Topside
If we Raiders band together before the ARC get buffed, we may stand a chance...
If you aren’t a video game person…stick around anyway…
Maybe you’ve heard people talking about the first person shooter game, ARC Raiders. It’s a pretty new, very popular extraction, third-person video game that takes place in a dystopian version of the world. In the game, solo players, duos, or trios leave the underground base, go “topside,” and search for items on the planet’s surface during 30 minute raids. During each raid, Raiders will likely encounter hostile NPC robots known simply as “ARC”. In addition to the deadly ARC, other raiders / human players are the greatest threat besides the harsh conditions presented by different game modes (cold snap, electromagnetic storm, etc.)
Prior to going topside, each player loads their raider’s kit of supplies or “load out,” into their backpack. This consists of bandages, shields, shield rechargers to repair their shields when damaged, adrenaline stim shots, several kinds of grenades and explosives, different guns & ammunition, and keys to access secured rooms within the topside maps or hatches to extract back below ground.
If a raider dies topside, they lose everything they brought with them (unless they have an augment kit that contains a “safe pocket,” allowing them to place an item or two there and return safely with it - regardless of the outcome of the raid). We playfully refer to using our safe pocket as “keistering,” an item, putting it in our “prison pocket,” or shoving the loot up our ass.
Players can escape topside via extraction elevators, air shafts, metro stations, and the raider hatches I mentioned before (if they have a hatch key). Once the raiders return to the underground base safely, they can sell the items in their backpack, upgrade their raider perks and skills, buy items, or craft weapons, gadgets, armor, and ammo for the next raid. Additionally, there are quests throughout the game through the game’s vendors, requiring players to seek out specific items topside or visit specific locations and maps.
The lore of the game is important…
ARC Raiders takes place here on Earth, but the year is 2180. They say that decades earlier, hostile machines of unknown origin - the ARC - came from space and attacked humans (there are rumors within the fandom that the ARC were sent by the wealthy and elite who were able to escape on rockets years earlier). Warfare went on for years and the humans who survived on earth were forced underground, to a place now known as “Speranza”.
The lore implies that although raiders are encouraged to cooperate, raiding is unregulated and some raiders choose to hunt, kill each other, and steal from each other.
When the game originally dropped, I observed many of my favorite FPS (first person shooter) streamers play ARC Raiders. They played the game PvP style, meaning they went after other raiders, looted their bodies, and gathered the highest achievements that way.
Rather quickly, a debate within the gaming community began:
Is this a PvP or a PvE game?
Is this a player versus player or a player versus environment game?
However, there are many players on the PvP side of this game who feel like the PvE players are weak and aren’t playing the game properly. They shoot the players regardless of the “friendly,” callout. They do not care if your gun is holstered. If two teams have agreed to become allies and take out a “boss” ARC together, often a third, random team will show up and kill them all, loot the ARC, and leave.
Why does this matter? It doesn’t.
Does it?
We have a choice.
We can fight the machine that is working to oppress us ALL or we can fight each other.
The toxicity in this game is laser focused on being a creep. I’ve been called a “whore,” I have been told, “This is Muslim country. You shouldn’t leave the house without your head covered.” One consistent element of the PvP in this game is the creep factor. Rarely does another player just kill me. It is far more common for them to hear my voice, identify it as female (to them), and then they say they’re friendly, corner me in a room, and then they turn on me and kill me. The thing these players seem to enjoy most is tormenting the other players. It’s as though they enjoy the terror. They love to strike when your guard is down. This is not like other PvP games, if you’re playing it PvE. I watch popular streamers like The Burnt Peanut and Gingy. They do not encounter the same creepy, predatory behavior in-game, and I speculate it’s because they too are playing PvP, like their killers. If they announced themselves as friendly, a predator in-game would be more likely to see them as a weak mark.
The devs have said that the game uses aggression-based matchmaking. Supposedly, your engagement in gunfighting and firing first upon other players impacts the type of players you’re matched with in-lobbies. Therefore, if you fire at a lot of other players or teams, you’re going to end up in lobbies where that happens more frequently. If you fire at ARC mostly, loot for supplies, and play passively, it’s more likely you’ll end up in lobbies with players who align with that play style. Anecdotally, in 26 raids last weekend, I ran into 3 PvPs. All three times, the other players fired at us first, killed us, took our loot, and we returned below ground to Speranza with nothing (unless we had a safe pocket for an item or two).
Two weeks ago, I had a booster ketamine infusion and during it, I went to a world which I believe was meant to be “Topside,” and while there, I saw a person banging on a door in a bullet proof vest and a dark ski mask. I reached for my gun to shoot him and I heard, “If you do shoot him, it will change the way you play the game forever.”
We’re told, “Don’t shoot first,” because if you do, the game will see that as aggression and you’re more likely to end up in those lobbies. We’re told if we fight back against ICE, he may invoke Martial Law and this all may get so much worse.
The PvPers will always call us weak. They’ll always call us “pussies,” because we won’t play the game the way they want us to, but the truth is…they can’t force us to rise to their level of aggression. That isn’t a game I want to play at all.
These things have happened when I’ve played the game my way:
I met a friendly Raider selling blueprints for guns and grenades at one of the extraction points.
A legion of medics who call themselves Rescue Raiders has formed. They go Topside with healing items, they respond to flares that pop when a raider needs help, they heal them, ensure they have what they need, and get them to the extraction point - if necessary. I ran into some Rescue Raiders for the first time last weekend and IT WAS AWESOME. I didn’t need their help at the time. In fact, my trio had just loaded into Blue Gate (a map) and we saw a raider flare pop (meaning they needed help and had been downed by either an ARC or another player). We were nearby so we responded to see if we could help. As we approached an announced that we were friendly and had defibrillators to revive them, we heard voices shouting, “BLUE GATE RESCUE RAIDERS. IS EVERYONE OKAY OVER HERE?” and about six raiders approached in a spread out, strategic formation. Meaning, there were two trios of Rescue Raiders in one lobby, keeping PvEers safe.
I’ve traded dozens of items with random strangers.
I have played musical instruments within the game and laughed with strangers.
I have revived dozens of strangers and been revived by strangers.
I have taken down ARCs with strangers and danced on their dead bodies with strangers and we celebrated and shared the loot.
I practiced my Spanish in a lobby with strangers who were very kind.
And just last weekend, one of my favorite interactions ever within the game took place…
I was running a night raid on the map Stella Montis and almost immediately after I loaded into the map Topside, I heard a man’s voice say, “I am so lost. I have no idea where I am. Can anyone hear me or help me? I’m friendly. I’m doing a quest and get so turned around on this map.” It can be a confusing map and I was running a “free load out,” meaning it’s a simple load out provided by the game and doesn't contain any of my leveled up guns or shields. I figured if I got killed, I would’t be sacrificing anything I cared about. I unmuted my mic, said I might be able to help, and began trying to locate the other player. I stepped out into the open, hopped up on a crate, and flashed my flashlight on and off several times, asking if he could see my light. For the next several minutes, we both moved around, giving callouts, trying to find each other - all whilst battling the ARC that were firing at both of us in our respective locations - undoubtedly moving us further away from each other. After about 3 minutes, other voices chimed in, offering their assistance. Before long, there were a bunch of raiders trying to help. Player after player saying things like, “Stay where you are. I think you’re in the room next to me. I’ll breach this door here. I’m coming. Don’t shoot. I’ll help, ok?” A man with a DEEP southern drawl sighed and said, “Brother, I think you’re below me. Stay put and I can get you to Archives since you said that’s where you’re headed.” and the lost man replied, “I’M DOWNSTAIRS?!” and a chorus of laughter erupted over the comms from everywhere. After some time, I’d filled my backpack with random loot as I’d been moving around, trying to assist the lost raider, and I was ready to extract. As I made my way to the air shaft to leave, I heard voices still sort of helping, I passed several friendly raiders and we chatted about the lost dude, I heard voices playfully teasing, and I heard so much laughter and giggling - including the lost raider, himself.
The thing about PvP is the raids become repetitive. Each time feels the same. I load in, I engage in a gunfight, it’s over. War is always the same. But, when I play PvE, it feels like it’s often something unique like this. It’s human and it’s something I can’t wait to tell my friends about who play ARC. If I wanted to play the other way, there are so many FPS, PvP games to play. I would just do that there, on Rainbow Six, COD, Battlefield or Apex, but ARC Raiders is where I feel a sense of community in those moments. It’s where I am reminded that there are other people like me out there in the world - calling out “friendly,” into the void…waiting for someone to reply back. I’m reminded that there are other people who want to join together, against the machine, team up, and make it home safely in the end.
The other side can try as hard as they want. They can tease me and say I’m afraid to engage in combat, but the truth is once I start, I worry the way I play the game will change forever and for now, I still prefer it this way.
