BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

[m0nsterm@sh]

Looking at some of the demands of some BF2 badges, I am beginning to think that they promote poor play.

I know there are a lot of people out there who play with a primary goal to win different badges, medals, and ribbons. And, I think that's fair. Yes, it makes you play new classes you normally wouldn't play and try new tactics. I think that's great.

But...

All the badges that just require __ hours played in this class/vehicle driven/etc. only rewards you for time played. You could be the worst commander in the history of BF2, just flying around in your jet for 1000 hours, and you would still get the Expert Commander Badge. I do not think you should be rewarded just for a number of hours in a class.

Another example:
Look at my stats... I have flown a total of 34 SECONDS in a plane out of all the hundreds of hours I have played this game. Yes, 34 seconds. I hate planes. I hate flying them, I hate their blown up carcasses crushing me after I shoot them, I hate their bombs falling on my head. I hate everything about them. I don't fly them. But, if I want to get promoted to First Sergeant, I need a basic Aviator Badge. That means I need to get in some damn plane for 10 minutes and fly around on a map. Being that I have no skill in planes, I will serve my team no advantage whatsoever. In fact, there will probably be some ace pilot sitting on the carrier of Gulf of Oman waiting for a plane to respawn and I'm flying circles at 30,000 feet for 10 minutes. This, my friends, is not good game play.

So, while I like the awards systems, I think that the badges that are not awarded for IAR kills or global points/kills in a class do not necessarily promote good game play.

I'm sure the flaming will begin now now now...

[AxisKiller™ {UGC}]

Re: BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

I would have to agree with you on that. I like to fly planes but if I'm having a really good round in a tank and I'm close to getting 1stSgt I have to find a plane and fly around for ten minutes. I don't have to worry about getting the basic Aviator badge though because I already have it.:p Only vehicle badge I don't have is the Transport badge, I'm probably going to get it next time I get a chance to play.

[sknight]

Re: BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

I agree that they promote poor play. However, I spend a lot of my time going for badges and ranks. I have fun doing it, don't get me wrong, and I have friends who, it seems, have the sole goal of getting every badge possible, including being commander while sitting on a TOW at the main base for hours. There are lots of examples of poor play while going for awards. My friend got his Vet. Explosives badge and ended up with a -37 team score for killing himself so much and probably didn't help the team much, except for killing the 24 people required for the badge. I got mine however running around capping flags and C4ing people trying to stop me. I think the badges are supposed to be 'possible' but some people have to adjust their strategy in order to make it to that amount of kills. Anyway, I can't say that people are wrong for being selfish because I do it alot too.

Anyway, if you need your aviator badge, why not try to use the plane legitimately? Go out and try to be a pilot. Maybe your teammates will scorn you, but if you do this a whole round, you'll get your badge and will have tried instead of flying at 1500 feet.

[TGL|Badlizzard]

Re: BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

Stop worrying about badges and ribbons. Honestly, they don't mean anything, and if you don't like to fly, who cares if you have the badge for it?

[sknight]

Re: BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

Stop worrying about badges and ribbons. Honestly, they don't mean anything, and if you don't like to fly, who cares if you have the badge for it?

I disagree with your opinion on the badges being meaningless. I ENJOY hearing the snare drum and "You've been recommended for an award." It gives you something to do...which is what games are for! It's an accomplishment too.

[CS-Evolution]

Re: BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

It doesn't promote poor play, it urges the player to be more well-rounded. Plus, you don't need First Seargant. You can still get the promotion without all the badges, it's just a different rank.

[evilzucchini]

Re: BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

I disgaree for a couple of reason.

I would have agreed with you three weeks ago, but now, not so much.

I like the idea of trying to get badges. I just wish you couldn't get them through BS means (like getting kills as a commander to get your sniper badge, or something like that).

I don't normally play for badges as I usually play with friends and our goal is to stay alive and help each other.

However, I recently changed that a bit to try to get all of my basic badges so I could get the promotion you talk about.

What it did was force me to try out new things.

I too thought I hated flying. However, when I went for my basic aviator, I had a lot of fun flying around. Granted, I don't think I got one kill, however, it forced me to try something new.

Going for the knife and pistol basic badges helped me learn how to use the knife and pistol more effectively.

After I got all the basics, I decided that I wanted to try to get all of the veteran badges as well.

This forces me to play EVERY kit for 15 hours. Basically, I have been "forced" to be kits that I am not normally and that has forced me to train with them. I never played sniper or support before. However, now I can see how useful the two can be.

Trying to get the badges has made me less of a one-dimensional player. I can now switch between kits that I think will be handy instead of just playing that one kit I always do. I can't tell you how many times I have switched to sniper when i wouldn't have normally to protect my squad as they go to a base or spot guys for them.

Sure, the process by which trying to learn the skills may hurt the team, however, the fact that they train you how to be more diverse can only help the team in the future as it makes you a more adaptable player.

The problem is that there is a constant influx of new players so there will always be someone training. However, personally, I think I am a better team player now that I can do most things effectively.

FTR, I still suck at the planes :)

[[3SA]D|Sgt.Colinloves]

Re: BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

I would like to see badges for how many times you forgive a TK. That would makes things better for everyone.

I like to know why punishments and forgives aint logged. I would like to see mine.

[Orion126]

Re: BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

I enjoy going for badges and ribbons as you can see...why? Because I like to be on top. It's a competitive thing for me...not that not caring about them isn't but, I like to rub it in my brothers faces...satisfaction of getting a badge/ribbon/medal and seeing my brother's face just get all red =)

[pYura]

Re: BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

First: you need 10000commander points for the expert commander badge not 1000hours, so if you get it you cant be that bad.....
Second: if you want your rank its the least thing that you fly 10minutes, its almost nothing. btw you can get all basic badges almost for nothing...
Third: now I know why they wont change time requiremants for kills. Simple: the veteran-vehicle badges have half time req. as the medals...
4th: I would change the class-spec. badges in this way: xxhours is OK, and xxKills is also OK, but you cant get those kills with vehicle whoring, but on foot. That would make a difference!!
or what about not kills required but kills/10min, so ppl wont have to search big maps with no players and hope that the round will last for 2hours...

[Donkey]

Re: BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

Yeah as stated before it's 10,000 Command Points for expert... And most the badges above basic require more than just time...

For example the vet aviator badge requires 100 hours and 12 IAR kills...

I do however agree that focusing on time more than anything else is/was a bad idea by EA/DICE. I think kills and points earned (i.e. heal, revives, destroying commander assets) should be more important...

Ah you may have noticed I mentioned destroying commander assets...well I think that the spec ops badges should require this along side with X number of kills, X number of kills IAR, and X hours of play...

Now some mentioned on foot versus in vehicle...this would be a good idea to apply to certain kits like for example the Sniper....The sniper badges shouldn’t be awarded for vehicle kills since that is not the intended position of the kit...However Kits like Engineer, Medic, Support should be allowed to incorporate vehicle kills, since these kits are more useful when in a vehicle (mobile repair shops, ammo depots, and medivacs)...Albeit they should increase the required kills accordingly if a kit can use vehicle kills towards rank...

Also perhaps they use more information when counting things towards higher ranking badges and ribbons...Things like distance to kill, how many kills in a row in CQC in a short amount of time...The latter would mean that under intense pressure and fire the player was able to keep composure and dominate...From some mods out there this has been shown to be possible (the distance thing)....

Overall I feel the rewards systems is a nice touch and makes you play all aspects of the game...However it being a first of its kind it def has some issues and hopefully they will be tweaked and fixed until the system is more of a depiction of skill than just how long you can sit in front of a computer screen...

[CSAReapHavocKhan]

Re: BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

also you dont need to be pilot. If you are TV bomberer(?) you can get the basic aviater.

[bitvomit]

Re: BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

I disagree with your opinion on the badges being meaningless. I ENJOY hearing the snare drum and "You've been recommended for an award." It gives you something to do...which is what games are for! It's an accomplishment too.

I disagree with yours. Badges are just totally meaningless, baseless, empty, superficial. What kind of accomplishment is C4ing 50 people in one round? It's just another penis extending feature of BF2's stat system. Just something stupid that you can show to your friends to prove to them that your e-penis is bigger than theirs.

[CS-Evolution]

Re: BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

I disagree with yours. Badges are just totally meaningless, baseless, empty, superficial. What kind of accomplishment is C4ing 50 people in one round? It's just another penis extending feature of BF2's stat system. Just something stupid that you can show to your friends to prove to them that your e-penis is bigger than theirs.

As meaningless as droning on for hours on end playing a VIDEO GAME? By that flawed logic, anything we do in an online game is meaningless, making playing the game absolutely pointless. Logic would tell us that the awards give the game more MEANING, thus making the game more enjoyable for those who enjoy pursuing those goals.

[bitvomit]

Re: BF2 Badges: Promoting poor play?

As meaningless as droning on for hours on end playing a VIDEO GAME? By that flawed logic, anything we do in an online game is meaningless, making playing the game absolutely pointless. Logic would tell us that the awards give the game more MEANING, thus making the game more enjoyable for those who enjoy pursuing those goals.

You're wrong.