Respawn Entertainment has launched a new ‘Designer’s Notes’ for Apex Legends, giving access to players the reasoning behind the drastic changes in the game’s meta that took place during the last part of the current AMPED season and are still going on. The official blog post from PlayApex provides a detailed representation of the upside and downside of the balance changes done recently in the season as well as statistics. While the developer’s decision to make things more transparent, the gaming community has started to raise some serious concerns about the state of the game technically and its competitive integrity.
It seems like Respawn is considering this blog post as their open-door policy, showing the community the exact positions of the players and weapons on the battlefield. Personally, I am not quite sure how to take it – on the one side, it is a bit fascinating since we might obtain the numbers that would help us comprehend better the reasons behind the Longbow feeling like it ticks for confetti at times or the weird stim change for Octane that was issued. But if you go through the replies to the tweet, it is like… it feels like a totally different conversation altogether. While the developers are discussing the meta, the players are screaming just over the walls about code:net errors and cheaters. It is indeed rather absurd how those two issues have such diverse connections!
For instance, a user, AinulAkmal, returns after a break of several months and instantly runs into code:net thrice in ranked games consecutively. His connection’s latency soars to 1000ms. Their reaction is like, “šš” — but this ‘reaction’ is of someone, who has just become tired of the situation, don’t you think? And it’s not only Ainul who is suffering. Jibothaw wonders why the packet loss occurs all the time since the new season has started. It is the same problem every season. There are times when it sounds like the servers are sustained by nothing else but duct tape and hope.
Controversially, there is the cheating issue as well. Wow! The developers have been extremely cautious to not even hint at the cheating topic, which they must be aware is being discussed widely, considering that it is the massive elephant in the room the Designer’s Notes papers have just… not addressed. EitrPoison is bluntly calling for a “tiny update” on measures to stop console players from using Titans and external cheat devices. Anonymous3_6_9_ is very straightforward in pointing out that “Nothing will change unless core issues are addressed: -Cheaters -Servers -Sbmm/eomm/mmr -Matchmaking.” They predict the game will become less and less popular if these matters are not resolved. And guess what? There are many people in the replies who are in agreement with them. Austin (ItsSimplist) argues that Respawn indeed posts about fighting cheaters but the community’s frustration is very strong. It almost seems like a war right in the comments section.
So it was supposed to give us the “why” behind the changes. Someone like Michaelv7rt even joins the conversation, discussing that the stim of Octane and Fall stun should be negated. That is exactly the ideal response, isnāt it? Players getting into the balance philosophy. Another one, Morgy, even takes the chance to ask about transparency on a completely different topic – whether Respawn’s use of generative AI for concept art or voice lines. You see, when the devs open a door for communication, players don’t just want to come through it with their questions about weapon stats but with all questions about the game in general.
But of course, not every situation allows for such a cheerful view. Players have been pointing at very particular bugs, this has really dampened their experience. Michaelv7rt (here we go again with him) is dealing with the ranked EXP counter that has not been working properly since last season. Landon Arevalohas has an unusual but quite annoying case of batteries disappearing in Control when his gun is getting upgraded. Dannnypitzahut just says “newcastle got problems” – short, nothing more to say and probably still true. These are the minor but very important issues that even the biggest of meta blogs won’t be able to cover up, let alone a non-ordinary one, not to mention that even they might not be able to overcome.
By the way, let’s not forget the balance whining – I mean feedback! ZacharyBachelor thinks that Crypto has been overthrown in power by Sparrow and that Bloodhound is not viable anymore thus he suggests reworks. Dominik claims that snipers have been too powerful for a long time and thus need nerfing. Jaidenatoor11 even shares a cartoon showing Crypto and Bloodhound looking sad and dubbing them ālove birdsā that need a helping hand since āmovement
The gaming community’s reaction to these ongoing issues can be as varied as the platforms they play on, from PlayStation to Xbox. This kind of widespread discussion is common in the battle royale genre, where player feedback shapes the evolution of games.
