Right now, with where tarkov is at, it is so far above basically any game with a similar gameplay loop, that it's really no contest at all. Games like "the cycle" or something will pop up and tarkov players who are sick with tarkov will go play that for a bit before inevitably realizing that game is simply nowhere near well made enough to possible compete with tarkov, then they come back to tarkov. With the place it's at now, bsg has basically no incentive at all to make changes for the game that are actually widely received as positive. I'm all for developers making the game they want to make, but I think it'd be hard to argue that this game has increasingly ended up going towards the "so punishing and hard-core it's no longer fun" territory. And yes I know Nikita is quoted as saying he doesn't want tarkov to be a "fun game" but I feel like that's mostly because it doesn't have to be. The current recoil system is bad. I don't think I've ever heard anyone be like "yeah I actually really like my gun kicking up to the fucking sky everytime I fire a bullet unless I spent 400k rubles on the gun build." Most people don't seem to like the way they keep changing strength and weight limits. The loot on every map is fucking trash and has been for like 2 or 3 wipes. None of that matters at all though, because it's tarkov. There's nothing that even comes REMOTELY close to being like tarkov or as well made or in depth as tarkov, and so bsg has carte-blanche to do whatever the fuck they want with tarkov, even if that means making the game objectively less enjoyable for 90% of players.
I feel like if there was some other game out there that did the same sorta thing as tarkov even HALF as well, but was just like actually enjoyable, bsg would be forced to actually make beneficial changes to the game, since, if given the choice between fun and not-fun. I feel like people would probably pick fun (although I can't be too sure with tarkov players I guess)
