Someone tell me why players smurf in NS2
meatmachine
South England Join Date: 2013-01-06 Member: 177858Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
So I've often seen smurfs get votekicked on decent servers, which is great.
I just wanna know why. Why?
Literally the only justifications for smurfing I can think of are
Anyone know any skilled people that use smurf accounts? What's their internal justification to themselves or to their friends for using a smurf account?
Edit- actually I dont even care, making a thread about it just kinda gives them credence. Delete thread unless anyone has any useful input
I just wanna know why. Why?
Literally the only justifications for smurfing I can think of are
- try and devalue the skill system for some reason
- troll other players because they enjoy ruining games for newbies
- to feel like a special little snowflake that's good at the game, to make up for the inadequacies they feel when facing other similarly or higher skilled players
- Support the game by buying multiple copies (This is literally the best thing I can think of to support it, but still makes no sense).
Anyone know any skilled people that use smurf accounts? What's their internal justification to themselves or to their friends for using a smurf account?
Edit- actually I dont even care, making a thread about it just kinda gives them credence. Delete thread unless anyone has any useful input
Comments
For the rest, I think you've got it covered... I agree, that I do not agree with playing at 100% skill vs players that are lower in skill to you. If I happen to be in a position where my current pubstar status is above the server skilllevel (any game really), I usually take it down a notch and let them play and help out the team where I can to keep us alive... And sometimes for a few brief moments I go all out, not trying to wreck their day by melting their precious Onos/Fade. I just like to scare them away in some situations I've been told I play games a lot differently from other players... But I've never seen the need to smurf, cause I adapt my playstyle... Smurfing... It's kinda weird, right up there with this new word I once heard called "tryhard". Playing the game as it should be played is now a sin? Oh well xD
[edit vs your edit]
It would be interesting would it not, if "bad/stomper/good/incognito" smurfs have the balls to come up in here and explain their shenanigans Mostly because I'm kinda curious myself what motivates them... Mostly
way i see it they either got banned and had to buy another account or they are purposefully trolling (or some weird skill loss bug happened???)
This is actually the most legit reason I can think of.
Its a shame I never actually see this in practice, it's usually smurf > straight to marine team before shuffle, stays there for days.
Maybe cuz it's a cheap way to expand the amount of servers they can play on, esp since bootcamp.
I do have at least one steam buddy I've encountered in smurf form while speccing a rookies only game. As has been mentioned for other's, his reasoning was that it was an account he created just to comm with but couldn't yet get into chairs yet due to rookie status.
Playing on a smurf account just ruins the game for everyone on the server as all that it does is induce a stack, i have NEVER yet seen a "Smurf" go gorge or command. SO saying thats all you want is just stupid.
Random teams can be bad enough as it is, but then throwing these losers into it just dont help.
I always remembered you as one of those smurf apologists. Surprised to see you write this. But I agree with the sentiment.
I started to use one for com because i already got ejected while playing with my main account. It was either because "your elo is to high you need to play on the feild" or "you just go com to troll, you know we are going to lose". I got the same shit while playing gorge, with some players rage quiting mid games. Last time i went com it was on Thirsty onos, i went com 10 games in a row, 2 win and 8 lost. And of course the server was empty after that.
The system is broken for an eternity, and you don't need a hive 2.0 to fix it. The blame is not on the players, it's never on the players, it' the dev job to find solution.
Alt account users usually fall within one of two categories.
1. You're a shtbag and want to stomp rookie only servers or troll normal pub servers behind your anonymity
or
2. You typically are a skilled player and are sick of tryharding in every pub because shuffle forces you to carry. On my alt I often comm and have been attempting to learn lerk... which usually results in my team losing. My lerk is that good.
"You're such a tryhard"
"No!!! You just re-he-he-heally suck, I'm not even trying just pubbing. Also called, just playing the damn game"
So yknow, let's instead call it "playing the damn game"
I do acknowledge that people misuse the phrase but in my case, I was being literal.
Never agreed with smurfing.
Never had a problem with playing with/against high skill players as long as they make an effort to keep the teams balanced.
So, would you say the point of this explanation is- OR
Because you want to play on the same team as a friend, without the pressure of a match- With the caveat that they do not care about the impact this has on other players.
Assuming it's the latter, I still honestly do not know what to say to you because you clearly realise this fucks the game for everyone else on the server, and ultimately hurts the game as a community.
What i'm interested in is coming to some kind of resolution, wherein-
You get to have fun and enhance your bro-bonds with other players
You are not forced to create smurf accounts to deceive the skill balancing neccesary for pub games to not feel like a stomp.
Games aren't ruined by 2+ high div players stacking a single team.
I'm open to suggestions, lets hear them. Plz provide useful input outside of "community needs to be larger" because that's not something that can be controlled by us at the moment, besides simply not smurfing in order to stack and ultimately hurt retention rates anyway.
Honestly I dont even know why it matters to you that you're on the same team in a pub game as your friend. When my mumble buddies join me in game we enjoy playing against eachother just as much as with eachother. What gives?
EDIT: Ugh, after re-reading a couple of times I actually realised that in answer to my original question "TELL ME WHY PLAYERS SMURF IN NS2", the answer is literally just-
To stack.
So now we're back to the old 'omg stackersss!!222' threads fuck me this is going nowhere
The only way you can do this is by starting on one team, stomping, then switching teams and trying to win from the major disadvantage you caused.
Well than, I guess ya busted me!
Apparently you didn't try hard enough Kouji, someone disagreed with you.
Oh really? Well I gues it's fine, he's the one that busted me so I shall allow this infraction
As for @Cr4zyb4st4rd 's scenario of not being able to team up with your other high level player on the same team : I have no sympathy for you.
Split up / command /gorge and do your best not to imbalance a round.. knowing you have the potential to easily dictate the outcome of a round means you have a responsibility to ensure the rest of the lower level players in the server still have an enjoyable experience. If this is too much to ask of a vet, (and as someone who does it allll the time I do not believe it is) then you probably should not be playing there.
Why should I be forced all of the time to play against my friends? If I even play pub it is above all else to have fun. But the atrocious skill balancing system forces me into teams I don't want.
Ever had to play and lose alien 5 maps in a row be a use hive likes to shit shuffle you? Guess what I don't enjoy having an incapable team that is only "balanced" because my high elo makes shuffle think it's fair. While the other teams avg elo per player is substantially higher that's why smurfs happen.
Fix the ass awful balance so I don't need to be relied on for my team to achieve something. I haven't played pubs in a long time because honestly admins hate on high skill players and shuffle doesn't take into account anything other than an utterly useless elo value.
I have no fun when im being forced into losing teams because the admin doesn't want to lose. I have no fun when admins abuse their power to sv_slay me because I'm better than pubbers.
So yes I used to smurf on pubs to avoid the bullshit that people either expect or admins force out of me and I will happily do it again in the future.
Especially aggrevating after having to wait myself for 10 min to find an open slot somewhere. Where else are they expected to play with such a small server pool?
Considering this, it's a bit easier to understand what would drive someone like @Cr4zyb4st4rd or anyone else in that upper echelon to smurf.