The Marvel Rivals Bot Conspiracy, Explained

ign.com:

While Marvel Rivals continues to land atop Steam and Twitch charts, one issue has fans suspicious of their time with NetEase Games’ new hero shooter: bots.

The superhero-themed competitive multiplayer experience launched in December to critical acclaim and praise from fans thanks to its style and creative use of iconic characters like Spider-Man, Wolverine, and, most recently, the Fantastic Four. It’s achieved so much success that hundreds of thousands of gamers are still firing up Marvel Rivals every day on Steam alone (via SteamDB). While NetEase’s new hero shooter has managed to dodge some of the pitfalls that trap other competitors in this space, fans have spent weeks raising concerns regarding how AI enemies have been implemented across several of its game modes.

“I know people may feel differently but playing against bots in (Quickplay) just doesn’t feel good at all to me,” one Reddit user commented. “AI should be in AI modes and that’s it.”

Like other multiplayer games released over the last 15 years, Marvel Rivals offers practice modes that make it clear players will be competing against what many refer to as “bots.” These AI-driven opponents can often have their difficulty tweaked to a user’s liking, cementing these modes as valuable tools for those looking to improve their skills or cool down between the often more intense matches against human players. Where the Marvel video game is running into trouble is the appearance of what many believe are bots in standard Quickplay matches.

For weeks, social media has slowly flooded with posts from users concerned that they are being tossed into matches against low-level bot players, with some reporting that their teammates are also occasionally being replaced by bots. The jury’s out on what triggers these bot matches, but the working theory is that Marvel Rivals will match players into these comparatively easier matches after the occurrence of one too many losses. It’s a tactic that could keep players from feeling so