"Now it's just toxic": Helldivers 2 lead says meta weapons can ruin the game, especially since "you will get tired of" having a "bigger power fantasy than everyone else"

Helldivers 2 is a game about dictators, but that doesn't automatically crown you as one. Design director Niklas Malmborg thinks you should actually loosen up about how you play – for the sake of Democracy.

"We start getting a separation of community where some players say like, 'No, we're playing on this power level. The rest of the weapons and gear are on this power level," Malmborg says in a new Democratic Conversation on the Helldivers 2 YouTube. Things spiral. "The more separations you get, you kind of get a divide in the player base. They start fighting with each other."

"Like, we had in the beginning of the game with like, 'Oh, you didn't bring a Railgun to the lobby?'" Malmborg says about the support weapon many players felt they couldn't conquer the galaxy without. "And then you got kicked, because they're like, 'Oh no, you're just making bad choices.'"

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But committing to one weapon like this ensures that each Helldivers 2 session starts "becoming the same, all of the time," says Malmborg. "For you, there's not a big toolbox. There's just a small toolbox, which you will get tired of. And those players might go then, "Well, bring everything else up so I can play my power game. My bigger power fantasy than everyone else power fantasy.'"

"At some point we have to say, 'Game is good here. Shake hands,'" the director continues about developer Arrowhead's approach to gameplay balance. "That's what we're trying to achieve. And it's because of all the things that happens when you don't achieve it."

"You might all only notice it when the community turns toxic," Malmborg observes, "and then you say, 'Ah it used to be a good community here, but now it's just toxic.'"

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