DICE MOD Lashes Out At Angry BattleField 3 Fans

[ChupathingyX]

Remember that if you fight fire with fire, you get more fire.
Fighting fire with water however, that has a different outcome.

Ahhhh, but what do you do when the fire becomes larger and the water becomes scarce?

Seriously though, the BF3 fans did go a little out of control and should be grateful that they even released a beta in the first place, they were acting way too entitled.

The mod is right, his response just wasn't worded very well and he probably should have been a bit more calm. Then again, the people who were arguing didn't seem like the reasonable type.

Oh well, in the end I don't really care, however, your plan does sound particulary evil interesting and effective.

 

[Alma Mare]

Our patronage is a privilege, not a right. We are not obligated to purchase your product. The vibe I'm getting now is that tons of ungrateful developers don't understand that we voluntarily pay their salaries in exchange for a product that caters to our tastes.

Would like to thank the few developers that remember the awesome PC gaming community that they WORK FOR and WITH.

To all the rest: go pound sand.

Beautifully put. It's amazing how many companies appear to believe they are doing the costumer a favor and should be thanked for the privilege.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

So? That moderator is right. BETA is a privilege.

 

[GiantRaven]

*****, did you ever hear the phrase "the customer is always right"? You get paid for all your work with my money, so if I wanna give negative feedback about the chosen map and THUS help you realize what maps I prefer to play and what you should be focusing on in future DLCs, I'll do that.

I am so curious if he got away with it or if DICE will be making a "we're sorry" thread. Insulting the very own costumers who not only are interested in buying your shit, but are also willing to play certain parts of your shit and offer feedback to that shit, that's just not right.

Oh look, it's a person who has never worked a job serving customers.

*facepalm*

 

[razer17]

I played the Beta yesterday at Eurogamer Expo, and I played the PC and PS3 version. I don't know why they're complaining. Operation metro is a pretty cool map, and playing that Beta convinced me to get BF3 when it comes out. Although, playing the PC and console version, in a ten minute Beta, also convinced me I really, really want a gaming PC because it just played so much better on PC.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Our patronage is a privilege, not a right. We are not obligated to purchase your product. The vibe I'm getting now is that tons of ungrateful developers don't understand that we voluntarily pay their salaries in exchange for a product that caters to our tastes.

Would like to thank the few developers that remember the awesome PC gaming community that they WORK FOR and WITH.

To all the rest: go pound sand.

Beautifully put. It's amazing how many companies appear to believe they are doing the costumer a favor and should be thanked for the privilege.

Yes, how dare DICE have a free beta to work out any bugs prior to release and/or get feedback to improve the game. Screw them, we LOVE bugs. Especially the ones that break the game. Those are the best kind.

 

[Saulkar]

We sooooooooo need that guy/gal on our forums.

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

I can see both sides of the argument, but I'd side with the developers.

A 32v32 map would be nice to see and a good stress test on the server for some feedback to the developers, and give the players a good idea of what to expect.

But on the other hand; the developers have more time to do what they need to do to get the game ready for release if they use the same map as the alpha.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Honestly, I think its time for game development community to hand out a few blanket parties to the gaming community. Its a community that has only degraded and devolved into a seething mass of idiocy and entitlement, a community that has become so stupid and ignorant they make Palin and Bachmann look like Rhodes Scholars. A community that can't a good idea from a bad one if it came up and bit them on the ass.

The dev community just needs to start tossing out punches. And when people start *****, moan and try to retaliate the devs can just pull out the god damn encyclopedia of abuse they've had to suffer at the hands of their "fans" over the years.

 

[GeorgW]

First off, there's a big difference between a community manager and a moderator.
I think the CM was in the right here, and handled it well. They could have been a bit more friendly, but when dealing with fanboys you do have to put your foot down.
However, as a business decision, they should have picked a different map. Still, once the decision was made I'm sure it's hard to change, but they could have explained that better.

 

[FrostyChick]

So? That moderator is right. BETA is a privilege.

Indeed you are 110% correct. Beta is a testing phase, not a product.
You are meant to be TESTING a beta, not PLAYING.
If you want a taste of what the final product will be. Well that's called a demo.

 

[Woodsey]

Betas aren't demos - fans were being dick heads.

 

[CityofTreez]

To quote the source link

"Things hit the fans recently on the BattleField 3 EA UK forums.

It seems that certain members of the community forum weren?t too happy when it was announced that Operation Metro was going to be the provided map during the beta testing period of the game. This announcement came AFTER DICE had previously claimed otherwise, that the Operation Metro wasn?t going to be used for beta. Apparently some fans had their hearts set on a different map to play during the beta ( one that would allow up to 64 players ) and became somewhat upset by the news.

When the complaints became loud a forum moderator shared his opinion on the matter:"
The moderators response in this link here:
http://thesilentchief.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/dice.jpg



And here is the original source link: http://thesilentchief.com/2011/09/22/dice-lashes-out-angry-battlefield-3-fans/


Now here is the source link... with the pic, now i don't know how to add pics....(yes i'm not super computer savy.

and my opinion the matter is wtf a beta is a privilege who knew this was a "demo," oh wait....

But what the zuh -who cares right... right?

That the community manager, FYI.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

You know what gets me about this? If it really is a beta, all those free users are doing Dice a favor and saving them the money of paying actual beta testers. If it's a limited demo, I call BS on the "it's a privilege, not a right" argument, because every game should have a demo -- especially if it's for the PC. If a developer refuses to make a demo, it's generally a sign that they aren't particularly confident about their product.

As for the specific complaint, it seems valid; the big selling point of this game is that it supports 64 players. Having the only map in the beta be one that doesn't support that many players is a bit of a dick move on Dice's part -- or, more to the point, I'd say it's a PR mistake. Why on earth would you allow access to an early version of a game if you weren't going to show off its main selling point?

 

[Mark Hardigan]

While the post obviously had an angry tone about it, there was nothing wrong with it. He didn't insult anybody, nor did he use inflammatory speech. The reaction of these fans is nothing short of whiny, morose entitlement. Obviously dice isn't running around cooking up new ways to piss off its consumers. They probably thought they would be able to use a different map for the beta, but it turned out to be the opposite. For a fan to get upset about that when they are getting to test the game for free is nothing short of immature and greedy.

 

[Alma Mare]

Our patronage is a privilege, not a right. We are not obligated to purchase your product. The vibe I'm getting now is that tons of ungrateful developers don't understand that we voluntarily pay their salaries in exchange for a product that caters to our tastes.

Would like to thank the few developers that remember the awesome PC gaming community that they WORK FOR and WITH.

To all the rest: go pound sand.

Beautifully put. It's amazing how many companies appear to believe they are doing the costumer a favor and should be thanked for the privilege.

Yes, how dare DICE have a free beta to work out any bugs prior to release and/or get feedback to improve the game. Screw them, we LOVE bugs. Especially the ones that break the game. Those are the best kind.

Indeed. I will send a letter of apologies to them asking to be allowed to do their job in the matter they see fit in order to be deserving of the privilege of handing them my cash somewhere down the line in exchange for a slightly less buggy product. This way the bugs it'll have will be my fault as well!

Seriously, I don't even care about the damn game. I do care about developers or publishers being patronizing. They are not doing us a favor or granting us the privilege of allowing us in their sandbox. They are exchanging a product for money. They are completely free to ignore the self-entitled whine that the fanbase spouts. It's their gamble and their loss to take, sales-wise, should the whining be in the right for once. They aren't free to patronize, insult, flame or tell their costumers to grow up. It's not their place and not their problem.

 

[Soggy_Popcorn]

If customers aren't supposed to demand anything of suppliers, why is one of the basic economic forces called "DEMAND"?

Demand is the need/want for a product, the product in question being BF3.

Demand is not about asking for the supplier to change their unfinished product 1 month before the end of a 2 year product development. Nor is it demanding to change something of a free service when you as a consumer will buy the finished product either way.

Supply the flipside of Supply and Demand, is all about supplying a product which the consumer wants, consumers want battlefield 3, and consumers will pay for battlefield 3. But customers will not be paying for the beta, and as such the supplier will not want to divert resources to a free service, which they have designed to make their life slightly easier and also help consumers. Especially when diverting resources in such a way to put in the origionally stated map would be detrimental to making their life easier.

The majority of customers will buy BF3 with or without anychanges from this point on, or whether the beta features map A or map B. Because there isn't a product closer to what BF fans want than BF3.

And that is where Dice fit in as suppliers, they supply a general product, not a catered service, but there is no alternative.

Therefor creating the afformentioned demand. ;-)

MOTHER OF GOD.

It's not hard to understand. Consumers don't DEMAND anything of suppliers if they are dissatisfied with the product. That's why it's called DEMAND instead of "thank our lucky stars those nice altruistic suppliers gave us exactly what we secretly wanted in the depths of our souls instead of making it known."

In marketing class (even more boring and intellectually simple than intro economics), you might someday learn that businessmen (or non-demented ones, like game developers/publishers) ENCOURAGE customer complaints, for various reasons. They don't ***** and whine at the customers telling them what they want and don't want; like and don't like.

You almost had a valid point in the elasticity of demand part, but I think you're wrong. There are LOTS of shooters out there, and they have VERY little to distinguish them. This is cutthroat competition.

Betas aren't demos - fans were being dick heads.

Yes they are - every single beta of every single FPS in recent memory that I've played has turned out to be a demo. The game goes gold too soon after beta for any major issues to be fixed. UT3, Sector 8, BC2, etc. All betas virtually identical to the demo and retail versions.

 

[Gibboniser]

I browse those forums often, I'm not surprised this happened, they ***** over the smallest things, but alas, that is the Internet. Frankly the escapist is one of the most mature forums I've been on, maybe it's the moderating, maybe it just doesn't attract whiny people, who knows.