The Battleborn Community Has Organized an Event to Try to Save the Game

[ffronw]

The Battleborn Community Has Organized an Event to Try to Save the Game

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1361/1361298.jpgThe Battleborn community is holding an event this weekend, and Gearbox is embracing it.

Pretty much everyone knows that Battleborn hasn't done as well as Gearbox had hoped it would. Part of the problem was that the game ended up going head-to-head with Overwatch, despite the two having little in common. Gearbox has continued to roll out updates for the game, including new story and multiplayer content [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/168003-Battleborn-Adding-New-Hero-Pendles-August-4]. Despite that, the game continues to have disappointing numbers on Steam. So, the Battleborn community decided to do something about it.

Members of the Battleborn subreddit decided to hold Battleborn day tomorrow, November 12. The aim is that this event could convince both lapsed players and new players to give the game a chance, and hopefully bolster the community. The Reddit post by user bkdnx reads,

"So let's talk about why it didn't succeed at the beginning, Overwatch competition, lacklustre marketing, bugs glitches and balancing issues. As time went on the problems shifted to low player base, and a large skill gap, matchmaking.

So the question is how do we bring new players and keep them. Well if we can get an event going for a day where we get as many players online to play as many games as they can, this will solve matchmaking issues and allow everyone to try the game.

As a community of high level elites we should recognise that if we get this going there's going to be a huge influx of newbs. We should be doing our best to not pubstomp and ruin their first impressions of the game so please, no double legendary loadouts. Experiment with new characters and try to keep away from the meta."

In an attempt to help new and returning players out, the subreddit has created what it calls "BattleBros," a group of experienced players who will act as "Big Brothers" to the newcomers. These players say that they stand, "ready to provide advice and guidance to anyone willing to fight to save Solus." If you're interested in their assistance, you can find the list of BattleBros in this thread [https://www.reddit.com/r/Battleborn/comments/59u9fe/november_the_12th_is_battleborn_day_play_with_the/].

While the idea of the community fighting to save a game they love playing is really cool, what makes it even more fun is that Gearbox has jumped on board as well. The company says in a post on the game's official website [https://battleborn.com/en/news/view/celebrate-the-communitys-battleborn-day/?__prclt=lr3F4Ydd] that it is "flipping switches to help make this event as epic as possible." Here's what's on tap for the weekend:

The badassest of badass in-game events: prepare for Lootpocalypse, Play with the Devs, Double XP, and Double Credits all rolled into one phenomenal weekend!
A special "Battleborn Day Queue" with all kinds of fan-favorite maps and modes
Try out all 29 Battleborn heroes! Every character will be temporarily unlocked for all players
Enjoy 20% off all skins and taunts in the in-game Marketplace
Swag giveaways on the Battleborn Facebook and Twitter channels
AND MORE!

These events kick off at 5 PM ET today, and run through Sunday, Nov. 13 at 11 AM ET. If you've ever wanted to try out Battleborn, or wanted to give it another chance, this weekend would be a good time to do so.

Permalink

 

[Hawki]

I see it all now...

The fanbase are the Battleborn, poor sales are the varelsi. Can the Battleborn rally, or will poor sales bring darkness upon the game?

Oh well. Best of luck to them.

 

[RJ 17]

While I've no interest in it myself, I do wish them the best of luck. I think it's rather touching that the game's fanbase is so dedicated to the game (which I've heard actually can be a lot of fun, there was just a perfect storm of issues at launch that doomed the game to failure...kinda like what's happening with TitanFall 2, it seems) that they'd try to organize something like this. Good on Gearbox for fully embracing and supporting this idea, though I'd imagine making it Free-2-Play for the weekend would probably be a very good idea.

Good luck to you, fans of Battleborn, hopefully this'll inject some life into the game you love.

 

[The Enquirer]

You know, if Gearbox brought the game back as Free to Play and did stuff like this, then maybe they'd have a shot. But sorry, as much as I can see this game and this event is a labor of love, I'm not spending 60 bucks on it.

 

[Frankster]

It does does almost tempt me to try battleborn just for the heck of it, but gotta save up my monies for christmas, tons of presents to buy and unexpected expenses incoming.

If not for that though, one of the biggest things that's been putting me off battleborn is that its multi seemed confusing, chaotic, and just hostile to noobs based on what i've heard is due to a small userbase who know the game like the inside of their pockets, so yeh this was a nice move, im sure it'll get a few people in, question is if it will work to attract the kind of numbers they were hoping for.

 

[gigastar]

Well thats a real display of solidarity in the face of oblivion right there.

Its futile though, Battleborn at this point needs a major price cut or a F2P conversion to stand a chance of pulling itself out of the gutter in the long term.

 

[09philj]

Unless it goes F2P, this is likely to be a valiant but doomed effort.

 

[Imre Csete]

which I've heard actually can be a lot of fun

Only when the stars align. The balance is still pretty horrible.

Some heroes are obviously better than others in their respective roles, some are useless in certain versus modes, so have fun trying to play something new once you played your favs/must haves for a while. You only get roflstomped by the perfect synergy meta premades. Now that you can't even see the player levels, you don't know if you can take it easy and try to get some levels/unlockable challenges with the B-list champs against newcomers or not.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

Aw man, so the two people still playing it are going to show up? Awesome!

Jokes aside, I did like Battleborn when I tried it out - while it's the same general feel as Borderlands before it, it does have a solid personality and the individual characters are well designed. Buuut... yeah, it really shouldn't have gone toe-to-toe with a fucking Blizzard game. The only game that could pull that off is Battlefield of CoD, and Activision already owns one of those. Plus... it kinda felt like a Free-to-play game anyway? Given you have to unlock all the heroes over time, unlike Overwatch where everyone is free and ready right at the start.

What it should've done was go free to play right from the start to give it something different to Overwatch (released in the same god-damn month, even) and load it to the gills with microtransactions surrounding the heroes to make their money. As it stands now... well, they're holding a special event to try and save the damn thing, which means it's got another couple months of life tops, maybe less given Paladins has shown up and is doing everything Battleborn should've been doing from the start.

 

[Briggins]

This isn't going to happen. Overwatch is higher quality with no dlc to purchase (other then cosmetic boxes with no gameplay effect) and Paladins is free to play. Who in their right mind would shell out $60 for a sub-par game? Even if they drastically reduced the price or made it free to play they would still need to contend with some well entrenched competitors.

 

[Lufia Erim]

It does does almost tempt me to try battleborn just for the heck of it, but gotta save up my monies for christmas, tons of presents to buy and unexpected expenses incoming.

If not for that though, one of the biggest things that's been putting me off battleborn is that its multi seemed confusing, chaotic, and just hostile to noobs based on what i've heard is due to a small userbase who know the game like the inside of their pockets, so yeh this was a nice move, im sure it'll get a few people in, question is if it will work to attract the kind of numbers they were hoping for.

Right now ( at least in Canada) battleborn is 10$ on Amazon. I'll give it a shot ( assuming its a free weekend) and if i like it I'd buy it for 10$.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B00LN0F3OE/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478912565&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX280_SY350_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=battleborn+ps4&dpPl=1&dpID=61Z9XSqYAPL&ref=plSrch

 

[McElroy]

Right now ( at least in Canada) battleborn is 10$ on Amazon. I'll give it a shot ( assuming it?s a free weekend) and if i like it I'd buy it for 10$.

Nowhere does it say it's free for the week-end. Not on Steam, not on Battleborn's site, not on 2K's site. So, nope.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Right now ( at least in Canada) battleborn is 10$ on Amazon. I'll give it a shot ( assuming it?s a free weekend) and if i like it I'd buy it for 10$.

Nowhere does it say it's free for the week-end. Not on Steam, not on Battleborn's site, not on 2K's site. So, nope.

Oh what the hell. I mean then whats the point? How are newbies suppose to try the game? NVM disregard my entire previous post. Hell isn't overwatch having a free weekend soon?

 

[Gennadios]

There's a distinct lack of mention of having a "free weekend," as in the game being unlocked to players who want to try it out. It's not like it's the first time such a thing happened on Steam.

Even with being onboard, it seems to me that 2k is half-assing things.

 

[RJ 17]

which I've heard actually can be a lot of fun

Only when the stars align. The balance is still pretty horrible.

Some heroes are obviously better than others in their respective roles, some are useless in certain versus modes, so have fun trying to play something new once you played your favs/must haves for a while. You only get roflstomped by the perfect synergy meta premades. Now that you can't even see the player levels, you don't know if you can take it easy and try to get some levels/unlockable challenges with the B-list champs against newcomers or not.

I'm guessing that's why this bit was in the "call to action", then:

As a community of high level elites we should recognise that if we get this going there's going to be a huge influx of newbs. We should be doing our best to not pubstomp and ruin their first impressions of the game so please, no double legendary loadouts. Experiment with new characters and try to keep away from the meta.

 

[Fijiman]

Right now ( at least in Canada) battleborn is 10$ on Amazon. I'll give it a shot ( assuming it?s a free weekend) and if i like it I'd buy it for 10$.

Nowhere does it say it's free for the week-end. Not on Steam, not on Battleborn's site, not on 2K's site. So, nope.

Oh what the hell. I mean then whats the point? How are newbies suppose to try the game? NVM disregard my entire previous post. Hell isn't overwatch having a free weekend soon?

Next week, actually, and it's going to be free for the weekend on PC, Xbox, and PS4. Meanwhile they're trying to get players to the game while still asking money for the chance. If Gearbox were to copy Blizzard's free weekend strategy they could guarantee a decent turnout, but they arent, so it probably won't go anywhere near as well as they hope it will.

Also, if I were one of the people who had experience with the game I wouldn't miss the opportunity to curb stomp new guys for at least a little while, though that mostly comes from me being extremely tired of frequently getting curb stomped myself in other games, mostly due to either the game hating me or my opponent being leagues above me.

 

[Imre Csete]

I'm guessing that's why this bit was in the "call to action", then:

Yes, but they took away the only way to know if you are facing against newbs, so gg.

They gave you a Title to wear but have fun using that as an accurate method of filtering out the ones who play from the beginning with all the broken gear and skill unlocks.

 

[Nature Guardian]

Or, maybe, you can make it free to play?

 

[karloss01]

This will only work if the game is free to download for the day; if it isn't there will likely be no new players because they won't shell out the money on a hunch.

 

[The Enquirer]

http://steamcharts.com/app/394230

Well if that is to be believed, this whole event gained them 8 players. I'm not sure if that's sad because it is only 8 people, or sad that those 8 people make up 3% of their player base.