The Force isn’t strong with EA this time. In an attempt to defend Star Wars Battlefront II’s controversial and highly criticized loot crates and progression system, the publisher now has the honor of having the most downvoted comment in Reddit history. Ouch.
Currently sitting at -362,000 points in less than 24 hours (and still growing), the post from user EACommunityTeam has caught the wrath of the internet after it defended Battlefront II’s progression system that locks heroes behind absurd amounts of credits, making players believe that the company made this decision to push them towards purchasing microtransactions.
“The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.
As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we’re looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we’ll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay.
We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets.
Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can.”
As you can probably guess, this explanation hasn’t gone over well. For comparison, the previous comment with the most downvotes on Reddit only had around -24,000. The Battlefront II thread, now locked to prevent anyone else from commenting, is largely full of players expressing their displeasure, to put it lightly.
No matter what you think of EA’s defense or its decisions in the first place, it should also be stated that personal attacks against the developers and sending death threats are never okay. Many of EA’s developers have experienced harassment this morning for a feature that they likely had little to no control over. If you are unhappy with this progression system, make your voices heard by criticizing the feature respectfully or just outright refusing to purchase the game. Speak with your wallet, but keep it civil.
EA certainly isn’t a stranger to the internet’s discontent, being named Worst Company in America by Consumerist two years in a row.
Via Kotaku