10 Reasons Why Quake Is The Hardest FPS Of All Time
3. Player Base
Following on from my previous point, the Quake player base is largely made up of veterans of the game, which is in no small part due to the fact that new players never stick around for long. This inadvertently creates a vicious cycle in which new players join, are matched with experienced players (because there is no one else playing), are consequently pummeled to the ground, and proceed to quit and uninstall the game.
Quake is such that a player who has played the game for more than 20 years can quite literally dance circles around new players and crush them so effortlessly that it is painful to watch. Everyone can take a beating every once in a while and get back up, but if almost every match is dominated by a smurf to whom you stand absolutely zero chance of defeating, then who can blame new players for giving up after being destroyed 5 times in a row?
Quake clearly rewards legacy skill and muscle memory while stomping on any who would attempt to tame the beast anew. If I were to summarize the online experience in one word, it would certainly be 'unforgiving'.