Honestly I'm kinda surprised I didn't get ripped a new asshole for the end of post four... rofl
Connor
I find that as long as an online game is easily accessible, E.G. you don't need to forward ports and the server or servers are up most of the time, than you'll have quite a few people playing simply because it's a multiplayer game, and meeting other blind people you get along with is pretty neat. Either that or their is no offline mode and they just want to be able to play the game for the sake of it.
However if the game has a steep learning curve and requires some skill, you'll be losing players that were never really serious about playing it anyway left and right, and the bulk of those that remain will only come on sometimes and just sorta, exist, suckally LOL, probably to enjoy what everyone else is doing vicariously or to say they've played it.
For instance, that guy that just lets him self get shot, or fires rockets and grenades then finds a bomb to blow up on in RS, or the guy that waits for ever at the prompt and always gets a super low score on Crazy Party, or someone constantly asking basic questions but never really actually putting the answers into effect either do to a language barrier or just plain impatience...
Those who really stick with the strategic and skill based games and get to at least an intermediate skill level are actually surprisingly few and far between especially for less generic titles, that's why we always end up bumping into the same like ten people again and again.. .
Assault Freak
Actually that's pretty much any FPS mainstream or not, at least at first, and if you play most of them for long enough (RTR being one of them) than you gain a core group of people you enjoy playing with, as I'm sure you've experienced your self.
So yeah the newbies will just button mash but the more advanced guys will jump around at odd angles, get behind you to fire, set up quickly in ambush spots when they hear you coming and get you with the crossfire, use different weapons for various ranges depending on what they're best with, use their knowledge of the map to quickly hit all the main item spawning areas, adjust their aim constantly and use bursts while they are firing to avoid recoil ETC.
And I'm talking from experience, being somewhere between intermediate and advanced in terms of skill with that game my self and having watched the top dogs on the camera, though it always takes me a bit to get my groove back when I've been gone for a while LOL.
It's the same with Redspot as well, though I only ever got to an intermediate level their and not for very long.
You tend to make your own fun rather than having a bunch of difficult but sequential moves to use for instance, playing stealth based or highly goal oriented missions, or having the advanced cover and raised firing positions provided by mainstream games, but it's still their for sure.