This all started after a Reddit user broke down all the hours needed to unlock heroes in the game. The long and short of it all is that it takes roughly 40 hours to unlock a hero in the game. EA Community Team did reply to this post saying that they wanted to “provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment”, but this response got a lot of backlash and ended up becoming the most downvoted comment on Reddit with -663K points as of writing this. And if you’ve been on Reddit over the past few days, you may have seen several posts regarding Battlefront 2 on the front page, from people cancelling pre-orders or refunding their order all together. There’s a lot to here to break down so let’s take this a step at a time.
First of all, it’s important to know that the developers are listening to the community. After the 2015 Battlefront, it was very apparent that people liked the game's visuals, but they wanted more in the game. Specifically a single player campaign. And here we are, in 2017, with an estimated 5-6 hour story mode in Battlefront 2. But in this discussion it’s important to know that EA is also listening. Battlefront is not the only EA published series that saw a much needed change with Titanfall 2 also boasting a compelling campaign, and promise of free DLC for the lifetime of that game. A promise that is also present in Battlefront 2.
We often blame EA for being a very money-centric company that shoehorns in features to squeeze every ounce of value out of the game as they can. And although profit is the name of their game, developers may have more of a say in the microtransaction game than we thought. Amongst all this outrage, there are a few developers and industry insiders who are giving more of an open look into the development process. Sam Sharma, Senior Producer at Guerrilla Games, the developers of Horizon: Zero Dawn, said on Twitter yesterday that "In all cases, the development leadership decides the best way to maximize profitability for games. In extreme cases, there is a pub mandate to put in mechanics to ensure max profitability, but the way the mechanics work and the specifics (drop rate, pricing) are all developer led." Publishers will place guidelines for the developers, but it is up to the developer to decide how best to make their game profitable and keep players coming back.
The point that the EA Community Team makes about having players work for something is not a bad one and certainly not a new concept because that’s essential to the longevity of any online game. The problem arises when the rewards interrupt gameplay and give an unfair advantage to certain players. In other words, pay-to-win. Sifting through the comments people are leaving regarding this issue, a common theme is that the titular battlefront will be tilted in favor of those who are willing to pay more. This is a very counter intuitive move considering the significance of free DLC is to not divide the player base. Not every person who plays Battlefront 2 will be willing to put hours into the game and grind for Darth Vader or some other iconic character. This is really where we see the adults, that make up a large part of the consumer market, but usually remain silent, speak up about the inconvenience of coming home after a 9 to 5 job and playing a game as a chore more than a distraction. For most, in fact, the game will be no more than a weekend session after a long week.
So the problem with the unlocking of the heroes is not around it’s concept, rather it’s execution. There are a few games that do this really well. The new entry in the long running Call of Duty franchise, WWII, came out two weeks ago with the inclusion of loot boxes. However, the microtransaction system is implemented into the game in a much more unobtrusive way. The loot boxes only offer cosmetic changes that are purely optional and the lack of getting them doesn’t impact more than how your gun looks in your hand. This allows the opening of the boxes to be no more than a reward and background incentive rather than the aforementioned “pay-to-win” model. Blizzard’s Overwatch also has a cosmetic based loot box system which players have brought up and praised multiple times over the past few days.
EA’s response to this has been mixed to say the least. The company responded to the backlash by cutting the credit prices of heroes by 75%. However, looking at the fine print shows that they are also decreasing the awarded credit by 75% also. According to Gameinformer, the 20,000 credits awarded for beating the campaign are now reduced to only 5,000 credits. Along with this, there’s a lot of people who are just plain asking for a refund for their pre-purchase and, for unknown reasons at the time of writing this, if you want a refund you have to call in and talk to customer service. This is just another bump in the road as Battlefront 2 makes it's way to launch on November 17, 2017.
With that said, no, the solution to this problem isn’t not buying the game. If you are a fan of Star Wars don’t ruin a game for yourself simply because of microtransactions. Love it or hate it, there is no more of a visceral (no pun intended) experience in the Star Wars universe than Battlefront 2. And the work of all the men and women who poured hundreds of hours and millions of dollars into making and promoting a game shouldn’t go to waste due to one function that doesn’t make sense. (On that note, neither does threatening the developers.) Instead, if you want to make a point, buy the game and don’t buy the microtransactions. The reason why loot boxes are so popular is because they are very profitable. However, there is a right and a wrong way to do them and if you feel a game does it wrong, don’t punish the game as a whole, scrutinize the problem. This isn't a call to action, it's a call to play the games you are excited about and being vocal about your opinions on it, because the great thing about the video game industry is that the consumers DO have a say.
We often blame EA for being a very money-centric company that shoehorns in features to squeeze every ounce of value out of the game as they can. And although profit is the name of their game, developers may have more of a say in the microtransaction game than we thought. Amongst all this outrage, there are a few developers and industry insiders who are giving more of an open look into the development process. Sam Sharma, Senior Producer at Guerrilla Games, the developers of Horizon: Zero Dawn, said on Twitter yesterday that "In all cases, the development leadership decides the best way to maximize profitability for games. In extreme cases, there is a pub mandate to put in mechanics to ensure max profitability, but the way the mechanics work and the specifics (drop rate, pricing) are all developer led." Publishers will place guidelines for the developers, but it is up to the developer to decide how best to make their game profitable and keep players coming back.
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| Poster for Star Wars: Battlefront 2 |
The point that the EA Community Team makes about having players work for something is not a bad one and certainly not a new concept because that’s essential to the longevity of any online game. The problem arises when the rewards interrupt gameplay and give an unfair advantage to certain players. In other words, pay-to-win. Sifting through the comments people are leaving regarding this issue, a common theme is that the titular battlefront will be tilted in favor of those who are willing to pay more. This is a very counter intuitive move considering the significance of free DLC is to not divide the player base. Not every person who plays Battlefront 2 will be willing to put hours into the game and grind for Darth Vader or some other iconic character. This is really where we see the adults, that make up a large part of the consumer market, but usually remain silent, speak up about the inconvenience of coming home after a 9 to 5 job and playing a game as a chore more than a distraction. For most, in fact, the game will be no more than a weekend session after a long week.
So the problem with the unlocking of the heroes is not around it’s concept, rather it’s execution. There are a few games that do this really well. The new entry in the long running Call of Duty franchise, WWII, came out two weeks ago with the inclusion of loot boxes. However, the microtransaction system is implemented into the game in a much more unobtrusive way. The loot boxes only offer cosmetic changes that are purely optional and the lack of getting them doesn’t impact more than how your gun looks in your hand. This allows the opening of the boxes to be no more than a reward and background incentive rather than the aforementioned “pay-to-win” model. Blizzard’s Overwatch also has a cosmetic based loot box system which players have brought up and praised multiple times over the past few days.
EA’s response to this has been mixed to say the least. The company responded to the backlash by cutting the credit prices of heroes by 75%. However, looking at the fine print shows that they are also decreasing the awarded credit by 75% also. According to Gameinformer, the 20,000 credits awarded for beating the campaign are now reduced to only 5,000 credits. Along with this, there’s a lot of people who are just plain asking for a refund for their pre-purchase and, for unknown reasons at the time of writing this, if you want a refund you have to call in and talk to customer service. This is just another bump in the road as Battlefront 2 makes it's way to launch on November 17, 2017.
With that said, no, the solution to this problem isn’t not buying the game. If you are a fan of Star Wars don’t ruin a game for yourself simply because of microtransactions. Love it or hate it, there is no more of a visceral (no pun intended) experience in the Star Wars universe than Battlefront 2. And the work of all the men and women who poured hundreds of hours and millions of dollars into making and promoting a game shouldn’t go to waste due to one function that doesn’t make sense. (On that note, neither does threatening the developers.) Instead, if you want to make a point, buy the game and don’t buy the microtransactions. The reason why loot boxes are so popular is because they are very profitable. However, there is a right and a wrong way to do them and if you feel a game does it wrong, don’t punish the game as a whole, scrutinize the problem. This isn't a call to action, it's a call to play the games you are excited about and being vocal about your opinions on it, because the great thing about the video game industry is that the consumers DO have a say.
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