{"id":168,"date":"2015-12-11T17:38:50","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T22:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/patrickmauro.net\/blog\/?p=168"},"modified":"2018-09-05T14:38:29","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T18:38:29","slug":"rant-eadice-can-still-save-battlefront-but-they-have-to-act-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patrickmauro.net\/blog\/?p=168","title":{"rendered":"Rant: EA\/DICE can still save Battlefront – but they have to act fast."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wherein<\/a>

Wherein the snowspeeder represents consumers and the AT-AT stepping on it is EA (lol I’m so good at metaphors guys \/s)<\/p><\/div>\n

Yeah, I meant to post about some other, more interesting stuff after bringing this blog back. And yeah, this might seem like a dumb topic to post about after such a long break.\u00a0But the drama surrounding this game has me peeved\u00a0enough to want to weigh in myself.\u00a0So without further ado, let me get a-rantin’.<\/p>\n

As a gamer and a huge\u00a0Star Wars fan, it goes without saying that I was pretty pumped for the new Battlefront game from EA\/DICE, especially with the new movie coming out soon (less than a week as of this posting!). But as we all know,\u00a0the game’s reception post-release has not exactly been warm. There are lots of aspects folks take issue with,\u00a0some more technical than others, but pretty much everyone agrees on one thing –\u00a0there just isn’t enough content to justify the asking price.<\/strong> And charging basically the same price as the base game for additional<\/em>\u00a0content – content that debatably should have been included with the price of the base game – is\u00a0seen by many as borderline insulting.<\/p>\n

Now, do I enjoy the game? Yeah, I do. Gameplay<\/em>-wise, I have no real issues – the game looks great and\u00a0sounds<\/em> great, and while the new loadout system is a little strange, I don’t have as big a problem with it as\u00a0some other players do (there are\u00a0some<\/em> things I take issue with, but we’ll get to that a little later). But I definitely can’t overlook what seems like blatant price-gouging and non-consumer-friendliness (I’d even go as far as using the term consumer-contempt<\/em>) on the part of EA\/DICE. And I do regret paying full price for the game – especially in light of the\u00a0additional\u00a0<\/em>issues I’ve\u00a0experienced since buying it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is where things get weird. See,\u00a0many people braver than me made the wise<\/strong><\/em> decision to express their dissatisfaction\u00a0with their wallets, either by asking for refunds, or not purchasing it at all in the first place. And this is how things should<\/em> be – it’s the only way companies like this will listen. The problem is, a game like this\u00a0relies<\/em> on a large player base to function correctly. So these dwindling numbers have since caused an already-troubled game to go from bad to worse\u00a0by\u00a0effectively completely ruining matchmaking <\/strong>– at least on PC. For many gametypes, it is impossible to start a match at all, as there simply aren’t enough players online to fill the needed party size – and even when there are, often matchmaking occurs with what would seem to be zero regard to geography,\u00a0causing ping to skyrocket for all players when and lag spikes that often times make the game unplayable.\u00a0I mean, look at these statistics<\/a> – as of this writing, there’s only about 15k PC players, compared to 30k players on Xbox One and 70k players on PS4. They claim to be working on improving this on PC<\/a>, but clearly it’s symptomatic of a larger issue – people just aren’t playing. They’re fed up.<\/p>\n

Just being disappointed in a game is one thing, but there’s now a far more important issue at hand – the game will be dead and irrelevant by the end of the year if action is not taken ASAP to stop the\u00a0hemorrhaging and encourage new player growth.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

So why not just let it die, if it’s so disappointing? Why even encourage them to take action? Because I think the game is worth<\/em> saving –\u00a0there’s enough heart and soul in the content that is<\/em> present for me to believe with a little TLC, this could truly be a great game, and one players will flock to.\u00a0Things look a little dire now, but it doesn’t have to be that way.\u00a0If EA\/DICE are willing to show a little humility, offer some sort of olive branch to the community, some way of communicating\u00a0a consumer-friendly commitment to their player base, they\u00a0can<\/strong><\/em> turn things around. It’s not impossible – we’ve seen this happen before with games like FFXIV<\/em>, which went from being one of the biggest flops in MMO history to being one of the biggest successes in MMO history. But while that was a major rebuild and relaunch, I don’t even think action that involved needs to be taken to salvage the game. I think there are two essential things that can be done right away\u00a0<\/em>that would help get things back on track, assuaging the public’s concerns and hopefully saving this game’s future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1)\u00a0Cut the price of the base game (or release an expansion\u00a0or 2\u00a0for free).<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think this goes without saying and is probably what everyone is thinking. Again, what’s\u00a0in<\/em> the game is great – this might just be one of the most immersive Star Wars games ever created. But there’s at best 6 hours of novel gameplay before things get old real fast. There’s just not enough in the way of interesting and diverse content for the base game to be worth a whole\u00a0$60. The additional<\/em> $50 price tag for future\u00a0content only serves to add insult to injury here.<\/p>\n

So something’s gotta give – either re-price the base game at something a little more fair\/enticing<\/strong>, or acknowledge these mistakes by promising additional content down the line\u00a0at no additional cost\u00a0<\/strong>– ie, release one or more of the 4 planned expansion packs for free – thereby improving the base game, and making the price tag a little\u00a0more justifiable.\u00a0I honestly think this alone<\/em> might be enough. But not just<\/em> for appearance’s sake – it’s also the\u00a0right<\/em> thing to do. The people have spoken, and the perceived value of the game does not match its price tag. Hell, GameStop even\u00a0seems to have gotten on the bandwagon early, cutting the game’s price\u00a0to $40 in their stores<\/a>\u00a0– why not just make it official? Make a statement, and promise better customer support and dedication going forward.\u00a0It’s a good PR move, and it’d\u00a0bring in more players by making entry more affordable\u00a0– everyone wins.<\/p>\n

Also, I hate the\u00a0Deluxe Edition just on principle. “Hey, pay us a little more and get these items early that you would have unlocked anyway!” I just don’t understand the logic there – seems like blatant consumer manipulation. But, I realize this isn’t a new thing with videogames. It does makes it all stink that much more, though.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2) Promise better single-player support.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Details on what’s included in the four <\/strong>future expansion packs are sketchy at best<\/a>, but like the base game, they don’t sound like they’re going to be worth the asking price. More maps, modes, items and heroes are… fine, I guess. But it’s not really what the game’s lacking, and what players are aching for – better single-player.<\/p>\n

The single-player on-disc is\u00a0a joke.<\/strong><\/em> It consists of Training, Survival, and “Missions.” Now, the training and survival are fine – the survival is almost really interesting, too – it’s just\u00a0very boring.<\/em> But it’s a good feature and is probably a lot of fun to play with a buddy. But the “missions” – what should<\/em> be the meat of the singleplayer – just consist of several “kill the baddies and collect tokens until you get 100pts” games. It’s really, really bad.<\/p>\n

Look, even without some kind of campaign, with singleplayer modes of this style\u00a0there should be at least <\/em>be more to do. There are so many game modes in this game\u00a0– at least<\/em> simulate all the multiplayer game modes, but with AIs instead of live players. That’s not an unreasonable expectation, right? And surely it couldn’t be that<\/em> hard to implement.<\/p>\n

But I think many players do\u00a0<\/em>want some kind of\u00a0campaign mode – and I do too! Something that takes all the maps and game modes in the game and weaves them all together with a loose narrative to create a unique single player and\/or co-op experience. Battlefront 2 had something exactly like this back in 2005, and while it’s not the\u00a0greatest<\/em> campaign mode in the world, it’s still done in a unique way that showcases all the game’s different game modes, and more importantly, ensures the game still has replay value now that its online servers are gone for good.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What makes this that much more painful is the little cutscenes and scenarios seen in some of the singleplayer modes, Survival in particular,\u00a0are actually really good<\/strong>. They demonstrate DICE is actually\u00a0rather adept at the sort of minimal storytelling that would have made a full campaign mode feel really, really exciting and fun to play – if they had just made an attempt at all<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Even if the price tag remained at $60,\u00a0having something like this added to the game in the future free of charge would make it all worth it, in my opinion. So it would be great if something like this was included in one of the future DLC packs rather than what it seems to be at the moment (just more of the same). But why wasn’t this included in the first place?<\/strong> I realize implementing a full campaign could be a little tricky – and I imagine they were under pressure to finish the game before The Force Awakens released – but would just including more game modes with AIs\u00a0really<\/em> have been that difficult? I can’t pretend to understand what building a game like this actually entails, but I really can’t imagine it would have been – there’s not even any actual content being added.<\/p>\n

Compare this approach to Splatoon<\/em> from earlier in the year\u00a0– it\u00a0coupled its fun but admittedly a little one-note multiplayer with a wacky and unique single-player campaign – which the game didn’t\u00a0even draw that much attention to. <\/em>But it should have – it’s a blast.\u00a0Plus, new maps and items are released in content updates every so often completely free of charge<\/strong>. It’s a completely different attitude, and one that shows a little more respect to\u00a0the\u00a0players.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Other nitpicks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though in general<\/em> I do enjoy the game, unlike a lot of people, I do have a few other nitpicks – things that I don’t necessarily think are as grave as the issues mentioned above, but still bug me a little.<\/p>\n