Feast is a miserable experience for most players

I wanted to create this thread in the PVP forum originally, but it seems like the GM and community team frequent this one more than the PVP forum (and I wouldn't blame you one bit for not setting foot in there unless you'd like to lose that foot!), and this is more-so feedback about the experience rather than a question about the mode itself, so hopefully it can stay here.

I have always been the type of person who is big on self-improvement. In video games and in real life. I'm very much into seeing my character grow, become stronger, perform better. So something like Feast is, at least on paper, right up my alley. I also like a challenge. I have always aimed for top 100, but haven't made it yet. There are things probably holding me back -- vision issues, time constraints, and the like -- but those don't stop me from trying my absolute best in every match. That's really all I can hope for. Doing better than I did the previous season is my personal "Top 100".

Here's the issue - and let me preface this by saying that I'm not lumping ALL Feast players into this category. Many are great players as well as admirable people. But here's where things go south.

It seems as if Feast has turned into more of a clique than something designed to welcome and encourage all players to compete.

If for some reason you can't perform to your best in a given match (maybe the healer is new, maybe you goofed up and you know it but you have no way to tell your team), or maybe you were in the wrong place at the wrong time -- it happens -- you get absolutely drug through the proverbial mud.

People sending you friend requests from other servers just to rage at you. People creating alts on every server just to hop off, hop on and send you a flaming /tell and then vanish before you can respond. Discords blowing up with nasty insults.

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I get it - some people just can't handle losing. But this stuff adds up over time, and although it's not always "in-game", it absolutely does affect the player experience. It makes people look at competitive modes like Feast and say "nope, not worth it" no matter how many shiny objects you put in there.

Some might say "well, if you can't handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen!" But this isn't heat. It's poison. I don't take this stuff personally but I can see where people would because the comments are so vile.

And you're either with the bullies or the ones being bullied. There is no middle ground. It has gotten to the point where if I join a Feast match, I put myself on /busy and decline "friend requests" because I know if we lose, it will become my fault (even if it wasn't).

Some might say "well you're not receptive to feedback!" Oh, I very much am. But more of the "here's what you can improve on" variety and less of the "I hope you die in a fire" kind.

I know SE can't control what happens in Discord or other channels, but that's the kind of environment this competitiveness has created -- one where people don't want to participate because some of the highest-ranking individuals have created their own personal bubble and if you're not "one of them", you get verbally curb-stomped with every attempt.

Who realistically looks at that and goes "yep! That was fun! I want more of that!" Nobody.

The pool of Feast players gets smaller and smaller every season and this is one of the major reasons why.

What can be done about it? I legitimately don't know. But in its current incarnation, it's just becoming a hotbed for vitriol. What you have now isn't working and hasn't been for quite some time. But judging as someoen who has participated in every season since Season 3, I can tell you with absolute confidence that it has gotten worse.

TL;DR: Feast is turning into a giant clique of players who verbally eviscerate others when the team loses, and that kind of behavior spills over into gameplay and ruins the experience and the spirit of teamwork and cooperation. It's creating a dichotomy between high-ranking players and "everyone else who isn't" where you have little chance if you're not "in" with the group.

They belittle other players on outside channels and in-game, dissuading them from continuing to participate so that they end up with each other and know they can continue to progress this way.