u/Calligaster

This happened several years ago, roughly 2010ish when i was ~14 (maybe closer to 12?) or so, but it's a day I find myself returning to in my mind. My sister had moved out maybe a year before this. It was Sunday morning mid-winter (about 20° F out, probably about 10 with wind-chill). My sister was apparently sick this day and decided to hang out with us, driving herself to our home and cozying up on the couch right next to the main door. This happened to be trash day, and I was expected to gather all the trash from the house and take them to the curb. Normally what I did at this point was gather all the trash by the door (heat is expensive so it's usually worth it to have a brief stench in the area to keep the heat in).

As my sister was experiencing a stomach bug, I figured it would be best to sacrifice some heat to avoid triggering her nausea. I knew in the back of my mind that she would wind up criticizing me regardless of what I did, so I picked the lesser of two evils. Could I have asked her beforehand? Perhaps, but the relationship we had at the time was... Volatile. Any contact between us could set off a fight, so this was the path with the smallest chance of an upset.

After a few bags had been put outside the door, my prophesy came true and she complained about the door being opened repeatedly and letting the heat out. I told her it was either that or have garbage piled up right behind her. She responded something like I didn't need to open the door for every bag. I was just following my regular route for garbage collection. I pointed out that she would have complained either way and my mom actually backed me up on that.

A bit more arguing, she escalated from there and said something about how she was sick, and I said something along the lines of "But you weren't too sick to drive all the way here." She threw a fit and when my mom tried to stop her from leaving she responded with a brand of sarcasm so similar to our dad that it may as well be genetic: "No, I'm able to drive so clearly I'm not that sick!" And she slammed the door and left.

From my perspective, she left her home and drove to ours, risking spreading whatever she had (she didn't), complained after I chose the path of least antagonism and had enough energy to argue. My mom says she doesn't like being alone when she's sick and that I was too harsh on her. Meanwhile, I generally wanted to be alone when I was sick (still do). Partially because it's embarrassing and partially trying to be considerate.

So was I the asshole for what I said at the end?

I used to love this game with a passion. I was able to keep playing past the nerfs because I still loved it. I criticized the things I didn't like because, despite the many gripes I had throughout the games history, there was clearly talent at Arrowhead that knew how to put together a good game. Right? Well with the past several balance changes I'm starting to think they made a great game on complete accident. They caught lightning in a bottle, and they keep opening it up because it's not the bottle they intended.

So go ahead. Keep balancing at the expense of fun. Keep pushing half-baked updates. Enforce "realism" when it suits you and when that doesn't work, invoke "balance" and "fairness". Keep taking away cool techniques simply because they're unintended. After all, rocket jumping was removed from Quake because it was "unrealistic", "unbalanced", and "unintended" and the game was made better for it, right? What's that? It was an absurdly popular use of the physics engine that raised the skill cap and spawned entire game modes in its successors?

If Arrowhead ever sees and follows the light at the end of their own ass I might come back. But my expectations, hopes, and enthusiasm are just that low. I've literally never been this apathetic to this game. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever had my love of a game taken behind a shed like this. Congratulations, Arrowhead. You now have one less voice pleading for you to do better.

Edit: been with the game since the TCS in spring of '24 BTW. Joined right after the community unlocked the first exosuits. Funny thing, history. It tends to rhyme.