Mainstream game journalist back Battlefield 2042 developers who have requested to lock the subreddit due to “toxicity.”
EA/DICE have decided to take down the official Battlefield 2042 subreddit due to the developers of the disastrous game being distressed by amusing memes generated by the community. As a result of the community’s “brutal and unrealistic expectations,” the firm refuses to accept any legitimate criticism and instead labels the community “toxic.”
RELATED: Leaderboard, lobbies, voice chat removed from Battlefield 2042 for toxicity
It’s completely crazy. When in the history of the games business has it been appropriate for a business to refuse to hear their customers’ complaints by completely shutting down discussion of the issue?
The official Battlefield 2042 subreddit’s moderators posted a statement stating that the forum would be locked due to the “toxicity” of the community. Furthermore, video game journalists, whose job it is to criticise these corporations, are defending EA/DICE’s decision to disregard the small remaining player base that is demanding improvement.
“It’s an understatement when we say that this subreddit has grown incredibly toxic,” the mods wrote. “It’s near impossible to have a simple discussion without insults being flung around at each other—and it’s really starting to harm the entire Battlefield community, and each of us that are part of it. […] The mods have an obligation to follow the rules set out by Reddit, and if we are found to be in breach of not enforcing them, or doing a poor job at enforcing them, we risk the community getting banned altogether.”
Game devs feelings matter.
Kotaku editor, Jeremy Winslow, chimed in: “I get it. Battlefield 2042 has been broken for months […] But the approach of mocking developers and demanding that vast changes be implemented immediately while they’re trying to take a break and enjoy time with their families isn’t exactly cool, realistic, or appropriate.”
According the Kotaku editor, the feelings and emotions of a billion dollar games conglomerate come before disgruntled and cheated consumers who want what they paid for.
Perhaps the true reason EA/DICE have locked down the Battlefield 2042 subreddit is that it has become nothing more than a repository of complaints about how bad the game is.
Perhaps the reason why major video game journalists are siding with EA/DICE in this saga is that all semblance of journalistic integrity was lost when they became corporate shills for the company.
In their review, Kotaku desperately tried to avoid talking about the game’s many flaws and concluded that EA/DICE “absolutely nailed making the player feel like they’re part of a Very Big Battle.”
Furthermore, instead of criticising EA/DICE for removing core legacy features that we “think are missing”, Kotaku wrote, “changes made to accommodate this new and bigger focus.”
Battlefield 2042 reviews are dishonest.
“That I found was that not everything was missing. There’s a difference between something that is withheld and something the game’s developers have removed with a clear design intent in mind. Turns out I love the leaderboards being gone, for example, because I never play Battlefield for K:D ratios, I play it to be part of a big battle where I’m fighting alongside and helping my teammates however I can, and the new end-of-round displays — which shout out a few key achievements, rather than meticulously listing everyone’s stats — reflect that,” Luke Plunkett of Kotaku Australia wrote.
Kotaku isn’t the only party guilty of shilling for EA/DICE in this instance, as a matter of fact their review was probably the most scathing of the lot of mainstream sites. Both IGN and Gamespot both gave the game a 7 out of 10 in a glowing review.
EA blames players, again.
But that’s where we are now; mainstream games journalism is dead — so much is evident when the media backs a media conglomerate’s decision to call their consumers “toxic” and shut down critics of their broken faulty product.
However, I — for one — am not at all surprised by EA’s decision to, yet again, blame their consumers for the games fault. They blamed gamers for Bioware’s failed third-person shooter, Anthem.2
UPDATE: STEAM NOW BATTLEFIELD 2042 REFUNDS TO EVERYONE!
They also blamed consumers who had their FIFA accounts hacked for not “enabling an extra layer of security.”
It’s past time to quit reading mainstream video game journalism and instead support alternative independent sites like POPTOPIC Australia. Thank you very much.