User blog:SynthesisRTF/Combat Arms... man, what happened?

My name is SynthesisRTF, and I've been playing Combat Arms on and off since 2010. I've played during the big key events: I've seen the lagfests, the hackfests, Lifetaker, room crashing, blatant OPK: I've seen it all, and I really want to say something about it, to the entriety of the Combat Arms community.

This "article" is meant for anyone who plays Combat Arms. If you currently play the game, please read this. It is entirely opinionated, but a lot these opinions I feel need to be voiced.

I've made a full transformation since I first downloaded and installed the game. I played on a different account, back when the new HUD JUST came out. I remember playing Death Room Eliminations with a FAMAS, barely getting 3 kills while I was mowed down 30+. I didn't even care; I enjoyed the game so much that I honestly didn't mind if someone killed me. I was new. I'd get better with time.

Although it most certainly was not during 2011. I remember playing in Oil Rig games with an M416 CQB, DSR-1 Subsonic, a crappy computer, a supportive boyfriend, and a real temper towards the game. I remember Skyping with my now ex-boyfriend, getting utterly frustrated with how easily I could die, when it takes a load of effort to even put an enemy down to 20% HP. I remember him trying to get me to quit the game altogether, because playing it just put me in a bad mood. I remember a huge portion of our key fights and CA played a part in them, namely that I was in-game during a lot of them. (We're still friends - best friends, at that.) I was able to improve with a new computer, and then I realized that I wasn't so bad at the game after all.

Anyway, all of that is more or less unimportant, and exists only to show you what kind of person and Combat Arms player I really am: a rager.

Raging I take the game too far sometimes, because I care so much. I've seen the general consensus to be that getting pissed off because a game is something that you should be ashamed of. Video games exist to waste time; why should you get angry over "pixels"? Over meaningless stats that don't influence your life in any way possible?

I don't know. I honestly don't. I've always cared about my video games, and I've always wanted to set goals in every game that I loved. I wanted to get perfect saves in the Final Fantasy series. I wanted to 100% all the Crash games. I wanted to actually beat Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. Just like I actually wanted to be good at Combat Arms. It seems that a lot of the things standing in my way are just ridiculous. I will gladly admit when I just have bad aim, but I think I get Nexowned more than anyone. People using epics? Are you kidding me?

Being a rager isn't exactly what I planned on becoming. I recall seeing videos of dumb kids getting mad at grenade launchers in Modern Warfare 2, and I vowed never to become them... but look what happened.

NX Use vs NX Abuse The one thing that made me rage without failure at all (besides lag and cheaters, the latter of which can easily be defeated by just hosting your own lobbies) are epics. Overpowered weapons in general. Although I kind of tried to get them when I was new, simply because the concept was new and fresh to me. I had a limited arsenal. I didn't even have the M416 unlocked at the time. But I wanted an M416 CQB so bad, since it looked awesome, and I could actually perform well with it. When I bought it, I did do better, which only fueled my argument that users do perform better with NX. This is obvious, I'm sure everyone knows that. GP users who are good can stand up to NX users. The best gun in the game is obviously the G36E...

But then it got worse, but not at first. Once Nexon started releasing the epics, they of course made them unrenewable. This was a wonderful idea, but of course, epics become renewable. But they were still rare back in 2012. You almost never saw them. The sound of a SOPMOD was assumed to be a FAMAS G2. This was when the game was about skill, at least more than it is now. Rares were rare, so they basically didn't matter. Since no one had the zero recoil of the Baron's, or the kick of Viper's or Deckland's, the game was about skill, since the golden guns were so rare, no one had them.

Then, they were released directly. Then for permanent.

While it's true that epics and rares won't aim for you, it's certainly true that they hit harder than NX standard guns. Your M416 CQB really won't fare well against a Baron's. God help you if you have an AUG A1 and you're up against someone with an Orthus. But wait... if Combat Arms is a game about skill, wouldn't weapons that are unbelievably good be seen as a handicap?

If we take the M4A1 and FAMAS as lower end guns, and the Baron's, Viper's, Deckland's, Orthus as high end guns, the middle road would NX-Standard weapons. GP-Rare on the left, NX-Rare on the right. We would look at NX-Standard weapons and consider them average. They're not as bad as GP weapons, and they aren't as good as epics as far as stats are concerned.

The way I see it, if you use a Viper's P90TR, or a Deckland's F2000 Tactical, that says to me that you need to use it. Using overpowered weapons just means that, if you weren't using it, you would bottomfrag. Epics are a handicap. If you kill me with a Baron's, of course you killed me with it. Your gun is just easy mode. If I kill you with an MP7 and you're using a Max's, you aren't just bad. You're so bad that you had a chance to own my face off with a fast firing two-shot shotgun with a HUGE magazine, and I gunned you down - with ease - with an underpowered SMG. Hell, even rares are overpowered. Some of them aren't - the SOPMOD, for example. Just like some GP guns are good and some are bad. Some NX-Standard guns are overly good, some are overly bad.

Yet, their users are so convinced that when they go 4.0 with an AK74M Gold, it's all skill. They are so good that they can just roll your face off. The gun exists solely to look pretty. Which is just downright false. If you were truly as good as you say you are, then go 4.0 with a GP gun. Do it with a Skorpion. How about a FAMAS? Hell, I'd love to see someone go 4.0 with a Kriss. Doing well with a rare is just a given. The gun does everything for you. If you can point and shoot, you can do well with a rare.

If I go 4.0 with a CQB CAMO, and you go 4.0 with a FAMAS, who is better? Well, obviously you are. But the way the community is convinced, score is the ultimate and absolute answer to everything. My score says 50 and 5 - KDR of 10, by the way - that means I am THE best player in the game. Who do you know that has a KDR of 10? Oh wait, what I "forgot" to mention was that I was noobfarming with an Orthus. Seems less impressive. Yet some people will look at this scenario and say "YEP, I'M ABSOLUTELY GOOD. I GOT THESE KILLS SO I'M THE BEST." That is just sad.

What about you, Syn? Your SOPMOD is your most used gun. True. Most certainly true. But the big difference is that, whenever I use it, I am 100% aware that most of my kills are due to me having it. If I had my CQBR, I wouldn't do as well. God help me if I'm using my M4A1. I don't lie to myself and say "I got these kills with my SOPMOD, that means I can get them with any gun." The SOPMOD is definitely not as good as it used to be, though. It's basically a pretty CQBR, that deals maybe one or two extra points of damage. Since it has a forced iTech, it's a bit of a problem; I'd like to use an HDS-4.

I understand the need for paid advantages. Players should get something for paying. But what they get shouldn't defeat the entire purpose of the damn game.

The Community - "I play to have fun." It seems that lately, the only types of people I encounter in-game are the braindead type. I've already established my hated for rare and epic users. But these pale in comparison to the people who blame their lack of skill on their attitude towards the game. "It's a game, so I play to have fun."

Really.

You play to have "fun"?

...

Then what am I doing?

Oh, thanks for reminding me. We're different. I'm not having fun. I'm torturing myself. I don't find Combat Arms fun at all, that's why I play it every day. Your lack of skill has been accepted. You're only bad because you have fun.

Just stop. Everyone plays the game to have fun. Combat Arms offers pretty much nothing for people who don't enjoy the game. At least with League or Counter-Strike, you can play the game to make money. Whether or not you have fun is really irrelevant. But this is Combat Arms. Leagues that actually have worthwhile payouts are very rare. Go4CA is the only one that really comes to mind. I think WOGL has monetary payouts, and maybe CGL, but I can't confirm it.

Just accept you suck. You telling me that you're better than me because you don't take the game seriously is just a cop out. Either prove you're better than me, or shut up and play.

Nexon's Utter Neglect When was the last time you played the game and said "Wow, it actually worked fine and intended for once." Seems like a long time ago, huh? FPS lag, teleporting, no reg, game crashes. Thank god the game crashing was fixed... I crashed twice within the last four months. While twice every four months is a lot nicer than 10 a day, that doesn't really excuse the problems in other areas.

And yet, the game design "team" is hard at work, taking existing guns, reskinning them, giving them a new model (maybe a new animation if we're lucky!) buff portability by 9 and reduce recoil by 4, and call it a day. Unless it's a GP weapon. M6A2 CQB, anyone?

The last few GP weapons have been okay, but how many of them do you see regularly? SV98, sure. But the TEC9? Remember that?

The game runs like trash nowadays. I remember when I first started, I got 30 frames easily with my crap system. Core2 Duo E6550, 2GB of RAM, and a good ole onboard GPU. Now, with my HD5770 and 4GB of RAM, I get more frames. When I first built the system, I got 90 on lowest. (CPU bottleneck, what are you gonna do?) Now I get like 45, 50. What's really changed in the last two years, as far as CA is concerned? I watched TouhouSniper98's Road to Mastery series recently, and I decided to watch his L96A1 gameplay. The first game of the L9 came out in 2011, and the game looked exactly how it does now. So, why the frame drop?

And the Point? So maybe you've actually read all of this, and wondering where I'm going with it.

Honestly?

-shrug-

I just want to know if I'm the only person who thinks any of this. Am I the only person who's getting frustrated with a dying game? Ragers (myself included) unbalanced black market, unoptimizaiton… am I the only person who cares anymore? Am I the only person who really loves this game, and is a little heartbroken that the almighty Combat Arms has fallen from its throne? A lot of my problems are with the community, but in the end, who can blame them? Who can blame someone for using a gun that is clearly better than the alternatives? My problems with the game are most certainly with the players, but I should be directing my rage towards the people who enable this to happen: Nexon!

I'm not sure what's going on over there. I don’t know if Nexon is pressuring the game devs to put in unbalanced weapons, or to not fix a lot of the optimization issues that currently plague the game. I don't work at Nexon, so I don't know anything. But I can certainly assure you that someone is responsible. Someone looked at the game and said "This doesn’t make enough money. Let's sell unbalanced guns, because they will DEFINITELY move some of those Karma Koin cards!" And the performance problems. "Fixing glitches won't sell NX… PUT OUT A GUN. THEN A MAP. THEN A GUN. THEN A MAP." If the higher ups at Nexon were actually smart, they would take a look at the state of the game then and then compare it to how it is now. TONS of people played the game in the past. Now who plays? No one. The way the game is now during peak times is like how the game was back in the day during the middle of the night, when everyone was asleep. Fix the game, and the players will flock back.

If they don't, can you blame them? The game is currently free to play, but with a little bit of cash, you can enhance your experience. But how much cash do you need to spend? Why not a full loadout?

Okay, you'll want an assault rifle for sure. 25K NX. A sniper rifle, 30K NX. How about a sidearm? 10K NX. Since melee weapons and gear is rarely sold for perm, let's just leave our loadout at that. MK14 Mod 0, Snake DSR-1 Subsonic, and a USP SE. 65K NX, or $65. SIXTY FIVE DOLLARS FOR THREE GUNS. And you're still at a disadvantage, because you have no SMG, high-capacity backpack, vest, or any gear at all. $65 can get you the newest AAA shooter. Battlefield 4 is like $50 now. You can even get an older Call of Duty game for way less than 50, let alone 65. If CoD/BF isn't your thing, buy CS, which is like 20 dollars. The pricing in Combat Arms is seriously ridiculous. I remember spending $50 on WRKs for my SPAS-12 Stock Gold. Out of 50 bucks, I only got my shotgun for 3 months. 50 bucks could've bought me Mario Kart 7, which I would've played instead (and still playing!)

I realize there's a lot to read here. But this sums up my attitude towards the game. I might be leaving out some bits here and there (mines!) but oh well. Mines can be easily countered by not playing with explosives on! And crouchspam of course, but I'd probably be wasting my breath on it. Ragekicking is a problem too, but just host your own lobbies or play with friends!

In the end, nothing matters. The game will die in a few years. Maybe a few months if we're lucky. And when it goes, I'll shed a tear for the memories of the way things used to be, but after, I will be glad that a monster such as Combat Arms was finally put down. Nexon may still exist, but at least one more game can finally deserve the death it deserves after being bullied by the Korean EA.

But until then… I guess I'll keep complaining.

RIP Combat Arms 2008 – December 2012