Rant on Micro-Transactions:Redux
Perennial bad guy in gaming Electronic Arts finally pissed of the wrong fan base: Star Wars fans.
What EA got wrong is that they gave us a serious juke out of the gate when they announced at E3 that BFII DLC would be free for everyone. What they did instead was essentially put a price on everything else including player progression in multiplayer. In order to play as iconic Star Wars characters, a player would have to commit to (what was roughly estimated) 40 hours of multiplayer gameplay to earn credits to unlock a character. And then save those credits for that goal instead of using it to upgrade the base character you play as. And also cap how many credits you can earn in multiplayer in a day.
EA steps in like a shark and dangles shortcuts like premium loot boxes and the in game currency that would cut down on that time by handcuffing your experience to your wallet.
Increased anger from fans about the way player progression was implemented in BFII has put a necessary light on the way video game developers have implemented the micro-transactions (MTX) in efforts to boost profitability of a title in its lifespan. It all about happiness of shareholders and not happiness of the player base. The whole point of making the DLC free was so that the player base isn’t fractured but they still implemented a system that would separate the haves from the have-nots. Those that can afford to splurge on MTX, had EA Access which allowed them to play the game a week early, or need that instant gratification of playing as Darth Vader on Day 1 already have a gross advantage on players that are more picky with what they purchase. So they’ve still managed to alienate fans at one side of the spectrum.
The displeasure has been mounting against EA since the Beta where gamers saw the trend of how the game was tying progression to real currency and have let them have it since. The fervor got so high that mainstream news outlets covered the uproar the game has caused. Before release, EA held an Ask Me Anything on Reddit to get direct feedback from the community. It did not go well. One of EA’s responses are now the most downvoted threads in Reddit history. CEO of Disney Bob Iger had to call the CEO of EA Andrew Wilson (The story has been corrected saying that the head of Disney’s Consumer products and Interactive Media Jimmy Pitaro called EA, not Bob Iger) before the official release. It can be assumed that Pitaro made the call to squash anger against the Star Wars franchise because Episode VIII is coming next month and they don’t want any bad press from the game associated with the movie.
In what seems to be a victory for consumers, the end product of the call was that EA have now(temporarily) turned off micro-transactions and decreased the amount of credits needed to unlock characters. So that 40 hour game play from earlier is now rumored at 10 hours. (The amount of credits you can earn per game was also decreased 25%).
The game as a whole, isn’t bad. Visually, it looks great. Gameplay is solid. Janina Gavankar as Iden Versio in the campaign is amazing. (Follow her on twitter. Trust me, it’s worth it. She’s cool.) On the surface, the game is what everyone wants in a sequel: a noticeably better entry built on the foundation of the first title. But the title has suffered because of how its multiplayer was built around MTX that were intrusive to player experience. Sales projections are expected to not make the projected first week estimates. Reviews from critics and players are mixed to poor. On the user score on Metacritic, BFII has a 0.8 score out of 10.
One reviewer wrote:
A solid -2. 8 points for the good, fun game with outstanding graphics. -10 for trying to screw everyone out of their money by making the game almost require loot boxes in order to play.
It also needs to be noted that a Belgian Gambling Commission and Dutch Gaming Authorityare reviewing the game’s loot box system to determine if they may promote gambling. Penalties can be a fine of an undetermined amount or a ban in sales in either country.
(Update: The Belgian Gambling Commission has deemed MTXs as a form of gambling and have moved to a European-wide referendum to ban games with loot box systems. The Hawaiian courts have also entered the conversation of the legality of selling games with loot boxes to minors.)
Personally, I feel that the backlash is a summation of all the frustrations of the use of MTXs throughout gaming. But because Star Wars is its own massive and vocal subculture, the magnitude of the displeasure was exponentially increased. Will this be a warning to game developers and publishers about how they try to implement MTX in the future? Only time will tell.