[2020] An (attempted) balanced and reasonable analysis of the current problems with the game.

Disclaimer off the bat: I'm not a hardcore gamer at all, I'm the kind of person who gets really into a game every couple of years or so and Fall Guys has become that game for me. I love it, it's a brilliant game and concept and I'm not one of the "dead game" brigade.

This is an attempt to give a balanced and reasonable analysis of my (and probably others) frustrations at the moment without resorting to cheapshots and insults.

So, firstly the ethos of Fall Guys as I've heard in multiple interviews by Joe, Oliver and others is to be a casual game that isn't super competitive and to be "fun" when you lose. But it doesn't feel like that at all. I've only been playing the game for a month and when I first played it, I had that exact attitude. If I lost, I didn't really mind, didn't get angry and just got into the next game and went. It was casual, light and breezy and no big deal.

Fast forward to now, 33 crowns under my belt and frequently screaming expletives and ranting when I lose in a final or penultimate game. How has it come to this? Surely after winning a few crowns and becoming a semi decent player you should feel fine about losing cause you know you're capable of winning? It hasn't worked like that though. Have you noticed that the people who tend to rant at the game the most are the people who have won a motherload of crowns? It's never the casual players who play it once a week with their kids and who've never come close. It defies logic, you'd think people who have never won anything would be the ones who rant about the game most right? But it's the exact opposite.

So, why is this? Quite simply, I believe it's because once you've reached level 40 in a season, the game becomes pointless unless you win a crown. As I said, when I first started playing the game, I never ranted when I lost and this is because I was going through the ranks, I had things to aim for. Oh, an eaten jump cost you a Jump Showdown crown? Pretty frustrating but at least I got enough fame to unlock a cool costume piece or pattern that I want. Grab mechanic let you down in Wall Guys? Oh well, I've ranked up to get a cool celebration etc.

But now, there is nothing to be achieved by just playing the game. I've been at rank 40 for a couple of weeks now and it's still so long until Season 3 drops that the only reason to play the game is to win crowns and so when you get screwed out of a final by the connection timing out or if you lose to a glitchy mechanic, it just enduces sheer rage because your entire run has just been rendered completely pointless through no fault of your own. The only thing you get is a very small amount of Kudos but even that means nothing nowadays because the only way to buy something you really want in the shop is just to hope the lottery falls on your side. There is one costume piece I've wanted since I started playing the game and it has not once appeared in my shop so even the kudos you get for a losing run are usually meaningless.

I believe that is why people rage about glitches, that's why people complain and that is why you get this "dead game" brigade because the more you play, the less there is to achieve, the less there is to grind for, the less there is to keep you coming back, it's just constant games of "crown or nothing" which, for the majority of players, is usually nothing. Those who have the talent to have hundreds of crowns can console themselves with knowing they're more likely to win than not, those who have never won a crown have that as a goal and are usually still ranking up but those of us in the middle(Which makes up a massive proportion of the daily player base I'd guess) the ones who can win 1-5 crowns a day but usually have to endure 50-60 runs of nothing in between are getting increasingly frustrated because we have nothing to play for.

Now, to finish up I will go back to my opening paragraph and say that I still enjoy the game and I will give Mediatonic the benefit of the doubt that the game is still young and they can still fix these things but I really feel the long term lifeblood of this game will be giving players something to play for even if they don't win a crown. Make season passes go somewhere between rank 80 - 100 and that way if you max it out, there's not such a long wait before you can achieve anything just from playing. Just give us something, anything to play for and to achieve and that will make the game far more enjoyable win or lose and I think would bring back many players who have given up on the game.

Tl;dr - I believe the player base is growing increasingly frustrated with the game because there is nothing to play for and achieve.

Obviously open to constructive criticism and debate if anyone disagrees with this but obviously, I'd rather have a mature conversation rather than a rant fest and insult parade. Thank you for reading.