Bigger changes like vehicles and destruction would turn the game into something else entirely and even if they were only available in a side mode, I reckon Valve has numbers showing that not enough people would care enough to actually play it (like the Battle Royal mode, which I’m still salty they removed).

This all falls prey to the self fulfilling prophecy of only listening to your toxic competitive playerbase though.

Call Of Duty has a DIZZYING number of fun modes but it still has competitive Search & Destroy lobbies too, the only conflict here is in an actively hostile competitive scene treating any change even if it doesn’t effect the competitive modes as a threat to be dogpiled on.

Ignoring all the monetisation, which is basically a pipeline into gambling addiction for kids.

Also, I refuse to ignore this in any conversation about Counter Strike, it is fucked up.