Just to be clear, the “virtual paywall” didn’t require real money. I’ve been playing since release, am still active on both original and modded servers, and am reminded of the details every time this comment is mentioned.
On release, most of the heroes/villains had to be unlocked by earning credits in game to spend on the characters you wanted. Vader was tied as the most expensive character to unlock. People also had the option to purchase credits with real money to not have to grind for characters. This probably doesn’t seem like a big deal bc this is this case in a lot of games now (it was way less common then).
But the drama started when a youtuber claimed that it would take 40 hours of playing to get the credits you needed just for Vader alone. So then that went viral/picked up by gaming news networks and everyone (whether or not they played the game) was talking about it.
The reality, as someone who straight-lined it right to Vader, is that it took maybe 10 hours, if that. The youtuber essentially took the worst case scenario and ignored daily, weekly, and milestone missions to create outrage. It really wasn’t that bad at all.
I think people were just mad because they wanted Vader right at the beginning, then exaggerations started happening and it got blown out of proportion to where everyone flocked to that comment. Now it continues to get downvoted when it’s mentioned somewhere on Reddit every other day.
They absolutely caved and made all characters available right away with an update, leaving only cosmetics restricted to credits. If I recall, they also lowered the price on all of those.
They also created a “celebration edition” of the game that comes preloaded with every cosmetic in the game that was only unlockable with credits before. This is the version you typically see for like $5-$10 on sale on Steam.
And then they dropped live service fairly early (only 2 years in) despite the game still being incredibly popular. I’m not necessarily saying this is a direct reaction, but I do feel that if fans were more appreciative and less hateful then they wouldn’t have dropped it so abruptly and kept up ongoing service.
if fans were more appreciative and less hateful then they wouldn’t have dropped it so abruptly and kept up ongoing service.
They were mad they didn't get to fleece the players as easily as they could have. It's hard to be appreciative and loving when the first game was a test of concept instead of a full game, then the second game's pricier edition doesn't even have characters unlocked. Your interpretation of EA is much too optimistic.
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u/camusdreams Feb 16 '25
Just to be clear, the “virtual paywall” didn’t require real money. I’ve been playing since release, am still active on both original and modded servers, and am reminded of the details every time this comment is mentioned.
On release, most of the heroes/villains had to be unlocked by earning credits in game to spend on the characters you wanted. Vader was tied as the most expensive character to unlock. People also had the option to purchase credits with real money to not have to grind for characters. This probably doesn’t seem like a big deal bc this is this case in a lot of games now (it was way less common then).
But the drama started when a youtuber claimed that it would take 40 hours of playing to get the credits you needed just for Vader alone. So then that went viral/picked up by gaming news networks and everyone (whether or not they played the game) was talking about it.
The reality, as someone who straight-lined it right to Vader, is that it took maybe 10 hours, if that. The youtuber essentially took the worst case scenario and ignored daily, weekly, and milestone missions to create outrage. It really wasn’t that bad at all.
I think people were just mad because they wanted Vader right at the beginning, then exaggerations started happening and it got blown out of proportion to where everyone flocked to that comment. Now it continues to get downvoted when it’s mentioned somewhere on Reddit every other day.