Why would a new player ever want to play this?

Look, skill should count. Fine. Yes. But NS2 has everything stacked so far to hours-played that new players can't play. We're useless.



There are plenty of examples, but I think the shotgun is perfect. The hit-box for a great shot is extremely small. If I grab a shotty, I am exactly useless. But if someone is good, it is crushing. So as a Skulk I die over and over and over and over and over and over and over - oh! Lucky kill! WEEEE! And die over and over and over...



Today I played for the first time in a long time. Remembered it's a good game, but frustrating... So first three games as marines, we lost every time, very quickly. I honestly have no idea why we lost, we just lost. At a certain point the aliens are tough and we have nothing, and everyone votes to surrender. We wnet tthrough three commanders, because everyone piled on.



I played another game as aliens. The best scorers of the alines in the previous games also switched sides. So aliens lost. Crushed. I spawned over and over again as an egg in front of someone killing me. At least 5 deaths, within 2 seconds of spawning. WEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Shotguns killed me in one shot. My team was demoralised and, just as with marines, blaming each other. I was trying to go arond the map, but where the C map showed a corridor there was a wall. When I tried to run along the walls I'd get stuck. When I tried to take a sortcut I ran into lava. Why am I playing this?



I quit after going into an obscure dark corner, to jump out on the marine advance that was going to go past soon. The first marine to go past apparently knew exactly where I was, turned and killed me without hesitation.



Why the hell would any new player want to play this game?



You've made the learning curve so steep, and so HIGH, that new players have nothing to do but be cannon fodder.



I WANT to like this game. I want to play it regularly and get good. But why should I put up with a game that has clearly been stacked against new players to a degree that I'll need to suffer 50 hours of crap to get remotely competitive? Why should I spend hours to learn the bits of a map that I can run on, and the bits I can't, and the bits that marines automatically shoot without even being able to see? Why the hell should I, when I can go play somthing that doesn't treat me as a waste of space?



You wonder why this game is dying. Ask: WHY SHOULD A NEW PLAYER PERSIST? How is this fun? How is this enjoyable? Is this just a game to let elite long-term players farm newbies like cattle? Yes?



Then why should newbies ever play?



I try this game every now and then, have done since it came out. Honestly, most times I try for longer than this. But every time I eventually just shrug and say, bugger this. It's not worth the aggro.





...

Make position count for more. Make knowing when to attack THAT point worth something. Give people who go to fight in the right spot some kind of chance to do SOMETHING against the best players.



Yes, reduce the advantage skill gives. Not to nothing, of course not, but to a level that new players have SOME reason to play. Because right now, they don't.