Originally posted by CaptBlackEagle

Battleground Europe is not an FPS...you will not log in and suddenly find yourself stuck in an alley forced to fight what is in front of you...you choose your own tactics within a massive world. This game really requires you to use your smarts, paitence pays off, and the kill is much more gratifying because of it.  In fact, I can often spot the new players who come over from the FPS games....and they certainly help my score. 

The OP sounds like many of his kind found on many other games I have played.  Battleground Europe is too hard for him, so it is the game's fault.

 

Yea, it used to be like you described.  Now the HC just sets an AO and then its just like you said everyone floods into the one FRU in town.  Its nothing now like it used to be.  Sure you can do all that stuff you said now but today its meaningless since they got rid of resupply and interdiction and went to the HC structure. 

I also like your last sentence where you dismiss him as someone who couldn't play the game.  Thats the way all you fanbois are.  Attack the player if they disagree with you.  Typical. No wonder nobody is left in the game but you fanboi jerkoffs.

Originally posted by depot12

Originally posted by CaptBlackEagle

Battleground Europe is not an FPS...you will not log in and suddenly find yourself stuck in an alley forced to fight what is in front of you...you choose your own tactics within a massive world. This game really requires you to use your smarts, paitence pays off, and the kill is much more gratifying because of it.  In fact, I can often spot the new players who come over from the FPS games....and they certainly help my score. 

The OP sounds like many of his kind found on many other games I have played.  Battleground Europe is too hard for him, so it is the game's fault.

 

Yea, it used to be like you described.  Now the HC just sets an AO and then its just like you said everyone floods into the one FRU in town.  Its nothing now like it used to be.  Sure you can do all that stuff you said now but today its meaningless since they got rid of resupply and interdiction and went to the HC structure. 

I also like your last sentence where you dismiss him as someone who couldn't play the game.  Thats the way all you fanbois are.  Attack the player if they disagree with you.  Typical. No wonder nobody is left in the game but you fanboi jerkoffs.

Dont be to hard on him Depot  most of these guys are still wet behind the ears in years played. In most cases the current HC/AO/Supply system is all they know. They dont see how at one time this was a player driven game in which we the players made the fun and used the map in all sorts of out of the box ways. They didnt see the massive support for that system of play and the leaders it spawned due to the open nature of the game at that time.

To be honest most of these guys think we are haters but the reality is we want them and others to experience what we enjoyed in the game. I feel bad for them in a way, they will never see huge ops with 100s of tanks and inf. along with supporting FB defense force,interdiction and cap. They will never enjoy a 2 or 3 week long running battle for a city like twerp. They will never know what its like to drive cross country to make a assault with a squad or the fun we had doing it.

What these guys get is COD play due to instant spawning,pixie dust teleporting of supply, star gate's and nothing beyond the same old frontal assault from FB to town that the current HC/AO system provides.

Ahhh, the days of the massive tank columns.  When someone at the front would bone a corner, and the massive pileup resulting behind him.  Or if you made a small mistake and lose half your speed, having the next 20 tanks pass you laughing while you regained top speed (especially that French armor).

Hell the chat on teamspeak with so many was half the fun in these and truck ride trips.  Now those were close squads.  But yeah, not needed with the MSP zerging you have now. Why the minimaps are in so you don't have to have comms. 

Those were awesome times when the game was thriving!  (yeah not in the black but lots of people none the less)

I was on many of those tank missions where we rolled town after town all night.  HUGE battles by paying customers...

Its a shame those times have passed.  The F2P players just aren't into that sort of thing unless they could just spawn their tank at the target and have unlimited ammo.  Heck, who knows, maybe they are working on that.

AGREED!

All of this guys posts are true.  Seen it.  Lived it.  These guys should have folded up YEARS AGO

When they killed squads with BS, they killed the gagme.  Squads were the social center of the game.  BS caused everyone to be a defacto lone wolf.  I played for 10 years, quit all 3 accounts.  Hven't missed it  Play World of Tanks and others now.

Merc88

$30 for a month subscription, recurring?

Wowzers.

Instead of making this game affordable so more people switch over from free accounts to paying accounts the staff, the 3 that are left, decide to pass the 'lets F the remaining people some more and make them pay for the lack of players in game' and charge wwiiol drones that just cannot leave $30 a month.

Yeah, great move guys.  You must have hit your dang heads at crs hq.  You've all lost your minds it seems.  Thats the best you could do for an idea?  $30 hero package?

Yikes.

On one side you have a free play option.  The other a $30 a month bleed the turnup option.  Neither is going to work.  One has already failed you on the money side though free accounts are juicy noob targets to keep those drone players happy.  But again neither are going to pay the bills.

You should have listened and incorporated a flat $9.99 for this game while it was worth it.  Everyday you ignore it and continue to make terrible directional  changes the value of the game drops.  It's still good for $9.99 but stock is dropping sirs.

Ouch.

$9.99 would be a good value if they were still having content updates and bug fixes but that is way too much for the current state of the game with the same bugs that have gone on for almost 2 years.   The population levels will never return to what they used to be back in the day.  This game sadly in it's current state isn't really even worth it to play for free, as population numbers show.   Thanks to DOC for RUINING everything.   

Damn, that gotta be the dumbest comment ever!

WWII is without a doubt THE most popular setting for FPS games thru the times.

WWII as a MMOG is also a really really great idea, and anyone but these developers would have made millions.

Originally posted by SuprGamerX
LOL!! Never heard of this game and I can already tell you why the game is dead , WW2 happened 60 years ago.  Some devs come up with the stupidest ideas for MMOs :P

Give it up Szyporyn, yes it's a stupid comment but the irony is that the comment itself may be why the game has declined. We , well I certainly grew up watching the likes of A Bridge Too Far etc. etc. My grandfather was injured at Dunkirk, my father served with the DLI just after the war...

This kind of response reminds me of the kids they interviewed on the centenary of the Titanic where some of them thought it was just a movie, they really didn't comprehend it actually happened...

Maybe the decline is due to the dwindling interest from the up and coming generation that are now putting their money on the table for MMO's...

Can't deny some really poor decisions by CRS over the years but maybe it was inevitable. I was a day 1 subscriber, I bought the game mail order from the US and it arrived about 5 days after the servers went up. I remember Server1, 2, 3 etc. in the first few weeks. I remember being totally lost in my first few steps into the game but totally in awe of what was going on around me. It was my first MMO. I haven't subbed now for about 4/5 years. I've been back on a trial account and on the F2P account and I guess I thought the game would always be there when I was ready to come back or when it reached the potential that I thought it would, or should.

It will be a very sad day if the game goes altogether but maybe, just maybe it will open a gap in the market for a large scale, open world, WW2 MMOFPS to come along.

Originally posted by depot12

$9.99 would be a good value if they were still having content updates and bug fixes but that is way too much for the current state of the game with the same bugs that have gone on for almost 2 years.   The population levels will never return to what they used to be back in the day.  This game sadly in it's current state isn't really even worth it to play for free, as population numbers show.   Thanks to DOC for RUINING everything.   

Nah.

Even if Doc did ruin it, he never made decisions on his own did he? In fact when I was subbed this summer I remember him saying that a few decisions were against his wishes, but regardless, he didn't bring certain changes in so that people would leave did he? CRS wanted the game to grow and yeah they've made a bunch of mistakes in hindsight, but making it seem like something other than a mistake is ridiculous. Look at how childish your last line is, it sounds like a characature of a teenage girl!

I unsubbed a few months ago for time reasons (I will be busy until May) but I enjoyed it immensely when I was playing. Before I  resubbed I wrote a great big post about why the game was rubbish, how it could be changed etc... guess what? As soon as I started playing, I felt like a right mug for saying all of that without giving it a chance.

I know you don't want to hear it, but WWIIOL is still a good game even as it is, it just isn't quite as compelling as it once was. I might not play myself but I would encourage people who don't know what the game is about to take a look and judge for themselves, rather than listening to me or you. It's the type of game where if you suspend your disbelief for a while it can still be pretty amazing.

It's not dead, it's more or less on life support.

I just received an email asking to comeback again.  It needs to just close it's doors and stop coming across as a wonderful gaming experience.

I used to LOVE the game, however I grew tired of the gameplay, and grew tired of the rat antics.

For example:

This is in the "free view" area of the forums and located in the Tesing and Bug Reporting area.  Very few of the reports get a rat response anymore.  (note:  this free view area will no doubt disappear and become part of the elite making of paying $18 a month so get there fast to look over the bugs)

Bedford black out bug (has been reported for almost 2 years. It's a bug where you black out driving 15 mph in a truck and cannot see and sometime crash killing riders and flipping guns).  When a response finally comes it comes as this from the lead dev...

"yeah we know, when we manage to eliminate it, we will probabaly say something about it

since we haven't, then it stands to reason we haven't eliminated it yet"

Mmm mmmmmm....serve me up some more customer service!

Originally posted by axishatr

For example:

"yeah we know, when we manage to eliminate it, we will probabaly say something about it since we haven't, then it stands to reason we haven't eliminated it yet"

Mmm mmmmmm....serve me up some more customer service!

Yep. Can never just give a straight answer.  Who is this MAYPOLE guy who is the CEO of CRS? Seems like they should get rid of DOC and bring back RAFTER.  

Nothing like getting perma banned and losing a weeks worth of prepaid gaming because you ask them to reduce their sub pricing and they say it is "bashing CRS".

Just happend to someone I know.

What a bunch of babies over there.  The mods/community managers are "big dick mod happy"

Originally posted by axishatr

Why WWIIOL (Battleground Europe) is nearly dead

 

 

 

Yes, I said it, WWIIOL is nearly dead.  It lay on the table with IV’s in each arm, pain killers pumping through out its system, and closest family in the room over seeing the last few breaths.

 

It is a sad deal, but to one of the thousands of players that have “been around a while” it’s nothing of a shock.  You see, WWIIOL has been dieing for YEARS.  Sort of a slow death with not so many signs of pain either.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, the last couple years have been pain filled.  Forum rumbles, mass quitting, staff leaving, server crashing, game instability, and the ever important “shut up there is nothing wrong” attitude shoved in the player base faces during it were the neon lighted signs of the time.  But before the last couple years it was pretty good times.

 

Enough about what we already know.  Now on to the cause of this…..

 

These are just opinions of mine, but some pretty strong indicators turned me to writing this report and stating these items.  I’m not a professional writer as you can already see, but I still wanted to point out some things that might be used yet to save some aspect of the game or some other game/community teetering on the edge of death.

 

CRS is ultimately responsible.  There is no way around it.  Its missteps, blindness, and stubbornness are the #1 reasons this game is nearly dead.

 

You see, in any business, you must have a solid core to work with.  From this core foundation you can build an empire on.  CRS had this I believe and worked on the building quite well for many years.  At some point though, they fell into the thinking that they knew it all, or at least that is how they were perceived by the community, after all they were the first MMORG large scale map game developers right!!!  The requests of long time players and really the overall community fell upon deaf ears.  Yes, you see, CRS was not in the wrong, ever (in their own minds).  They brushed it off as a “few” upset people that got killed online over and over to many times and were just venting.  Yes, that’s it!  It’s not us, they thought, its just those stupid people out there (our customers).  “F” them, they are not programmers or marketing majors……..we are smarter then they!

 

Well, that perceived thinking went on for 4 years.  More people barked, so that meant there just were more crazy people out there trying to kill off CRS and its ultimate game that would never die.

 

Wrong.

 

The problems that the community saw and seen coming were there and are what the game is dealing with now.  CRS dug a huge hole for itself and in some respect are still blaming the community for its woes. 

 

The lack of players does not have anything to do with lack of community support.  Being around 10 years is proof enough you had support, CRS.  You had builders (some didn’t even get their statues).  The lack of players is directly related to your opaque and most times offensive approach to any criticisms you received about your game or your staff.  Its similar to a restaurant severing bad meal after bad meal and when someone complained about the meal and the prices you yell back at them, call them names, and then shut the door on them and have someone else tape their mouths shut.

 

That is horrible customer service.  And many many former customers were treated that way.  Another horrible way to keep people around.  The funny part is this, for what?  To muzzle people that were pointing you in the direction of what needed to be changed.  But CRS would not listen.  At this point they were still not in the wrong.

 

You ignored HUGE game issues and perused “easy” eye candy updates hoping you’d trick people to hang around longer and help fund this “game”.  You even managed to draw up some “americans” and post it all over the place to gain more people, a gamble that did not work out.  Sort of like borrowing money to build on to your shop but never having the cash flow to afford the payment on the initial loan….then going in and talking the banker into a “little more money” because “we are close to turning the bend”.

 

WRONG.  Bad gamble.  You never turned the bend.

 

You promised and again, your promise fell short.  The Americans are STILL NOT IN GAME and you are still ironing out stability issues and some sort of political axis situation with the Americans entering the real map.  No Americans but the axis get new semi autos to add to all their toys already in the game for YEARS!

 

What a mess.  More people leave.  Less people come and stay.  Your employees start to get nervous and leave (move on to better things).

 

Now we get to the point where the business cannot even do the work anymore because times are so bad.  CRS begs those that they nearly choked out 4 years prior (the squads) to help manage, control, and train the flow of new people to the game.  The bad thing is that this flow of noobs from the terrible placements of advertising (limited) brought in the worst assortment of people maybe in the history of the game.  Numbers of retained people had to be horribly low, as they were never published.  From my understanding maybe 1 out of 100 or so stayed and ended up paying some sort of sub costs.  But at least you can brag and post graphs (terrible graphs) about number of new people inflow.

 

This leads to that lovely sub costs.  The highest anywhere.  Did we mention all the sever issues and dropped promises??  Now we want to charge $17.99 for it.  Yeah, we know, you COULD get it cheaper….you just got to sign up for a year or so and that way CRS could burn through you money fast still trying to pay that intial loan from the crazy banker off on the gamble that did not “turn the bend”.

 

Yes, that’s it.  Help us pay for our mistakes and just deal with a game that isn’t running well.  DON’T YOU WANT YOUR GAME TO LIVE!!!!!!   (that come back got old quick).

 

So, some still pay and hope for better days.  Several hopeful “this will save us” tries were made (that china mess and RA) but the reality of it all and something that was known by all involved is that the numbers were failing, miserably.  It was dieing and dieing fast.

 

So, as the game is laid down on the ER bed….and its breath is slow and heavy panic sets in on the family.  Suddenly confession is a good idea.  Maybe it will save them.  Maybe having everyone donate will bring a miracle.  Maybe more money will save it now.  Maybe.  Maybe not.

 

But, money will only save jobs for a while.  The end is near.  We all will pass in time.  This game is just going to beat us all at it.  Money is not going to save it.  Numbers would but CRS has chased all the good ones away.  New younger kids don’t want this type of play.  Not in mass numbers anyways.  Plus, it’s really nothing new.  It’s the same game and same graphics just in a different box and different map area.  It’s the same thing you cannot sell on WWIIOL Campaign side…..but you’ve masked it well.

 

Maybe trying to break neck market to some short attention span kids will keep the oxygen on another year, but at sometime it might be best to let it pass.  It would be more humane.  Better for the family.  Better for the community.

 

You guys let the game die 4 years ago.  I commend you for trying to save it now that is so close to being dead.  I imagine all family do that when their close ones go or are close to going.  I’ve seen it in my family.  But I say just let it go.  Maybe that’s what it wants.

 

You should have listened to your community earlier and been more open to them earlier.  Not chased squads away and killed squad play.  You should have had a better community leader and customer support team….since the customers pay your wage and pay for your hobby of making this game and making it work and stay working.  You should muzzled DOC and kept him from the eyes of the public and the ears of them to.  He’s one of the most rude and asinine people I’ve ever talked to at times and really made your company look horrible in the forums, on the main page, and in gamers forums.  I personally had 15 people hooked on this game that all left directly because of DOCs posts.

 

Now all of a sudden you want to show everyone where you are at and why you need what you are asking of them.  Partially because that is the legal way to ask for donations and show disclosure, but the other part is now you are starting to get it.  The community was not so dumb after all.

 

I hope praying or whatever you are doing now saves your game.  I still cannot believe you are now begging for more money from those that you’ve treated so poorly over the years.  I also cannot believe you’ve gotten suckers to stick their heads out to give money.  Maybe your new community guy is doing his job.  Maybe not.

 

If things fail I hope CRS learns from it on their next venture.  Nazi Zombie Reign or whatever is in the works.  Keep the sub cost low so people can afford it and continue to afford it.  $18 is to much and asking for a whole year commitment is to much also.  Don’t chase people away and don’t act like a dictatorship to your concerned customers.  Gagging them only makes them more upset and less likely to ever help you in the future.  It did in my case.

 

S!  Good luck

Still on the table, barely breathing.

They've tried F2P (little late) and its helped server population (aka easy targets for the paying subs to kill) but it appears that those F2P accounts are not rolling over to paying customers.  They are running $9.99 again for NEW and RETURNING cusotmers but its my knowledge from certain individuals close to crs that those specials are not working even close to where they hoped they would.  Now, we are incorporating a "hero" program where if you don't mind spending $18 a month you can up your pledge to save this game by going to $30 per month to be a "builder hero".  Yep, thats right, $30 a month.

There is no hope for existing long term customers for getting a relief in subscription pricing.  Tries by the community to ask and sometimes beg for $9.99 across the board LONG TERM have been ignored or silenced.  Again, told by someone close to crs, $9.99 won't pay the bills.  However they still have no fear over banning people that don't lick them in and out...

I argue that maybe making the sub more affordable for a 10+ year old game would bring in MORE paying customers and STAYING customers without pressure of returning and never being able to leave or unsub.....because you will lose your $9.99 rate.  Just make it $9.99 all the time for everyone and try it.....

What have they got to lose?