Over the past few weeks, we have seen two incredibly popular games lose a lot of goodwill from fans after some fairly short-sighted decisions that have caused outrage among players. With both Escape From Tarkov and Helldivers 2 making choices the community quickly rejected one question stands out; why didn’t they just ask what people thought before announcing each change?
Last month Escape From Tarkov developers Battlestate Games revealed the new Unheard Edition of the game, which cost a whopping $250 and included exclusive access to a PvE game mode that no one would else be able to play. It also included some in-game bonuses that gave owners a genuine advantage over those who didn’t shell out the cash. While fans were of course annoyed by the price and pay-to-win features, the big sticking point was that anyone who purchased the $150 Edge of Darkness edition was promised free access to all future DLC, but BSG was arguing this new PvE mode was not DLC but a feature.
After refusing to back down multiple times and some very poor public communications they finally relented. But the damage had been done and thousands of players have ditched Tarkov, with many moving over to Gray Zone Warfare, which was perfectly positioned to capitalise on the outrage and top the Steam charts with over half a million sales in four days.
In the world of Helldivers 2, developers Arrowhead Game Studios announced that starting next month all players on PC would have to have an active PlayStation account in order to play the game. After the successful launch, this requirement was initially waived for technical reasons but is now set to be implemented. While a lot of fans are angry because they don’t want to make a PSN account, there is a much bigger issue at play. Many players who have bought Helldivers 2 are located in countries where PSN is unavailable, and the game has now been pulled from sale in many of them. This had led to Valve seemingly offering refunds on Helldivers 2, regardless of how long you have played.
It’s safe to say that the backlash in both instances was immediate, with fans seeing the announcements and instantly rejecting them. To anyone who is playing these games, both issues were clearly poor decisions, so you have to assume that if either studio had consulted with fans beforehand all of this could have been avoided.
While you would hope that the people making these decisions would be in tune with the people playing their game and would know this would be a poor decision, in this day and age that is far from guaranteed, with financial needs or corporate pressures likely playing a factor for the people ultimately responsible. So with the people at the top not necessarily in a position to know how the community feels, it would surely be wise to ask the question.
It obviously isn’t a direct comparison as it likely wouldn’t lead to fans refusing to play the game, but indie hit Manor Lords recently asked fans how it should balance the in-game trading mechanic, which was proving to be a little too strong for some people. A simple vote on the official Discord server from solo developer Greg Styczeń resulted in the community having their say on what direction to go in, and the result was fairly unanimous.
If either the Tarkov or Helldivers 2 devs had posed a similar question about their more controversial moves, or even just asked the community representatives they already have contact with, then it would have been clear these ideas would have been rejected and they could have changed course, likely saving them a lot of trouble and money in the process.
For years I’ve been of the opinion that devs should rarely consult the average gamer when it comes to things like design decisions or balance changes as most don’t have the experience or knowledge to make informed decisions. But when it comes to issues like these that fall more outside of the design of the game, it’s become clear, very quickly, that developers need to consult with the community a lot more, otherwise, there can be some catastrophic consequences.
