Board 8 > EA response to angry Battlefront 2 reddit post at 428576 downvotes and counting.

(+) Yeah! (+)

That 75% decrease in hero costs really did make a significant change. After about 8 hours of multiplayer + completing the campaign, I've unlocked 4/6. I still have an opportunity to get a whole bunch of easy credits through challenges as well.

Of course this doesn't mean microtransactions were ever a good idea.
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red13n posted...

Its just...usually this stuff is cosmetic or if its not its in games that are free to play. This is a full priced game with some of its most compelling content locked.

This is really the heart of the matter.
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davidponte posted...

In a perfect world they'll bring them back as a way to obtain cosmetics and have them not interfere with progression at all.

In a perfect world you would not have all these heroes and content locked behind hours of grinding, which is still the case.

Removing microtransactions doesn't change ANY complaint that people had. It still takes many hours to unlock a hero that you paid for. All it does it reduce the amount of money the game makes. Which ultimately is what this rage is all about - game developers making money instead of donating their work to gamers for free.

The fact that all the ragers are content now that NOTHING HAS CHANGED except the game makes less money... that's just sickening, and completely expected. They will now proudly buy the game and give EA their $60, after being so adamant about their "boycott".

Imagine if even 0.1% of those "boycotters" instead spent $60 on indie games which actually DO need the money and won't gross $1 BILLION IN REVENUE.... one can dream....
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From my perspective, the incoming firestorm of retaliation [on the Star Wars game] was a given, but this is an industry run predominantly by alienated rich old guys who know little and care less about video games, so it would not surprise me in the least if they were completely taken by surprise when they faced their very own galactic rebellion, Sterling said. Emperor Palpatine always thinks his Death Star is invincible until they blow it up. Electronic Arts and its insidious ilk arent much different.

That's amazing
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Removing microtransactions doesn't change ANY complaint that people had.

And yet it does, mainly because the complainers are fucking idiots who don't even know what they're complaining about.
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>still buying Western AAA games

Joke's on them, to be honest.
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SmartMuffin posted...

And yet it does, mainly because the complainers are fucking idiots who don't even know what they're complaining about.

That's fair
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To be perfectly honest, I'm fine with having to unlock heroes. I actually like unlocking things, and it gives a sense of accomplishment.

I'm a little less fine (though still fine) with the randomness of loot boxes and microtransactions. That said, if I was gonna complain about one of the two, it'd be that.
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Vlado posted...

>still buying Western AAA games

Joke's on them, to be honest.

Vlado out to destroy Western culture, confirmed.
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Vlado is right, Tony. Everyone should be playing free-to-play mobile games instead.

Good thing me, you, and everyone else in the 6 mobile game topics we have here are already ahead of the curve!
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@WhiteLens

what happened to the mobile game topic hmmm


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foolm0r0n posted...

davidponte posted...

In a perfect world they'll bring them back as a way to obtain cosmetics and have them not interfere with progression at all.

In a perfect world you would not have all these heroes and content locked behind hours of grinding, which is still the case.

Removing microtransactions doesn't change ANY complaint that people had. It still takes many hours to unlock a hero that you paid for. All it does it reduce the amount of money the game makes. Which ultimately is what this rage is all about - game developers making money instead of donating their work to gamers for free.

The fact that all the ragers are content now that NOTHING HAS CHANGED except the game makes less money... that's just sickening, and completely expected. They will now proudly buy the game and give EA their $60, after being so adamant about their "boycott".

Imagine if even 0.1% of those "boycotters" instead spent $60 on indie games which actually DO need the money and won't gross $1 BILLION IN REVENUE.... one can dream....

Seems like this topic hit a nerve, but isn't the indie market making more revenue than ever now? The only real detriments to it have been the slew of shoddy kickstarters from big names people thought they could trust. I don't think the casual gamers of the world will ever be fully enticed into indie gaming unless they find they have niche interests and delve more after being attracted to a genre through the big, bombastic market explosion of AAA's.

As much as I hate on some of the AAA business practices, they need to exist and do well for the indies to grab some share of that market in the first place.
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GranzonEx posted...

what happened to the mobile game topic hmmm

One day, me, you, Natwaf, and MysteriousBumper forgot to bump the topic and it purged. I don't feel making a new one, and any Mobius discussion I just bring to Natwaf's FFXIV topic.

But fine, some new-ish mobile games that came out recently:

Sonic Forces: Speed Battle
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sega.sprint

South Park: Phone Destroyer
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ubisoft.dragonfire

The Alchemist Code (made by our "good friends" gumi)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sg.gumi.alchemistww

Coming soon-

Naruto X Boruto Ninja Voltage
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bandainamcoent.ninjavoltage_app

Why the is there a game called Naruto X Boruto? Goddammit, Japan!
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MenuWars posted...

Seems like this topic hit a nerve, but isn't the indie market making more revenue than ever now?

Sure, among those who buy indie games (i.e. casuals). And on mobile too because it's all casuals who don't care who made a game as long as it's cool looking and on the front page/top of list. But "hardcore gamers" still think games aren't worth money unless they are huge AAA games that feed their ego, and even then it's iffy.

But the point is, no one ever made a good game because a shitty game didn't make money. Boycotting a game does nothing to make games better. The only thing that does is actually buying good games. Which unfortunately for "gamers" means buying Skyrim and Witcher 3 for the 9th time (on a 90% discount sale of course).

Basically, Battlefront 2 making $1 billion instead of $2 billion doesn't mean anything for the next game. Battlefront 3 will still be made, and EA will still design it to make the most money possible, however that manifests itself. However, an indie game making $20k instead of $10k or $1k can quite literally be what makes the next game happen. Such a small change causes such a big benefit.

If hardcore gamers want to make a difference and cause better games to be made, they should do so and 100% have the ability to. So I will criticize them when they choose to do nothing but virtue signal online.
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That's why I still bought the game despite pretending to be outraged online!
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The not-so-long con
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WhiteLens posted...

The Alchemist Code (made by our "good friends" gumi)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sg.gumi.alchemistww

Coming soon-

Naruto X Boruto Ninja Voltage
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bandainamcoent.ninjavoltage_app

Why the is there a game called Naruto X Boruto? Goddammit, Japan!

So many gumi waifus!

I was hoping the NarutoxBurrito game would be a little more afk friendly #SAD
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also coming soon: Aniplex bringing over a phone game based off of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

Hestia is set for 2018.
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davidponte posted...

That 75% decrease in hero costs really did make a significant change. After about 8 hours of multiplayer + completing the campaign, I've unlocked 4/6. I still have an opportunity to get a whole bunch of easy credits through challenges as well.

Of course this doesn't mean microtransactions were ever a good idea.

I haven't bought any heroes yet, but I've got some really good cards for my starfighters + officer. I'm loving BFront 2 so far.
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Apparently the state of Hawaii is trying to do something about these kinds of practices.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/7elin7/the_state_of_hawaii_announces_action_to_address/dq62w5m/
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mnkboy907 posted...

Apparently the state of Hawaii is trying to do something about these kinds of practices.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/7elin7/the_state_of_hawaii_announces_action_to_address/dq62w5m/

so this is how you get gamers to cheer government banning games I guess
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Holy shit at that Hawaii news, this is reaching kind of hilarious levels.
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Wow, it's not just Hawaii either. >_>

https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/7em7xi/belgium_says_loot_boxes_are_gambling_wants_them/
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So how does Japan handle this then? Don't they have their own gambling laws for gacha games?
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The big JP mobile game companies self-regulated before the government did anything. Most notably they discontinued the "Complete Gacha" systems (where getting all pieces of a set would also give you an additional exclusive piece or bonus)

I believe China has some laws though, they have to make the exact odds of all gacha/lootboxes available to players
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How angry do you think other companies are at EA for taking loot boxes to the extreme and potentially ruining it for everyone?
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i mean it's pretty hard to say lootboxes aren't gambling, they really are.
but it's pretty amazing that EA has managed to singlehandedly become responsible for bringing down the hammer on a shitty practice. for once i can say thanks, EA.
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Lootboxes are definitely gambling. It is already established from games that in-game items have monetary value. You are paying X amount of money for a randomized set of value from your lootboxes. The minimum of which is unlikely to be above the amount you pay for them.
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Talk of lootboxes reminds me of pokemon cards. I remember how they were randomized, and I probably wasted way more money on them than I should have.
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The basic argument that loot boxes aren't gambling is that you still actually receive something for buying boxes, even if it wasn't what you wanted. So the defense is even if you didn't get that super rare item you wanted, most players expected to get the useless spray or whatever.

If you tried to extrapolate it to the real world, it'd be like entering a raffle where you had a chance to get a sports car or a bag of chips and saying "Well, the majority of people are paying money because they want the chips". Of course, both of those things have an actual real-world value that can be measured in currency while most virtual items can not (and when virtual items are traded for cash that's when they run afoul of gambling laws). So the question is what exactly do you figure the price value is for something like a player icon in Overwatch? It's not for actual sale, so technically Blizzard can set the value of it to whatever they want, even if it's ludicrous to imagine anyone actually paying for it. So if they say it's worth the price of 1/4 a Lootbox, then you're paying the exact amount of what it's worth when buying a box, and therefore not gambling. Which is complete horseshit.
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davidponte posted...

How angry do you think other companies are at EA for taking loot boxes to the extreme and potentially ruining it for everyone?

They are ecstatic that they all used lootboxes in the same way but EA got all the blame
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Ashethan posted...

Talk of lootboxes reminds me of pokemon cards.

Yeah, I haven't seen the argument that convinces me why lootboxes are gambling when buying any deck of trading cards wouldn't be.
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Pokemon trading cards guaranteed you X Cards of each rarity.

I dont know if they still do, but that is how they used to work.
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red13n posted...

Pokemon trading cards guaranteed you X Cards of each rarity.

True, I actually wanted to point that out in my original post but got lazy. A Pokemon pack (or X-Men pack from the 90s, or any pack of cards that I actually collected) usually guaranteed you rarity numbers. For example, a pack of 10 cards would have something like:

7-9 common cards
0-2 uncommon cards (if they deck had such a distinction)
1 rare card

Now, I have no idea if a loot crate does the same thing, but my uneducated guess is that it WOULD give a similar breakdown like:

7-9 garbage-tier rewards
0-2 mid-tier rewards (new weapons?)
1 high-tier reward (new character?)

If lootboxes have no such guarantee (meaning a player could get 100% garbage-tier rewards in a box), then yeah, that's more randomized than the trading cards of days gone by, and that's a pretty shitty practice. That said, we have to acknowledge that even with trading cards, there was a good chance that the "guaranteed rare" card was some bullshit you didn't want anyway. Everyone wanted the Charizard, but everyone knew there was a chance they'd get a non-shiny Kangaskhan and sulk over it the rest of the day.
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first pack i ever opened had a charizard in it.
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Non-shiny Kangaskhan for my brother and me (you bastard). He pulled a shiny Blastoise a couple packs later, though.
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got a Blastoise first thing
never ever found a Charizard
(maybe the initial wave of cards was frontloaded and I just missed it)

another thing cards have over lootboxes is that they can be traded
and also they are physically there and thus less suspectible to ratio tampering
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htaeD posted...

less suspectible to ratio tampering

lol
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Also if theres a specific card you want you can buy it directly on the secondary market rather than hoping to randomly get it

Valve games and one or two others excepted, thats not the case with digital loot box contents
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Got Charizard and Blastoise so Im happy

Of course as it turns out Blastoise saw a hell of a lot more use than Charizard
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Nia_Yuri posted...

Got Charizard and Blastoise so Im happy

Of course as it turns out Blastoise saw a hell of a lot more use than Charizard

That rain dance ability is amazing for the time.
Best you could do for Charizard is combo with Venusaur's Energy Trans.

of course, in the end, 70 hp basic pokemon ruled the day, so who would play evos anyway :P
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