EA's infamous defense of Battlefront 2's awful grind wins a Guinness World Record

[Shakerovic]

Back in 2017, some poor community manager at EA waded into the exploding controversy on Reddit surrounding Star Wars Battlefront 2's lootboxes. It might've seemed like a sensible move at the time, but that now-infamous comment quickly drew the ire of gamers from every corner of the internet, collecting an astonishing 667,821 downvotes (and, somehow, 109 Reddit Gold awards). Now that oopsie is forever immortalized on your nephew's bookshelf in the form of a Guinness World Record 2020 award for most downvoted Reddit comment.

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if you missed the controversy when it was erupting in 2017, the issue was over Battlefront 2's contentious progression system that forced players to grind relentlessly to unlock notable heroes like Darth Vader for use in-game.
As the issue boiled over, EA's community team began making statements explaining their motives, each one often gathering tens of thousands of downvotes. But when it said that grinding for heroes was meant to instill "a sense of pride and accomplishment" in players, shit really hit the fan and the comment was downvoted into oblivion.

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https://www.pcgamer.com/eas-infamou...-record-for-most-downvoted-comment-on-reddit/

 

[Dixie Flatline]

Now EA has a sense of pride and accomplishment.

 

[Amauri14]

That's hilarious!

 

[Quinton]

Now EA has a sense of pride and accomplishment.

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And we're done

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

the actual comment:

The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.
As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we're looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we'll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay.
We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets.
Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can.

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[Sincerest]

Now EA has a sense of pride and accomplishment.

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[data west]

From the creators of 'surprise mechanics'

 

[Deleted member 23212]

Has anything even come close to that number of downvotes? Also, the reason it was gilded so many times was because that'd prevent the post from being automatically hidden.

 

[Decarb]

Has anything even come close to that number of downvotes? Also, the reason it was gilded so many times was because that'd prevent the post from being automatically hidden.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/ListOfComments/wiki/downvoted

Not even in the same ballpark.

 

[Dusktildawn48]

I'm so amused by this everytime I see it pop up. Fucking EA.

 

[emir]

Surprise Mechanics works.

 

[Ambient]

There will probably never be a Battlefront 3.

 

[Moist_Owlet]

It's remarkable how badly EA fucked this. Almost like some kind of performance art.

 

[scitek]

Think this goes on that Community Manager's resume?

 

[Scuffed]

The fact that these systems made it to release really speaks a lot to the sinister nature of Dice and EA. Sure the game is a very different thing now but they had no choice after being humiliated so badly.

 

[SJRB]

Yeah that was a wild ride.

Glad it gets the accomplishment it deserves.

 

[MrDaravon]

The game is significantly better and different now, and I'll defend a lot of things about it, but this is still hilarious.

I guess I am kind of surprised that this is still #1 by such a wide margin though? For as bullshit as it was, it was a comment by a publisher about a videogame, I would have guessed (hoped?) that something a bit more legitimately vile would have the top spot.

 

[Raijinto]

I remember when it was happening in real time. I think it was clear early on that it would eventually reach this milestone, it went viral very quickly.

 

[LetalisAmare]

Now EA has a sense of pride and accomplishment.

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Close the thread. It gets no better than this.

 

[Big_Erk]

From the creators of 'surprise mechanics'

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[Miles Davis]

Never trust these people. Ever.

 

[Falchion]

EA is winning all kinds of awards they don't want.

 

[UraMallas]

we did it fam

 

[slothrop]

Guinness World Records are kind of a sham nowadays. Most of them are just absurdly specific categories that they pop out at random to get press cycles. It used to be primarily about odd and obscure feats, now it's like they find a notable thing and work backwards to fit it into a record rather than the other way around.

 

[Razorrin]

we did it fam

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Yeah, that'll teach people not to judge redditors like they are any worse then any other online community in this post twitter world, and therefore unable to recognize and come together to publicly shame a company for trying to bullshit it's consumers like they have no brains at all!

I honestly think this event should be enshrined as a example of solidarity, the way a community made up of disparate and different members can all come together as a whole to press a button saying something sucks, or to be more charitable, to express the rejection of a much more powerful group's attempt to lie and control them.

Way to go, Reddit! Fight the power!

No sarcasm, I think it's simultaneously not impressive and very inspiring, and the right lessons should be learned and preserved from this event, and This helps.