Star Wars Battlefront 2 - now with lootbox drama

[Black]

If you touch my post again you lil' shit I'm gonna touch you like you've never been touched before.

 

[Mark Richard]

Starting to wonder if generating outrage has become the marketing strategy of the generation. The formula is simple - provoke a hostile reaction through gross business practices, then offer an apology and compromise. The customer accepts a lesser form of the practice like they've won a victory, and the company expands the boundaries of acceptability for their next game. You could argue it'll damage sales in the long term, but we're still waiting for the evidence.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Yes. This is a classic psychological manipulation tool, known as "door-in-the-face technique". This subset of psychology is broadly referred to as "techniques of compliance".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique
http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/cialdini_door_face.html

EA takes its skinner box model very seriously - nothing they employ is by accident, and no psychological manipulation tool, no matter how absurd, is off limits. The strategy is very transparent to anyone with even a cursory understanding of these sordid techniques.

Now, this is even worse - because people are paying a premium to be manipulated in such a transparent manner, whereas the initial experiment involved asking for a favor. Truly next level - paying 80 USD to get shafted.

It's mind-boggling that people are falling for this. But then again, not really.

 

[Cael]

Yes. This is a classic psychological manipulation tool, known as "door-in-the-face technique". This subset of psychology is broadly referred to as "techniques of compliance".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique
http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/cialdini_door_face.html

EA takes its skinner box model very seriously - nothing they employ is by accident, and no psychological manipulation tool, no matter how absurd, is off limits. The strategy is very transparent to anyone with even a cursory understanding of these sordid techniques.

Now, this is even worse - because people are paying a premium to be manipulated in such a transparent manner, whereas the initial experiment involved asking for a favor. Truly next level - paying 80 USD to get shafted.

It's mind-boggling that people are falling for this. But then again, not really.

The dumbest part of all the idiots salivating over the microtransaction style of gaming is that even when the CEO of a major Flash based MMO came out and outright stated that the company is out to milk the whales (people who have paid hundreds of thousands of USD for pixels and virtual numbers) and that everyone else can suck his d!ck (although not in those exact terms) and are only tolerated in the game in order for the whales to beat up and feel good about themselves, people are still lining up to pay the bastards. Talk about Stockholm Syndrome writ large...!

 

[Durandal]

EA has removed the refund option from people trying to cancel their Battlefront 2 pre-orders. It takes about an hour to come into contact with customer support, in hopes that people will just give up.

I smell another disaster afoot.

 

[Durandal]

Battlefront 2 contains an 'Arcade Mode', but if you play it too long you'll stop getting credit rewards and have to wait three hours before you can get more.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

EA has removed the refund option from people trying to cancel their Battlefront 2 pre-orders. It takes about an hour to come into contact with customer support, in hopes that people will just give up.

I smell another disaster afoot.

People who still do business with EA really deserve all these things that happen to them.

 

[Durandal]

http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/star-wars-battlefront-ii
Ratings for the PS4 version sitting at 79 for critic reviews and 1.6 user ratings.
PC version also has a 79 critic rating and 73 for Xbone.
Emperor Maus won't be too pleased...

 

[Black]

Battlefront 2 contains an 'Arcade Mode', but if you play it too long you'll stop getting credit rewards and have to wait three hours before you can get more.

thicc

 

[Great Deceiver]

I think it's supremely hilarious that people are acting terribly offended, and yet they've all pre-ordered this fucking piece of shit, knowing full well what a clusterfuck it would be from all the Beta reports and so on.

The Occam's Razor solution is really self-evident - stop buying this shit. If you don't stop buying this shit, they'll continue to fuck you in the ass while you beg for more. It's not rocket science.

 

[DragoFireheart]

hahahaha the fuckers removed the refund button on their website hahahahaha

 

[Alexios]

The only people they have to blame for harassment and backlash are themselves. They should have known they were playing with fire by making this a pay to win game. Even all the other shitty ass games that make all their money through crates aren't actually pay to win, they just give people different skins that dumbasses pay thousands for.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://pcgamesn.com/star-wars-battlefront-ii/star-wars-battlefront-2-refund

No, EA haven’t removed the refund button from Star Wars Battlefront 2

Spoiler

There’s a story brewing that EA have removed the option to refund Battlefront II through Origin, forcing you to go through customer service. The theory goes that this is to discourage you from cancelling the order because the process is too time-consuming. However, this isn’t the case.

When you buy games through Origin you can see your purchases in your order history tab. Under most games you have the option to refund your purchase:

However, as BatofSpace points out on Reddit, the option isn’t available on Star Wars Battlefront II orders:

I bought a copy of the game to confirm this wasn’t an issue specific to Australian customers, and I encountered the same problem:

Now, according to EA’s refund policy, we should be able to refund Battlefront II within seven days of release if you’ve pre-ordered and haven’t yet launched the game:

If you go to EA’s refund page you can see what games are available to refund, and Battlefront 2 isn’t listed there either.

The theory in BatofSpace’s post is that EA have taken away the button, forcing you to go through customer service, a process that is time-consuming and might discourage someone from going through with the refund.

However, there is no evidence that there would usually be an option to refund a pre-order in this manner. In fact, there are forum posts dating back to 2013 from people looking to work out how to cancel their pre-orders and being directed to go through customer service.

Just to check that this wasn’t an issue specific to Battlefront II, I bought the Elite Trooper Deluxe version of the game that allows early access to the game and, for that version of the game, you do have a refund option in Origin:

(Yes, my bank account is hurting in confirming this story.)

That version of Battlefront II does appear on the refund page:

All the documentation on EA’s support pages suggests you should be able to refund pre-orders through Origin, which is likely where the confusion has stemmed from. However there is no evidence that Battlefront 2 is any different from any other preorder on Origin and that EA has removed the button. Rather it was never there.

If you want to cancel a game you pre-ordered through Origin you’ll need to go through customer services.

Alternatively, you could wait until the game launches on Friday and then refund the game through Origin.

edit.
Which mod has been bought off by EA?
This post fits into EA general thread. Damnit!

 

[Jarmaro]

People are right to bash EA, their business style, managment, but to bitch about people who worked on the game is retarded.
They are responsible only for poor quality of the game (but noone is criticazing them for that, beceause aside of loot scandal people think game is good )

 

[Great Deceiver]

 

[fantadomat]

I think it's supremely hilarious that people are acting terribly offended, and yet they've all pre-ordered this fucking piece of shit, knowing full well what a clusterfuck it would be from all the Beta reports and so on.

The Occam's Razor solution is really self-evident - stop buying this shit. If you don't stop buying this shit, they'll continue to fuck you in the ass while you beg for more. It's not rocket science.

I like Kim Jong Un's solution better.

 

[Sam Ecorners]

Sucks that the game is pretty fun. Not real battlefront, by any means, but still very enjoyable.

 

[Space Satan]

It all makes sense now

 

[Great Deceiver]

This guy got it exactly, over a month ago. Doesn't take clairvoyance, only common sense, paying some attention and connecting some dots.

https://t.co/k3zbHxt8Tq

 

[Black]

Stop moving posts to the battlefront 2 thread you kike.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-11-13-star-wars-battlefront-2-review

Star Wars Battlefront 2 review
I am altering the deal.

DICE goes big in a Call of Duty-baiting package that's as maddening, uneven and spectacular as the Star Wars films themselves.


Let's get straight to the burning issue, shall we? Towards the tail-end of Star Wars Battlefront's release, EA made noises that it was thinking about doing away with the traditional season pass that accompanied its big ticket console games, a model its multiplayer shooters had been stuck with for some time - with numerous associated problems. The base games often felt a little lacking, and more painfully the player base was split - an issue that had an impact on long-term players as numbers dwindled and were spread too thin.

The answer? In Star Wars Battlefront 2, EA and DICE's first big step away from that older model is loot boxes. Given the fire and fury that's surrounded the game in the run-up to release, both parties may well wish they'd have kept things as they were.

It's hard to make too many excuses for how they've been handled. In Battlefront 2 all future content drops and updates will be free, but its loot boxes most certainly are problematic, offering more than mere cosmetic enhancements, and instead giving players a chance at earning credits, crafting parts or Star Cards - all of which proffer an advantage on the battlefield. Pay to win? If you're flush enough, and impatient enough, you can spend your way to a suite of Star Cards and a horde of cash that could well give you the edge in a firefight.

Cynical? Perhaps, though I think it's more about wrongheadedness and poorly thought through design, with EA looking to its own Galaxy of Heroes - an incredibly popular and no doubt lucrative free-to-play Star Wars mobile game - rather than the likes of Overwatch, which are much more sensible in their implementation of loot boxes. Free-to-play mechanics don't sit too comfortably in £50 video games, though, and there's a very strong case to suggest they shouldn't be there at all.

Splitscreen returns in arcade mode, in what's a disarmingly light distraction. The challenges are straightforward - even if they can be challenging on higher difficulties - and are the perfect fodder for laidback sofa sessions.

So yes, Star Wars Battlefront 2's loot boxes are far from great, exacerbated by an unlock system that can feel painfully slow and doesn't offer the shower of rewards you see in something like Call of Duty. Such has often been the way with DICE's shooters, it's worth remembering, only here there's an added and unwelcome friction that can leave you feeling a little suspect. It's not exactly ruinous, but it's not something to be reveled in either, and it'll take more than a handful of tweaks and a few weeks of the planned free content drops to wash away the sour taste that's been left by this messy launch.

The game itself, though? Well, it can be quite splendid, thanks for asking, although it does suffer from other frictions elsewhere. Star Wars Battlefront 2 is ultimately as maddening and uneven as the films themselves, and just as likely to wow you with a moment of unparalleled spectacle as it is to fall flat on its face. Such is the way with this series, where the Force is always kept in balance in some mysterious way; for every Boba Fett there is a Watto, for every Battle of Hoth a Dex's Diner.

Battlefront 2 casts its net further afield than its predecessor, taking in the prequels as well as the Disney generation of films. The result is a dizzying delight for those whose heart has ever skipped a beat at the fizzing crackle of a lightsaber, a deep toybox of fan favourites ready to be bluntly wielded in battle. What exquisite toys they are too, all brought to life with a real fan's nerdish attention to detail. Witness the swagger and coiled aggression of Kylo Ren as he scythes through mobs with his crossguard lightsaber; admire the way Han Solo's trailing arm hangs back in a pose of old school Hollywood insouciance as he wields his blaster. Then there are the playgrounds themselves, beautifully crafted recreations of already stunning locales that are impeccable in their authenticity. Run through the cantina of Mos Eisley or Maz's Castle on Takodana and it's like being treated to a virtual set tour; battle through the storms on Kamino and it's like being transported to another world. DICE's first Battlefront was always a fine looking game, and the sequel offers a lot more spectacle to lose yourself to.

As well as relying on icons of the series, Battlefront 2 does a decent job of creating its own moments in a short, shallow, but enjoyable campaign. You're Iden Versio, daughter of an Imperial admiral and commander of Inferno Squad, the Empire's own special forces unit. The moment to moment action might not be much to marvel at - at heart it's an appropriation of the blunt shooting found elsewhere in the package, enlivened by set-pieces at the controls of various starfighters and a handful of playable cameos - but there's enough drive, character and charm in its story to push you through to the end with a broad smile on your face.

DICE has been quick to respond to many of the issues at hand - as it was throughout the life of the original Battlefront. How exactly it can address the more fundamental issue of pay to win loot boxes remains to be seen.

The fan service is first-rate, as are the production values, and while it relies heavily on old favourites - as is the way, it would seem, with much of Abrams-era Star Wars - it adds to them in its own way, too. Iden Versio herself is nicely sketched, a fiery and motivated individual with just enough rough edges to make her believable. Also neatly drawn is an Empire in disarray; with its story primarily taking place after Return of the Jedi's Battle of Endor and the pivotal Battle of Jakku, there's a look inside Imperial forces rudderless without command, giving in to hubris and a darker edge that would lay foundations for The Force Awaken's First Order. One playable scene, on the surface of the Imperial planet Vardos as it suffers its own self-inflicted apocalypse, deserves its own place among the series' greats - and given some of the repercussions Versio's story has for the wider Star Wars universe, this campaign is, for series aficionados, nothing short of essential.

Yet it suffers from its own frictions, whether that's how its action remains largely one note or how it climaxes with an open-ended cliffhanger, leaving threads to be picked up in further installments that'll be drip-fed (for free, it's worth reiterating) over the coming months. It's hardly the most satisfying way to wrap what's an otherwise well told story - though it's a great way of stopping trade-ins, which you feel is where the true intent lies.

Previously the hook of the multiplayer alone would have been enough for that, and this time out you can't fault DICE when it comes to building upon its original Battlefront. This is a broader, more nuanced and more detailed brand of online warfare than what went before, though the new direction can rub both ways. EA's first attempt at Battlefront, for all its faults, was an unashamedly shallow affair - a more elegant weapon for a more civilised age, perhaps, in what sometimes felt like a throwback to simpler times - whereas this time out it's every bit a modern multiplayer shooter, for both better and for worse.

In line with player feedback from the first game - and with the path taken by the various expansions that came in the wake of 2015's Battlefront - objective team-based play is doubled down upon, with the headline mode Galactic Assault offering multi-phase and intricately designed 20 v 20 skirmishes. They're a little more chaotic than what went before, but they do excel at telling some wonderful player-driven stories over the course of a match with more than enough room for your own personal heroics.

Taking the in-game bounties into account, Battlefront 2 isn't quite as skimpy when it comes to paying out as early hype might have you believe. When it comes to crafting parts - the currency necessary to upgrade Star Cards to epic status once you've level 20 - it's a different story, though.

There are heroes, too, now available in-game alongside vehicles by spending battle points acquired over the course of a round rather than the collectible token system of old. It's certainly a more elegant solution, the reinforcements that are available to players as a match progresses feeding into the sense of escalation and ever-increasing stakes. There's a rise in complexity, as well as in chaos, and in the middle of all that noise - perfectly sampled from Ben Burtt's own soundbanks, of course - it's easy to get swept up by it all.

And yet there's the nagging sense that Battlefront 2 moves away from some of the unabashed simplicity of the original towards something that's a bit scrappier and can never quite resolve itself. The new class system is welcome - even if the Star Card system accompanying each of them, giving you access to various perks once unlocked, is overly fussy - but in my experience it never quite sits comfortably with a foundation that's wilfully light, and squads often fail to slot neatly into place. Rather than leaning into the wilful, sometimes brilliant simplicity of the first Battlefront, this sequel makes a mad scramble elsewhere in order to justify itself. The results aren't always particularly dignified.

When it clicks into place, though, there's nothing quite like it, and all the drama and dubious decisions made elsewhere shouldn't eclipse DICE's often incredible achievements. Play a round of Starfighter Assault, an aerial mode that's been positively emboldened by its adoption of objective-based play and is blissfully free from comparisons with other more grounded multiplayer games, and it's simply astounding. As players lead merry dances with their perfectly realised A-Wings and Y-Wings and TIEs, it's hard to think of any toybox as luxurious as this. It's the stuff of my childhood dreams.

And it's there, and in numerous other places in what's a relatively broad package, that you reconnect with the sense of wonder that's at the heart of this series. Star Wars Battlefront 2, for all its faults, remains a game that can get to the kernel of what makes the series so beloved. It's just a shame that, for now, it's also inherited some of its uglier excesses too.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Eurogamer confirms the theory that the gaming 'media' is the damage control arm of big publishers. Just look at a couple of quotes from this article:

"So yes, Star Wars Battlefront 2's loot boxes are far from great"
" It's not exactly ruinous..."

This sort of bullshit euphemism can only be the result of intentional propaganda. Of course, the icing on the cake was that when I opened the link to their website (I don't have adblock on since I'm at work), the page frame was plastered with Battlefront II ads.

 

[fantadomat]

It is not intelligence,it is cunning. Learn your rpg mate.

 

[ShadowSpectre]

I think the best part of all this is where people on Reddit are acting like they are shocked, as if EA has just started this kind of thing recently. The masses really are stupid. The elephant in the room is also being ignored, and it's the $80 price tag on a game that still depends on purchasing more loot boxes or grinding out a work week. It's this same level of disbelief that leads me to believe that all these people cancelling pre-orders will just re-purchase in the near future. You get what you deserve. This little uprising is about to get put down once EA releases some new statement of them making changes for the release version, then followed by the release of the game and the reviewers (as already seen above) driving the new narrative that actually amounts to nothing. But hey, "EA listened to us!" They will cry and proceed to break down in purchase of the game.

 

[Astral Rag]

Reminds me of an RPS piece I read earlier today:

Star Wars Battlefront 2 cuts top-tier hero unlock costs

Dice have boldly gone back to the drawing board once more to rework the progression system of Star Wars Battlefront 2, now making the high-end hero characters take less time to unlock. They’ve cut the unlock costs of fellas like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader by 75%, meaning players won’t have to grind for squillions of ‘credits’ to play as their playground heroes. This follows Dice reworking — but not removing — the progression system of packing upgrades into loot crates. Those crates can optionally bought with real money, which is a whole other stink.

Oh and for fancy-pants Star Warriors with cash to flash, Battlefront 2’s Deluxe Edition is out now – but not its regular edition.

“Unlocking a hero is a great accomplishment in the game, something we want players to have fun earning,” executive producer John Wasilczyk said in last night’s announcement. “We used data from the beta to help set those levels, but it’s clear that more changes were needed,” he added.

“So, we’re reducing the amount of credits needed to unlock the top heroes by 75%. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader will now be available for 15,000 credits; Emperor Palpatine, Chewbacca, and Leia Organa for 10,000 credits; and Iden at 5,000 credits. Based on what we’ve seen in the trial, this amount will make earning these heroes an achievement, but one that will be accessible for all players.”