When Respawn Entertainment rolled out yet another stability update for Apex Legends, you can be sure that the players did have quite the time. The social media backlash was absolutely ferocious. They came forth just with a little blurb about game stability and the security arrangements using Steam Datagram Relay to keep it from DoS attacks, claiming that there has been a good 90 per cent reduction of suspicious attacks in Diamond and Masters ranked matches. Well, that’s quite a proposal?? The gaming community essentially just groaned collectively and went on a few expressions of sheer frustration.
Allow me just a little backdrop before proceeding with the rest, respectfully. The update itself mentions the reintegration of SDR into the GameLift servers to provide more protection from DoS attacks, as he joined in the translation of the Japanese text in the replies. They claim that they have it on 100% in Diamond and Masters ranks and have seen a reduction in attacks, a huge drop. They are testing it in more matches, are collecting stats, under test for packet loss and latency issues. They claim high confidence in performance in Asia and Australia and that they are starting to expand coverage in these regions and others. But for players, well, they just don’t see any improvements as asserted.
The comment replies are pure rage. One player, Zachary Smith (@Centric_US), said, “Congratulations guys you finally won in something!! You officially have the worst servers of any game I’ve ever played in my life. Absolutely 0 excuses for the way these servers play at all”. I hear this echoed throughout the comment section.
Apparently, server issues are the biggest one. Players complain about constant packet loss, lag, and just general unplay-ability. @NBlackdude put it well: “Yall need to fucking fix this packet loss shit cause it’s practically making the fucking game unplayable, like fix it instead of j#rking each other off.” So, in a nutshell, that sums up the whole anguish. @PixieMoonTwitch also shouts through the mic: “Fix the lag issues.” Fair.
But even more problems on the server side arise. The system gets ruthlessly bashed. @NolesCG posted a screenshot showing his solo Diamond 4 status with a few days left in the season, implying the matchmaking is basically putting him in unwinnable situations. Then comes another from @NBlackdude: “Fix this shitty ass game, why the fuck did I get a gold random in a fucking high diamond lobby.” The ranked experience is simply a mess; so many people are AFK (away from keyboard), people are throwing matches, and a team won’t even form in full. @WilliThunder_ adds: “Rank full of AFk and ppl throwing driving away in that stupid vehicle + starting the match not even on a full team now I see why I stopped playing this shit game for a year.”
And there goes the go-on-and-on-about-the-cheaters-dance. @MrTally0002 said cheaters who get banned just go ahead and make new accounts and start all over again, calling for the devs to be fired due to “incompetence, matchmaking manipulation and theft.” They blamed the remote working situation too: “When they work from home this is what u get” in response to another comment about server issues.
Some players are starting to narrow down complaints to legend and weapon balance. @GetGoodSweetie directed, “Balance more legends instead of gigabuffing 2 thank you bye”. @SiRxCaYLeR called out, “30/30 META for 1 Year, Ash meta for 276 Days” and asked how those could be ignored for so long. @Matt94441834 simply demanded, “Delete sparrow cheesy garbage character.”
There’s probably the whole long-discussed audio issues in Apex that have never and will never be forever forgotten. @n1shinoa said, “No fix audio, no fix servers = shit news.” So yeah, those audio problems have been there forever, and players have grown tired of it.
And some really specific bug reports too. @ImMaldingRn specified that aim assist did not work when shooting at Revenant, saying it happened at least ten times in three days. @keeLesh_FPS said their Wildcard Kills aren’t counting every second game.
One chance for optimism amid all the negativity came from @nkjofficial: “Anything related to anti cheating and server improvements is always a big W,” although given the context, this kind of feels like a backhanded compliment.
There is a general feeling in the community that all these “stability updates” have nothing to do with real issues that players face on a day-to-day basis. Servers are still bad, matchmaking is broken, cheaters are everywhere, balance issues stay there. Players are upset because Respawn is keeping on talking about technical improvements that nobody really feels have ever translated into actual gameplay.
What is really interesting is how many players end up calling out the development approach itself. @MrTally0002 set forth this theory: “Not the servers but the engine cant communicate with this new technology, the servers are trying to listen but the engine dont speak the same language.” Whether that’s technically right or wrong is beside the point, it shows how seriously players are trying to understand why this game might be stuck in this perpetual limbo.
This update further acts as a wake-up call in the midst of accelerated height of the split between what Respawn says they are fixing and what the players are actually witnessing happening. When you’ve got a bunch of players dropping the line that they’ve been out for a year because of this, then now that there are threats of leaving, that’s a big enough sign that something’s not working.
At the end of the day, Apex Legends remains one of the most popular battle royales, but this kind of community response should be a huge slap aimed at Respawn to take a good seat and listen. Players are not asking for much: just stable servers, fair matchmaking, and a balanced game. The failure to meet these low bar expectations, even after all this time, is what’s turned all this anger loose. So maybe, the focus now should be a little less on PR updates about technical improvements, and way more about getting some actual work done on those problems players really care about.
