Battlefront 2's controversy is everything I've been warning against

^ How the publishers see us ^

So, Battlefront 2's release has gone up in flames, with the big spark not being the pay to win mechanics (even if those were bad and sparked deserved drama), but when close to launch a reddit post remarked how absurd the grind was, and how much it would likely cost him to get up to Darth Vader. When EA tried to respond to reassure us it was all in the name of fun unlocks, it broke the record of the website's downvotes. I could say I told you so, but... I'm actually kind of happy people have finally woken up to hating it so much, so I won't burn any bridges too much. I've mentioned how terrible this bullshit grinding is in several accounts, best one probably right here where I also predicted the microtransactions in COD:BO3 before the game launched (it patched them in like a month post-launch, so pretty far out). However this one is another fun relevant read where I lashed out at the idea briefly, and this one is a strange one that will grow some anger as I defend people who buy into the shortcut, but the massive catch is that's because I fucking despise the system now being monetized more so than the people just wanting to do whatever they can to escape it. The people I were arguing against were quite literally condemning them for daring to want things trapped behind an absurd skinner box, hating other players with a warped envy, rather than asking the developers for either a traditional unlock system ("back in my days, we would beat the game and challenges for X"), or a system that naturally respects the players time and doesn't ask insane requirements to get alternate costumes. The real problem was always in the game design, and loads of people were being idiots bordering on Stockholm syndrome, defending their captor's system whilst accusing people that use the meta-system of paying DLC shortcuts were cheaters of some sort. They weren't cheaters, just naively thankful for a way out of a dumb game design. To quote a piece where I used Bad Company 2's old shortcuts as an example, where-in people were "thanking" publishers for the shortcuts...

Back when bad company 2 did this, I looked at it as an offering, something that wasn't there before. Now after many games with various branches to grind up, large amounts of guns with trivial stat tweaks dangled in front of you as "rewards", and a combination of better or crazier degrees of this going on, I can safely say I see that the problem was from the very base of the game's design. Instead of thanking Bad Company 2, I want to condemn it and many of its brethren for installing a ridiculous F2P type system in a retail game. Unfortunately its well integrated and this point, and you're more likely to see backlash against a game without progression than the other way around. Progression systems are deemed a welcome standard and are considered to be at the heart of a modern AAA shooter experience. People love to chase their carrots on a stick, and when they get tired of it they become those that fall into the gratitude trap mentioned in the video.

That article was written back in spring 2015, where the systems were already well implemented and copies ever since the combined might of Modern Warfare and the sudden mainstream appeal of Battlefield, bringing skinner boxes to the trendy competitive multiplayer spotlight while people tried to pretend they were as appropriate and homely as their favorite RPG. However it was far too early for publishers to find the most optimal way to monetize it, and now here we are today... hi EA's Star Wars Battlefront 2.

EA hasn't actually changed much, which is why I don't see why this was so hard for people to get behind. Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure everybody is 100% there even now. With the recent update about EA pulling out microtransactions and ONLY microtransactions, some are already sounding like we've won, completely forgetting the entire point of what makes grinding for vader outrageous to begin with... the fact you're grinding for vader. All they did was pull out the shortcut in a game designed to make it painful if you don't take the shortcut. They were aiming at potential money by making it poorly designed! That's still there. It might be fixed in the long run, but then again we thought so to when EA dropped both the grind requirements, ...and also the reward payout. This isn't fixed until it's truly fixed, and right now all we're looking at is a broken bridge where the repair man was charging extortion rates, and then left when an angry mob formed. You've still got a broken bridge, and we aren't crossing it until we get a better repair man.

Not going places with this yet

Oh, and another thing, that discussion about arcade mode locking people out after a while? Not only does Dice not know what they're doing when one guy says "it's not going to stay that way", while another is saying "it's to prevent exploitation", but the second guy I just mentioned is literally using an argument gamers themselves have long fallen into, and we do need to have a serious talk about how full of shit it is. Remember "boosters", and how terrible they were? Yeah, those jerks who go on a server and dare to... get a random rifle faster than you? Yeah, how dare they, don't they know they need to go and earn it like everybody else, by hours of corner camping and one hit kill knife throws, or by letting your killstreak helicopters rake in the points while you watch? How dare they indeed. Now they're going to get Darth Vader before me, which was almost as bad as the original Battlefront 2, where anybody could play the entire iconic cast as if they owned the game or something. I don't know who those cheaters think they are, but they better not also speedrunning games because that means they might beat them before me with a glitch, and that'd just be unthinkable! ...hopefully you guys can see I'm sarcastic, but people were really talking like this at one time, and maybe a couple special snowflakes that need their "fair" participation sticker rewards trickling down their skinner boxes still feel that way. It's sickening, and now even Dice is attempting to use it as an excuse as to why they need to curl back the offline unlocks. Except it's funny, because it makes no sense when they're also selling the shortcuts that got these elitist asshats complaining about guys akin to boosters to begin with. Now they finally stopped yelling at each other to unite, and actually see that a star wars game advertising playable jedi & Sith as a major feature... shouldn't take three weeks or an extra $80 to see Darth Vader.

Even ignoring idiot anti-booster retorts from the peanut gallery, Dice's defense on stopping offline farming is a warning sign of bad game design. What is being "exploited" by earning points? If it's not silly costumes and boosting goofs, is it legit power enhancements that would empower them above all others? Then that's bad balance and bad game design, and players will naturally "earn" the ability to not only be more experienced, but have better stuff than others for just lucking out with lootbox rewards. If it's not, then why are they farming for something worth so little? Maybe it's because you made a bad grind, and you don't want people to have the freedom to just enjoy it all, because you're exploiting them for potential money off of that grind? The sad truth is, it's both, contrary to whatever they may say. The best idea would to be either to let them just do whatever with the game they just bought, unlocking things in whatever way they feel comfortable with, or to let them just play with whatever out of the gate in an environment that is entirely up to them. Various games with offline modes and online progression systems had this radical idea to isolate them, almost as if they were separate modes... because they kinda fuckin' are!

Hey, so how's that bridge coming along!?

Look, don't let these guys off the hook here, and better yet... wisen up yourself and towards the community around you. Expect better of your games. This skinner box was a problem long before now. In the past, it was to exploit your attention, trading depth and in-game systems for a lazier design that valued quantity over quality, so they could shower you with constant participation rewards with the hope you'll hang onto the game and praise it for having a long length, forgetting that good design and integrated social community is it's own lasting power... but building that is hard work, so they'd rather give you 20 different assault rifle tweaks to work on obtaining over 40 hours, and master-sergeant-mcawesome badge status beside your name. Now they've found they can drag this out to sucker cash from it, and it's not going to stop there. Even with Overwatch, a game with amazing depth, decided to throw all extras and customization under the bus because they knew they could charge you for it through the obligatory modern skinner box scheme. It's not even nickle and diming you anymore, with easy and simple costume packs, it's a gambling game where they want whales to buy bundles of 50, and get people making stupid reaction youtube videos of them opening it for hours on end, or "testing" the probability. It's all bullshit, and it's there to exploit you, not appeal to your sense of fun. If you want a skinner box where it's appropriate and actually worthwhile, go enjoy some Borderlands. They actually give you skins to start with, have a real DLC model, and the core game isn't broken by making you pay around it but rather designed to incentivize you to play with a serious shooter RPG hybrid model that involves  number crunching grinds for quests and adventure. That's not what you get by the cheap, shallow, and exploitative nature of just participating in a shooter until you eventually get to play one of the key figures in the star wars universe. Thank you all so much for finally saying no to a game that pulls this shit, but it alone won't be enough.

Hunting rats is the real achievement, not being one trapped in a skinner box

Lootbox Surprise!

I really didn't want to talk about lootboxes. I shouldn't have to. It's easy: Yes they suck, and no you shouldn't support them. Don't touch them. If the game looks entirely rigged to them, stay the hell away and wait for reviews (especially grassroot. I laugh at the idea sites like IGN would tell you in fairness). Above all though, I stress when I say don't buy them. It's actually an insidiously good concept of bad business, where just getting you to buy even the dumbest one, and then stop, it's a net gain if they never had it at all. This stuff uses virtually no resources for them to put in, as long as they had an in-game system of rewards (thanks to idiots praising the COD/Battlefield formula for years, this is standard) and prints an ever-source of money. So stop it. Don't think about it. Not even a test one for some lame excuse. No, it's not okay with cosmetics either, that stuff should at the worst be sold on the store as a solid $1-5 costume, not a rough gamble. Lootboxes are bullshit. Don't support them. But I suppose with the subject of lootboxes, it should be an appropriate surprise that this isn't so simple. So surprise, a lot of gamers are taking this to some bullshit lengths, and I'm starting to become slightly more sympathetic with the publishers as this goes along.

With all the talk about loot boxes being gambling cropping up, it's clear this isn't the casual use of the word coming up. I call it gambling like I would taking on a risky RPG quest, it's a gamble if maybe I am or am not ready for it, or can complete it, or get the reward. It's interchangeable with risk. Well apparently people have forgotten that layman talk, and want it to be legal talk now, and say that this is legally gambling and must have all the laws, 18+ rating, and perhaps taxes associated with it. Loads of gamers don't want this to be a choice or consumer responsibility, but they want to directly bring the legal system in and pretend things will be all sunshine and rainbows... when the government directly profits off of gambling. Yeah, genius thinking there, you just told them they could get more money from gaming and incentivize it. As the rating boards, and China's attempts at Overwatch have made it clear, this isn't quite a simple gambling thing. There's loopholes, and then there's the matter of trying to attack it without burning down legit gameplay mechanics that involve risk. ...but that's not the worst part.

Often the ones wanting this to be enacted by law, are talking as if their kids are going to be rampant addicted gamblers because they're apparently dumping hard earned cash (again, kids) on loot boxes for Overwatch skins, or Fifa points. The fact this argument is being uttered by emotional gamers this time is incredibly annoying, especially when coupled with the above mentioned irrational legislative mentality. It's as assinine as I was hinting at earlier when you actually apply *gasp* logic to it, and so far in every instance I've brought this up, nobody has been able to refute it; How the hell are games to blame for your kid getting money and spending it on worthless skins? The kids that live under a guardians home, not legally able to work a paying job, not having credit cards to make direct online purchases, and I'm somehow being told by gamers themselves that they're puttin' the big bucks into gambling for that rare Tracer skin. Nevermind booster cards, and don't think about arcade games of the past, or claw machines of the present, no we mustn't stop and think with common sense, we've got to call this for what it is: the end of an addiction free generation. I know, tragic. You see how this is bullshit? And the funny thing is, there's a couple of people who almost have the sense to see this, only to somehow have an even more stupid response. Because they'll sit there and know this argument "for the children" is dumb, but they'll turn and suggest that because some parents are idiots who will try to attack games over this, that they must.... do it first? No really, they want the rating boards or the legal system to do something about it, so they're raising a fuss and being those angry parents so we don't get angry parents. I wish I was making this up.

I still hate lootboxes. I'm on your side in that regard, and I will casually refer to it as a gambling device to get more money out of us. However I draw that line with the right argument, and I think us complaining about it being a sucky system is in itself grounds enough to discuss our distaste. I refuse to defend dipshit parents or guardians who are so neglectful and ignorant that they'll let their kid get addicted to a system that naturally has quite a few obstacles for a kid. A good parent would teach them more responsible routes, or even make some example of what a bad value something like loot boxes are. ...but hell, even in those cases where parents aren't perfect saints and will watch as their kid tries a claw machine with their dollar, that won't ruin their whole lives. My own dad loves those things, but hardly gambles on serious matters, and I've only given it a try myself maybe 3 times in my whole life, and never bought a lootbox. We don't need legislation to know this is a bad value, you just need more sense. If you don't think we're a capable society of that, then I'll remind you who runs that society: The government. They're still humans, they still seek money, the spend it worse and more crookedly than any gambler if the debt and the US social security is anything to go by, and they even tax you for dying. I think I'll take my chances with the current trend, than any bullshit badly designed legislation would bring. Last I checked, Assassins Creed Origins kept it right with the time period, and lets you die with your gold.

Wolfenstein the new Colossal shrug

When Wolfenstein: The New Order came out, it was amazing. Death to the time when all we got was practically COD clones. Now we got a return to real hardcore FPS, told through a weird fusion of Half-Life and ID formulas. It was an amazing game, and stole the spotlight around the singleplayer scene, with more people than ever talking about the series for it's story. Of course there was room for improvement, and as the sequel was releasing, it looked to promise so and even more. The result? *Sigh* ...I don't know how the hell people are giving this game 9-8 out of 10s. It's not bad, but it's certainly mediocre under the technicality of the hype it set out, and I find all the praises of this game from critics to run skin deep when you see the full reality.

The first half of the game demolishes one of the biggest traits I loved, and I don't think anybody saw that coming. Everyone knows about the wheelchair bit by now, but it's only upgraded slightly, as BJ is "dying" in a power suit. Instead of being like power armor, it really acts more like just the thing that he's barely alive to live through, which carries over into the gameplay by sticking you at 50hp. That's your max. Half your health, and yes, it still partially regenerates, and the game still has enemies, movement, and gunplay that suits more of the old school mentality. This translates into a system that is just flat out broken beyond easy difficulty. You're expected to soldier through these big rooms with weapons and crazy enemies flying, hit scan shots soaking into your supposedly large pool of health, and yet you're just given 50hp. With the rate at which bullets eat up your health and fly out at you, you're reduced to nothing unless you have an overcharge.

Not only that, but you begin to notice just how flat out poorly design lots of little things are. I think some of this applies to The New Order, but I never noticed it there because the map design and core mechanics were actually working. Here you won't be finding the same working fun when a grunt in his thick black steel and iron suit is running to you at the sound of a ninja and gunning you from full to dead health before you have a chance to respond. That's not old school. Having a grenade being cooked and thrown at you to knock you down, and the enemies shoot you while you wait for a stuttering animation to let you shoot again, killing you even if you literally have full overcharge AND armor is also not old school gunplay. The crazy run and gun, circle strafing, dual weilding crazy, laser nazi killing type of fun reviews and attitude alike around this game, are just flat out not there when you die the second you peak out of the corner because your health isn't allowed over 50, and you're being shot in the back by sudden enemy closets and silent creeper. Then you have to put up with the idiots that just don't die consistently, when you use up 30 shots of machine gun on one guy, only to realize he was just tripping instead of dying, is an old annoying trait emphasized when your health is fixed at half. Then they have the audacity to put you in these terrible rooms that are either too cramped and generic hallways, or full of so many ups, downs, and turns in addition to the enemy horde that you just can't reasonable beat the thing without dying several times in a bid to luck out with where the enemies do or don't flank you. This is half of the main campaign too, going on for several levels, and a massive bulk of cut scenes and important story moments. So hope you like badly designed cover shooters in an old-school pretend skin. The first half is a more sophisticated Duke Nukem Forever, just as broken and stupidly contradicting.

I wish it was this crazy fun

Okay, so maybe it's good at story, right? Heh, this is far more subjective, but sit down and let's talk through some SPOILERS!

So the story goes pretty strong at first glance, and even in a lot of it's continuing depth. Some people hate the contrast between silly pulp fiction, and the actually dramatic and horrible nazis, but I actually like the grit and spit silliness of it all. If you can get by the fact of say... a B-grade pulp fiction head transplant as a serious life measuring tool in the same game that expects you to take death seriously, you'll be fine. I mean that, really, I am among those who won't complain at all about the silly contrasts, I actually enjoy a dark plot with some sense of humor. Everything in that vein is done really well. I was interested in the characters, I liked how many scenes and twists unfolded, there were some cool mysteries and interesting extra lore, and the cast in general was just kept interesting.

The problem isn't that the story is told pretty good in the moment, it's that the moment never has a real ending. The ending destroys everything good this story sets up so well. It's not that it's a shocking or "it's a dream" ending, but rather the lack of anything shocking or interesting, or even so convinient as to tie it up neatly. The game just flat out ends, like their budget was cut, or like the writers who actually got shit done were on holiday leave while somebody just literally tried to find the shortest way to pop the credits in stylishly. The game ends with you just literally out of nowhere, fading into the same area as your arch-enemy, and sneaking over to her where you just watch a cut-scene of BJ running and stabbing her. You then have the resistance pals take over a broadcast and shout for people to fight. Cue credits. That's it. it's literally just a sudden tip-toe to the credits deal.

It hurts the heart for all the wrong reasons

Now I had to clarify this is subjective, because apparently a lot of people liked this anti-climatic. ...and look, there's a point there, and that's fine. I get it, the villain wouldn't have suited some traditional mech boss, or some gigantic evil scheme. You were left "wanting more" in a "good way", and the resistance wasn't just done there, and that's... alright to a point. Fine, we did that, we killed that guy, I'm okay with that. The last fight they did have was cheap as fuck and badly designed, but whatever, that's not the point. I wasn't disappointed because the villain's death was cinematic, that could have been done well. I was actually really fine with it, even if a little confused at it's sudden appearance, but it was when the credits kicked in that sorrow and anger came into place. It wasn't the villain, or her end that was bad, it was the fact that the game ended and thus ended for everything around that scene. Suddenly, answers were closed, there were no more real levels that it could have gone through, and as I was just saying that made the good parts all the more shorter considering the first half was... I won't repeat it.

You had a nazi join you. Not only a nazi, but the daughter of the main villain. Her last position? She was just radioing in intel, and says nothing in the final moments. She says nothing when you murder her very mother on broadcast television. She isn't found to be saying anything. They never bring it up. It is nothing. You saw hitler suddenly a couple levels back. You left him there, doing nothing to him, and nothing was said about him. You end the game with that nothing. There was a device a few hours in, a cool contraption that your quirky smart scientist cared so much about took interest in. It was made this great deal out of, given the name of a God Key, he was so mesmerized by it, and you know where that went? NOWHERE! No exaggeration either, it literally went nowhere beyond being a mystery, and being called a god key. Nothing else. Nothing. You can't even find the character on the hub world to hear idle dialogue. It ends with nothing to that build up that you spent over an entire minute of core-campaign cut-scenes witnessing. Then there was Fergus, a character who's slightly optional under a binary choice. I played with him in it, and just before the final mission, back before it even remotely felt like the final mission, you were being opened up to a dramatic new development in his character. You had to go out of your way to find his robotic arm, which involved a five minute long flashback on his woes and why he tried to destroy it, and then you just leave once you gave it back to him, but the very reason and event that lost it to begin with... goes in the gutter. It's as important as the god key apparently. It was just filler, ending with the sudden credits after you just conveniently tip-toe to the big villain. That's just the tip of the ice berg! There's an entire character who is introduced only to disappear, amounting to nothing the whole game. Her companions were barely there as well. There's this key plot point about a ring brought up, telling you it's this big deal, but it's only wedged in a sloppy scene mid-credits like they nearly forgot about that too! Oh and several lost characters and past events, it's like they never happened. You apparently didn't do shit in the last game, and the characters that died, or were associated to your wyat/fergus timeline meant nothing! I held out hope for a mention or inclusion, even a tiny hint or call-back, but when the credits rolled in a game that felt far from over... it was all just suddenly hurried to an end and died.

Do you get what I'm saying by now? I'm not angry because of a lack of robot boss fights, I'm mad because of a lack of story all over the damn place. I'm not just angry because of the sudden villain end, which should rightfully be enough to piss off a lot of people on it's own, but I'm also pissed at all the things that just came to tease you about something that never happens. I scoured around a bit for some terribly hacked in side plots that tie in what were introduced in THE MAIN STORY-LINE, but I've yet to find anything even remotely on the subject. ...and I shouldn't have to. If you're a good writer, you don't write purple-monkey-dishwasher scenes in just to bait a stupid side-mission, you finish what you damn well started and don't make it some damn hidden side slop like it were your moldy leftovers. But even given that benefit of the doubt, I haven't seen anything. The only possible explanaition I have is that some questions will be answered by that artificial secret that is a Vault. That thing, which once enticed me as a possible surprise like maybe a new mode, is now pissing me off with the realization that the game I paid $60 for and installed 55GB onto was half-assed the whole time, and they were still fixing up a patch to finish it and are parading it as if it were some big show to be excited for. They even managed to work in a line, where you see the real vault in-game and have BJ say "What's set cooking up in there?". So they quite literally managed to work in a piece to tell you they're working on another piece, but they couldn't work in a few lines of Sigmund reacting to her own mother's cinematic death, or answer the God Key question they spent two cut-scenes imposing.

Weird shit that goes nowhere, like this guy's maps

....but this game is somehow a massive success!? Higher end of the bargain? A great narrative and action game? 8 and 9 out of 10s all over the place? Are we playing the same damn game!? This isn't hard to see, it's right in front of your faces if you actually played it to the end and paid attention, and I'm not the only person seeing the bullshit all around. Thankfully a couple others have asked where the plot went, or why the ending is so anti-climatic, but there's not enough. Googling the god key for any hidden secrets or even theories gets you no real results. Believe me, I wanted to know where the fuck this stuff goes, but the answer is nowhere. The game doesn't "leave you wanting more" because it's good, it leave you wanting a damn conclusion because it ended so terribly.

Again, I want to end this on the note that it's not a bad game. As a matter of fact, there's a lot to love. The characters and story are still going great before they end. I adore the scene that Horton is introduced in. I love what they did with dual wielding, or more importantly how weapons actually stick with you this time. I love the added replay value in hunting down nazi generals as a post end-game way to play. I also love all the potential in starting a new game and seeing news stuff with a new timeline and new mid-game gadgets. ...and when the game just goes all out crazy, a lot of it is good fun. But between the terrible opening half with the poor gunplay, and how the second half chooses to go nowhere in the story's end, the game can't seem to hold itself together. It falls miserably in one or the other of two major categories, and when it happens on the same package that you're holding on your harddrive for a whopping 55GB, you start questing how worthy this game is, or if you're just enduring the pain to get through it. This is a very flawed gem, worthy of playing for general single player FPS fans, but not a must have right now. I'd wait on it, see where it goes, and realize there's better things out there. Prey was amazing, and as for new releases, holy shit is AC:O surprisingly better than I thought. Wolfenstein had an easy path to being one of the best games of this whole year by just being a good sequel, but it choose not to do that. It's... really kinda sad. I love a lot to this game, and it's the sort of thing I stuck with and pushed through it's faults, but a lot of that pushing was spent angry and away from the fun that I love in this stuff. In a world where Doom succeeded it, it learned nothing from it, but rather fell even further into flaws than it's own predecessor.