Of course, there are two inescapable truths of online gaming: Players will often become furious and quit the game when they lose, and they'll try absolutely everything they can to be victorious. It's all logical enough, after all. People like to win and they don't like losing, and the latter is especially true when they feel they've lost in an unfair manner.
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Players are worryingly adept at ruining their own fun in games sometimes, one way or another. Here are some very popular strategies from across the history of multiplayer gaming that really have harmed the experience.
5 Sandbagging
The Mario Kart Series
Those boastful players who typically lead the pack during Mario Kart races like to decry the item selection they're given there. In the front of the pack, an endless supply of green shells and banana peels is less than inspiring, though the addition of the Super Horn later in the series helped to offer a bit more defense from the dreaded Spiny Shell. In a close race, then, being in the lead with a way still to go is a liability, because you have to defend yourself from all sorts and don't have much to do it with.
For this reason, the rather unsporting practice of sandbagging arose. This is when players hang back earlier in a race intentionally, avoiding some of the carnage while picking up an arsenal of the strongest items. This way, you can rocket to the front of the pack at the right time, avoiding the coveted-yet-vulnerable pole position until the time is right. It's a shame that this is such an effective tactic, but that's just the way Mario Kart's designed. Some kart racers, such as underated classic Konami Krazy Racers on the Game Boy Advance, don't weight its items in this way, dialing up the mayhem when you can't quite tell what the first-placed racer may have.
4 Choosing The Same Tired Meta Team Members
The Pokemon Series
Once again, players want to win in a competitive scenario, and it's hard to begrudge them using the strongest assets they have available to them. That's how you increase your chances. Additionally, Game Freak does have a way of introducing absurdly powerful Pokemon, perhaps not quite appreciating the impact they'll have on the meta until it's too late and the games are out in the wild. Still, that doesn't mean it isn't tedious to see the same Pokemon on the majority of teams. After the launch of Pokemon X & Y, for instance, players immediately noticed that Mega Kangaskhan, with its Parental Bond Ability, was absurdly powerful, as were the likes of Mega Charizard Y and Mega Mawile. It was some time before Game Freak nerfed the Ability so the second hit was weaker, and Kangaskhan has long since cemented its place as one of the most absurd Pokemon ever.
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Some series titles have been a little healthier and more varied on this score than others, but it really does constrain team building when you've always got to set some resources asides for a small handful of utterly predictable threats. Imbalance is natural when there are more than one thousand Pokemon, and this is why competitive communities like Smogon have developed tier-based play so that other Pokemon get a chance to shine. It shouldn't be so astonishing when a critter like Pachirisu becomes a world champion.
3 The Infamous DMR Spam
Halo 4
Of course, this can be broadly applied to a wide range of FPS titles, as there's little more ubiquitous than camping and spamming the most effective weapon. A well-wielded sniper can really lock down key areas of the battlefield for the team, and if everyone's got something as powerful and all around effective as Halo 4's DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle), games are in danger of degrading into potshots from across the map with little movement.
FPS players can sometimes be reluctant to pursue an objective over hanging back and blasting away, and the trusty DMR wasn't much help in discouraging the latter. It's effective at a distance and closer in too, and while it certainly isn't replacing the likes of a shotgun at very close range, it's much more versatile than a traditional sniper while effectively acting like one. Other options in its category like the Covenant Carbine struggled to compete and were often forgotten in players' loadouts, making them feel rather uniform and reducing battle strategy.
2 Hitting The Meta Knight Win Button
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
The Super Smash Bros. Games have some of the largest and most ridiculous rosters in gaming, with the idea being to ensure that as many games and series are represented as possible. WIith Masuhiro Sakurai's obvious connection to the Kirby series, there was no doubt that those games were going to get some additional playable characters, and Meta Knight's arrival in Super Smash Bros. Brawl had about the same impact that Mega Kangaskhan did. Meta Knight, meta dominance.
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Broadly speaking, combatants in Smash Bros. Have quite typical strengths and weaknesses. Ganondorf, for instance, is a powerful, slow, heavy brawler, difficult to launch off the stage but with limited recovery potential when it happens. He needs considerable time to launch most of his attacks, but when does, they're going to be formidable. The idea with Meta Knight was presumably to be the opposite of that. Excellent flight-based recovery, low weight, fast flurries of individually less potent attacks. What the team did in Brawl, unfortunately, is create a monster. It was incredibly difficult to punish just about anything he did, and he could rack up damage in lightning fast fashion. No other fighter really had an advantage against him, unlike everybody else, and so he was the only practical choice to play for many.
1 Ganging Up On Lone Members Of The Opposing Team
For Honor
Ubisoft's long-running For Honor is a medieval multiplayer masterclass. It began as a conflict between the Samurai, Viking, and Knight factions (outside of its singleplayer campaign), with players choosing to represent one of the three, but has grown dramatically since its inception. The Outlander and Wu Lin factions have joined since, with a huge and varied array of heroes added to each. From gear to game modes, it has grown exponentially, but one thing remains the same as ever: It centers around the concept of one-on-one melee combat. A quite sophisticated system of directional attacks and blocks govern the action, with players needing fast reactions, solid predictions and a little sneaky strategy (employing things like terrain to launch a foe off a ledge and characters' special abilities) to prevail.
Some modes are a four-on-four team affair, with each player facing off against one opponent at the beginning. An honorable duel apiece, you might think, except that the community has found one particular tactic very effective: Grouping together and steamrolling lone opponents. It's difficult to really counter this if you're caught in a tight space by the opposing team (not to mention terrifying at times), with the Revenge mechanic intended to counter it really not pulling its weight at times.
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