author: Krzysiek Kalwasinski
8 Times When Developers Should Have Bit Their Tongue
Game developers are, of course, also humans. That's why strange statements and all sorts of slip-ups happen to them too. Especially when they feel defensive. We have aggregated a list of instances when they definitely said too much.
Table of Contents
- 8 Times When Developers Should Have Bit Their Tongue
- "I think that [single-player] model is finished"
- "You think you do, but you don't"
- "Do you guys not have phones?"
- "It just works"
- "Sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes”
- “We don't call them lootboxes. We look [at them] as surprise mechanics”
- "Gamers are the worst f***ing people."
"Sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes”
- Who said it? Electronic Arts representative.
- Where and when? Reddit, September 2019.
EA doesn't have it easy. This is by far one of the most hated gaming companies. It intensified after the release of Star Wars Battlefront 2, which was full of insistent microtransactions affecting the quality of the game. It was sold at premium price and at the same time employed pay-to-win mechanics. That meant you had to work extra hard for stuff that other people just purchased, and that gave them a clear edge. This applies to, for example, the iconic characters from the Star Wars universe.
The audience did not like all this even one bit. The situation was exacerbated by a comment from one of EA's representatives on Reddit. There, we could read that the goal was to "provide players with sense of pride and accomplishment" for unlocking new heroes. The translation was absurd, because you could buy heroes, which for many was tempting. It's not surprising that the statement got so many down votes. Currently, it holds a record number of almost 668k negative reactions.
This tarnishing distinction was even commemorated in the Guinness Book of Records (2020 edition). The only good that came out of this was the fact that the company eventually came to their senses and changed the lootboxes mechanics. In the final version, you can only buy cosmetic items through them, without affecting the balance of the game.