While EA has been trying to address the concerns the gaming community has over the pay-to-win model of Star Wars Battlefront II, it hasn’t been going very well. One of the company’s replies to Reddit post complaining about the pay-to-win model, stated that the intent was to “provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment.” That comment is now the most downvoted comment in all of Reddit with 676,000 downvotes as of now.
Following this controversy, it was announced that DICE would conduct an AMA on Reddit to clear the air once and for all. Instead of addressing the player’s concerns however, the whole event seems to have been an attempt at damage control. Many of the important questions weren’t directly answered and when the team did answer, they just stated in ambiguous terms that they would look into the issue and make the necessary changes.
Still, it’s nice that the team consisting of John Wasilczyk (Executive Producer), Dennis Brannvall (Associate Design Director) and Paul Keslin (Producer) at least tried to have a dialogue with the community. Paul answered one question regarding the recent backlash, stating that this AMA was an attempt to “repair the bridge” with the community.
They have tried to assure players that the game will take into account players’ skills when awarding credit rewards and this seems a step in the right direction. Paul stated, “Right now Credits you earn in-match DO take into account your performance. It also takes into account the time you’ve spent in-match. Currently it’s skewed more towards your time spent in-game and we have some work to do to make it more clear that your performance does impact your Credit earn. ”
John Wasilczyk also tried to address the concerns regarding the loot crate system and said “I think this concern has come through loud and clear. We’re going to continue adjusting the crate systems, content, and progression mechanics to hit a point that gives players a great, balanced experience at all skill levels. We’re working on expanding the number of ways that players can progress, putting more control in their hands and providing more options and choice in the way people play. There’s not much in the game that we wouldn’t revisit to improve the game for as many players as possible.”
Additionally, Dennis Brannvall responded to the mediocre review scores that the game has been getting and commented on this saying “I feel that the score was impacted by the feedback on our progression system and obviously would have loved if that wasn’t the case. I believe the gameplay, art, audio and depth warrants higher recognition, but I’m a developer, so I’m not necessarily the most unbiased source. Reviewers are obviously entitled to their own opinions, and we respect that completely.”
You can head over to the AMA and read more of the questions and answers there. It’s nice to see the gaming community has united in their stance against unfair systems which do not respect their consumers. Hopefully, this will lead to some real changes in the industry as a whole.