Quote Originally Posted by SeiyaSoiya View Post
it creates a divide in the community between good players and bad players, giving good players a reason to be elitist, and therefore creating a toxic enviroment
Yep, exactly this.

A game pretty much has three paths open to it over time (provided it does not die before that ... maybe that's why it feels like so many chill games die? Less "games die because they were chill" and more "games were remembered as chill because they didn't last long enough to come to the inevitable dilemmas that ruin it all"?) as the skill gap between players widens.

The trouble is there usually isn't a lot of solution to it by the time you realize there is a problem.

Plan A: You make a point to hang onto everyone, which creates a situation where there's a big enough gulf between the most casual players (who, when one considers their primary and maybe only purpose in playing the game is to unwind and destress, can't really be knocked too hard for not putting a significant priority in skill improvement, especially skill improvement for its own sake) and the most hardcore players (for whom getting better and better at the game is a goal of itself, and done for its own sake).

Upshot: Casual and hardcore players end up at permanent loggerheads, creating an endless stream of conflict and contumely in the community. Intermediate players get caught in the middle (especially since it's always harder to actively design for intermediate skill than for the endpoints), feeling like they have no place in either camp.

Plan B: You give in to the loud voices of the hardcore and raise the skill floor over time to force people to improve or leave so that there's more common skill ground among strangers.

Upshot: People, especially when a game gets to be a long runner so that the skill frog boiling is gradual enough, quit, often under particularly grumpy terms because they probably liked the parts of the game that they were able to handle before they hit a wall of either brick or simply of more effort than they deem enjoyable to put in given their goals in playing the game. Often, stereotypical talking points (true or not) about the mindset of hardcore gamers are trotted out in the process. The community is STILL noted as tense and conflict ridden as a result (especially when the reason for quitting isn't because players can't, but because the work required is no longer enjoyable, which usually results in shots back from the hardcore crowd about how the complainant is lazy and wants people to put in effort on their behalf).

Plan C: You give in to the voices of the people who want relaxed fun and nerf the difficulty so that it's easy enough that less dedicated players don't drag down the more dedicated too much.

Upshot: Dedicated fans complain that the game no longer rewards their dedication, in other words often the reverse of the previous scenario (it used to challenge them, now it doesn't). They take to soapboxes and complain that their dedicated support is not rewarded and the game caters to people that don't put in effort. Although this USED to be just a minority of usually easy to dismiss people, in the world of streaming video, they often reach out to their sycophants about this grievance, resulting in many people (who were often not actually fans of the game itself at all but only of their favorite streamer) ditching the game and Biz worrying about the PR implications of having major influencers dissatisfied with the product.

Plan D: Apparently we need it, but what?