Happens in all PvP games. Even when most players aren't SmugMcToxicFace if they just curbstomp new players and never actively help them get better then they will quickly run out of new people to play against.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned one of the most amazing things of pre-internet games: No wikis or video tutorials.
Sure there were some magazines if you were lucky and they might offer some hints or maps that could help but that's nothing compared to the full playthroughs you can find hours after a new game releases today. You might think that made the games harder and more frustrating and you'ld be right. You could struggle for weeks to get past a single level.
But that also meant that every victory you had was your own. That was a feeling that is very hard to obtain today without a lot of self discipline.
See if a teacher did that for real today nobody there would laugh.Not because it isn't funny but because most of them can't read and wouldn't get it!
🥁
I got invited to a party once. Well, a search party. But then they cancelled it when they found out it was for my dog. They figured it was in a better place wherever it ran off to.
Steam is way better now at weeding those out of the stats that show on the store page. Vote brigading still happens of course but a couple minutes of skimming top reviews will make that obvious.
The trick is to pay attention to reviews and not waste time on the garbage. When a game is 97% recommended out of 150,000+ reviews it might be worth checking out.
Happens in all PvP games. Even when most players aren't SmugMcToxicFace if they just curbstomp new players and never actively help them get better then they will quickly run out of new people to play against.