Battlefield Heroes, and the retards - #1

Hello!

In the last few months, I've been trying out the new Battlefield game, called "Battlefield: Heroes". It is a third-person cartoon shooter (TPSCS?). It's a really, really great game.
The best thing about this game is the fact that the game is free. As they're saying: "You don't have to visit a store, you don't have to insert your credit card information, and you don't have to download it from a torrent site" .. Which is great.
The game was supposed to be released in December 2008, but they made a few minor flaws, and therefore had to postpone it .. A few months. It is now June, and it is still in the beta phase.
I've been in this beta for a long time now, and it feels great.

I will tell you a bit about the game, how it works and so on.
.. Since the game is free, EA / DICE will have to earn their money somehow. Therefore, they made their own currency called "Battlefunds" or just "BF".

Battlefunds are, as said, their own in-game currency, used for buying clothes. It costs 40DKK, which is around 7,45$, for 700 Battlefunds. Now, 700 Battlefunds sounds like a lot. You can't compare it to the World of Warcraft currency, gold. But!
In the beginning of the beta (or alpha.. Seemed to be alpha, really), you had 6000 battlefunds, and all the items (the clothes that you could buy) lasted for ever. Now, everyone liked this. Everyone thought that it would stay like this, but it seemed like a few others, including me, were smart enough to think of the obvious upcoming future which was: "We are going to pay for the Battlefunds. We can't avoid it!".
So, we prepared ourselves. Used all the 6000 battlefunds we've received. Then EA / DICE announced that the 2nd Beta stage would include a totalt deletion of everything made, except for the usernames. So they started of by deleting the heroes, then the forum posts, and so on.
Now, everyone had to start from scratch.
The younger side of the community started to "QQ" or cry as it is called. They used all their "playtime", and said their parents wouldn't allow them to play more. I'm not saying that it is their fault, but they should probably stay a bit away from gaming and show their parents that they're capable of something else than just sitting infront of a screen.
Well! A thing they changed in the 2nd phase was mainly that the store got more items, and you should now BUY the Battlefunds. No more goodies for us! The items that you could buy in the store didn't last forever, but only for a month.
Now..
In the 2nd phase, the suggestions forum(s) started to heat up, with stupid requests. I will list up a few of the most retarded ones:
1st place goes to the one who wanted free Battlefunds.
2nd place goes to the one who wanted permanent items.
3rd place goes to the one who wanted something special, because he thought that the beta testers were something that should be awarded with a free item.

Now, let me explain myself before you'll go nuts.
The 1st place didn't realize, that the only way that EA / DICE could earn just a little bit from this game was with the Battlefunds. There was a lot of supporters. Those kids, who can't afford the items. Those kids, who can't fucking work to get some cash. I hate them. I'm working my ass out a few times a week and I get around 185$ every month. Sounds like a lot, but I pay for the internet for my family.
Back to the story .. Sorry!
- As said, EA was really in need of someone who bought their clothing. I, myself bought a few Battlefunds.. Around 1400 and bought some parrots or something which costed me 620 Battlefunds. Thing is, no one else bought these Battlefunds.
Therefore, a fucking huge group of people started to make some stupid signature-collection(s) for getting permanent items. Me, and a few others saw that this would make their income fall a lot. People would probably not still buy the items because the pricing would be raised. I was really against this getting-permanent-items thingy. I could of course see the good benefits for the users, but .. If EA didn't make any money AT ALL on Battlefield: Heroes, then the game would go down.
But the kids didn't realize this. I think it had around 600 supporters. 600 kids that can't afford 7.45$/month. Seems to be a bit pathetic.

Then, EA / DICE realized that they didn't earn any money, if people had to buy items monthly. So, therefore they changed something. Something that made me realize that the spoiled kids always gets their will.
The fucking implemented the permanent items. I thought: "Atleast we will not have to hear the small, 10 year-old kids who can't afford the shit, complain". But it seems that I was wrong.
People started complaining about the prices. Let me give you a preview of the prices for the permanent items:
Clothing - Monthly/Permanent:
- Helmets: 140/560 BF
- Face: 140/560 BF (there's one item that costs 70/280 BF)
- Neck: 70/280 BF
- Body: 140/560 BF
- Chest: 140/560 BF
- Hands: 70/280 BF
- Legs: 140/560 BF
- Feet: 70/260 BF
- Accessory: 140/560 BF
- Waist: 70/280 BF

Emotes - Monthly/Permanent:
- Emotes: 140/560 BF


Now, that pricelist seems to be more than fair to me. I couldn't really stand that EA actually gave the kids, what they wanted. Because what comes next? If you give a mouse a cookie, it also wants milk.
They gave the kids the items, now they want lower prices. Oh, great!
They're saying that paying for this is too much. I think the prices should even higher than this, compared to what they're able to earn from this.
The pro from this, is that people have been buying a lot of clothes, but there's still a lot of people saying that it is too expensive. I don't think so. It just seems to be stupid if they're gonna lower the price.
560 for one item is good. It's suitable. I can't remember how much I've spent on my character, but atleast 2800 battlefunds. I enjoy giving money to this project, and I love being a serious, older part of the community that actually know what's going on somewhere else than infront of the screen.

People have been saying that I am "TOO RICH" or just ignored me, and what I wrote. I made a thread in the old suggestion-forum and stated my opinion(s). I got quite popular. BY THE 3 GUYS WHO REPLIED. I must admit.... 1200 views, 3 replies. I guess that the ones who read what I wrote thought about this in a whole different way than they did before! I showed them the future. What the economy would look like at DICE... Only a few took their time, writing a nice, long, filthy reply.
I'm refreshing the forums whenever I can to turn ideas down, if they suck. They mainly do.

Oh, it seems that people can't live with game as it is now. They want to see changes. New classes, new abilities, new damage system, new website, new prices, new maps.
As it is now, I think that it is fine! We have a weapon system that is build up like this:
SMGs:
-> Short Range SMG
-> Medium Range SMG
-> Long Range SMG

MGs:
-> Short Range MG
-> Medium Range MG
-> Long Range MG

Snipers:
-> Short Range Sniper
-> Medium Range Sniper
-> Long Range Sniper

Pistols:
-> Short Range Pistol
-> Medium Range Pistol
-> Long Range Pistol

Explosives:
-> Dynamite, against vehicles
-> Grenade, against infantry

We have four maps, Coastal Clash, Seaside Skirmish, Victory Village, Bucaneer Bay. It seems to be fine, and EA have promised more maps to come. But people are already spamming the suggestions forum with new ideas for new maps!
I hate it.

One thing EA promised us, was that everyone's equal. No one should have the ability to buy themselves to a better stage of damage dealing, etc. Everyone should have the same amount of health (there's 3 classes. One with 80 health, one with 110 health, and one with 150 health). No one should have different running speeds (also 3 different).

A bit about the classes: (very short)
Commando:
The most played class in the game as of yet. It is a mix of a rogue (from the popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft) and a sniper. It is a fast-running guy, having the ability to Stealth and sniping. Every class has one standard ability (as said before, Commandos have the Stealth ability), but they can buy more for their "Hero points", which is something you gain 1 of, each 2nd level.
Now, every ability can be upgraded 5 times. The stealth ability will make you not getting seen by enemies (something with the range..). But yeah, it'll improve in some way.

Soldier:
The 2nd most played, I guess. It is a normal guy with a SMG, but with the ability to heal others, including yourself. This can also be upgraded to have less cooldown, and longer range.

Gunner:
No one wants to play this. It is a mixture of a "heavy weapons guy", known from the popular game Team Fortress. This guy got a lot of health, and the standard ability is a shield that'll absorb damage. This guy runs really, REALLY slow. Therefore, I'm not playing this class. They're pretty good, if you're playing a lot of Battlefield: Heroes, but this class requires some kind of skill.


I guess that it is for now. This is only the 1st part of the many upcoming parts..


PROTOTYPE CHECKING OUT!