Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund shared an interesting insight about ARC Raiders.
In an interview with Dean Takahashi, he said this (edited for clarity):
I think one of the beauties of this game is that we don’t have those leaderboards and it’s not competitive.
We don’t want to necessarily foster that type of gameplay. The game isn’t about shooting other players.
You can do that if you want to, but that’s not kind of the ethos of the game, it has never been to go in and shoot players.
Patrick then explained how they use the possibility of PvP to create tension. As players hear other players nearby, they’re forced to decide to meet or avoid them.
Patrick said that ARC Raiders uses aggression-based matchmaking in the same interview. Many player encounters turn out non-violent as a result.
Does that sound like it’s missing the point? But GTA Online and Fortnite players will tell you this is a new normal in multiplayer game behavior now.
Escape from Tarkov players may turn their nose up on how ARC Raiders is still an extraction shooter. But maybe Embark is making their own genre now.