“Live. Die. Live” encourages all of the wrong behaviors in the game. Luckily, it is easy to fix.

Wrong behavior #1

Quitting

One of the most frustrating aspects of Apex is teammates quitting immediately when they are downed. I think “Live. Die. Live” tries to encourage players to stick around, but it does so in a half-hearted way that actually has the opposite effect. Teammates are quitting at much higher frequencies, eliminating the entire point of this game type.

Many (most) players get downed early in the first round, and, 95% of players in this community are not going to wait the 3+ minutes it takes to respawn in round 2. There are many cases in the classic game where you can be respawned at a beacon within 30 seconds, and even then many players don’t wait.

Wrong behavior #2

Not helping teammates

One of the consequences of this game type is that players, including myself, will be much more inclined to run away from a fight when a teammate is downed. But this is not really what Apex is/should be about, and results in passive and avoidant decisions that don’t really improve the gameplay or help players improve.

The solution:

The way to solve these issues, encourage players to engage in prolonged fights, and stick around after being dropped is simple: Rather than respawn at the start of the next round, begin a 30 second respawn timer when eliminated. If at least one teammate is still alive, respawn.

This will have many positive effects:

1. Much less quitting
2. Encourages team to engage in and finish fights
3. Be fun as hell. Constant fighting and re-engagements possible.

I think this is a good game type, but is broken because it was only half-executed. Imagine if the gold-duo game was just a 10% increase in gold rarity. It would not have been that fun. But if Respawn goes all out with this and it could be the most fun we’ve had in this game. Until then, I’m waiting for “always be closing” which I think will bring some of the same type of energy needed in this game.