Battlefield Heroes Celebrates 3 Million Players with New Map as Community Protests Changes
by Chris Faylor, Dec 16, 2009 8:50pm PSTTo celebrate the "three million registered players" milestone for its free-to-play web-based multiplayer shooter Battlefield Heroes, developer DICE has released a new map (Sunset Showdown) for the ad and microtransaction-supported online game.
But while Battlefield Heroes general manager Ben Counsins boasts that there are "over 50,000 new players joining us every week" and "the vast majority of our players play for free," some are protesting a recent shift they claim goes against the game's initial promise of not favoring those who buy new items with cash and/or play all day.
That change brought about higher prices for items purchased with the Valor Point currency earned in-game and lower prices for items bought using real-world money
"No one but the most hardcore players will be able to use high-end weapons without paying for them," claims player Eburoon, as pointed out by Ars Technica. Going by Eburoo's calculations, roughly five hours of daily play is now needed to earn enough in-game funds to keep a "super" weapon without resorting to a real-world funds.
To many, that goes against the ideology promised when the game was first revealed. "We also sell microtransaction items to our players--items like new hats, mustaches, and weapon upgrades--which enhance the game and make your character look cool without completely breaking things by letting some rich kid kill you with a special nuclear missile he bought but you can't afford," DICE claimed in the game's initial trailer, adding that it "focuses on fun, accessibility and not getting shot in the face repeatedly by a swearing, ultra-skilled 15 year old boy who plays the game every day for 8 hours."
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Comments
unbalancing the multiplayer, milking rich kids, making everyone else put in more time and pisisng off everyone. How naïve can you be? Start boycotting this horrid publisher.
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I can understand the economic changes to a degree, but they should have assumed from the beginning that dress-up barbie sales (character clothes, hats, tattoos, etc) & banner ads were never going to cover expenses.
But if they want to do anything to save this game, UN-NERF the Commando!
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My point is that there is no point in me complaining to a dog owner that their free dogshit is not stimulating. I COULD complain that it smells and isn't really fun in anyway, but they would just stare at me for a moment, then remind me that I am talking about dog shit. It's free for a reason.
So I want to remind people that this is a FREE GAME. When something is unfair in CoD, I have a right to be upset because I at least paid for it. Even then, "unfair" is very subjective. YOU ARE NOT PAYING FOR THE GAME, so I fail to see how you are surprised that maybe, just maybe, the company who is paying money to keep this thing going might want some support from you and not a lot of bitching about how you have to play the game (?!) in order to play the game. I don't really understand it, do you want everyone to just have BFGs?
Ok, heres the new game, everyone has 1 gun, it kills instantly, and paid memeber get no benefits so no one pays, and the game shuts down because it sucks and doesn't make money. This is why no one cares about you freeloaders, you aren't helping, you don't do anything, and if you had your way, everything would be ruined.
So instead of being babies, just play it. If you do that, you'll get enough free money to buy the things you could just buy which would support the game and that support would in turn lead to improvement. Cause it's at least better than dog shit, right?
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That the makers of this game seem to be shocked and disappointed that their idea - a free game for everyone - didn't bring in a ton of money (and therefore they need to do the pricing changes).
Or that the players of the game seem to be on the impression that they should be able to play the game free forever with no penalty or disadvantage over paying players.
Could it be that this whole thing was a stupid idea?
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