The developers of Arc Raiders and Fallout 76 said that they were surprised by the behavior of the players. The community demonstrated a higher level of friendliness than expected.
Embark Studios and Bethesda thought that users would act much more aggressively.
Robert Sammelin from Embar previously admitted:
We certainly hoped that we would see players cooperate, but not to the extent that it happened on the release [of Arc Raiders]. Watching how people treat each other socially is just touching and very inspiring.
In an interview with The Game Business, Fallout 76 creative director John Rush shared his memories — before the launch, the developers expected a lot of aggression, but everything turned out differently:
Before the game came out, we were like, "Well, this is post-apocalypse, this is Fallout — everyone will want to kill each other." However, it turned out exactly the opposite. The complete opposite of our expectations. And seeing this is just amazing. I have never met a better community than at Bethesda Game Studios.
After the premiere of the Amazon series, Fallout 76 experienced an influx of players, and again the community showed a high level of friendliness towards newcomers.
According to Rush, the community conducted "most of the adaptation" of new players. Veteran players organized camps in the starting location and supplied newcomers with items, sharing tips.