Why do people even play competitive games?

[Alienslayer2406]

All the time I see streamers playing competitive games and it's always the same. They spawn in, put fifteen rounds into their first target and die in one hit. It's the same thing repeated over and over again. Those who get better gear (usually because pay-2-win) dominate the game and make it harder for everyone else. Some of those who lose even rage hard enough to damage their set-up, like this:
https://youtu.be/6mfZytbw68c
https://youtu.be/j5tHydRLxQI
They're obviously not having fun. And don't get me started on the toxicity in these games' communities. League of Legends is infamous for being one of the most toxic games out there. The average COD player is still portrayed as being an edgy, irresponsible, racist kid, despite the fact that most of them are probably grown adults now.

And it's like this with literally every competitive game I've seen so far; Overwatch, LoL, Warzone, Fortnite, etc. These games can't be entertaining. Things like lootboxes and whatnot make it clear that the devs don't even intend to make a fun game, but just get more revenue. This is why almost every recently released game feels soulless, because we keep supporting companies that don't respect an art medium.

[Crazy Tiger]

Some people simply like being miserable.

[TRethehedgehog]

High ego

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Too bad streamers aren't allowed to rage out that hard in streams anymore without getting banned for it.

[xAlphaStarOmegax]

I don't know why. To each their own; I prefer solo games for the most part.

[TwisterCat]

Battlefield is competitive, pay-to-win, and toxic, but nobody really gets angry playing it. Like, the MK11 is straight-up the most broken overpowered weapon in multiplayer gaming, but nobody really cares.

Fun? No, the Sims is fun. League of Legends is engaging. You can get into a competitive game, really forget about everything else for awhile, and feel good at something.

[Xero_Daxter]

This is why I play League of Legends. A game that I don’t recommend.

[Tonepoet]

Part of the reason is that the feelings of pride and successfulness when you get one over on your opponent and win outweigh the frustrations of losing. Part of the reason is because some people are more mature and rational than to throw temper tantrums like a 3 year old when they do not get their way. Part of the reason is because a competent human opponent provides a much less predictable challenge than the A.I. of a single player campaign mode.

Also, the competitive gamespace was not always pay to win garbage. We used to have games like Street Fighter II, N.B.A. Jam, various Bomberman games Quake III Arena and Starcraft II, which were designed to be level playing fields. That's to say nothing of more traditional tabletop games like poker and chess.

Also, pay to win is somewhat of a misnomer. It's more like pay to cheat. You might not be an overall winner without paying, but not everybody who pays wins and a free to play player can still get one over on at least some of the paying players. That tends to be a good consolidation prize.

[Shiro♌]

I do play competitive games with.. below average setup.. I can barely run all of the games above ~150 stable frames per seconds..

Yet, I tend to dominate most of the time, especially if I trigger my competitive mindset and get some sugar while I'm at it, like coffee. It's not all sugar, but it does the trick better than everything I know about.
Do note, I am no competitive player.. I do play for fun, and I do actually enjoy losing if the gameplay and entertainment was there.
I do no longer rage nowadays, probably because I do lack the energy for that, and because I am finding it interesting how much I can analyze my gameplay to see what all I can improve. Not that I do ever remind myself to be more careful next time, I do always forget it.. But telling myself such stuff is fun for the time being.

I do mostly play Valorant, Rocket League, and Dead by Daylight.. While Dead by Daylight being a partly competitive game, as it isn't balanced around VOIP in mind, and is asymmetrical, the exact opposite to ever be considered as a competitive videogame. If there's a real weird game out there, it's this one, where how the tiles generate matters more than your gameplay.
Losing or winning is irrelevant, as long as everybody's having fun. I do try my bests to make the match fun for all sides even if it means shooting myself in the foot and losing the match.

Valorant is only played with friends nowadays.. I have used to be a lone wolf, but being near people who compliment my well played rounds really keeps me going.. And we can have fun just doing some really questionable plays, and they do work due to us being coordinated.
Bonus points for me being the most experienced of the entire party, feeling like a leader and giving them a suggestion or two with my own thoughts and facts.

As for Rocket League.. That's just a soccer.
I don't care if I win or lose, as long as I can participate and not be outplayed more than ~50% of the time. I do wanna feel like I have contributed to the victory, and have people having fun at the same time.

[Haemorrhoid Graboid]

It's all about the teabagging or poopscooting victory parades.

[Candyy]

I mostly see lame points here...

You clearly have some misunderstanding with the word competitive...

Competitive: "Wanting to win or be more successful than other people"

Everybody does this in PvP games (which is why ppl play in the first place) which means that ALL PvP games are competitive, not just that these 6 games you mentioned... A game does not need to be an e-sport to be considered competitive, is just that those who have an e-sport scene are more appealing to ppl and has big following v:

As for the same thing repeated again, it applies to all games, in all games you do the same things over and over, is part of all games, just that have some story and some not, so that point is lame

As for toxicity, it literaly exists on all games, even those who are not competitive like cooperative games and even singleplayer game if you bother to interact with anybody in there if possible (or through websites like this one) and in most cases is just ppl acting and trying to hold their laugh while trashtalking so also another lame point

Also, as for the streamers destroying equipment... Ok so what is your point here? Like streamers doing this are incredibly rare... Also that does not mean anything when it comes to someones gameplay or enjoyment...
And lets not forget acting exists too... And these ppl can buy new keyboards anyways

As for pay to win ,I do not know all of these but I did play fortnite and I did not see anything pay to win 🤷

Money in fortnite gets you cosmetics and season pass,is something most free to play games do and I like the idea of not having to pay to play... Becuase I can just play the game without spending a single euro and then the cosmetics are just bonus...

[Basho]

i dont like playing competitive games most of the time (with some exceptions) because its too stressful for my taste.
it can get the adrenaline flowing though so i can see why some people like it, and improving your skill at a game can also feel rewarding.

in regards to getting 1-shotted, i cant comment on this since i dont know what game(s) this refers to.
in any of the games i care about this either dont happen or there is a very good reason for it, so i cant comment.

as for raging... no streamer i care about do that. maybe if kids make up a large part of the audience some streamers will capitalize on that for reactions i guess, but again i wouldnt know.

as an example, i see none of the suggested events or behaviors displayed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHhe9H7PAA8

[TwisterCat]

Originally posted by Soniaa ♡:

You clearly have some misunderstanding with the word competitive...

Competitive: "Wanting to win or be more successful than other people"

No. Competitive is a different beast, it's not like the dictionary definition would have you believe.. It's a term coined by CS. It essentially means "ultra competitive," the competitive mode of an already competitive game.

Not all competitive modes are ranked modes. League of Legend's normal's draft is competitive, whereas a normal game of Rocket League is not.

The toxicity you'll find isn't just banter, it's pure anger and disappointment in you as a player.

[Shiro♌]

Originally posted by Soniaa ♡:

As for pay to win ,I do not know all of these but I did play fortnite and I did not see anything pay to win 🤷

Some decent hardware can provide you with unfair advantage over other players.
If you do have some experiences from the same genre, having one of the best up-to-date hardware can give you very high advantage, something that's being ignored just because people aren't playing E-Sport tournaments while playing online most of the time.
Thing is, the difference is big and can be frustrating.. Very frustrating.

If you do some research, you can easily find out that some hardware and very fast network connection can make you see enemies X miliseconds faster than they can see you.
At that point and nowadays, hardware starts to matter more and more while your skill and development as a gamer don't matter as much as they've used to.. Unfortunately.

[Alienslayer2406]

Originally posted by xAlphaStarOmegax:

I don't know why. To each their own; I prefer solo games for the most part.

Me too. I bought The Long Dark on Steam a few days ago and been having a blast. It's an almost poetic survival experience involving only you and Mother Nature. Highly recommend, if you haven't played already.

[Xero_Daxter]

Have you ever tried so hard in a game and after you won it felt like it wasn’t worth it because you were stressing out more than having fun.