can enjoy the customization or you might enjoy the community (lol) or something else. There is a reason for each of the remaining players to remain because we've already climbed the long ladder of getting settled into the game and learned our way around it. The game was more lively when most of us joined it so a lot of us feel nostalgic about it too. When new players join now they see a broken, dead mess that stutters and caps out at 80fps on a 2019 PC, they get utterly devastated by veterans left and right so they leave, wondering how anyone can play this pile of trash. We're simply so ingrained into APB that to us the game isn't half as bad as it looks to new players coming in now.

And APB simply is just extremely unfriendly towards new players and it always has been this way. The game, as is, isn't for everyone anyway and the amount of time and effort you need to put in to get to the level of understanding that most remaining old players are is just way too much to ask for of players who probably just want to play GTA anyway because that's what APB was advertised as (but it actually isn't GTA at all). Like others have said on the forums, it is being advertised to the wrong crowd of gamers. Then you have the broken matchmaking which forces you to deal with veterans from 2010 who utterly destroy you, the game gives you no real tutorial and it doesn't tell you what districts to join or a whole lot about unlocking mods or weapons or anything at all. And if you do decide to stick to it you are probably going to end up thinking that a large majority of the players are cheating because you stand no chance against them. On top of that the game runs like complete wack if you don't use configs and you don't have a top of the line PC from 10 years AFTER the game had even released. Who in their right mind would want to get into this game in 2020? That is the question we and LO should be asking ourselves.

I'm sure that most of us have at some point attempted to introduce our friends to the game but almost no one stuck around because they just saw better options out there and they will keep seeing better options unless APB becomes proper up to date and new player friendly (which does NOT mean making it casual, those are two vastly different things). It needs to be a lot more accessible than it's ever been, especially if it wants to attract any type of competitive crowd. I believe that APB is still the best third person shooter out there and is unique, it has competitive potential and working on that potential is the only way to get this game off the ground in any capacity at all.

My 2 cents.

Edited February 16, 2020 by Flaws

UnoriginalPerson · February 16, 2020

1 hour ago, PingOVER9000 said:

I am a casual player so I am not always playing a lot.

But APB in this side is quite good, I mean a time u have some mods/permanent weapons, u have just to log in,TURN OFF the brain, GET THE FUN and kill everything red, no too much headache, of course u have to accept to lose sometimes.

The important is getting some satisfactions and laughing, NOT WINNING , this is the soul of the game and of a gamer.... too bad a lot arent of this thought

i understand this completely and I wish I could be this level headed, but for most people when you log on to this new game to play it and all you do is just die, die, and die even more with some of your only help is the speed at which you pick up things which varies from person to person, you can't help but think "what is even the point, dying over and over and over isn't any fun no matter what anyone says" and just quit for good, no matter how many times you play it and try to get better. the rest of the APB experience can be okay or amazing depending on the person, but when the main core of the gameplay doesn't have any sort of consistent satisfaction, people just leave the game and more than likely never come back.

DedGaem · February 16, 2020

APB is the kind of game that would make Jesus, Buddha and Gandhi rage... and then sometime totally ridiculous happens and you can't stop laughing which makes the game exciting and fun... there's really no other game like it.

KnifuWaifu · February 16, 2020

We stick around because we found that one spot in Social District where the invisible walls don't block you and must continue the 24 hour /bodypop party there.

But srsly for the adectote - for "myself and the "old" players I hang around with, we have found interests other than just outright Missions/Combat for sticking with APB. We also play in waves, sometimes lots of activity, sometimes just not playing at all, usually something like an event or new thing brings us back, new things could be actually new things (although it has been a while since anything "new" has peaked interest) or just a redesigned costume/vehicle but I think the main thing is that we play in a group and we're not focused on the Missions/Progression/Combat, we find our fun.

Although recently, the server troubles and that RTX bug has definitely knocked some of oldest veterans I know the well and truly off the APB wagon, which is a shame.

Whatever that says about APB the game, you decide, but I've always said APB has that a unique quality which is what I think, at least in my experience, has kept the "old" players hanging around but newer games are catching up and as much as I love APB a game that has even 80% of what APB has, but is also modern and relatively trouble free, might be enough to steal them away.