Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday November 15 2017, @08:26AM   Printer-friendly
from the battling-over-celebrities-==-star-wars dept.

Games publisher EA has changed a rule in its Star Wars Battlefront II video game after a huge backlash.

During the game, players have to obtain credits - either by buying them or through long hours of game play - to unlock popular characters including Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.

Many players said it was unfair as the gaming required worked out at around 40 hours per character, unless they paid.

EA says the number of credits required will now be reduced by 75%.

"Unlocking a hero is a great accomplishment in the game, something we want players to have fun earning," said executive producer John Wasilczyk from the developer Dice, in a statement.

Maybe EA should spend less time withholding heros from players and more time helping players find the hero within.


Original Submission

Related Stories

Belgium Moving to Ban "Loot Boxes" Throughout Europe, Hawaii Could Restrict Sale to Minors 83 comments

Video game gambling schemes known as "loot boxes" or "loot crates" could be banned or restricted by regulators:

We learned last week that Belgium's gambling authority was investigating loot crates in Star Wars Battlefront II over concerns that they constitute gambling. Now, the decision is in, and the answer is a resounding yes, according to Dutch-language publication VTM Nieuws. The commission claims that purchasable add-on boxes, the contents of which are randomized, mix "money and addiction" and thus are a form of gambling.

Belgian Minister of Justice Koen Geens added: "Mixing gambling and gaming, especially at a young age, is dangerous for the mental health of the child." The commission will now reportedly work through the European Union's process to execute a total ban. We've reached out to Belgium's Gaming Commission for more details on its next steps and the legal implications of the ruling.

The country isn't alone in its stance on loot boxes. Just hours ago, Rep. Chris Lee (D) from Hawaii denounced EA's "predatory behavior" in a speech uploaded to YouTube (first spotted by Kotaku). In the clip, Lee also talks of the detrimental affect micro-transactions have on children, with specific reference to Battlefront II, which he describes as a a "Star Wars-themed online casino, designed to lure kids into spending money".

What Are Loot Boxes? Gaming's Big New Problem, Explained

Press 'F' to pay respects.

Related: Why Call of Duty WW2 Bosses Won't 'Shy Away' from History
Star Wars Game in U-Turn After Player Anger


Original Submission

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Sulla on Wednesday November 15 2017, @08:31AM (1 child)

    by Sulla (5173) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @08:31AM (#597206) Journal

    The last EA game I bought was battlefield 2. My buddies and I organized a LAN party for its release and diiscovered it didn't have coop. Looks like they have not gotten any better.

    --
    Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:37PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:37PM (#597469)

      You mean there wasn't a Day-One Coop DLC? What a missed opportunity!

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Wednesday November 15 2017, @08:54AM (3 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 15 2017, @08:54AM (#597213) Journal

    Maybe EA should spend less time withholding heros from players and more time helping players find the hero within.

    If you need EA to help you discover the hero within you, it's probably a good sign there's no hero to be discovered in the first place.
    If indeed so, the best one can do in the "hero" department would be to consume some Marvel with overpriced popcorn and soda.

    Or... you can accept that there's no hero to be discovered and live a full life anyway... which may include playing EA games from time to time (but abstain at all price from consuming Marvel movies, unless you have a dead-brain wish).

    (my point? Don't blame me, dumb editorializing inspire dumb comments).

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @01:27PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @01:27PM (#597272)

      You should not consume movies, you should watch them. Well, some you better don't watch, but you shouldn't consume those either.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday November 15 2017, @03:43PM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 15 2017, @03:43PM (#597318) Journal

        Marvel/Disney movies are nor made for watching, they are made for consumption - "swallow" it, 30 days later you'll gorget them, but's Ok next serve comes steaming after 6 months anyway.
        They'll also drive consumption of meaningless stuff, like comic-cons, Maccas-with-toys and other things that aren't actually healthy.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @07:47PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @07:47PM (#597429)

      That's ok, we're all dumb here

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @08:57AM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @08:57AM (#597214)

    "Unlocking a hero is a great accomplishment in the game, something we want players to have fun earning,"

    I'm sorry, but players do not have fun -grinding-. And that's all the system does - force you to do the same thing over and over and over and over and over again, just to add something new so you can go back to doing it over and over and over and over and OVER again.

    A cut of 75% of the grind still means you need to spend 10 hours to unlock just one character. There's a lot of characters. Then there are gun unlocks, and upgrades, etc.

    Repetition != Fun.

    (But it does help convince people to buy the credits with their wallet. Guess what the intention is.)

    • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:11AM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:11AM (#597218) Homepage

      Well, here, you cannot use the force...

      You have to use...the SCWARTZ! [youtube.com]

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by MadTinfoilHatter on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:13AM (3 children)

      by MadTinfoilHatter (4635) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:13AM (#597220)

      A cut of 75% of the grind still means you need to spend 10 hours to unlock just one character.

      You optimist you. They didn't cut down the grind by 75%. They cut the points required to buy a character by 75%, while simultaneoulsy slashing the rewards by 75%. In a total dick move they just revalued the in-game currency while changing nothing.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @11:20AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @11:20AM (#597252)

        You got me. I actually feel the need to verify that, despite how obviously braindead a move it would be for EA to do that.

        So... were you joking about them reducing the small credits earned with gameplay by 75% or is it a fact? :)

        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @02:30PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @02:30PM (#597284)

          From what I've seen that seems to be in the ball park. At the very least they did cut the rewards.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @05:37PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @05:37PM (#597375)

            From Ctrl-Alt-Delete under-comic-post: [cad-comic.com]

            Note: Because today’s comic is regarding the 75% reduction to hero credit costs, I just know someone is going to spout off in the comments about EA also reducing the credits awarded by the campaign by the same amount. And while at face value that looks like another juicy morsel to shred EA over (pretending to make things better while not actually changing anything), I’d like to point out this:

            The campaign previously awarded 20k credits. Iden Versio, the campaign’s protagonist (most of the time, anyway), previously cost 20k credits to unlock for multiplayer. Now that they’ve reduced her purchase price to 5k, they similarly scaled the campaign rewards to match. The point being, they clearly intended for completing the campaign to reward enough credits to unlock that character (or a third of another character), and that is still the case. Since credits rewarded from versus matches haven’t been scaled down, the heroes are still 75% more attainable.

            The reason I point this out is that there is plenty to criticize EA on without creating outrage just for the sake of being outraged. All that does is create noise that dilutes focus on the actual problems.

    • (Score: 2) by bradley13 on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:18AM (2 children)

      by bradley13 (3053) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:18AM (#597223) Homepage Journal

      It depends on how the game is structured. Sure, grinding is boring, and rarely any fun at all. On the other hand, a good game will give you a feeling of accomplishment, when you achieve certain goals. In D&D terms: Everybody starts as level 1, and works their way up: the path should be fun. If you could just start as a level 20 wizard - where's the fun in that? You'll be bored in no time.

      "The journey is the reward." Good games can pull this off.

      --
      Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @11:25AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @11:25AM (#597254)

        A game like D&D, if run properly, actually has an engaging and entertaining plot.

        To compare it to what EA is doing, and then ask yourself if it's a sense of accomplishment, is - after your 40th hour of killing the same group of orcs in the same campaign over and over, do you actually feel like you've REALLY accomplished anything when you're finally given a warhorse to run around on ... killing more orcs for an additional 40 hours so that you can obtain that snazzy suit of fullplate armor so you can CONTINUE to go about fighting orcs?

        I think you'd have quit the game and gone on to something more engaging like solitaire before then.

        • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday November 15 2017, @06:25PM

          by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @06:25PM (#597395)

          I've passed the 50-hour mark in Path of Exile (which is free to play, with cosmetic purchases to reward the makers), and while it's fundamentally an isometric clickfest (think Diablo, because it is very much a modern version), there are enough changing landscapes and varied monsters and powers to keep it interesting (the end-of-Act bosses are just absurdly slow to die, and one-shot you every five seconds, almost made me quit).

          It's still nowhere near as fun as my last paper-and-dice role playing game with friends, for sure.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday November 15 2017, @11:49AM

      by cubancigar11 (330) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @11:49AM (#597257) Homepage Journal

      I just had a discussion in gaming forum where people actually complained that they like grinding if it is done properly, and there are too many casual "gamers" who think they should be able to pay to avoid boring parts, so game companies are incentivized to make grinding more and more boring.

      See, all the fetch-quests are also grinding if you think that way, but Skyrim is still the most popular game isn't it. So I think they have a point.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:13AM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:13AM (#597219) Journal

    Why your Battlefront 2 outrage is a compliment to EA [polygon.com]

    There are some interesting points before, but here's an excerpt of the 4th one:

    Lesson #4: Rage is kind of a compliment, and publishers know this

    There was very little anger over the horrid economy of Need for Speed: Payback, and EA should be much more concerned by that fact than the ongoing campaign of outrage aimed at Battlefront 2.

    Always remember that the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference. The fans looked at the new Need for Speed, shrugged and then moved on with their life. There wasn’t enough of an emotional connection for them to fight through the bad monetization strategy.

    EA’s explanation of Battlefront 2’s economy became the most downvoted comment in Reddit history. That’s a huge accomplishment, and EA probably sees it as a sad kind of triumph.

    The reason this issue is continuing to make headlines is that fans don’t want to let it go. They care about the franchise enough to vote against EA’s practices and they will show up to be heard on this topic.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Rivenaleem on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:33AM (1 child)

      by Rivenaleem (3400) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:33AM (#597228)

      I just checked, it also got 86 gold. I don't know of a comment to get that many before either.

      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:40AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:40AM (#597231)

        Probably more to do with throwing gold at le epic most downvoted comment of all time than anything else. You can award gold to a comment for any reason.

  • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:14AM

    by MostCynical (2589) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:14AM (#597221) Journal
    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by lgsoynews on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:39AM (2 children)

    by lgsoynews (1235) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:39AM (#597230)

    Of course they toned it down, this time. Then, as usual, they'll put the exact same stunt -or worse- on their next game...

    That kind of stuff has been going on forever, how is it new? A publisher comes with some abusive behaviour (DRM, always-online for offline mode, micro-transactions, loot-boxes, whatever), then there is some backlash, they claim to listen to their fanbase and make their changes slightly less abusive, then the abuse creeps again. Rince and repeat.

    Look at DRM for an example, I still remember when CDROM emulators started being "banned" because games would not start when one was present. You know what, I NEEDED those emulators, and not for piracy since I don't pirate games. But it did not matter, you were guilty by default, so the message was basically: have a computer for games, another for the other stuff. Which is B.S.

    Nowadays DRM has become so intrusive that I'm always "WTF?" when I read another article about the latest punishment inflicted on legit buyers, also known as "the victims" since pirates don't suffer from those issues... FFS, I wrote a paper about 12 pages long more than 20 years ago about the problems of copy-protection (it was not called DRM back then), I even sent it to all the french publishers, but of course, with no hope of ANYTHING changing. And my expectations were right, things have gotten far worse.

    For one GOG (a great thing, and proof that even without DRM you can sell), how many crazy schemes are going on?

    I also hate Steam (I acknowledge its advantages, but I refuse to use it), because nowaydays even OFFLINE games must be registered to Steam, sometimes a retail box only contains a key, WTF? The first time I got bitten was about 12 years ago, it WAS written on the box (in very small letters), but I had not been careful enough when reading the box, so I never installed the game. After that I got very cautious and noticed that it creeped almost everywhere. This is B.S., I buy and play OFFLINE games, I don't want some stupid online validation.

    Then you have the micro-transactions B.S. If you have played a bit with a good game on your phone/tablet, you know that micro-transactions -done well- are very addicting, and it's really hard to resist the temptation. I'm ok with paying a game or if it's free, to buy some optional stuff to reward the creators. But all too often, they are designed to be abusive. Though I must say that some games are really fair, many are NOT, and some are greedy and abusive beyond belief. 999$ packs? Yep, I've seen that in a "tap" game. This is crazy!

    In retail games, this is even worse, because you paid already a good price, but nowadays they design games to be even more "grindy", in the same way that mobile games are, then of course, for a small sum you can speed up the grind. Or, much worse, the pay-to-win type. That's by far the worst of all. I'm pissed off at some mobile games because of that. The game starts ok, it's well done, but after a while the "buy or die" strategy becomes more & more obvious until the game becomes unplayable, meanwhile you have already invested time and effort in it...

    And don't get me started on their relentless fight against used games! Anyway, with the move to a full digital distribution, used games will very soon be a thing of the past...

    Honestly, I don't understand why players keep accepting such toxic practices. It boggles the mind. It's not as if there were only 2 or 3 studios/producers, and with the web it's much easier to have information beforehand.

    I acknowledge that the fact that so many people are ok with piracy does not help, but it's not an excuse to be total jerks to people who buy your stuff! By victimizing their customers, they even give some legitimacy to piracy (I even know people who buy a game but never open the box, they use the pirated version), which does not help to solve the problem!

    Publishers will only stop their current toxic pratices the day when they have a direct access to your wallet and can slurp some hefty sums every month, because "you MIGHT have played one of our games, who knows?" PAY UP, you dirty PIRATE SCUM!

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by rigrig on Wednesday November 15 2017, @10:14AM

      by rigrig (5129) Subscriber Badge <soylentnews@tubul.net> on Wednesday November 15 2017, @10:14AM (#597242) Homepage

      Of course they toned it down, this time.

      Q: How do you prevent a huge backlash from requiring people to grind 10 hours to unlock content they already paid for?
      A: Tell them they will need to grind for 40 hours, then lower it after the initial backlash.

      --
      No one remembers the singer.
    • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday November 15 2017, @03:38PM

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @03:38PM (#597311)

      That kind of stuff has been going on forever, how is it new?

      It's not, but the players keep coming back for more, so I don't see the problem.

      then there is some backlash, they claim to listen to their fanbase and make their changes slightly less abusive, then the abuse creeps again. Rince and repeat.

      You'd think the players would learn, but they don't.

      Nowadays DRM has become so intrusive that I'm always "WTF?" when I read another article about the latest punishment inflicted on legit buyers, also known as "the victims"

      That's being charitable. I'd call them "deserving suckers" instead. You can say I'm "blaming the victim" if you want, but these "victims" happily signed up for this abuse, and opened their wallets for the privilege too. I have zero sympathy. As you've pointed out, this behavior has been going on for a LONG time. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

      And don't get me started on their relentless fight against used games! Anyway, with the move to a full digital distribution, used games will very soon be a thing of the past...

      Don't like it? Don't buy it.

      Honestly, I don't understand why players keep accepting such toxic practices.

      As I said above, they're "deserving suckers". You can also call them "stupid". That's why they keep accepting such toxic practices.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by ledow on Wednesday November 15 2017, @10:03AM

    by ledow (5567) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @10:03AM (#597238) Homepage

    Stop buying games on Day One.

    If you have literally NO IDEA how the game operates, funds itself, etc. than any purchase is supporting WHATEVER method they decide to deploy - DRM, online activation, DLC, character unlocks etc. By the time you complain, they already have your money and have paid for all their development, and they move onto the next game.

    If you're that concerned, you say "Nope, not paying for that" when the first real reviews from players come out (strange how none of the pre-reviews, etc. mention such things, isn't it?) and they don't get a penny and have to scramble to fix it TO GET your custom, which is a lesson they'll hopefully take forward to the next project if it was a near-flop because of it.

    But every time you buy something "because it says Star Wars", then you're literally funding, encouraging and MAKING these companies pull these tactics. They know they can put out any junk, stick a licence on it, and on day one make their money back and more no matter what they pull and how much gameplay testing they bother to do.

    To be honest, the thing "ruining" modern gaming... is modern gamers. Stop buying this shit.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @10:49AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @10:49AM (#597249)

    I assume this is an MMO, but even normal AAA games released, 40 hours is pretty close to nothing that one should normally spend in a game. What do these kids want? To play newly released 4 games per week?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:19PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @09:19PM (#597462)

      No, it's an FPS with competitive multiplayer. Most people I know don't even play the campaign, they just jump into multiplayer and kill their way to the points.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by coolgopher on Wednesday November 15 2017, @10:54AM (5 children)

    by coolgopher (1157) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @10:54AM (#597251)

    After ME:A I have zero hope left for them. I did enjoy DA:I despite the formula and DLC-which-should've-been-part-of-the-base-game, but I won't be paying anywhere near full price again for another installment in that series.

    The executive layer in that company seems hellbent on draining any leftover soul from the actual developers/artists.

    Meanwhile, I'll eagerly await whatever CD Project RED next puts out, regardless of whether it's a genre I'm particularly into. After the Witcher series, these guys (gender-neutral) have me believing in them consistently delivering high quality stuff. Correction, amazing quality stuff. The story telling and world building has been epic out of this world. They've taken up the mantle that many many moons ago Origin Systems ("We create worlds") held. If you like story and haven't yet played the Witcher series, you've seriously been missing out and should go get yourself a copy (unlike EA, CDPR does heavy discounting btw).

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @02:36PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @02:36PM (#597286)

      I second this. Awesome game, awesome story, awesome publisher. And they do discount fairly well. Got the other half Witcher 3 the other day for 20 bucks.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by tibman on Wednesday November 15 2017, @05:28PM (1 child)

      by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 15 2017, @05:28PM (#597366)

      I dislike Origin a lot. So much so that i'll never buy an EA game again : / Battlefront 2 looks like a lot of fun but there are other fish in the sea.

      --
      SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
      • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Wednesday November 15 2017, @11:44PM

        by coolgopher (1157) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @11:44PM (#597506)

        Them reusing the Origin branding on the monstrosity that is their launcher is just sad. So so sad. Lord British would be spinning in his grave, were he dead.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @05:47PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @05:47PM (#597383)

      Don't forget that you can get The Witcher completely DRM-free on GOG, which is a concept that I'm sure causes aneurysms in EA executive suite.

      • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Thursday November 16 2017, @01:43AM

        by coolgopher (1157) on Thursday November 16 2017, @01:43AM (#597548)

        And they threw in a bunch of free DLC after launch. And their two big DLC (really, proper expansions) were exceptional value for money.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @11:24AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @11:24AM (#597253)

    During the game, players have to obtain credits - either by buying them ... - to unlock popular characters including Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.

    Maybe EA should spend less time withholding heros from players

    The "withholding" is crafted specifically to encourage the words highlighted in bold above.

    And by encouraging those bold highlighted words above, EA increases their profit on the game, because now they get the initial sale, plus the in-game sales.

    So it is no wonder they introduced grinding. Making it a long boring episode just to build up enough credits to buy something convinces way too many fools to open their wallets and buy the credits instead.

    What you should do instead is wait to buy the game until after the reviews come out and after you read the reviews. And if the reviews give any indication that there is any in game purchasing of credits/points/whatever that can also be obtained by grinding, then simply refuse to buy the game at all. If enough fools did this, the grind would quickly disappear from new games.

    Instead, whenever you open your wallet to buy your way around a grind, you are telling the publisher that this was ok, and giving them an incentive to screw you over again in their next game in the same way.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @04:25PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @04:25PM (#597336)

      if they said that skilled play would unlock secret achievements, people would grind 10x as long to unlock the same characters that were awarded to those people that managed to meet the requirements via regular play.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by crafoo on Wednesday November 15 2017, @01:14PM

    by crafoo (6639) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @01:14PM (#597266)

    So you pay full price for a game, and then can continue to pay in a free-2-play style in-game credits scheme? Nuke it all. Step 1: we need to make software licensing illegal. Pay for the copy of the game, then you can literally do anything you want to that copy as long as you do not redistribute.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by stretch611 on Wednesday November 15 2017, @02:59PM (2 children)

    by stretch611 (6199) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @02:59PM (#597296)

    Screw EA... They have been undeserving of my money for over a decade now. They have done the online drm for years now, and then they drop support of games after a sequel exists effectively locking you out of playing older titles completely. They love sports games... essentially updating the stats every year, forcing consumers to buy it new every year at full price without any real game update. And forget about bug fixes... the only way bugs will get fixed is if it affects the bottom line. They buy smaller publishers with a good reputation and established IP then force them into substandard releases until the innovation and money dry up. (think Westwood and Origin.) And EA is not alone... a lot of other big publishers do the same thing.

    The real sad thing is that EA used to have a great reputation back in the early days... the old 8bit Commodores and Ataris. Wonderful classics like MULE, Pinball Construction Set, Archon, Populous, Racing Destruction set, and a ton of others. They still had some flops back then too, but it wasn't like now were they seem to encourage flops with a low budget to make a huge profit margin. Back then, EA was a distribution company for smaller independents... at least that is how they started.

    To get the best games now, go independent. Smaller studios support their games, are more likely to listen to their customers, and less likely to have ball-kicking DRM. (Though *some* do require steam.) I have probably gotten more hours of entertainment out of Factorio [factorio.com], Rimworld [rimworldgame.com], and Prison Architect [introversion.co.uk] (each) then I have with the combined Command and Conquer/Red Alert franchise.

    Note: I am willing to put up with Steam's DRM... but for those that are not, GOG does have DRM-Free versions of many games. Another thing... Smaller studios generally get the most profit when buying direct off their websites. (But some don't bother and redirect you to Steam, GOG, or Humble Bundle.)

    Full disclosure: Now all my gaming is done on Linux... native, not WINE. It makes it easier to avoid EA, Ubisoft, and Bethesda because they will not support linux. However, there are plenty of games supporting linux even in AAA titles. (like Civilization V and VI, or Warhammer, F1 Racing, and Dota 2.) Honestly, there are enough games supporting linux that you need to watch out for crapware... which sadly is one problem that going indie devs does not solve.

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday November 15 2017, @04:22PM (1 child)

      by Freeman (732) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @04:22PM (#597335) Journal

      As far as indie games go, I would also highly recommend Terraria.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @04:28PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @04:28PM (#597337)

        dwarf fortress or go home

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by urza9814 on Thursday November 16 2017, @07:02PM

    by urza9814 (3954) on Thursday November 16 2017, @07:02PM (#597817) Journal

    Jesus, I remember back before EA bought everyone out, when games actually lasted more than a day or two...the old Westwood Command and Conquer series in particular, I remember spending weeks on individual missions! Now 40 hours of gameplay to unlock a special character is causing such outrage that they have to scale it back??

    If you're having trouble getting 40 hours of enjoyable gameplay, it means the game just sucks. And EA apparently agrees!

    There's still some good ones out there though...I've played over a thousand hours of Factorio and still look forward to going home tonight and playing some more! That's a quality game, unlike this garbage...and it's not even released yet! (it's available pre-release...which is fantastic because every few months you get new features...it's like getting years of free DLC that does everything from adding new structures and missions to restructuring the endgame play to reformatting the GUI)

  • (Score: 2) by el_oscuro on Friday November 17 2017, @04:30AM

    by el_oscuro (1711) on Friday November 17 2017, @04:30AM (#598066)

    EA (for now) has apparently shitcanned the entire lootbox crap.

    https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/11/after-fan-outcry-ea-kicks-real-money-purchases-out-of-battlefield-ii/?comments=1 [arstechnica.com]

    --
    SoylentNews is Bacon! [nueskes.com]
(1)