Wheather it is Battlefield, Elite: Dangerous, Hawken, League of Legends, World of Tanks/Warships/Planes etc.
I have increasingly spotted a certain playstyle of a group of players which I call "passive playstyle" and IMO this is very harmful to a team.
But to understand how and why it is harmful I'd like to shortly explain the difference between the two meanings of "Team" or "Teamwork".
First you have a team, you are thrown into a party of random or selected players which each their individual playstyle for example tank, front liner, assassin, support or whatnot.
Depending on the game, a playstyle may or may not determine the efficiency of a team (for example 5 supports may win against a mixed team or not depending on the game).
IMO a good game does not punish any given playstyle so an arbitrary troll team of 5 supports should well have a chance against a mixed team.
However, durign a match I started to see a difference in a player's behavior. Some like to play in a team and some may not. This is no news but I want to focus on the ones who actually DO like to play in a team (not the one like me for example hehe).
There are two kinds of teamplayers: The active and the passive teamplayer. You can basically devide these up in two mindsets.
The active teampalyer sees the oppotunities and power in being and working as a team. He/She knows very well that a group of allies comes with great benefits and only minor disadvantages for example increased firepower, defnesive capabilities but at a cost of more visibility and less mobility.
The active teamplayer tries to actively use these advantages and to counter the disadvantages by adapting to the situation. If the team gets flanked, the active teamplayer takes the initiative and goes for a counter flank while the rest of the team holds the front line. Or if a teammate is currently flanking, the active teamplayer goes in for an aggressive manouver as they are currently attacking from two sides.
This kind of teamplayer usually leads a team to success and is (if everything goes well) considered at the end of the game as the carry. Not only does he usually score the most kills and stuff but most importantly knows when to do certain things like flanking, pushing, etc.
Now the passive teamplayer is the one who does not acts by its own. Usually adapting to the team's manouvers and actions and just following the group without really thinking about what is happening now.
This kind of player lieks to be in a team but rarely works as a team. He/She is repsonsible for the weakness and disadvantages as this kind of player usually won't even recorgnize when or when not the right moment comes to push or to hold the front line. He/She is strongly reliant on teammates protecting and supporting him/her while not supporting or protecting other teammates him-/herself.
This results in safe play where it is not needed or aggressive play where it is fatal, effectively wasting the resources and potential of the whole idea of teamwork.
Claiming "I like to play in a team." would be a wrong formulation as "I like to BE in a team." is way more accurate.
The minor but critical difference here is that being in a team and working as a team is the main decisive factor of winning or losing a match for a team as a whole.
So this is something that I have spotted on some team based games and as soon as I spot such a passive player I do my very best to seperate this kind of player form the team as (as mentioned before) they do harm the team IMO. I have seen lots of good players getting thrown in with a team full of passive players all following wrong player but in the nature of games the skill gap is most likely not the main decisive factor (unfortunately).
Do you have spotted this or a similiar playstyle in other games too? Do you think passive playing is harmful? Leave your thoughts below. :)
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