An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

[Black_lagon]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

WHy only servers, client's like me suffer to because of 30% performce decrease somehow..

always above 25fps everything high know always below 25 fps WTF on busy places

[dEaDi]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

AWESOME!!!! Thats a great letter and gets the point across. But as many have said, I cant help but think that EA are making this game bad due to the upcoming release of a simalar game with different textures (which will be based on BF2 engine). Its not a new game, its a rehash and the amount of people on this board that still say people are moaning, and that the games fine really are the people talking out of there backside. Its good to see larger companies that pay for Ranked Servers standing up as well as the clans to what is possibly, the worst supported game ever to grace this planet!!!

Im going to QW but also OFP:AA and OFP2 when it comes

[Hookey]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

BF2 deserves at least another 6 months to a year of support and at the very least a final patch that solves some long standing problems. The upcoming realease of BF 2142 however shows that EA and DICE feel they must compete with QW and Unreal Tournament 2007 now for fear of losing momentum and market share. In my opinion the market will be flooded with online fps games this fall and it will be interesting to see how the Battlefield 2 community splits up.

Counter Strike
Battlefield 2
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Unreal Tournament 2007
Battlefield 2142
Armed Assault (I might play this one, http://www.armed-assault-zone.com/news.php)
Call of Duty

If that is EA's logic, then its a little bit flawed. One of the reasons why BF2 has done so well in the last year is that its essentially a very good and unique game, despite its many flaws, bugs etc. The typical BF player doesn't want to play CS or CoD or any other generic FPS, because they like the vehicles and mixed gameplay (I know people whine about infantry only options etc. but the figures don't bear that out).

When 2142 comes out, it won't have this type of gameplay to itself because of QW:ET in particular, and because its also abandoning its other USP, which is the whole 'modern combat' thing. So all 2142 has left in its favour is brand loyalty towards the BF series in general. Brand Loyalty works incredibly well for EA; witness FIFA and NFS and The Sims, but I'm not sure its going to work here. All the things I liked about the the BF 'brand' have been eroded by the competition and by EA themselves. There's nothing particularly unique about 2142, and most BF players are acutely aware that they're facing another year of bugs and arguments about exploits until BF3 comes along, and the whole thing starts again. Only this time, there's an alternative. I'm genuinely coming to the conclusion that QW will wipe the floor with 2142 unless, by some amazing fluke its bug free from day one. Unlike with BF2, its just going to be too easy for people to vote with their feet.

[Sepp_Dietrich]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

They do care, about draining cash from your wallet as many times as we'll allow them.

As gamers we need to vote with our wallets and simply not rush out and buy the latest incarnation of a series simply because it is the latest one.We've all been suckered into buying Alpha versions of games that got rushed out the door as "Gold" versions.Soldner anyone? CFS3?

Can we honestly be suprised at the support we've gotten from EA? They told us they had shifted the vast majority of the team to 2142 as soon as BF2 shipped.This game is already falling off the radar at EA,after AF drops I wouldn't expect to see another booster pack or patch.I would expect to see an increase in the promotion of 2142.How annoying was it to log on the past few weeks and be greeted by the "Big annoncement" of Titan Mode?
Do I care?

Fix the glaring, well known and well documented issues with BF2 before you start force feeding me promotional material for the next incarnation of the series.How long have people been asking for the red/blue bug to be addressed? We get no response, and instead we get a slew of "Added Features" that break things that weren't broken to begin with.

They expect to have 2142 on store shelves for the holiday shopping orgy, ask yourselves how much they are balancing playability vs marketing deadlines.

[Uber:Jagermeiter]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

Well done Craig--I'm patient as well-BF2 has the potential to be a great game-but the bugs do drag it down, and as you so eloquently put it-this latest patch adds more fuel to the fire regarding the negatives that are associated with the BF2 franchise.Certainly,EA/DICE's management/support of BF2 provides no incentive to purchase 2142,no matter how much hype surrounds it. The hype can't mask the reality that has been driven home with over the past year; that EA/DICE are more concerned with launching games than they are with properly supporting them. IT's a real shame,'cause this game could be a great one instead of a good one. And in today's competitive market place,that just won't cut it.

[imported_DwarfVader]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

Oh and don't forget Armored Fury (or whatever the next booster is called.)

If EA/Dice doesn't do something to fix even the GLARING errors caused by this latest patch, let alone the things that have been needing fixing for a while now... I will have nothing to do with 2142.

And in the past I was the first person to hammer on people who would say that kind of thing, but this is the line in the sand for me.

[Uber:Jagermeiter]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

I'm with you---Maybe the haters were on to something afterall

[zone36]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

Excellent letter.

I too, don't see BF2 making it much longer with the current support it's receiving..

I've stuck behind BF2 since it's release last summer, but am really starting to question how much longer I (and indeed, the average BF2 enthusiast) can hold out with the direction the game is heading.. it's not too late to save, but it's getting damn close.

[Aftershock]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

When does Quake Wars come out?

[RavenRealms]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

If my favourite servers would switch back to 1.22, i'd be happy.

Either that or DICE could at least give us ONE last huge patch that will address every known bug there is.

[Uber:Jagermeiter]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

that's thier only hope;not only for BF2 but also for 2142. As BF2 goes down so does ,by a large degree 2142. Forcing people to get tired of BF2 won't draw people to 2142. it has to be a natural development. You have to build off of positive momentum...for some reason EA/DCIE don't get that.

[DemonOfhatred]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

Great post. I for one won't be buying BF2142 because of ea/dice's poor support. BF2 has become a game where you don't fight your opponents as much as you fight the bugs.

[Diamond]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

Great letter.

Let us into any possible (highly unlikely) responds.

[Mobdawwg]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

i agree, a little more prep time would have been better than the piece of crap they released now.

[SirCyRo]

Re: An Open Letter To EA/Dice From StrafeRight

I know Battlefield 2 is a complex game. And I am no programmer. However, I have played many FPS games over the years, games that have had patches themselves, but NEVER EVER seen the types of problems that Battlefield2 has gone through.

I played Halo for PC for years, and I think Microsoft has that game up to 1.07 as thier patch number. However, even Halo for PC 1.01 (it ships as that version I think) is a very very very playable game, and you really don't see any differnce between 1.01 and 1.07. most of the changes were background type stuff. You can browse servers fine, no glitches in the game, and they didn't change the game play to satisfy the whiners in the game.

I played Quake 3 Arena for a long time too. Their patching went up to 1.36 or so, but again, not much was changed in those patches that was noticible. I frankly don't remember any bugs in Quake3, and I played it 100's of times.

But I can list you probably 2 dozen things wrong with Battlefield2, off the top of my head.

So, what does that tell you? It tells me that I am not that confident in DICE's production of a quality product, and I really don't think BF2142 will be complete when it comes out.