EA response is typical

FakeSympathy

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For those of you who didn't know, people who had early access to battlefront 2 discovered that most of the heroes are locked behind in-game paywall. Hallmark heroes Luke and Vader costs 60k in-game credits. the avg amount of credits earned by players were around 200-300 each match. This calculates to grinding for 40 hours for EITHER Luke or Vader! And keep in mind, there are other heroes ocked for 20 and 40k. This means to unlock ALL heroes, you need to grind for 100+ hrs.

Here's where the calculations were done:https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7c6bjm/it_takes_40_hours_to_unlock_a_hero_spreadsheet/

It goes without saying, but people were pissed. The reddit page were filled with anger and complaints.

EA had an official response, and it is the most downvpted comment in the reddit history(yes, the ENTIRE reddit domain)
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cff0b/seriously_i_paid_80_to_have_vader_locked/

Now, EA is claiming they will make adjustments accordingly, but the fact that iconic heroes are locked behind grinds is ridiculous.
We probably should've seen this coming when "No season passs" was announced
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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So much for the idea that microtransactions won't impact game design. It was obvious from the start where that story was headed. And if gamers were half as intelligent as they think they are they would have seen it coming and they would have said no to games with microtransactions. Is it really that hard to say no to a video game, especially after what happened with every single previous anti-consumer practice that these people came up with? What did people think was gonna happen? That microtransactions would magically be ethical? How fuckin' dumb would one have to be to think that?
 
Jan 27, 2011
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Adam Jensen said:
How fuckin' dumb would one have to be to think that?
Ahahahaha. :p

You underestimate the human capacity for stupidity and self-harming actions.

If smoking is still a big industry despite everyone and their dog knowing "This shit WILL kill you", I can't have hope in people being smart enough to not drop 1500 bucks on mass effect microtransactions, let alone pass on games with shit micros in them.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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I feel so bad for my brother's girlfriend. She's got hired by EA a few years ago, and the only two games she's worked on have been Mass Effect Andromeda and Battlefront 2.
 

Erttheking

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You know, at times like this I really want to look at everyone who defended microtransactions and ask "Has a line been crossed yet? Or do we need to go even further down the rabbit hole?"
 
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It's been obvious for years that the shady practices of mobile games would make their way to AAA gaming sooner or later. It was always inevitable, there is just too much money on the table for the illuminati lizard aliens that run major gaming publishers to be able to resist.
 

Xprimentyl

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I?d want to say this is a textbook example of a publisher being out of touch with their consumer base, but then I consider that this is EA, and it?s woefully obvious they simply thought they could get away with pissing in the consumer base?s collective face and calling it rain. Those Reddit comments are harsh, accurate and well deserved. EA knows it has a sizeable monopoly on gaming, that?s why it insists on buying up any and everything even remotely popular so they can turn it into an ethically questionable (at best) cash vacuum and leave the consumer with little to no viable option otherwise. It?s going to take a failure of a major IP (and a BIG failure,) to convince EA they?re anything other than invincible and beyond reproach.

Man, the BALLS on EA to try and pass that explanation off! The industry is rife with ire towards the pervasiveness of microtransactions, loot boxes and pay-to-win systems within full retail games; it is literally IMPOSSIBLE for any respectable dev and/or publisher to be unaware of that fact or to think for one second that they could ever sell consumers on any intention to implement cash-grab tactics as anything other than. Yeah, about the only part of their response that was genuine was their mentioning they used Open Beta data to determine what unlocks should cost; they saw how much players earned on an average day and determined that +40 hours grinding is just unreasonable enough to break spirits and open wallets. ??challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay.? FUCK. OFF. I can walk across the continental United States; that doesn?t make it as equally viable as driving or flying.
 

meiam

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Meh, game will sell a shiton anyway and the loss of revenue from the controversy will be more than matched with the gain in revenue from people buying that stuff.

The game is selling to casual, people who buy 2-3 games a years (it's right before Christmas, what do you think parent will get for little Timmy?), they don't know about this. Heck for people who primarily game trough mobile stuff this is just business as usual and they might even see it as a positive ("Now kid who don't have anything else do to but play won't have an advantages on me").
 

Tanis

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This is why don't I buy EA games new.
I'd rather some random on Amazon or even GameStop get the money.
 

Arnoxthe1

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Meiam said:
Meh, game will sell a shiton anyway and the loss of revenue from the controversy will be more than matched with the gain in revenue from people buying that stuff.

The game is selling to casual, people who buy 2-3 games a years (it's right before Christmas, what do you think parent will get for little Timmy?), they don't know about this.
^

There's a reason EA continues to exist and make money. It's because the bulk of their consumer base doesn't care. As I said in a past thread, whatever. Let them get loot-boxed to death.
 
Sep 24, 2008
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Ok, I ask you all this.

Would you all be ok that everything that's developed from now on goes to a paid and free to play business model?

Let's take a game. Tekken 8. There's two models. a 60 dollar experience and free to play. Sothat if you buy the full 60 dollar experience, every dlc and item is always available to you through massive amounts of grinding and/or luck, and you can only play with others who paid for the 60 dollar experience. But there is NEVER a time that you can buy one single item. If you want to be able to buy, you have to just start with the free to play client and not have your progress be able to be transfered over (If you have the 60 dollar version, you'll still have all your saved data, but you can just never use it in free to play_

Free to play has randomized characters you can play with for a season, you earn no experience and you can only buy new items/characters/stages/dlc, and you can only play with free to play players.

That way, Game developers would save face with gamers, and still be able to get their whales.


aegix drakan said:
Adam Jensen said:
How fuckin' dumb would one have to be to think that?
Ahahahaha. :p

You underestimate the human capacity for stupidity and self-harming actions.
I'm sorry, can we just take some time to realize how Ironic it is that someone said this to Adam Jensen? Aegix is a smart guy, I'm going to say it's planned and I'm going to give you a golf clap.
 

Wintermute_v1legacy

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Forget "casuals", how many "core" gamers will shit all over EA on social media, and still buy the game anyway? I'm just glad I'm not a Star Wars fan or a fan of EA games in general, so I can look at this and just go welp, that sucks.

The worst part is it's just another shooter. A dying genre, so gamers have to subject themselves to these horrible conditions, right?
 

Canadamus Prime

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Wintermute said:
Forget "casuals", how many "core" gamers will shit all over EA on social media, and still buy the game anyway? I'm just glad I'm not a Star Wars fan or a fan of EA games in general, so I can look at this and just go welp, that sucks.

The worst part is it's just another shooter. A dying genre, so gamers have to subject themselves to these horrible conditions, right?
I would estimate roughly, oh I don't know, all of them.
 

Sniper Team 4

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I've had my eye on this game since it was announced. Even the loot-boxes didn't really turn me off of it, because I just shrugged and decided I wasn't going to buy any of them. I'd just play the game, and if someone had a better weapon than me, so be it. I'd still enjoy it.

But this? I have to say, this makes me hesitate finally. 60,000 didn't seem so bad to me at first, but that was because I was going by the old credit system from the first game. 'Okay, so sixty rounds of me being at my WORST in Walker Assault, and I'm not at my worst, so probably forty rounds, give or take. No big deal.'
But no. Credits are no longer exp. points. And the idea that such a small amount is given out at a time makes my head hurt thinking about how much I'd have to play just to unlock one character--never mind all of them.

And it pisses me off. I REALLY want to play this game, but now I'm going to wait for either a sale or finding a used copy (which I'm sure GameStop will get plenty of). I am watching a franchise I love slowly die due to greed, from Disney and their constant need to announce new movies while the current ones aren't even done, and EA and their just all around "Screw you, ha ha ha!" attitude toward their customers. Could the Star Wars license have gone to a worse company at this point?

And it's killing me. I want George Lucas back at this point. I was so looking forward to that space combat, but not for this steep entry fee.
 

Squilookle

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EA has now edited the post and hidden its score. does anyone know what it's final tally was? Last thing I heard it got down to over 435,000 downvotes.


ObsidianJones said:
Ok, I ask you all this.

Would you all be ok that everything that's developed from now on goes to a paid and free to play business model?

Let's take a game. Tekken 8. There's two models. a 60 dollar experience and free to play. Sothat if you buy the full 60 dollar experience, every dlc and item is always available to you through massive amounts of grinding and/or luck, and you can only play with others who paid for the 60 dollar experience. But there is NEVER a time that you can buy one single item. If you want to be able to buy, you have to just start with the free to play client and not have your progress be able to be transfered over (If you have the 60 dollar version, you'll still have all your saved data, but you can just never use it in free to play_

Free to play has randomized characters you can play with for a season, you earn no experience and you can only buy new items/characters/stages/dlc, and you can only play with free to play players.

That way, Game developers would save face with gamers, and still be able to get their whales.
Just let me pay $60 upfront for a fully packaged game. It's not that hard to comprehend. In fact prior to around 2002, everybody got that.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Jun 5, 2013
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So with all this hoohaw and malarkey, what are the chances any of this actually mattering? I saw that they knocked the credit price for Vader down by 75%, which good for them, totally missed the point, ie YOU HAVE TO UNLOCK DARTH VADER IN A STAR WARS GAME!

Fuck me, its like having the Star Wars soundtrack locked behind a paywall, then given a discount. That's not the point.

Still, I think this game will be a roaring success and that most people will happily pay for the most basic of elements.
 

Trunkage

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Meiam said:
Meh, game will sell a shiton anyway and the loss of revenue from the controversy will be more than matched with the gain in revenue from people buying that stuff.

The game is selling to casual, people who buy 2-3 games a years (it's right before Christmas, what do you think parent will get for little Timmy?), they don't know about this. Heck for people who primarily game trough mobile stuff this is just business as usual and they might even see it as a positive ("Now kid who don't have anything else do to but play won't have an advantages on me").
it's also called Capitalism. EA has the incentive to put all this tuff in becuase it has and will earn them big bucks. They would be literally stupid not to.
Until there is an economic reason not to put in loot boxes, they will stay. Unfortunately, a few whales can counteract hundreds of thousands of average users.
 

Vendor-Lazarus

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I can only shake my head in frustration and say that apathetic buyers that haven't said no until now deserves this.
Where did they think it was going? Some people doesn't even say no now...
This will most likely result in a net positive profit gain, and so the practices continue and the ante gets upped yet again.

Squilookle said:
EA has now edited the post and hidden its score. does anyone know what it's final tally was? Last thing I heard it got down to over 435,000 downvotes.
When I checked it just now it was at -525k points and 48 reddit gold. (48!)
I had to open the link in the hidden post in a new tab, but it was still there.