Arc Raiders is at its best when players embrace the improv of random interactions, setting up shop as local traders, forming queues to use computers, or rallying together to hunt down rats while blasting music over their mics. But if you look at the forums, you'll see an endless back-and-forth among the community, as PvE players call those who kill on sight toxic, and PvP players throw it right back at them, arguing it's as integral to the game as everything else.
Embark has tried to remedy this issue with aggression-based matchmaking, pairing players and squads based on their tendency towards PvP, and it even introduced a limited-time PvE event in February. But as it turns out, the playerbase is pretty evenly split, with 30 percent favoring PvP, 30 percent favoring PvE, and 40 percent opting for a mix of both.
"It caught us a little bit by surprise," executive producer Aleksander Grøndal said in an interview with The Guardian. "Pleasantly surprised, just to be clear."
The team "always wanted" there to be cooperation, but Grøndal explained that it "was a little bit surprising to see how many people latched on to that aspect of the...
