BFH Economy 101
First, let me introduce to basic Battlefield Heroes economy. There are two kinds of currency in BFH: Valor Points (VP), which are acquired by playing the game, killing enemies, scoring objectives and completing missions, and Battlefunds (BF), which can only be bought for cash. Some things can only be bought with VP, some only with BF. I am sure you can imagine what kind of danger for game balance this evokes.
Remember
this particular Penny Arcade strip? I laughed at it when it got published, but actually it is not funny, it is an accurate description of the game ecosystem where paying players have an unfair advantage over free players.And this is exactly how Battlefield Heroes feels like now, contrary to what was promised in its early days. In the beginning, money could only buy you extra fancy clothes. Right now, however, paying players can have instant health restoration, fireproof pants, better weapons, and experience gain boost.
Okay, some of these items are also available for VP, but let's face it, the amount of work one would have to put into it in order to have better gun for
one damn day almost makes it pointless. Previously, 150VP were enough to buy a weapon for a week. Now, the same amount will give player ONE DAY with the same weapon. Oh, and there are very expensive "Uber/Super" versions with exorbitant cost in VP (450VP per day), available for real money without hassle. To let you fully understand, 450VP means spending three or four hours every day for five consecutive days. Essentially, if you play every evening for a week, on Sunday you can have your overpowered weapon. If you shell out some dollars, however, you will have that very same gun without any hassle or worries plus some fancy-schmancy clothes for your hero. Kotaku has
an interesting article on it (be sure to read the comments, too).
Speaking of clothes, previously the fancier clothes could only be bought for BF, but free players had some alternatives available for VP, although not many and nowhere near that flashy. The price of these items was also multiplied by a factor of seven, meaning that for the same amount of VP player will now get one day instead of a week. As a result, the marking gap between free and paying players was made even larger, as regular non-paying players will mostly wear same shit-brown, bleak-blue or dust-grey uniforms and nothing else. Essentially, anything that is colour of dirt without any additional stuff is a free player and can with a high probability be taken advantage of more easily.
I have
another strip on the subject, so tragically accurate that it's not even funny anymore.
Gameplay balance issues
Nerfing of commando class is my personal pet peeve, as I have preferred this class from the beginning. With every change to game balance the commando was moving further and further down, from a sniper-hunter hybrid with low health meter, to a sorry loser that every other class can wipe their shoes and ass with. At first, playing Commando meant one had to be quick and precise and the fragility stemming from having about as many health points as a puppy had to be countered by player skill and agility. Camping was not an option, because any killed player would instantly be shown where Commando was and firepower advantage of all the other classes would mean a quick end to sad and short camping career.
Later on, Soldiers became Commando nemesis with almost every skill being useful against poor snipers, especially Burning Bullets. With recent changes Gunners became so overpowered that the best option for a Commando to score a point was to hunt for enemy Commandos. I am not kidding, face to face with any other class was an option for desperate from the beginning, but it recently became a quasi-impossible thing, like attacking a concrete bunker being armed with nothing but a dildo (sorry for that metaphor, I am watching way too much Zero Punctuation recently).
Even more cheaters
Remember how
I described my descent into cheating madness? Nothing changed since then. Wait, no, I take that back - it actually got worse. There are so many cheaters playing right now that it puts the whole game balance on its head. Strangely enough, most cheaters are also paying for super weapons and extra emotes, so the results is that honest free players are now degraded to the status of BFH plankton - bottom feeders that anyone can prey upon.
The funny thing (and I mean that in a totally not funny way) is what I have written in the first sentence: nothing changes. With each patch I hope that something was done concerning cheaters. Helios framework is still alive and kicking, Artificial Aiming Radar just gets upgraded, and the overall impression is that EA/Dice don't really try that hard. Plus the policy of reporting cheating players is difficult for a regular honest player and totally not effective. In order to have some proof one needs to record a video, convert it, upload it and in the end it can be dismissed as inconclusive, which has happened to most of my videos. As a result cheating players feel totally unpunished and don't even try to pretend they are not cheating.
To even stand a chance at Battlefield Heroes one just has to cheat, otherwise the game becomes infuriating. I have found a number of solutions, which I am bringing here for all those who are less skilled in Google Fu (trust me, some of those are not easy to find). There is a paying aimbot available, called Helios Framework. It costs quite a bit, but if you are eager to shell out for an unfair advantage within the game, why not go one step further and travel in comfort? There also exists a free equivalent by
UnknownHack, which is a little more rough, but equally effective. Using this cheat I was able to face aimbotting Gunner face to face and instakill him with consecutive headshots, something that is unfeasible by a regular player. And if you are feeling chivalrous, you might just opt to use Artificial Aiming Radar, which will not help you target your reticule, but will show you where everyone is, including invisible Commandos, all neatly accompanied by health bars and class info (hence the name wallhack, because it allows player to see through the walls).
But for me cheating is really spoiling the fun. Of course, it feels nice for a while to punish the cheaters from the opposite team, and you can clearly see who they are when you watch them chase invisible Commando in the manner that makes it plain they can see him. The ease of abusing this power, however, and annoying other honest players are not what counts as fun in my book. Call me old fashioned or pretentious, but I feel like a dirty bastard for doing that. In Malcolm Reynolds' words, I prefer "honest brawl between the folk".
Constant crashes and connection issues
If anyone needs proof that Python is not suitable for coding real games (I don't mean half-baked 2D platformers, it can be used for those), they don't have to look any further than Battlefield Heroes. Crashes that are not a rarity, connections issues happen from time to time and the moment after player gets killed causes the game to stutter so badly that it makes typing messages impossible due to key presses not being registered. As a result, player often ends up with sending half the letters they typed and needs to re-type the whole thing. Bad coding, bad optimization - or perhaps just language unfit for this particular application type. I was tending to overlook this, because Battlefield Heroes was fun, but since it isn't anymore, I am now pointing this out as well. It's a bit like when someone breaks up with their girlfriend and immediately goes to complain about all her faults - I am in a sense going through that phase right now.
This application has encountered an error and will now close and blabbity blah.Ridiculous player looks
At first, Battlefield Heroes tried to go with the cartoony II World War style, or at least that's what the trailers tried to convey. Right now, however, it is filled with totally nonsensical player creations, helped by the fact that paying players can buy for BF almost every kind of stupid disguise for their avatar: ninja outfit, pirate clothes, pimp outfit, knight armour, monkey to put on your shoulder. And mix them. *shudder*
Whatever you might want is at sale, except perhaps some hardcore fetish costume. As a result there is no style anymore, no coherence whatsoever, no consequent theme; there is just a bunch of freaks who look like a hybrid between Arkham Asylum patients and more extreme Gay Pride Parade participants. Black leather mask, black trench, naked torso, white underpants, naked legs and a snake on a shoulder (I wish I was kidding you). Scottish kilt, leather jacket showing naked torso and a friggin' crusader's helmet. Hundreds of ridiculous creations of morons who think it's funny. Quoting Arturo Perez-Reverte in a mash-up of Heart of Darkness and Blade Runner: I have seen visual horrors you people wouldn't believe.
Obnoxious commercials
And speaking of the things that will burn your eyes, how about this beautiful sample of advertisement shown while loading the game:
As for me, my eyes felt violated. I do not want to look at distasteful photos when turning on my cartoon game! Seriously, isn't there a bottom somewhere at which EA marketing will stop going down with Battlefield Heroes? Because that's a new low. What will be next, porn advertisements? Maybe someone should screen the adds or at least look at them before clicking "accept" and visualising incoming cashflow?
Racism, antisemitism and pure vulgarism
During the Beta period, there were less people and obviously better standards. With more and more players coming to the world of Battlefield Heroes, the amount of insults and racism has peaked. The fact that players, in majority underage as one might guess, are swearing terribly is for me less scary than distasteful racial slur that seems to be on the rise. A few out of my rich collection of screenshots:
This cannot perhaps be blamed directly on EA, since there are mechanisms to denounce players for inappropriate behaviour, but it takes time and there's too many of them to weed out. Even though I don't really see what more could be done on this particular point, it annoys the hell out of me.
No More Heroes
With each change and update Battlefield Heroes was getting more on my nerves. What I could forgive the beta version was hard to tolerate in the supposedly finished product. Each step was making things slightly worse and the last changes were just the final straw.
I have to admit that for a short while I was pondering on buying extra weapons for real money, but then I realised it would mean that EA has won and the oh-so-clever ploy of some marketoid asshole in suit and tie had worked. I might pay for a cool freemium game just to show my appreciation, in the same way that I am tipping Indie developers via PayPal, but paying for a game filled with unpunished cheaters, ugly commercials and some bad design choices? Plus, paying under pressure? No way, Jose!
There is only one option left and that is to stop playing and leave the game. Enough's enough and I am recently spending more time being annoyed by Battlefield Heroes than actually having fun. When I revisited the first trailer while writing this post, I recalled what BFH promised to become and what it used to be in beta - it did have that cool feeling that is present in the trailer - and realised that right now it is nowhere near as friendly and enjoyable as it used to be. Hence, I take this occasion to bid farewell to Battlefield Heroes.
Incidentally, this means that there won't be any more posts on Battlefield Heroes on this blog. Unless I break, that is.
