It’s basically the same as what happened with specialists. Everyone criticized the BF2042 specialist concept from the start, as early as closed pre-alpha feedback sessions. Yet, they ignored it and pushed through because the game designers in all their wisdom decided that this was what the community wants.
We all know what happened next, all the backlash and the immensely reluctant half-baked reintroduction of classes.
Now we are back with the same situation. “We listened, we are bringing back classes and getting rid of specialists“. Then in all their wisdom some game designers decided that what we want is open weapons, which in turn completely undermines the classes concept again. But because they think they know best what we want, they are jumping through hoops to validate their decision and try to make it our decision.
This is the whole Specialists debacle all over again. I guess we’ll just have to see where we end up this time around.
This is the whole Specialists debacle all over again. I guess we’ll just have to see where we end up this time around.
What's worse about it this time is that with the specialist system they designed for BF2042 I can imagine it was hard to throw the game around in a different direction after the criticism, as it would mean the whole design philosophy would have to be turned around and basically the game had to be rebuild from scratch.
However with open vs closed weapons this is not the case, as they have proven themselves by making both options available during Beta, and it also being a mutator in Portal. It literally seems a flick of a switch
At the core of this drama, it's not about the choice they made, but how they went about it.
I partially agree to this. I still believe closed weapons is the better in the long run so I'm happy that they will offer closed weapons playlists at launch, if I eventually buy the game I will spend my time there. I also think it's good they offer both open and closed so everybody is happy.
The part I agree on is how they went about it; Trying to sell their narrative based on undisclosed data that was gathered in a way that seems biased. I agree with TO's points below.
"The deck was stacked against Closed Weapons from the start.
For example:
-Open Weapons was presented as the default, "normal" Battlefield 6 mode, while "Closed Weapons" was labeled like an alternate: It wasn't called "Open Weapons Conquest," just "Conquest"
- For the first few days of the beta, the Closed Weapons playlist was shoved off-screen from the main menu, requiring an unpleasant horizontal scroll to find it
- DICE did not support Closed Weapons versions of all its modes in the beta, so if you wanted to play Rush, for instance, you had to stick to Open Weapons".
It's the last one that really concerns me. We only know they will offer closed weapons playlists at launch as taken from their Community Update below
At the same time, we recognize that some players prefer the Closed Weapons experience. To support them, official Closed Weapons playlists will be available at launch.
The question is which playlists will be available and for how long? Will all game modes be available in both an open AND closed weapons system?
At launch the population will be big enough to keep multiple playslists populated, but what's going to happen in say 6 months when the hype of the launch has died?
I fear we will eventually see the Battlefield 2042 model of rotating playlists being reimplemented, or game modes/playlists being burried so deep in the menu's that they won't ever fill up. The only solution would be to make all modes and variations a 1-player to start, but I doubt they ever will implement that.
And one final thing "some players prefer the Closed Weapons experience"? It's statements like these that makes me question how they went about it? Quantify some, as I did a poll inside a Battlefield community asking what players would prefer, closed or open weapons, and the endresult after 295 votes was 72.9% in favor of closed weapons. And although I realize my data may be biased as well as I specifically targeted (I assume) traditional Battlefield players, at least it's visible data. Contrary to the vague claims based on undisclosed data from the Battlefield Studios.
I've been part of both Alpha and Beta and always filled the surveys afterwards, and these surveys were never designed in a way that would allow this easy type of data collection like asking questions as simple as I did in my poll.
However with open vs closed weapons this is not the case, as they have proven themselves by making both options available during Beta, and it also being a mutator in Portal. It literally seems a flick of a switch
It is hard to compete with the official experiences. Maybe at the end of life like with the current BF4 servers.
And due to the fact that they are so insecure to ditch closed weapons for good, I think THEY MUST KNOW and could attest that closed weapons is the favorite and best choice, as the data already showed, they just spun the narrative their way.
Watch for eventual unannounced highlighted closed playlists on the main menu increasing in frequency, slowly and silently becoming official by season two because they are not humble enough to admit the FUP.
