The Deterioration of Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 has been one of my most played games in the part 12 months and always seems to be in the headlines with new DLC and tweaks to the gameplay.

It’s not just me that loves the game either as 15 million players are still sticking around for the war, but as is so often the case, many have cut their ties with Battlefield 3 and hitched onto the back of the next hype train.

Those players unlike me probably haven’t seen the horror that I am being faced with on a daily basis. There has become a dirty and distressing underworld to this gritty, popular videogame.

A few months ago DICE and EA introduced a new ‘rent-a-server’ option to Battlefield 3’s console experience which was intended to revolutionise the way we play. Unfortunately I have found that this once complete game has been filled with restrictions and bad balancing issues that DICE had resolved perfectly post launch.

Going into the typical standard option of a ‘Quick Match’ can now drop you into thousands of fan-run servers; many of which have very specific or aggressive rules established. These are fired at you on the loading screens but are sometimes unclear and generally create very specific advantages to the administrator’s style of play. A common example is a ban on shotguns which tends to be in place on most games where the administrators cannot compete with other players big shell approach.

The problem isn’t just in the rules of a single game as these can easily be changed on the fly without warning and cause even more issues to a player. Several times I have played through a game to find that I’ve been kick out as one of the rules has been changed to accommodate the administrators. This isn’t to say that all games are broken as some of the new enforcements are small changes that myself and others perceive as a positive; things like ‘no spawn camping’.

The bigger changes like ‘no shotguns’ and ‘no anti-air’ are just as common though and these rules specifically alter the balance of the game itself. Most of the changes are detrimental to the well created original rules. Many of the servers run on tickets (the Battlefield 3 respawn counter) that have been pushed up to and over 300% of the standard listing a map was designed for. In rush matches  for example the defending team are up against almost impossible odds and only a few defensive wins are ever achieved.  This gives you the impression that you are playing as a campaign grunt instead of a soldier as the hopeless odds make success almost impossible.

These new ‘Rent-a-server’ administrators are often (but not always) run by mini-satan’s that will almost always kick and ban players that don’t conform to their very specific rule sets. Usually this is to stop anyone half decent playing in their games and decreases their challenge with a lack of worthy competitors.

I almost always get kicked at least once when running through the different servers and I’m not even very good at the game itself. I try to revive everyone and overall play a very hapless medic. When I can - I run around like a headless chicken with my shotgun under one arm and my medi-kits under the other.

I have even seen servers quoting that only admin can use shotguns or play around with air-vehicles. I understand that people want to play a very specific type of dogfight in some cases but set up a friends only game; don’t let us join a game if we can’t even play it properly.

A recent game I played with a friend saw him getting kicked for running too many multi-kills on the administrators. He has a distinct hatred for reducing the use of shotguns but is pretty proficient playing any style in game. As such he took it upon himself to constantly track the administrators in game and attempted to kill them in a host of embarrassing ways. Following a remarkable streak of 50+ kills to around 9 deaths the administrators saw his potential before kicking and banning him before he could make them look any worse. It’s exasperating to put in 40 minutes of hard work only to be kicked from a game and end up with nothing.

The Battlelog forums have therefore been inundated with people complaining about these poorly created matches and in some cases player even consider it a badge of honour to be kicked for playing well.

Of course you can avoid the ‘Quick Match’ option completely but running through the server log gives barely any indication of whether you’ll fair better. Many of these look innocent until you get kicked and banned all over again. It’s almost next to impossible to find an original DICE server too as many of the rented options have included their tags in the title in order to boost their join levels.

The positive side of the coin is the band of brother’s effect that has started to run with those of us suppressive a distinct hatred for these poorly designed matches. The players with god-like skills have taken to showing up the admin in their own way but exploiting the match types themselves.

So whether you play a ‘Quick Match’ or search the servers the case is the same. You always run the 50/50 gauntlet of finding a tyrant or a great administrator. The problem is that the more times you get kicked the more you feel like buying your own server and creating your own game – and then the cycle continues.