Not at all. It’s for people who want to compete. It’s for people who care about what the scoreboard says at the end of a match. It’s for players who care whether they win or lose, more than they care about having a good time.
I don’t understand why this isn’t the normal understanding. Think of high-tier high school athletes; they aren’t competing just for the fun of the sport. They may love <sport> and find it fun to be a part of <sport>, but when they are competing at a regional or national level, fun is not really the point to many of them. Their goals are the point - to win, to impress college recruiters, to improve their game - and they might have fun aiming for those goals, but the fun becomes secondary to performance.
Ranked gamemodes simply aren’t the place for fun to be the top priority, despite the game existing for fun. There is a reason why ranked and casual modes exist, and if the casual mode cannot be played casually, then it’s a problem in the implementation of the modes and not a justification for playing casually in ranked.
I don’t understand why this isn’t the normal understanding. Think of high-tier high school athletes; they aren’t competing just for the fun of the sport. They may love <sport> and find it fun to be a part of <sport>, but when they are competing at a regional or national level, fun is not really the point to many of them. Their goals are the point - to win, to impress college recruiters, to improve their game - and they might have fun aiming for those goals, but the fun becomes secondary to performance.
Ranked gamemodes simply aren’t the place for fun to be the top priority, despite the game existing for fun. There is a reason why ranked and casual modes exist, and if the casual mode cannot be played casually, then it’s a problem in the implementation of the modes and not a justification for playing casually in ranked.