A Payday That Is Overkill
Good-natured ribbing aside, let's jump right into it. From late September to early October, Overkill, the developers of Payday 2, ran an event called "The Road to Crimefest." It consisted of a series of in-game challenges for the community to complete, which would translate to free in-game content rewards once Crimefest actually began. Crimefest, for those that don't know, is Overkill's yearly celebration of the Payday 2 community, and their dedication to the game. Supposedly.
On day one of Crimefest, Overkill introduced micro-transactions to Payday 2, in the form of weapon skins that need to be obtained by receiving a "Safe" during the end of mission loot drops, and buying "Drills" for $2.50 in order to unlock them. SOME of the skins provide stat boosts to weapons. Weapons that you may not even own if you haven't purchased the appropriate DLC. In addition, Overkill released a "balance" patch which gimped a lot of the weapons so that they wouldn't be as effective without their skins. There are several issues with this. Two years ago, Almir, the producer for Overkill, on the official Steam forums, said the following: "We've made it clear that Payday 2 will have no micro-transactions whatsoever (shame on you if you thought otherwise!)" These micro-transactions are also added on top of a price tag for the base game and a two year supply of paid DLC.
This infuriated the community. Throughout the rest of Crimefest, Overkill maintained near radio-silence on the matter, as Payday 2's score on both Steam and Metacritic dropped drastically. It currently sits at a 77% approval on Steam, down from 93% when the event began. That happened in just over a week, and there are over 150K reviews. On Metacritic, the user score sits at an abysmal 3.8. Overkill lazily attempted to appease the community by allowing drills to also drop as loot, although the community has suggested they are infamy level items, meaning they have an extraordinarily low drop chance (this is unconfirmed). Beyond that, they issued a message stating the matter would be addressed at the conclusion of Crimefest.
The rest of Crimefest was sub-par. Changes that should be included in any standard patch were at the core of several of the "free content updates." The last day even included a freaking jump animation as one of its highlights. To be fair, they did also introduce new masks, achievements, a LMG with a bipod that works some of the time, and a new heist that is a remake from the original Payday. Still, everyone continued to be up in arms about the Micro-Transactions. So, illustrating a sense of poor judgement, Almir did an AMA two days ago, and did absolutely nothing to make this situation better (in my opinion). His explanations for the micro-transactions basically amounted to "We didn't plan to have them before, now we do. They're making us money, so I don't understand why everyone is upset."
The disconnect between him and the community is astounding. He provided explanations for why a group is still "resisting" (yes he used that word) the micro-transactions. He blamed click-bait journalism. He said that the skins would not make the game pay to win, despite the fact that people were already known to kick squad members from heists if their equipment/skills weren't up to snuff. He even mentioned that the team has expanded over the past year and they needed extra income to pay everyone, despite the success of both Payday 2 and it's extensive collection of paid DLC. Basically, the backlash from this situation is everyone's fault but his. I uninstalled as soon as I finished reading the AMA.
Waaaaaghhh...Wait, What?
My second piece of selfish decision-making resides with Sega and Creative Assembly. I love the Total War franchise. For years, I talked about how the Warhammer fantasy setting would make for a spectacular Total War game. Then, Total War: Warhammer was announced earlier this year and it seemed as though all my gaming dreams were coming true. I was ecstatic when I clicked on an article last week that was going to provide me with a release date for one of my most anticipated titles. I even rubbed my hands together gleefully when I saw that Chaos was going to be available as fifth playable faction upon launch, on top of the four previously announced factions. Imagine my surprise when I saw that the fifth faction, despite being available upon launch, will only be playable if you pre-order the game or buy the faction as DLC after launch.
Despite arguments to the contrary, this is, by definition, cutting something out of the game in order to push pre-orders and day one DLC purchases. The content will be finished upon launch. They already released a trailer for this content, six months ahead of launch. They planned this. They didn't do this to surprise the community with something "extra." They are literally holding the playability of a core race ransom in order to push pre-orders, and that is disgusting. Some have pointed out that the player will still be able to encounter and battle Chaos, even if they do not own the DLC, but does that really make things better? All it is, is a reminder that you didn't pre-order, or haven't purchased the DLC yet. Angry Joe has railed against this situation, and Jim Sterling also wrote about it on his website.
Closing Thoughts
I have no problem whatsoever buying post-launch DLC. I bought most of Payday 2's post-launch content until this most recent debacle. My issue is with exploitative and greedy practices that are designed to make people feel like second-class players in an attempt to to squeeze more money out of them. Micro-transactions, pre-order "bonuses," and all of these underhanded methods need to end. Stop giving me an incomplete experience. If I pay for a game, I expect that game. Not most of that game. Not the core experience of that game. I want that game.
