Email campaign to Dice

[I am RKO]

One persons bug isn't anothers.

At the end of the day, DICE are not going to say we will no longer be updating Battlefield 2 or 2142 ever again, because they still want people to play the game, and more importantly, buy the game if they don't have it yet.

They are also not going to discuss secrets with some nobody because they sent them an email.

People moan about expansions/boosters anyways, saying they don't have enough content.

As Alex pointed out, they have three games at least of the Battlefield series coming out within the next year and that must be a strain on their resources as it is.

My advice for Battlefield 2 players, is play a modification with a big fanbase like Project Reality, Point of Existence, Sandbox etc.. If you like ranked, just don't play too much.

My advice for 2142 players is.. I can only offer my sympathy. There aren't any out there mods apart from First Strike Mod, Ranked play is okay, again don't play to much.

At the end of the day, you can't submit that sort of thing for legal and practical reasons. Legal, because you could probably claim ownership or at least there would be ownership problems. Practical, because you'd have every tom, **** or harry sending code to DICE and they'd have to go through it all, making sure it wasn't worse than it was before.

Just face facts, you knew what you was getting into when you bought the game and just understand this is the way that DICE and the world is.

Just play BF:H instead.

[sempf]

the bug are mostly not in the code itself but in the files that are allowed to mod. the files in the mods folders. here are all the glitches and most of the bug. if we fix these we arent doing anything wrong but helping bugs out of the game. if we work as a group here on tb2142 maybe we can make it less bugfree and offer it as only solvation. i can ask dtneter and i bet he will try to help. fixing these bugs is just like modding the game only easier. most of the bugs are mistakes and some(ask dtneter for magine guns on gunships) are unsolveble.

[Unzen]

I actually see the whole booster pack scenario as a little bit messy. I'd rather EA behaved like Valve - release a few games, but hell - do they continually patches and adapt their wares. EA in my eyes is very much of a 'now, now, NOW' mentality. A game released a few months ago? Ok, we may patch it. A few years ago? You can forget it.

I'm especially cynical with booster packs in the amount of support they receive from the community itself. I bought BF2 on its day of release and then every expansion pack for it. And what did the £5 spent on Armoured Fury achieve? About two game rounds with no more than 6 people in it.

So what do we have today? BF2 servers crammed with Karkand maps and increasingly (which for the goddamn life of me, I can't understand) making them infantry only. The amount of servers actually running the later expansion packs are so few and far between.

Pretty much the same with Northern Strike. I can guarantee that if a 2nd booster pack for 2142 was released, it would flare up on the server listings for a few weeks - and then die of death.

It's so frustrating. I want titles such as 2142 to progress, evolve and become even better than on their original release. We need more small firms like Trauma Studios who can do an equivalent Desert Combat release and not be cherry-picked by the likes of EA and DICE - just for the sake of boosting share prices. "Look who we brought onboard today chaps - the gaming community LOVES these guys..." Ker-ching.

EA and DICE can get it right every now and then. Look at the Highway Tampa map. Imo, that map is bloody brilliant, and although its not plastered everywhere on hosting servers - it does have a popular showing, probably because its free?

By all means - I'll pay for expansion packs. But if everyone else doesn't, then its a dead duck. I'd rather pay double for my initial copy of 2142 - if I was assured by EA that over the next 18-24 month period, two or more free booster packs would be made available. That is one of the few ways in which I think booster pack support will work. For both sides of the table.

[Dtneter]

You are not allowed to dissect the game code and modify it. Plus, even then it's going to take time and money getting it through EA's QA department.

you know that reminds me of something CF2142 mod wrote.

BF2142 - Conflict2142 mod visits DICE

On arriving at DICE HQ in Stockholm the fear really started to kick in, knowing the fate of the entire mod community depended on us being successful in our mission. It was meant to be a simple in out job, our mission "Infiltrate DICE HQ, Steel the Bf2142 SDK and assassinate all lead Devs and EA personnel on sight." Things are never as easy as they seem.
Woodrow gave me a fearful look as we approached the door; I hadn’t noticed the large EA logo at the time branded across a five foot swastika. I knew something was wrong but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I cocked my rifle and reached for the door only to be startled as the door mysteriously opened. An intense light shone upon us, completely throwing us off guard, a soothing young woman’s voice told us to come in. As our eyes adjusted to the intense light it became apparent that all the walls were made from solid gold and all the details and furnishing from platinum. The lady who told us to come in appeared in front of us, wearing as silver thong and gold nipple tassels, this divine beauty must have been some sort of angel. It was at that moment we had our first casually, Woody tapped me on the shoulder and told me that Ulph was down. I couldn’t care less that my modding comrade was having a heart attack as I was totally transfixed by this stunning Swedish woman.
The lady did not seem phased by the fact that I had a loaded assault rifle in my hand; I think it may have even turned her on. She led us down a hall to the centre of the building. I gasped as I entered upon seeing the most incredible sceptical ever. The main area was a giant skate park; everyone was going around on their skate boards made of fibre glass and $50 bills.
We got greeted by the CEO of DICE, he came over to give us a personal tour around the design studios. The first place he took us too was the testing labs; there were hundred of computers packed out with nerds playing Battlefield 3!! This was quite an amazing spectacle watching as the gamers were gradually getting pulled away by men in white coats. They couldn’t stop saying "not enough levels you cheep bastards" The door would close, a load bang and then silence followed by a trickle of blood under the door.
The next room we went into was an interesting site, Punkbuster were there but sat next to them was the president of the *** hackers group. I wasn’t sure what to make of it until it hit me. DICE don’t care about *** hackers because it makes them more money, Punkbuster bans the hackers who have been promised punkbuster proof hacks then the only way they can play the game again is to buy another copy! So does DICE or EA own that hacking group I wonder?
Then next office we went into was an idea storming room, it was amazing. The brains behind DICE were sat in Hot tubs drinking Don Perignon Champaign while the gorgeous naked blond girls wrote down their ideas on massive white boards. On the board at the time was an interesting read stating:
__________________________________________________ ____________
How to maximise profits
Stage 1 Annihilate all competition – Stop it at its source; the mod community. If we produce the most popular game, but then give them no way to expand on it and no reason for the public to want to play of mods (RANK SYSTEM). We will destroy the community and prevent any future game designers.
Stage 2 Produce games as fast as possible. We must have a major release every year, it doesn’t matter if we release a game that only half done, and not fully tested. We can patch it after we have taken the users money, and we can do it really slowly to keep them playing the games in hope that a fix will be coming soon.
Stage 3 Produce booster packs. Instead of adding new content in patches we will sell small add-ons. Idea – how about we make booster booster packs we could sell new weapons and further exploit our fans.
Stage 5 we will make people pay to download games they already have bought before $6 for every time they download the game.
__________________________________________________ _______

It sure was an insight into the gaming industry getting to see the DICE HQ. However I can’t help but think I forgot to do something while I was in there.
Anyways I just want to say thank you DICE / EA for wonderful day. We had a really good time I learnt a lot about the business world.
Thank you also for the cake and the briefcase full of money, your secrets are safe with me ;-)


I hope you get my point.

[iQue]

BF2142 has always been a epic game but hoping for expansion packs and more patches is hopeless now. If you get tired of the game go play something else instead. It's not any harder than that.

Though...

BF2142 for the win, some of my best gaming memories comes from the streets of Cerbere and Gibraltar... And in the skies of Sidi and Suez...

:salute: Go DICE

[xslaneyx]

i must admit 2142 always has me coming back to it no matter what games i look to buy and play.

all we need is a few new maps and a few more gadgets n weapons and it will be a new lease of life for the game. :)

[MNToothpick]

First of all, I began this post as a way of giving you news. The fact that the forum posts on the official Battlefield 2142 site include correspondence from DICE is news that affects the BF2142 community. It did not come from CNET,G4TV,GAMESPOT,METACRITIC; it came from and was generated by the community.

People's reaction to the news seems to fall into two categories:

1. The "despair crowd" known in their squad leader mode as "no can do" and
2. The "hope crowd" known in their squad leader mode as "will do" and even if we lose, at least we tried to squad up, work together, and win.

I personally hope that I will have the good fortune of playing with BF2142 players who play rather than just complain about the situation, squad up and try to win. What I am saying is, before complaining about DICE/EA/BF2142 at least write an email asking them for more support. It's like earning the unlock to complain.

I personally do not think that DICE/EA have any reason to want Battlefield to fail. I just think they need some encouragement and that it is hard to get their attention. I think there are probably people at DICE who want to spend their time trying to fix existing problems and do not like the treadmill schedule they are on. It is quite possible that these people would like to point to emails saying more needs to be done to support 2142.

I know that not every expansion pack is perfect. NS had some pretty weak unlocks (radar grenade). I also bought Secret Weapons of WWII, and that was a very limited value compared to RTR. On the other hand, the expansions get bundled with the main game and it increases the # of people who have it. For example, I have the BF2 Complete Collection DVD and it did not cost me much. (Plus if I was running a clan server, it would definitely regularly run NS because that is the best way to recruit new players who tend to play NS to get the easy unlocks first.)

Now, I cannot believe, based on all the teamwork I have seen in the rounds I have played that members BF community cannot simply write an email asking for support. It's like they all got dogtagged once, they whine about it, and then they disconnect. I guess I was looking for people who are still willing to try to turn a silo even when their titan shields are down.

Please either write an email or stop complaining. If you are going to complain, please write an email first.

:salute:

[Minmaster]

i don't really see the point in emailing, as DICE can gauge community's attitude towards the game on these forums on their own terms. i know they check out the forums here, so any displeasure and complaints, as well as appreciation can be found here. however, it's obvious from the lack of communications with the community these days that they don't care enough. do you remember how active DICE members were when the game was still young? they were constantly on the boards looking for feedback and trying to improve the game, but honestly, i think they came to realize it's hopeless and gave up. now they have all moved on, and they probably want us to move on from 2142.

[Shazanelli]

*snip*

[=98=]

All i'm saying is watch this space guys, be prepared for something exciting...

Rumors.

[sempf]

saddist why dont you tell us?

[Ghiblian]

Rumors.

Don't be too quick to discard it. =P Cryptic messages ftw.

[sempf]

cryotic messages are only solveble if there is something mathematic involved. but i cant find anything here.
ontopic
maybe dice just watches at the wrong times. at the beginning everything is ok at the end everything that is wrong becomes discovered.

[RYKUU]

It would be good to see BF2142 support to keep going though the saddest thing is ... it isnt they left BF2 along with all the games before that, its time to move on if you are having problems.

[xslaneyx]

Rumors.

from what ive heard no they aint.....:laugh: