为什么您仍然不应该购买《星球大战：前线II》

If you’ve been following video game news at all for the last couple of weeks, you’ve probably heard that EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront II is having some teething troubles. EA has backpedaled to avoid more controversy, but we’re here to say: don’t fall for it.

如果您在过去几周内一直在关注视频游戏新闻，那么您可能听说过EA的《星球大战：前线II》遇到了麻烦。 EA已经退缩以避免更多争议，但我们在这里要说的是：不要屈服。

《战地风云II 》的原始问题 (The Original Problem with Battlefront II)

It’s technically out today in most markets, a short open beta and a pre-play period for EA Access subscribers have exposed extremely troubling parts of the game’s core structure. Namely, it seems to be almost entirely built around microtransactions (in-app purchases, mini-DLC, “player recurring investment,” and so on), driving players to spend more real-world cash to get an advantage over their opponents. You don’t have to pay to play, but you do have to pay to win.

从技术上讲，今天在大多数市场上都是如此，EA Access订户的简短公开测试版和试玩期已经暴露了游戏核心结构中极为麻烦的部分。也就是说，它似乎几乎完全围绕微交易(应用程序内购买，迷你DLC，“玩家经常性投资”等)构建，从而驱使玩家花费更多的现实现金来获得优于对手的优势。您不必花钱玩，但您必须花钱才能赢。

Of course, you don’t have to pay to get that advantage. You could just play the game for free, hoping to earn those rewards eventually. But after early players crunched the numbers and realized it would take about forty hours of play to unlock iconic characters like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, gamers revolted. EA relented, chopping the time it would take to earn those heroes by 75%…but also reducing the rewards for completing the single-player campaign by an equal amount. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

当然，您不必为获得这种优势而付费。您可以免费玩游戏，希望最终获得这些奖励。但是，在早期的玩家整理好数字并意识到要解锁Luke Skywalker和Darth Vader等标志性角色大约需要40个小时的游戏之后，游戏玩家反叛了。 EA放松了，将获得这些英雄所需的时间减少了75％……但同时也使完成单人战役的奖励减少了相同数量。一六个，另一个六个。

The slow progression wasn’t the only problem. Because a lot of the rewards are hidden in randomized loot boxes, you’d have to pay thousands of dollars or play thousands of hours to unlock all the content. Blocks in the arcade mode meant players could only earn a limited amount of the in-game currency per day. And of course, spending more money on loot boxes means immediate, semi-exclusive advantages over others in multiplayer.

进展缓慢不是唯一的问题。因为很多奖励都隐藏在随机的战利品盒中，所以您必须支付数千美元或参与其中 数千小时来解锁所有内容。街机模式中的方块表示每天玩家只能赚取有限数量的游戏内货币。当然，在战利品盒上花费更多的钱意味着在多人游戏中比其他游戏有直接，半排他的优势。

All of these ideas and structures are borrowed from free-to-play and mobile games, and they’re disheartening and insulting to see from one of the biggest games of the year from the world’s biggest gaming software company. They’re hardly surprising, though. With 2017 filled with loot box and microtransaction controversy (see Shadow of War, Destiny 2, Call of Duty: WWII, and more or less every licensed pro sports game), the much-anticipated Star Wars game seems to be the straw that broke the gamer’s back.

所有这些想法和结构都是从免费游戏和手机游戏中借用的，它们令人沮丧和侮辱，因为它是来自世界最大游戏软件公司的年度最大游戏之一。不过，这并不奇怪。 2017年充满了战利品盒子和微交易争议(请参阅《战争阴影》，《命运2》，《使命召唤》：第二次世界大战以及几乎每种已授权的职业体育游戏)，备受期待的《星球大战》游戏似乎是打破僵局的稻草。玩家的背部。

EA如何“解决”问题 (How EA “Fixed” the Problem)

Rejoice, ye multiplayer masses, for EA hath seen your affliction and given heed to your cry. Yesterday afternoon, Battlefront II developer DICE (a wholly-owned EA subsidiary) posted the following message, claiming that the game will “turn off all in-game purchases.”

多人游戏玩家欢呼雀跃，因为EA看到了您的痛苦，并留意了您的哭声。昨天下午， Battlefront II开发者DICE(EA的全资子公司)发布了以下消息，称该游戏将“关闭所有游戏内购买”。

…for now. The reprieve from a system tuned and tortured to not-quite-force microtransactions is temporary: the developer didn’t even wait until the end of the paragraph to make sure gamers know that the in-game purchases will be coming back sometime after today’s launch.

…目前。从经过微调和折磨为非强制微交易的系统中获得的延缓是暂时的：开发人员甚至没有等到本段的结尾，以确保游戏玩家知道在今天的发布之后的某个时间，游戏中的购买将会回来。

Look, I really hate to rely on Internet memes to make my point, but never was there a more appropriate time for its use:

看，我真的很讨厌依靠网络模因来表达我的观点，但是从来没有比现在更合适的时间使用它了：

Why should you stay away from Battlefront II? Oh, let me count the reasons.

为什么要远离Battlefront II ？哦，让我数一数原因。

EA立即购买 (EA Wants Your Purchase Now)

The first few weeks of a game’s availability are the most crucial in terms of sales. Just like Hollywood movies, game purchases and revenue tend to taper off after a month or so. That’s why publishers have been so eager to push pre-order bonuses and special editions, even at a time when more and more gamers are downloading digital copies of games. A pre-order is money in the bank.

就销量而言，游戏上市的前几周至关重要。就像好莱坞电影一样，游戏购买和收入往往会在一个月左右后逐渐减少。这就是为什么即使在越来越多的游戏玩家正在下载游戏数字副本的时候，发行商也如此渴望推出预购奖金和特别版的原因。预购是银行中的钱。

So if you’ll allow me to be cynical—and I think cynicism is warranted here—EA is going to say more or less anything to make sure Battlefront II as a success at launch. Microtransactions are now worth billions in annual revenue, sometimes more than the profit from conventional sales. The threatened boycott of the game is unlikely, but if it succeeds and (even worse) gets enough mainstream press, EA’s investors will begin to take notice. Wall Street types might not give two rancor turds about the integrity of the gaming medium, but if they see gamers jumping ship en masse, they’ll probably make their displeasure known in monetary terms.

因此，如果您允许我表现出愤世嫉俗的态度(我认为在这里应该表现出愤世嫉俗的话)，EA会或多或少说些什么来确保《战地风云II》在发行时获得成功。现在，微交易的年收入达数十亿美元，有时甚至超过传统销售的利润。威胁抵制该游戏的可能性不大，但如果成功，并且(甚至更糟)得到足够的主流媒体的关注，EA的投资者将开始注意到这一点。华尔街类型可能不会给游戏媒介的完整性带来两个麻烦，但是如果他们看到游戏者大批跳船，他们可能会以金钱来表达他们的不满。

And investors aren’t the only ones who need to be wary. Remember, the Star Wars license is a license, ultimately owned and controlled by Disney. Star Wars fans were already less than thrilled to learn that the well-regarded LucasArts game studio was shuttered in favor of an exclusive deal with EA, killing off the much-anticipated Star Wars 1313 project. EA already released the arguably half-finished Battlefront two years ago and shuttered Visceral Studios (developers of the Dead Space games), effectively cancelling another single-player Star Wars project. If the Mousefather gets the impression that EA isn’t the best home for its intellectual property and moves it somewhere else, the publisher’s bottom line could take a massive hit. The widespread negative press and a Twitter campaign around the hashtag “#gambling” specifically targeting Disney may have factored into EA’s decision to freeze in-app purchases temporarily.

而且，投资者并不是唯一需要警惕的人。请记住，《星球大战》牌照是迪士尼最终拥有和控制的牌照。得知备受赞誉的LucasArts游戏工作室因与EA达成独家协议而被关闭而取消了备受期待的《星球大战1313》项目，《星球大战》的粉丝们已经不禁激动。 EA在两年前已经发布了可以说是半成品的《战地风云》，并关闭了Visceral Studios(《死亡空间》游戏的开发商)，实际上取消了另一个单人游戏《星球大战》 。如果Mousefather认为EA并不是其知识产权的最佳来源，并将其转移到其他地方，则出版商的底线可能会遭受重大打击。广泛的负面新闻和专门针对迪士尼的主题标签“ #gambling ”的Twitter运动可能是EA决定暂时冻结应用内购买的原因。

…以及以后更多的钱 (…and More of Your Money Later)

DICE has essentially promised that the current microtransaction system for Battlefront II is coming back in some form. It’s hardly unprecedented. Major PC and console games have been adding microtransactions post-launch for a while now, even when their publishers or developers have promised not to: see PayDay 2, The Division, and Bethesda’s new “mini DLC” Creation Club for Skyrim and Fallout 4.

DICE实质上已承诺，当前用于Battlefront II的微交易系统将以某种形式返回。这并非史无前例。大型PC和主机游戏已经在发布后的一段时间内添加了微交易，即使它们的发行商或开发商已承诺不这样做：请参见PayDay 2 ， The Division和Bethesda的新的“迷你DLC” Skyrim和Fallout 4创作俱乐部。

And this is a bigger problem than it may seem at launch. While the games above were generally made on a conventional manner with microtransactions bolted on afterward, that’s not the case with Battlefront II. Based on early player experiences and the critical reviews that are coming in even as I write this article, EA and DICE rebuilt 2015’s Battlefront from the ground up to invite and encourage players to spend more real money at every turn. Here are a few relevant snippets from Hayden Dingman’s review on PC Gamer:

这是一个比发布时看起来更大的问题。虽然上面的游戏通常是按照常规方式制作的，然后再加上微交易，但《战地风云II》却不是这样。根据我早期的玩家经验以及我撰写本文时所进行的严格评论，EA和DICE从头开始重建了2015年的《战地风云》，以邀请并鼓励玩家动turn动用更多的真钱。以下是Hayden Dingman对PC Gamer的评论中的一些相关摘要：

Which I guess brings us to the dumpster fire in the room…Instead of your progress in the game being tied to completing a match, it’s instead tied to loot boxes and the “Star Cards” contained therein.

我猜是把我们带到了房间的垃圾箱里。。。与其说您在游戏中的进步与完成一场比赛无关，不如说是它与战利品盒和其中包含的“星卡”联系在一起。

…I hate literally everything about it. It’s no fun to dig through menus to equip a bunch of similar-sounding bonuses to each class. It’s no fun to die and see the person you died to had three top-tier cards slotted and you had none. It’s no fun to open a loot box and get five trash items for classes you don’t play or, worse, heroes you haven’t even unlocked yet. It’s no fun to manage “Crafting Parts,” an entirely separate currency you get primarily from loot boxes and use to upgrade your cards to better versions.

……我讨厌这一切。翻阅菜单为每个班级配备一堆听起来相近的奖金并不是一件有趣的事情。 死去，看到死去的人插了三张顶级卡，却一无所有，这没什么好玩的。打开一个战利品箱并为您不上课的班级弄五个垃圾桶，或者更糟糕的是，您还没有解锁的英雄，这没什么好玩的。管理“Craft.io零件”(一种主要从战利品箱中获得的，完全用于将您的卡升级到更好版本的货币)完全没有意思。

It. Sucks. And I don’t think EA can fix it.
它。糟透了而且我认为EA无法解决该问题。

The simple and sad truth is that Battlefront II is not a conventional AAA release. It’s basically a mobile game, with the development investment and full price of a boxed PC and console game. It is designed and intended to be a continual source of money for EA, siphoning purchases off of players who desperately want to win its multiplayer mode. It’s Clash of Clans with an eight-figure budget.

简单而可悲的事实是， Battlefront II不是常规的AAA版本。它基本上是一款手机游戏，具有盒装PC和主机游戏的开发投资和全价。它的设计旨在使之成为EA的持续资金来源，从而吸引那些渴望赢得其多人游戏模式的玩家。预算为八位数的《部落冲突》 。

EA has paused its money-making scheme for the moment, but it will be back—the core structure of the game would have to be entirely remade to avoid it. And since the randomized advantages inherent in that structure rely on psychological manipulation and casino-style “whale” customers to be effective, EA almost has to bring back a system that rewards players who pay and punishes those who don’t.

EA目前暂时暂停了其赚钱计划，但它会回来的-游戏的核心结构必须完全重新设计才能避免。而且，由于该结构固有的随机优势依赖于心理操纵和赌场风格的“鲸鱼”客户才能发挥作用，因此EA几乎必须恢复一种奖励付费玩家并惩罚不付费玩家的系统。

该游戏需要失败 (This Game Needs to Fail)

EA’s surprisingly contrite attitude towards its ever-advancing microtransaction push will only last as long as players stay angry. If the game launches without any kind of noticeable sales slump, then microtransactions will return and make as much money as they’ve been making (read: hundreds of millions of dollars on a single title), then this will all be for naught.

EA不断发展的微交易推动力令人惊讶地t悔，这种态度只有在玩家保持生气的情况下才能持续。如果游戏在没有任何明显销售下滑的情况下启动，那么微交易将返回并赚取与他们已经赚到的钱一样多的钱(阅读：一个标题上的亿万美元)，那么这一切都是徒劳的。

The public has a short memory for outrage, and next week some other company will certainly pull some anti-consumer stunt that will blessedly take some heat off EA and DICE. It’s only the steady stream of in-depth analysis of Battlefront II, enabled by the preview period on EA Access, that kept such a large amount of attention on it for a solid week. (You can bet your battlecruiser that the next major release from EA won’t have that option.) For example, Take-Two’s CEO said last week that microtransactions will be in every single game the company makes and see you’re already clicking on that story instead of finishing this one.

公众对于愤怒的记忆很短，下周其他公司肯定会撤消一些反消费者的unt头，这将使EA和DICE受益匪浅。在EA Access的预览期间，只有对Battlefront II进行深入分析的源源不断，如此之高的关注度使它持续了整整一周。 (您可以打赌，EA的下一个主要版本将没有这种选择。)例如，Take-Two的首席执行官上周表示，微交易将出现在公司制作的每款游戏中，并且您已经点击了这个故事，而不是完成这个故事。

EA is watching, and so is every other publisher that sees dollar signs whenever they use the phrase “recurrent consumer spending opportunities.” Battlefront II is now more than just one of the big-budget titles set for a winter release, it’s become a symbol of every method the gaming industry is using to actively screw over those players who are still willing to buy full-priced games. Even if you think that the controversy is overblown (and it isn’t), if the game goes on to be a sales success it will postpone the inevitable and very necessary clash of creator and consumer.

EA一直在关注，每当其他出版商使用“经常性的消费者支出机会”这一短语时，他们都会看到美元符号。现在， 《战地风云II》已不仅仅是发行冬季大预算的游戏之一，它已成为游戏行业用来积极操纵仍愿意购买全价游戏的玩家的每种方法的象征。即使您认为争议过大(事实并非如此)，但如果游戏继续取得销售成功，它将推迟创作者和消费者之间不可避免的，非常必要的冲突。

Pardon me for the dramatic imagery, but Battlefront II needs to be a line in the sand. Gamers, especially gamers who buy the big, flashy titles at the top of major publishers’ catalogs, need to stop accepting the encroachment of free-to-play structures in premium games as a matter of course.

请原谅我的生动影像，但《战地风云II》需要像沙子一样排成一线。当然，游戏玩家，尤其是在主要发行商的目录榜首购买大而豪华的游戏的玩家，当然需要停止接受免费游戏对高级游戏的侵犯。

Oh, and by the way, you can return games on Origin for up to twenty-four hours after purchase.

哦，顺便说一句，购买后，您最多可以在Origin上退还游戏24个小时。

还有其他游戏 (There Are Other Games to Play)

I get it: the allure of multiplayer combat with the characters you love from Star Wars flicks old and new is hard to resist. But according to the first batch of gaming press reviews for Battlefront II, the game is only “pretty good” at best. The new multiplayer battle progression system is unbalanced (even without the pay-to-win elements), the much anticipated single-player mode is short and uninteresting, and big chunks of both modes are off-limits at launch to build up hype for Star Wars: The Last Jedi in December.

我明白了：《星际大战》中喜欢的人物与多人战斗的魅力，无论新老电影都难以抗拒。但是根据《战地风云II》的第一批游戏新闻评论，该游戏充其量只是“相当不错”。新的多人战斗进程系统是不平衡的(即使没有报酬，以诚取胜元素)，万众期待的单人游戏模式是短而索然无味，而这两种模式的大块是禁地在启动建立炒作之星战争：十二月的最后的绝地武士。

I’d be lying if I told you the game isn’t fun. Its authentic Star Wars sights and sounds are digital crack for fans of the series, and there’s an adrenaline-fueled chaos to any multiplayer shooter with dozens of real humans to shoot at on either side. But at the end of the day, this isn’t one of those transcendent experiences that every gamer needs to try at least once. It’s a Battlefront game. EA released one two years ago, and they’ll probably release another one two years from now.

如果我告诉你游戏不好玩，我会撒谎。其真实的《星球大战》的视线和声音对于该系列的粉丝来说是数字裂缝，任何多人射击游戏都充满肾上腺素的混乱，两边都有数十名真实的人可以射击。但是，归根结底，这并不是每个游戏玩家都必须至少尝试一次的超越体验之一。这是一个前线游戏。 EA在两年前发布了，他们大概会在两年后发布。

*Titanfall 2* is still great, and now it’s dirt cheap, too!*Titanfall 2*仍然很棒，现在也很便宜！

Just sticking to major AAA releases, you can get that multiplayer rush and a unique setting from EA’s own Battlefield 1. Want an engrossing single-player sci-fi shooter? There’s Titanfall 2, also from EA, which is down to just twenty bucks on PC. In the mood for space combat, of the arcade or simulator variety? Try Strike Suit Zero or Elite Dangerous, respectively.

只要坚持使用主要的AAA版本，您就可以从EA自己的《战地风云1》获得多人游戏的抢注和独特的设置。想要一个令人着迷的单人科幻射击游戏吗？还有EA的Titanfall 2 ，在PC上仅售20美元。在进行太空战斗时，街机或模拟器种类繁多？分别尝试“打击服零”或“极度危险” 。

The phrase “vote with your wallet” is a bit of a cliché, but it’s become so for a reason. This year alone, there are literally thousands of new AAA and indie games hitting the market, and it won’t take you too long to find some that aren’t actively manipulating you to spend real money on fake stuff. The games might be near-limitless, but your free time isn’t…and you can certainly find games to spend it on that aren’t so objectionable.

“用钱包投票”这个短语有点陈词滥调，但之所以如此，是有原因的。仅今年一年，市场上就涌现出数以千计的AAA新游戏和独立游戏，您会花很长时间找到不主动操纵您在假货上花费真钱的游戏。这些游戏可能几乎是无限的，但是您的空闲时间却不是……而且您当然可以找到花钱在上面的游戏，并不是那么令人讨厌。

Hell, if you just have to get your Star Wars juices flowing, the slightly older Battlefront is still very much alive. It uses a more balanced progression system, it doesn’t have pay-to-win microtransactions, and you can grab the original game and all its extra content for less than the non-super-special-limited-deluxe price of the hobbled Battlefront II. It’s missing some of the new characters and vehicles from the latest Star Wars movies, but if all you want is fast-paced multiplayer set to a John Williams score, it will do nicely. And failing that, there are decades of Star Wars games (some of which are really good!) that you can catch up on.

地狱，如果您只需要让星球大战的果汁流淌，那稍微老一点的《战地风云》仍然活着。它使用了更加平衡的进度系统，没有付费双赢的交易，而且您可以以低于陷入困境的《战地风云》的非超级特惠限量豪华价的价格抢购原始游戏及其所有额外内容二。它缺少最新《星球大战》电影中的一些新角色和新载具，但是如果您想要的只是将快节奏的多人游戏设置为John Williams评分，那就会很好。否则，您可以追赶数十年的《星球大战》游戏(其中有些真的很棒！)。

EA’s exclusive license to current Star Wars games, the breathless marketing push for both Battlefront II and The Last Jedi, and the hollow platitudes of DICE’s pre-launch concessions are all designed to make you feel like you need this game. You don’t, and you absolutely don’t need the microtransactions it’s dragging in its wake. Try not to forget it.

EA拥有当前《星球大战》游戏的独家许可，《战地风云II》和《最后的绝地武士》的喘不过气来的营销推动力以及DICE推出前优惠的空洞陈词，都是为了让您感到自己需要这款游戏。您不需要，而且您绝对不需要它在其后拖曳的微交易。尽量不要忘记它。

Image credits: SwanyPlaysGames

图片来源： SwanyPlaysGames