A lot of core features like leaderboard, lobbies and career stats were allegedly removed from Battlefield 2042 to protect players from toxicity, insider claims.
When asked why leaderboard, persistent lobbies, career stats, voice chat, and other core features were not implemented in Battlefield 2042, EA allegedly only told half the truth; “toxic masculinity” allegedly played a role in DICE’s decisions.
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The absence of critical features in Battlefield 2042 has enraged players more more than the game’s weak gameplay mechanics and shoddy netcode, according to players. Global leaderboard, voice chat, and even career data are all absent from EA’s flagship shooter title.
EA later confirmed that these features were not omitted by mistake and that it was DICE’s intention not to include them.
“The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for playing as different heroes regardless of skill. As for end of round screen, we selected individuality as base value based upon data from our monetization team and adjustments was made to make all players feel as winners in each game. Among other things, we’re looking at average per-player buy rates on in-game products at a weekly basis, and we’ll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have customization that are compelling, rewarding, and of course super cool to show off,” a spokesperson for the company said.
EA just said that they didn’t want winners and losers in their game, didn’t they? Yes, in the most general sense. By removing the competitive element, DICE was reportedly concerned that its players were mainly toxic white males.
“I had a chance to sit down and have a discussion with the Senior Game Designer of Battlefield 2042 and she explicitly told me that the multiplayer element of the game will be stripped down to help make the experience less toxic and more inclusive,” the insider said.
“The reason she and many of her friends do not play online shooter games is because of online harassment mainly from white guys, she stated to me. There was no plan for voice chat in the game since she thought it was unnecessary because most gamers already use Discord.”
“She used the Call of Duty lobbies as an example and indicated that the team had learned from that experience. – It would be safer and less toxic for other players if the game didn’t have voice chat, leaderboard, or dog tags.”
Twitch admin and member of the Safety Advisory Board, Steph “FerociouslySteph” Loehr, shared the same sentiment during one of her livestreams.
Voice communication should be banned from online gaming since it unfairly disadvantages players, according to Steph. As it turned out, the true reason she wanted voice chat prohibited was because she’d be ‘constantly harassed by cis-gendered players’ on the platform.
According to an insider, “I don’t believe her, since I don’t think she was qualified for the position and took on more than she could handle. It’s a scapegoat for incompetence and laziness. In my opinion, these functions will be made available in the near future at the latest.”
So, it appears that the real reason there are so many fundamental features missing from the game is because of GamerGate rhetoric.