You may have seen some recent posts, on social media accounts often related to self-serious multiplayer shooters, about the “skill gap” – the general disparity in possibility between professional players and casual fans in a given game.
For competitive multiplayer games, the “skill gap” is worth obsessing over. Let’s say someone who hasn’t played a game before can combine several buttons and take out the best player on the field. It’s a low skill gap, and nothing fun to watch. But watching a match with a high skill gap is like watching an Olympic sport, gawking at the pros performing jaw-dropping ballet moves, all while making them feel like a piece of cake. cake. You always hear the “skill gap” mentioned in high-level conversation on games like Halo and Call of Duty.
But not now. No, this time the game everyone is obsessed with is Autumn boys, a two-year-old royale platformer is getting its second headwind right now, in part because it’s a blast worth watching. Turned out, Autumn boysdespite its unsurpassed silence and Mario Party-hijinks are full of sweat, there seems to be a ridiculously high skill gap.
It’s not often that a game takes the world by storm twice. British studio Mediatonic released for the first time Autumn boys for PlayStation 4 and PC in August 2020, the pastel visuals and sense of connection (60 players at once!) prove to be a social lifeline in the darkest days of the pandemic. The community exploded, thanks in part to the buzz drummed by a unique publicity campaign based on Twitch. But it’s also really fun: Each round plays out as a series of creative, mini-games, slowly reducing the number of players until only a single winner remains.
In March 2021, Epic Games has acquired Mediatonic. Autumn boys came to Xbox and Switch last month. At the same time, following in the footsteps of Rocket League—Another multiplayer game developed by a studio that was purchased by Epic after the meteoric buzz—Autumn boys Fully adopt the free-to-play model.
Free to play is a huge boon for Autumn boysif you can skip woe server startup date. Last week, Mediatonic said Autumn boys was played by 50 million people since its free play axis. (Some of the biggest free-to-play shooters in the world, like Fortnite and Apex Legends, have a watch record about 70 million unique players per month. Estimate closing action role-playing The Genshin effect with a little shyness of 65 million.)
That brings us to Autumn boys‘New skill gap appeared. With such a large player base, certain people must have good minds in the game, far beyond the standard players. One such clip performing laps (7 million views and counting, as of the time of this writing) shows a player trying to perfect a perfect run through one of the game’s races. play. It was first shared yesterday morning by Modern WarzonePopular Call of Duty fan account, who quipped that “Autumn boys has a higher skill gap” than Activision’s high stakes battle royale:
The clip alone provoked a confused reaction from some of the biggest names in competitive esports. “I was clearly wrong [skull emoji]” Alex “Shyway” Hopea famous Halo e-sports analyst and expert, said in a tweet. “Bruh on god, no video games are normal anymore wtf [face with tears of joy emoji]” Jake Luckyfamous e-sports commentator, said in a tweet.
That’s just one example of a remarkable miniature cottage industry where Autumn boys players are sharing impressive gameplay clips and then garnering hundreds of thousands of views (or more). Some have demonstrated “skill jumps”, where players use inactive but physically moveable paths through multiplayer stages:
Others bragged about their 50 consecutive wins back, another form of proof that Autumn boys there is a legal skill gap and not based on luck:
Oh, yes, and if you still don’t believe in the game’s sudden and undeniable second wave of domination, there’s this: cloning, capitalism’s true hallmark of success. Nintendo has Kirby’s dream buffet In the work, announced yesterday and is expected to release the Switch this summer. (Obviously, the development of Kirby’s dream buffet was here a long time ago Autumn boys switched to a free-to-play model last month.) Just this week, Falling gamea clone so shameless that it’s bound to get the DMCA out of the sky, topping the iPhone chart.
Damn, I’m totally reloading Autumn boys tonight, right?
