Expectations vs. The Entitled Gamer

So I'm sorry I've been gone for so long, but work has been killing me lately, and I haven't had much time to escape and write, and I feel like a letdown. However! As tired as I am, I've been wanting to talk about this topic a bit for a while now, and good ol' EA decided to serve me up some good shit to get the motivation to talk about this a bit, so let's begin. First off, for those that have been living under a rock, it was reported the last day or two, that Battlefront 2, the game that just came out in November, isn't getting the support it needs. Since the debacle of lootboxes, EA has decided to pull some teams off, namely Criterion and Motive, and put them elsewhere, while Dice tries to fix the shitstorm that EA created. Whether or not EA told Dice to make the Micro Transactions so damn horrible or not, is still a mystery, as according to Aaryn Flynn, EA doesn't do that. However, many reports that have come from Dice, have said the opposite. However, the fact remains that for the first 6 months of the game, Dice had to, and I repeat, HAD to redo it's progression system, as I've slammed dunked on it many times because of how awful it was. I don't hate Dice, and I think they do great work, even on BF2 as you can see the passion in 95% of the game. But the progression system was awful, and even Dice agreed. So while those 6 months were tied to fixing the progression, nothing really new was added to the game. Only one little season, tied to the release of The Last Jedi, and that was it. Silence. So of course, the community is pissed, as they should be. Silence, and than told by some random person, that BF2 lacks any kind of support is heartbreaking when the game finally seemed to turn the corner at about the time it was finally becoming a GAME and not a slot machine. So where does the title come in? Right? That's what you're thinking. Well after seeing the reports, and seeing the comments, I saw a lot of people who tried to defend the lack of personal tied to a game, that hasn't even been in the market for a year, that has hardly any content added, and it got me thinking. The comments ranged of course, but the same title came up "Entitled Gamers". Now this is a title that has been bubbling to the surface for a while now. A title that even if I can't prove it (Or in this case, really just research it. Give me a break, I'm exhausted okay?), I feel came from a dev at some point in time. Now maybe that dev was right in their analysis back than, but now, the title has grown into something it's not suppose to be. A way to silence the gamer from feedback. Now, not always, stop it. I didn't say that. But even other gamers use it when people give meaningful feedback. A trend you can see in just about every update post on twitter with flame wars going back and forth. To me, Entitled Gamers DO exist, don't get me wrong, but I want to separate the difference between the two, and of course, Battlefront decided to step up to the plate this week. So the reason I bring up EA is because of everything I said before. If most of you remember (Or if not, let me refresh your memory), EA promised to give Battlefront 2 multiple updates according to an interview with Gamespot back in June of 2017.

"I think the main thing here is to keep the community together," Fegraeus said about Battlefront II's free DLC model. "In terms of the brand, to me, when it comes to Star Wars, that's a family feeling. If you're a fan, you're a part of the family. And splitting that up and saying, 'If you have this content you can play here, but if you have this content you can play here.' And if you don't share, you will be split up. What we wanted to do was have a journey that starts at the launch of the game. So when the game launches, this journey starts with different seasons [of DLC]."

See? Different seasons. Players EXPECTED to be treated to new content much like how Fortnite nailed it down every 3 months or so. But not BF2, no they are just now going onto the second

season, with only a third of the team behind it all. Also, there was another fun tidbit in there I can't help but add into here.

"No, it's not about buying the winning item," he said. "That's not how it works. No one can say, 'I'm going to spend my zillion dollars and then I'm going to dominate.' That's not how it works."

So my point here is that players EXPECTED to have multiple seasons, adding new content fairly regular, and even expected at launch to not have harmful M/T's in game from the very words of a higher up in the food chain. What gamers got, wasn't really any of this. So when people are furious to hear that the game is getting a season, and not one that was even asked for because of "Marketing", tends to rub people the wrong way. Having expectations, is taking the feedback from the devs, the publisher, and all that are involved in a project, and being able to dream up what's coming next. Now obviously not everything happens, not everything is released, and it's up to the devs to try and subdue this a bit with just open communication. This does however lead us into the ACTUAL Entitled Gamers. To me, and I feel like what the definition should be, is a gamer who feels that a game owes them something, that was never promised. To me, all the gamers who are mad because Battlefront 2 was promised by EA, to have constant updates and content, has been put on the back burner, and has a third of the team trying to subdue the audience while not even being able to talk to them. Those people aren't Entitled. The ones that are Entitled, are the ones that are pissed because Jar Jar isn't in the game or that we don't have a pink Darth Vader. Something never really promised, silly, and super specific. As if we were owed any of those silly things.

I've seen devs, a lot of who I follow, interact with lots of headlines on a regular basis, who have pushed back against "game critics" for saying "harsh things". I've seen them bring up that people don't know how hard it is, or that they don't understand the process, all things I actually get and sympathize with. However, getting mad at certain criticism or saying that gamers/critics are becoming more "Entitled" is straining what should be symbiotic relationship between the two. Fake trailers, canceled games, and games that are yanked off the market when companies go under have eroded what should have always been a great relationship. We've lost any digital copies of games like Deadpool and Scott Pilgrim. If you don't have a physical copy, you can no longer even play these games. Gamers shouldn't be demanding things in game, and than getting upset when ignored. As with devs shouldn't be so quick to pushback on gamers just because they either call something out that should have been there and wasn't, or just simply suggesting something new/better in the place of something that exists in game. I feel that both parties can get be better about this. Gamers are starting to get tired of being yanked around by our wallets, especially when most of us don't have much to begin with, and devs are tired of putting in hundreds of hours to basically get shit on and so I feel there should, and could be, a happy median for both. More than ever, gamers can tone down the hateful comments left on every comment a dev or team makes, and on the flip side, teams can try to read more of the harsher comments and gleam any real criticism from them. Too many times I see broad strokes brushed with "gamers are shit" while trying to SELL your product to gamers. That's the biggest issue. Too many times devs and teams almost forget what their product is aimed at, art or not. However, too many times gamers would rather get outraged, then do their due diligence and actually figure out what is happening when poor, or downright bad decisions are made. There are Publishers too guys.

So in conclusion, can we stop saying how entitled gamers are when they get pissed when things don't happen like they were told they would? When gamers get mad when Microtransactions are shoved in their face? When games decide to take their product on to other store fronts? Or how about when devs erase comments or ban people for being mad about a product not being what it was touted to be? But on the flip side, can gamers stop tweeting dumb shit like "Shit game" on every fucking post? Can gamers realize that some things take time to make, and to not harass the poor dev working their ass off to try and make things better? Or to make new things? No job is easy, no matter how "fun" it may seem on the outside. Also, for the love guys, can you figure out the difference between a Publisher and a Developer? Please?

So let me know what you think makes an "Entitled Gamer" vs. an expectation in comment sections below this post, and as always guys, stay frosty. *Insert finger guns*