So, what does this mean for you, the player? They first open by saying they're still working on the "netcode" for the game that they feel wwill "tighten the overall multiplayer experience" for the game. Details are light on this but hopefully more will be revealed in the next month. As for the other freebies, here is what they'll offer up.
A Battlepack a Day
Every day that you log into the game in February, you’ll receive a Bronze or Silver Battlepack. For those of you who haven’t started opening your earned packs yet, these Battlepacks contain bonuses like XP Boosts and soldier camos. Normally, it would take approximately 30 hours gameplay to earn that many packs. Every day that you log a multiplayer game during the month of February, you will receive a new Battlepack. During weekdays, these will be Bronze, and during Saturdays and Sundays we will give away Silver Battlepacks. Remember to activate your earned XP boosts in the in-game menu to accelerate your progress.
Double XP Weekend
During the Player Appreciation Month, we’ll be running a double XP weekend for all players. If you’re one of our many Battlefield 4 Premium members, you’ll also get an additional double XP weekend during the Player Appreciation Month as an added bonus.
Community Missions
You will be able to participate in global DICE Community Missions where you will work together to unlock Gold Battlepacks. During the first of these Community-wide challenges, we will ask you to grab a set number of dog tags during a specified time. More details on this first Community Mission in Battlefield 4 to follow.
DICE Developer Talks
Increased developer interaction and transparency on how we work is frequently requested from our fans. During Player Appreciation Month, we will host a number of interviews with some of the core developers of Battlefield 4. In these interviews, you can ask them about their line of work, the effort they’ve put into Battlefield 4, or in the case of our core gameplay designer, what the balancing process of Battlefield 4 looks like. We will announce the dates and channels for these developer interviews as the Player Appreciation Month kicks off.
Every day that you log into the game in February, you’ll receive a Bronze or Silver Battlepack. For those of you who haven’t started opening your earned packs yet, these Battlepacks contain bonuses like XP Boosts and soldier camos. Normally, it would take approximately 30 hours gameplay to earn that many packs. Every day that you log a multiplayer game during the month of February, you will receive a new Battlepack. During weekdays, these will be Bronze, and during Saturdays and Sundays we will give away Silver Battlepacks. Remember to activate your earned XP boosts in the in-game menu to accelerate your progress.
Double XP Weekend
During the Player Appreciation Month, we’ll be running a double XP weekend for all players. If you’re one of our many Battlefield 4 Premium members, you’ll also get an additional double XP weekend during the Player Appreciation Month as an added bonus.
Community Missions
You will be able to participate in global DICE Community Missions where you will work together to unlock Gold Battlepacks. During the first of these Community-wide challenges, we will ask you to grab a set number of dog tags during a specified time. More details on this first Community Mission in Battlefield 4 to follow.
DICE Developer Talks
Increased developer interaction and transparency on how we work is frequently requested from our fans. During Player Appreciation Month, we will host a number of interviews with some of the core developers of Battlefield 4. In these interviews, you can ask them about their line of work, the effort they’ve put into Battlefield 4, or in the case of our core gameplay designer, what the balancing process of Battlefield 4 looks like. We will announce the dates and channels for these developer interviews as the Player Appreciation Month kicks off.
There is one more thing, which I found to be particularly telling of just how out of touch the developers are.
Shortcut Bundles
We are preparing two shortcut bundles for Battlefield 4 that we will make available for download at no cost during the Player Appreciation Month. These voluntary shortcut bundles will unlock all grenades and handguns for Battlefield 4 (the base game) so you can make up for lost time. Or if you’re new to the game, they will help you catch up with players who have been on the Battlefield since launch. We will get back to you with more details once we have set release dates for these items.
For all of our Battlefield 4 Premium users, we’re adding two additional weapon shortcuts, unlocking DMR’s and shotguns. That way, if you like, you can quickly get your hands on a large portion of the weapons available in Battlefield 4.
We are preparing two shortcut bundles for Battlefield 4 that we will make available for download at no cost during the Player Appreciation Month. These voluntary shortcut bundles will unlock all grenades and handguns for Battlefield 4 (the base game) so you can make up for lost time. Or if you’re new to the game, they will help you catch up with players who have been on the Battlefield since launch. We will get back to you with more details once we have set release dates for these items.
For all of our Battlefield 4 Premium users, we’re adding two additional weapon shortcuts, unlocking DMR’s and shotguns. That way, if you like, you can quickly get your hands on a large portion of the weapons available in Battlefield 4.
In a sense, they are eliminating a big reason for playing a particular class or becoming proficient with a weapon type. They are literally just throwing guns at you from four weapon classes without you having to do a thing. I can't wait to see the influx of people camping with their new semi-auto snipers/DMRs now. Yay!
But yeah, TONS of complaints about how they "worked so hard" to unlock all this stuff and now people that did nothing get it for free!
I understand their complaints and all that and maybe I'm just old now, but games used to mean fun and not grinding. I see so many posts about how people hit rank 110 and they are done with the game. I just don't get that.
Even though I am rank 109 right now, I am looking forward to getting the other stuff and watching the new posts about sucky weapons and how giving us sucky weapons is not "appreciation".
So, Im OK with this but so many are raging about it, its a bit weird and not at the same time.
I think it's safe to say the servers will be completely obliterated SimCity style when the interview with the core gameplay designer happens. I also think only being transparent for a month is absolutely missing the point. Like I mean a WOOOOOSH right past their heads missing the point. They'll apparently talk to us for a month before going back to their one-way promotional communication ways? I know DICE is busy, so I'm not asking a daily or weekly thing, but I would appreciate a bi-monthly AMA (as in once every 2 months in this example), or developers (not community managers) spending at most one hour in the Battlelog forums weekly answering questions, or get this....... Use the ****ing Twitter for more than just promotional purposes! Retweet developer responses in the official Twitter if necessary. Develop training programs for devs to know what they are and aren't allowed to share (though I think training is needed company-wide including PR, but I digress).
All these social networking and forum tools, and DICE decides to setup complicated interviews with enough resources to only do this for a month? Completely missed the point. This olive branch is really moldy, so keep that thing away from me.
The battlepacks are good, maybe I'll finally get some more adaptive camo.