Hours of the day passing with different games on the monitor. Image made by Me in Paint
Sometimes I'll have a free day and, after checking my list of things to do, will decide to spend my day on a single online game. Playing the same game for hours, going from match to match, I'll start to notice a shift in the general play style of the players. But I realize its not the play styles that are shifting, it's the players!
It might be obvious that after an average play session, many of the current players log out and a whole new group of players are logging in and queueing up. I am now going up against an entirely different demographic of players.
These players probably have a 'set' schedule and login at the same time whenever they can and thus have gotten used to how the 'pool' of players for that time of day play. The shift in play style is slow at first before being obviously notable in the difference of how they play. I'll adapt to this new playstyle over the next few matches, but by the time I am acclimated there is now another shift of play style and once again I find myself playing against a whole other pool of players!
This has happened to me often enough that I now notice the distinction between the different pools of players. I understand that my times will obviously differ from somebody in a different time zone but for me the player difference corresponding with time of day are:
- Morning Player Pool
The morning players are generally average in play style. Not too good, not too bad. They're not playing to prove a point to anybody, they are just there to play and enjoy the game.
The morning groups are a great way to start the day because many of the matches are fair for all sides.
- Afternoon Player Pool
Many players from this time slot are ones who follow the META. They'll run the optimal builds/load outs and many of the abilities/tactics used are the same. After a few matches it begins to feel like playing against a copy machine. It becomes easy for me to identify and predict what they're going to do after a few matches because its all the same.
The matches here are usually one sided. Teams are unequal and the matches are either too hard or too easy because one team will have more players running the META than the other.
- Evening Player Pool
These are the experts(read: Tryhards) of the game and this group of players do not mess around. They aren't here to have fun, they aren't here to mingle, they aren't here because somebody told them to be here, they are only here to rack up as many kills as efficiently as possible while maintaining a positive K/D ratio.
These players know every inch of the map, the specifics of every piece of gear, and can definitely tell every move a player will make before they make it based on a brief observation they had before engaging.
Matches with this pool of players are always close. Watching expert players engage with each other is similar to watching the main characters of an anime fight. "They're moving faster than my eyes can see!", Not like that but it is still impressive to witness.
- Late night/Early Morning Player pool
The mixed bag. It's difficult to get a feel for play styles as everybody is doing their own thing. I should feel right at home here! If I bothered to stay up this late I must be free tomorrow as well!
I am now playing against/with players from another side of the earth completely and there is no real rhyme or rhythm to how these players play. Either they too are staying up late and well into the gaming fatigue zone or their ping is 300-999 and its impossible for me to know which way their character will move.
This is like the twilight zone of gaming for me. I never know what I'll find, who I will be fighting or what tactics will work as every player is as unorthodox as me or their ping allows things that shouldn't be possible in the regular game.
It's always worth a laugh or two at the situations I find myself in.
- Where I Stand Amongst These Pools
I just log on whenever I am free. Because I don't have a set time to login I don't follow the play styles for that specific group/time of day. I am like an invasive species in this space.
Players from the same pool will make a decision based on what they think the other player will do based on experience of that specific play style.
I don't know what the best option is for that moment because I don't have that pool of players play style memorized, so I just make a move that makes sense to me but it definitely won't make sense for that players play style.
I am usually an anomaly that causes a brief moment of panic because I didn't follow 'The Plan' but being anomalous usually only buys me a few moments of time to get one up on them before they frag me. It's not like I am at a huge advantage for not knowing that time slots play style, I just make moves they aren't expecting.
---Ending---
This post is just me sharing an observation. Obviously a player who fits into their scheduled pool will do much better than me just barging into the space unaware of how everything works and what is expected from the player.
There's also the fact that Playing for hours may cause fatigue to build up and it could be me not playing optimally and not the players changing play styles. But as a counter point, I've noticed far too many of these situations of 'Average' players in the morning, 'META' players in the afternoon, and expert(Tryhards) players in the evening and all of their respective play style trademarks too often for it to be a coincidence.
If there's any other players who have noticed something similar while playing as the day progresses I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
That's all for now. Thank you for reading!
Happy Gaming!