(Question) How is battle royale as a game genre still popular? - Games

Now before I begin here Id just like to say I'm not shitting on the genre as I've recently fallen in love with Apex Legends and have spent a fair bit of time in Fortnite and PUBG as well as all the meme spinoffs. However, that being said hitting like 40 something hours now in Apex I find myself asking "Why am I playing this?". I've already won a few rounds now and have decent skins for most characters and consequentially now I find myself getting bored since I don't really have anything else to work towards which has brought me in thought to the title question. Battle Royale in general so far has basically played identically across most of the major titles save for a few big gimmicks like heroes in apex or building in fortnite as well as a few misc movement changes. While I believe Apex has by far had one of the biggest overall changes if you dont count meme games like TABG, it still at the end of the day feels faintly reminiscent of PUBG which is getting a bit crusty these days. To go back to the title, why is it that battle royale games don't seem to be having people suffer from burnout despite the gameplay format well overstaying it's welcome? We're going on like two years now of what essentially boils down to a singular gamemode. - it's late and I'm typing on my phone in bed so pardon my big thumb syndrome.

...Who says it is? Genres don't "overstay their welcome", or platformers would've been dead by 199.

Because it's usually fast-paced and games don't last long enough most of the time to really feel any sort of burnout. I can churn out 10 games in a row and still go for 10 more, but one match of League of Legends will exhaust me. It feels good to eliminate people, that's what it just comes down to.

It's basically the rebirth of deathmatch but with more hand-holding and politically correct terms.

I haven't played any of the battle royale games, but could it's popularity be because of the low skill ceiling? The nature of the games giving you only one life probably adds to the excitement.

You might as well ask how Team Deathmatch or Territory Control modes have lasted this long. Basic gameplay formulas don't often get boring. Really, Battle Royale is just a variant on Last Man Standing, scaled up to massive maps. All the other tropes of the genre naturally follow from that - you need some way to shrink the battle area as the number of fighters dwindle (hence the Safe Zone); you need some way to scatter players across that map at the beginning (hence the dropping in); you need some way to encourage players to explore instead of just camp (hence weapons/items are hidden in the world instead of just had). It won't be the dominant genre forever. There's always a bit of a land rush when a new subgenre is created and becomes popular, but it'll fade as devs start to learn it isn't a money tree. But it's not going away, any more than Capture the Flag has gone away.

I legit have no idea what this post is suppose to mean? How is it more "politically correct"????

Kid-friendly words I suppose. It's the target audience. DEATHMATCH sounds violent doesn't it? maybe there's a better word for it?

I get what you mean but you worded it very poorly

yes indeed, you are probably right. I was not aware PC was a slur on facepunch, so apologies.

Please stop. Your letting your biases and poor characteristics show. We live in the 21st century. Sensible people don't use terms like "PC" or "SJW" anymore.

It's a very easy game format to just queue up with your less 'gamer' mates in a cyber cafe and shit out a game that, at least in Apex, lasts only 20 minutes for a win or otherwise only 2 minutes if you're the kind who likes to jump into a hotzone and die instantly. Not only are they fast, but the inherent randomness of loot and enemy encounters when not playing in a deliberate fashion makes losses not too frustrating as you and your mates can easily chock it up to "oh lol I cornered and he had a shotgun welp" or "we had shit loot so eh". There's also something about coming out on top from 60 or more other people that gives you enough dopamine to greatly stroke your own cock and to immediately try again. BR games also give quite a lot of freedom for both passive and aggressive players to participate with the free large map and variety of engagement possibilities unlike some other games where playing passive may naturally fuck over your team which can throw off a lot of people. There's also the fact that BR games are very easy to explain to even the clueless of gamers and how its probably the most accessible game type sans usual mobile drivel. You drop, pick up weapons, optionally shoot and survive, simple.

Oh my god dude.

I'm really confused now so you're gonna have to explain this to me. what word was I looking for?

For starters, Blops 4, a game with a BR mode, still uses the term "TDM". I want you to back up and explain how exactly BR is like a classic deathmatch mode except that it involves shooting at people.

maybe "euphemism" is closer to the word you were looking for?

Apologies

just saying, BR isn't a euphemism for TDM though. they're not remotely the same.

Back on topic, BR is popular for the same reasons RTS games were back in the day: everyone is playing them and they have proven themselves to be fun for the most part. it also thrives thanks to the "no two games are ever remotely similar" feeling that has been part of the game desing of most of the decade, unlike arena deathmatch games where matches can and will get repetitive after extensive sesions. While PUBG made it popular, one should take into account that it was Epic and the well timed, well executed work behind fortnite that made the whole thing "a thing" that lasted over time.

No other genre offer the opportunity to "win" against 50+ other players in a game, and it is really satisfying. Ther chaotic nature of each game plus the large player count means that practically anyone has a chance to win at the end, even if you're worse than the other 99% of the players, as long as manage to take down the last 1% and be the last one standing you win.

Fast paced matches (if you aren't PUBG) so slotting in a time to play fits in well with school and work schedules Combine above with fast exit and queue times, so you can immediately hop in another match if you lose and try again (ONE MORE MATCH...) Large scale compared to other shooters thanks to "world" sized maps Familiar core mechanics matched with a dynamic procedure and outcome (Fortnite and Apex spice things up with building and abilities respectively) Multiple ways to win (pure aggression, stealth/resource management, etc) The allure of being #1 in a group of many Fortnite and Apex Legends get extra "addiction points" for being free to play, and for their battle pass system and loot boxes respectively. That inflates numbers massively and retains a core audience, which keeps the matches happening fast and smoothly. Fortnite gets even more points for having crossplay on all platforms with retained progress, and 3 platforms where you can play the game on the go. It's not really hard to understand why BR games are still popular. I think the real question is, is there anything new left in the sub-genre to add? That's a serious question too, because I'm sure most of us thought that PUBG and Fortnite were the pinnacle of BR games like League and Dota 2 are the pinnacle of MOBAs and would never be challenged. But, in comes EA and Respawn somehow creating a 3rd place in what used to be a 2 horse race.

Can't argue with the first four. Multiple ways to win (pure aggression, stealth/resource management, etc) Imo the only two major ways to win a BR game is to either not engage unless necessary (most people seem to do this) or actively go out and try to slaughter everything. Anything else just seems to be a variant of those two (stealth especially being the former). The allure of being #1 in a group of many I semi mentioned this in the op with my experience being after a few wins the adrenaline rush kinda wears off and you get bored of it (at least for that title), especially since in most games there really isn't terribly much of a long term reward other than something like xp in APEX's case and getting a "you win" on your screen. Although if you haven't gotten any or much in the ways of wins I see that being as you said a major hook. Fortnite and Apex Legends get extra "addiction points" for being free to play, and for their battle pass system and loot boxes respectively. That inflates numbers massively and retains a core audience, which keeps the matches happening fast and smoothly. Fortnite gets even more points for having crossplay on all platforms with retained progress, and 3 platforms where you can play the game on the go. Not going to deny the lootbox part (although some title's are better at grabbing attention than others). However, even though multi platform may give a good head start in player count it doesn't really do an awful lot in the long run because other than giving opportunities to play it doesn't do much in the sense of holding attention spans which are getting pretty short. Additionally I'd like to imagine that most people have a sort of "max long term endurance" to play a given title where after a certain number of hours they've seen basically everything there is to see and they have no interest in it anymore. Having even more opportunities to play doesn't exactly help in that regard. It's not really hard to understand why BR games are still popular. I think the real question is, is there anything new left in the sub-genre to add? Without a doubt I'm sure someone can cook up some new spin on it, I mean the exact same question came up in photography /art in general when people thought that basically everything had been done half way through last century but I mean we're still coming up with new shit today. I suppose I can see why in general battle royale as a genre is still popular but in the case of something like fortnite it's basically been on the same map sans a few changes since release and I would have figured people would have gotten bored of it by now. That's a serious question too, because I'm sure most of us thought that PUBG and Fortnite were the pinnacle of BR games like League and Dota 2 are the pinnacle of MOBAs and would never be challenged. But, in comes EA and Respawn somehow creating a 3rd place in what used to be a 2 horse race. Apex succeeds because it's implemented fairly good fixes for a lot of the sour spots in battle royale games such as respawns as well as seeming to find a nice balance between the "realism" / detail of pubg (see: somewhat too varied ammo types) and the simplified cartoony-ness of Fortnite. Oh and the movement being non-janky and having some depth is a plus too. Ok so I can see now why BR in general is still popular, I'm just stuck on why the specific ones that we've had for a long while now (PUBG/Fortnite mainly, although PUBG as far as I can tell is on the downswing) that don't do anything particularly crazy with the concept are still kicking as I would have figured people would have drawn bored of them by now. Thank you for the constructive input.

It doesn't have to do anything special; it just has to do it well. Apex Legends is a solid game that just works. Guns feel great, characters feel great, movement feels great, the ping system is fantastic and all of it just mixes well into a solid game. Fortnite has a ton of gimmicks that get put in and then switched out, as well as the whole building aspect.

It's not the same as Deathmatch. It's more precise about elements of it. Most deathmatch games, you respawn and the person with the highest score wins at the end of an alotted time period. You spawn with weapons (often of your choosing) and you spawn randomly across the map. With Battle Royale (for your information, this is not a politically correct term but named after the Japanese novel Battle Royale in which the Battle Royale mechanics can generally be seen to be created), you are dropped into a map, you die permanently once you lose, you have to find resources and weapons, and the pacing is a lot slower. They're two distinctly different gamemodes, but not, you'd rather force some point about completely unrelated "political correctness" when in reality, you're just ignorant.

I think it's popular because it's quick, easy to pick up and play, and easy to learn, but harder to master. Paying a round or two of Apex is similar to me to playing a match of a COD tdm in the sense that the matches are very short, and if you lose you kinda just go "oh well" and queue up for another match. Not to mention Fortnite and Apex are free, so there's almost no reason to not at least give it a try. Also like somebody else in this thread said, eliminating other players just feels good when you know they are out of the match for good.