In the realm of extraction shooters, Arc Raiders has come on to the scene, made its way to the very top spot, and been declared the greatest extraction shooter ever made, all in the span of a fortnight (pun not intended). There's a lot of chaos and tension that comes with the looter-shooter genre, and yet somehow, Arc Raiders has birthed one of the most wholesome, cooperative, and friendliest online communities in gaming right now.

We live in a time when most multiplayer lobbies feel like social minefields, but Arc Raiders' sci-fi world has done the impossible: it's made you want to help strangers.

Arc Raiders' community is encouraging humanity, not hostility

Us against the machines, gentlemen

In almost every PvPvE game, your first instinct when spotting another player is to always pull the trigger. In Arc Raiders, it's to wave. The game bakes communication and cooperation right into its core loop. Playing by myself, I've realized, first-hand, how easy it is to thank people, ask them not to shoot, or even suggest teaming up, all through a readily-available proximity chat wheel. The best part, however, is that the players actually use it, and almost every player you run into uses the chat wheel copiously.

It's also the "E" in PvPvE that brings players together. The ARCs are the real enemy here, and that's what the game puits players against by forcing them to come together sometimes to take down the alien mechanized behemoths. Throw in gear-based matchmaking into the mix, and the power balance stays fair, preventing low-level players, or those who simply don't have the time to grind ten hours a day, from being steamrolled by those who do.

That's why Arc Raiders, while being an online multiplayer shooter, still feels... more. It's like a quiet social experiment, and by god, it's actually working.

Even steamers are setting the tone for kindness

The online community is only growing, and in a nice direction

What's remarkable is how this friendliness has spread over the past two weeks since Arc Raiders' release. Now, I did talk about how I ended up ruining a part of my experience playing the game by engaging with online streamers' Arc Raiders content through loot routes and money-making exploits, but even then, the streaming community has really been spreading kindness in the game. Scroll through YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels, and by and large, all you'll see are clips of Arc Raiders players helping downed strangers, talking kindly to each other, joking around, and warning others. It isn't trash-talking. It's just... talking.

These are streamers who could've gone the sweaty PvP route (some have, and all the more power to them), but instead, they've leaned into wholesome chaos. It's genuinely refreshing to see popular content creators who thrive on viewership post clips about trust-building rather than kill streaks. The proximity chat feature in Arc Raiders is perhaps its best feature, because it's become its own kind of theater, providing hilarious (and sometimes heartfelt) encounters.

That, to me, is the power of design that rewards empathy. This game's most viral clips aren't about dominance, but rather about players coming together to work towards a common goal, or just to exchange jokes. Clearly, Embark has done something right, because I hear someone say the phrase "It's us against the clankers, gentlemen," at least twice every day while playing the game.

PvP'ers still exist, and they have every right to

PvP'ing in a game that allows it is absolutely nothing wrong

Of course, not everyone plays nice — you can't expect that from a game with 700,000+ players. After all, PvP is a part of Arc Raiders' DNA, and some players live for that tension. There's an immense amount of excitement and adrenaline when you risk everything for some extra loot, and when those encounters happen, it's downright exhilarating. The key difference here, to me, is that Arc Raiders has given weight to PvP.

I do play Fortnite frequently every week, and as someone who racks up double-digit eliminations every match, I'd never remember a single one of them. In Arc Raiders, however, you might end up running into another player maybe once or twice in an evening, but every encounter feels cinematic. The stakes are sky-high because both players have loot on the line, so there are even attempts made at negotiations and peace treaties because a lot of progress is on the line. Whether you win or lose, you absolutely feel it.

Still, PvP, when it comes on the back of betrayals, is what hurts here. Too many times, you ask a fellow raider not to shoot. They agree, but then blow you away seconds later. However, even that frustration adds to the game's beauty, because it's proof that your interactions matter. If I hadn't lost the absolute best loot I'd ever collected in the game to someone I trusted, I wouldn't have become more careful and ready for combat the next time around.

You can be a hero in Arc Raiders, helping strangers fight ARC. You can also be a bandit, camping at extraction points to catch people unawares. Heck, you can even be a vigilante, as thousands of players are — they see someone killing another person, and immediately dole out justice, even if it might be a bit misplaced sometimes. This freedom, and the anticipation of not knowing what the player in front of you has in their mind, is what makes Arc Raiders feel so alive and unpredictable.

The catch: This camaraderie is only for solos

Solos build trust, but squads build chaos

The latest Arc Raiders update brought duo lobbies into the mix, but up until recently, Arc Raiders was just solos and trios. The thing is — solos are where the kindness and niceties exist. In all the other lobbies, it's a shoot-at-sight free-for-all. After all, it's one thing to build trust between two players, and another entirely impossible thing to believe that six players would be able to keep their trigger fingers under control.

In solo lobbies, these fleeting alliances you make with strangers feel... pure. You're both vulnerable, scavenging Topside, and you're still side-eyeing each other, forming a tense partnership. When you get betrayed, it hurts, but the solo lobbies have still managed to keep my belief in others' goodness alive. I've been burned multiple times, but I'll be damned if I don't try to give the benefit of the doubt to the next raider I run into.

In trios, though, chaos reigns supreme. It's paranoia-fueled pandemonium, and that's perfectly fine too. In fact, it's this chaos and contrast between the lobby types that keeps the entire ecosystem balanced, and I wouldn't have it any other way

The Arc Raider community will go through ups and downs

The game's progression will dictate the future of its interactions

As Arc Raiders matures, its community will inevitably shift. Players will grind better gear, and their fear of loss will fade. This is only going to increase the number of PvP encounters everyone runs into, and it'll be nothing but natural. In fact, now that we're in week three of the game, that has already begun happening, because everyone saw a noticeable uptick in raids turning violent in the second week of the game.

Still, it's part of the game's ecosystem. The newly-released Stella Montis map practically invites PvP with its dark corridors and claustrophobic structures. It's designed for ambushes and heart-pounding showdowns. Yet even there, I've seen kindness peeking through multiple times. This evolving cycle is the soul of Arc Raiders. Even when things get bloodier, the heart of the community remains. A player will get burned and lose loot to the most baffling of interactions, but when they talk about it to the rest of the online community, you'll see overwhelming responses talking about kindness instead. That's because deep down, the major chunk of the online community here knows that the real enemy is the ARC and empty stashes. The ARCs keep us honest, and they keep us human.

This is the friendliest I've ever seen an online community be

What Embark Studios has created with Arc Raiders is a brilliant shooter that feels more like a social experiment that everyone is learning to love. A PvPvE sandbox where kindness is just as viable a survival tactic as combat. Trust in Arc Raiders can be a mechanic instead of just being a moral choice.

Sure, the violence will ebb and flow. We'll groan in frustration when burned, but we can't complain, either. But the sheer fact that in 2025, a competitive online game can be defined by friendliness while being a AAA, sales-ruling title is nothing short of miraculous. As someone who's seen multiplayer communities rise and rot over the years, I can say, with confidence, that Arc Raiders is something special. In this game, when survival is on the line, the best thing you can isn't shoot... it's trust.