ARC Raiders Devs Weigh In on Community Behavior

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Surprisingly, ARC Raiders has gained a reputation for having a helpful and cooperative community. While some players have experienced occasional instances of being ambushed or unfairly attacked, many more share stories of strangers assisting with missions, guiding others to safety, or teaming up to succeed. This level of cooperation is unusual for a game that combines player-versus-player and player-versus-environment combat, and it’s become a key characteristic of ARC Raiders.

I was really excited to read a recent PC Gamer interview with ARC Raiders art director Robert Sammelin! He confirmed something a lot of us have been wondering: the game actually watches how we play and uses that to match us with other players. This is huge because there’s been a lot of talk in the community about whether they should add a mode where you can just focus on playing with others, instead of against them. Apparently, if we want to see more of that cooperative gameplay, we can help by being friendly to other players – no need for hostile behavior! Sammelin also talked about how different playtesting was from what the community seems to want in terms of PvP, which is really interesting to hear.

ARC Raiders’ Devs Played More Competitively During Playtesting

Since launching over a month ago, ARC Raiders feels less like a traditional game and more like an experiment in player interaction. It throws players into a large, post-apocalyptic world with minimal rules, focusing on scavenging and staying alive. This freedom leads to unpredictable and often entertaining encounters with other players – sometimes funny, sometimes rewarding, and occasionally disastrous. The game encourages players to be wary of each other, but the constant threat of enemy ARCs also creates opportunities for cooperation instead of conflict.

During the interview, Sammelin explained that they hoped to create a dynamic where players would be slightly uncertain about how to approach each other. This uncertainty, a sense of potential conflict, was intended to be balanced by the larger threat of the ARC, which might actually encourage players to work together.

Players continue to ask for a mode in ARC Raiders where you only fight AI enemies, and statements dismissing that possibility don’t help the game seem appealing. While the robots themselves can be challenging enough to provide a good experience, it’s the other players that make ARC Raiders truly interesting. Fighting robots alone on an empty map would probably get boring quickly, but with other players around, the game becomes unpredictable and exciting, creating unique moments and gameplay.

We wanted to create a situation where people would be slightly hesitant about how they connect with others.

Players might be surprised to learn that the game’s PvP combat was even more intense during development. According to Sammelin, the developers themselves were far more competitive and aggressive when playtesting than the player community is now. They hoped for lively combat, and were pleased to see players interacting socially in a positive way at launch. Essentially, if the current PvP feels a bit much, it was significantly more chaotic during the game’s creation.

Image via Embark Studios

Sammelin explained that he and the team had hoped for a strong community response to ARC Raiders, and they’ve been thrilled to see players come together so effectively. Given the internal challenges the development team faced, the positive community behavior since launch has been a pleasant surprise. The game started as a somewhat fractured and distrustful project during development, but players have transformed it into a more cooperative experience, even if that cooperation isn’t always certain. Sammelin suggests ARC Raiders was designed to accommodate different possibilities, and ultimately, it was the players who shaped the game’s direction.

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2025-12-17 17:04