There’s a weird trend in videogames where, if things are not going well for a developer, they’ll attempt to appease the player-base with a shower of virtual items and gifts. Battlefield 4 already tried it a few weeks after launch with an apology week in which players could earn double experience points. They were rightly laughed out of the room, because the game was still so glitchy that “a bit more XP” wasn’t really cutting it as a solution.
Well, now they’re trying again. This time ‘Player Appreciation’ is extended to a whole month and, again, you’ll be able to … err .. get double XP. Well, okay, let’s be fair, DICE is giving away a few more things too. Every day that players log on during February (oh god please log on and keep playing our game,) they’ll receive either a bronze or silver battlepack. Two free “shortcut bundles” will be available during the month too, to “help you catch up with players who have been on the Battlefield since launch.” That’ll please the people who’ve been slogging away at Battlefield 4 since the beginning, I’m sure.
Community missions and DICE developer talks (in which players will be able to ask certain members of the development team questions about the game) will be included too.
In terms of changes to stability, the same blog post says that the team is improving Battlefield 4’s netcode (kind of vague, but there you go) and that “Platoons” will be re-introduced to the game in February.
Battlefield 4 players, does this make up for the state the game launched in? Or for EA paying off YouTube channels to say how great the game was prior to launch?