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