Consumers exercise their power for good
After a contentious back-and-forth between French publisher Ubisoft and players of their fighting game For Honor, gamers have resorted to the only thing publishers seem to listen to nowadays: RAGE! And it worked!
On a post in the For Honor subreddit, redditor Jbaayoun proposed a boycott of the game. The boycott consisted of a 24-hour blackout beginning on April 3rd. Players were urged not to play the game for that period as a form of protest. A list of requests the gamers wanted Ubisoft to take into consideration regarding the game. In response to the threat, Ubisoft rushed to update the game and promised to keep the player base apprised of further changes.
The protest was in response to negative reaction to Ubisoft’s fighting game. Since its launch, For Honor has been beset by numerous issues. Chief among them at launch were connectivity issues for multiplayer, imbalance among heroes, and strange combat glitches. Rather than communicate with the gaming public, Ubisoft stayed rather uncommunicative.
Things got more interesting after Ubisoft implemented microtransactions in the game after launch. This is nothing new for Ubisoft; all of their recent games are lousy with microtransactions. These microtransactions, however, did not sit well with the gaming populace.
The economy in for Honor revolves around steel. The majority of microtransactions require steel to unlock. Small amounts of steel can be earned in-game by finishing matches and completing daily objectives. Of course, steel can also be purchased in the microtransactions store for real-world cash. I personally hate the practice but recognize that some players may want to buy them as a time saver.
Gamers began to complain, however, when redditor Bystander007 grabbed his trusty calculator, did some number crunching, and calculated that unlocking all of the microtransactions would either cost $732 or take 2 ½ YEARS of grinding. This sent For Honor gamers into a tizzy, claiming (rightfully) that the economy was biased against them. In order to obtain everything possible without emptying their wallets, they would have to basically dedicate their lives to nothing but playing For Honor. Well, maybe they could take a bathroom break.
Ubisoft’s response to the player outrage was, in my opinion, typical Ubisoft hand-waving. In a livestream video, For Honor director Damien Kieken stated that he thought the idea of unlocking everything was not what they had planned.
“We never had an intention for you to unlock everything in the game,” Kieken stated. “That doesn’t really make any sense. It’s like in an RPG, in World of Warcraft, you would never try to unlock everything for all the characters. Same thing in any MOBA, you’re not trying to unlock all the content for all the heroes.”
After that statement, rage among the player base reached the point where they felt the time for talk had passed. A thread was started by Jbaayoun proposing the blackout.
“I personally find no use in spamming Reddit with the same issues,” Jbaayoun told Kotaku writer Cecilia D’Anastasio via e-mail. “It’s very redundant and Ubisoft is already aware of the problems we are having.”
Among the requests laid forth by Jbaayoun was a desire for better communicate from Ubisoft, a revamp of the steel economy, and a resolution to the game’s matchmaking issues.
Yesterday afternoon, Ubisoft responded. An update increased the amount of steel earned in-game by 25 percent. In addition, the River Fort map, which Ubisoft removed earlier this month and resulted in fan backlash, was restored. They also added 12 new outfits for the heroes. Finally, the For Honor dev team detailed more updates in a livestream today.
While this action by Ubisoft has not satisfied everyone, the fact that Ubisoft has responded at all is welcome. Hopefully, this will lead to better dialogue between Ubisoft and For Honor’s player base. Many gamers, including Digital Crack podcast host Luis, stand by the game despite its current flaws. Although I am not playing the game, I am very pleased Ubisoft is listening to gamers. It shouldn’t have taken a threat of a boycott to get them to listen, but knowing that gamers will resort to extreme measures should give them pause. Here’s to hoping Ubisoft learns from this.
