Sure, AoE2 is a competitive game, where winning is the goal. So why not try to always win no matter what? Simple, if you only care about the dopamine, you will forget to play. That may sound stupid, but it does happen in my experience. When a competitive game gets popular, this behavior will also increase exponential. That is why cheating, smurfing and gambling are growing in the AoE scene.
I’m not sure if there is anything to do about that, because that is what most people want. Players like me, who enjoy playing more than winning are rear. What is also sad, I see this behavior creeping up in unranked lobbies. Today I played three games and two where dominated by a player, how did pick Persians in the lobby. The other game had banned picking Persians. I don’t say there is anything wrong with Persians, but picking them in an open map on a long game is just to win no matter what. There is no fun, just winning.
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Smurfing is growing in the scene because it’s:
- Easy. You don’t even need to pay 30€ per account, Steam family share allows you to create an infinite amount of them. It’s a choice. The studio could very well block ranked on accounts that aren’t the main one. Leave open campaigns, skirmishers, multiplayer lobbies and co-op levels.
- Not punished. I have reported tens of them via the support page, sometimes they get suspended a few days but most of the time nothing happens. Impunity is rampant. All the pro players stream their smurfing without any consequence.
These points are not wrong. I just talked about the reason why so many players are doing things like smurfing. On the surface, everyone is against it, but in reality it is accepted, because many players need to win to have “fun”. They do not understand playing as an activity, where winning or losing is a secondary goal. I don’t talk about pro players here, because they have other reasons to win. I talk about normal players, who do play games to have “fun”.