Long post, bear with me as this was intended originally as a topic, but I was asked by a friendly mod to move it into this topic.
Recently, I posted this on the official
Company of Heroes-forums (read the TL;DR if in lazy-mode):
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Topic: Pre-orders and purchasable commanders
Before I get into this, I do not want this to be a rant. If you feel that I should change a part of this post because it is too aggressive or it might come off the wrong way, please let me know.
TL;DR further down.
About a year ago Company of Heroes 2 was put on the shelves for customers to pre-purchase. It was priced at 50 ⬠for the normal edition and 80⬠for the Digital Collector's Edition (DCE) on Steam (or your regional equivalent) with promises of a beta. I saw that there was something about a commander archetype being available with the DCE and hoped that this would something completely irrelevant.
I pre-ordered the DCE a bit before the first beta. I then tried the beta and it was really fun. I had high hopes for the final release and I actually enjoyed the game a lot for a few weeks after release. However: I felt that I should wait a bit until getting comfortable with certain play-styles, so I decided to wait with getting seriously into the multi-player in case some really metagame-breaking things occurred. I put aside the game for a few weeks (after having played a couple of rounds online and the campaign) and then I wanted to try it again.
I couldn't.
I feel that the game is being drained - not by the content or lack of balance (this is always fixable), but rather by how it is sold in terms of commanders and how this affects how I feel about Relic and Sega. There were a few purchasable commanders in the beginning and I hoped it would stay that way - or even better: that whoever had purchased these items would instead get skins for vehicles, but instead, we got more commanders.
Today I launched the game, I went to the load-out and almost immediately closed the game. There had not been a reduction in the number of commanders available for sale, but rather a steep increase.
I find this development to be an issue because of two reasons.
I've already spent 80⬠on the DCE version of this game to support you, Relic. That should be more than enough to get - if not everything - at least what's needed to play multi-player to the full extent - nothing missing. Right now, to get everything, I would have to spend another 32â¬. I could add another 12⬠if I want to get all three DLCs (by purchasing 4 of the commanders through the packs). If I do so, the complete game will cost me no less than 124⬠or 112⬠without the DLCs. I can live with the pricing of the DLCs which doesn't affect multi-player anyway, but 32⬠for 8 commanders is a bit steep.
The other issue is that of a level playing field. I do not want a situation where I have an advantage over someone because I paid more for the game (note: I am not claiming that the pay-for commanders are better, just different and might suit someone's style of play). It basically ruins the game for me that I might have won (or lost) a round just because I had access to a special commander my opponent didn't have because he paid less.
Could we please see some changes in this regard? I would be so happy if instead of having access to more commanders, I would have access to even more skins or other cool non-multi-player features (or some sort of customization).
TL;DR:
I feel like I've paid 80⬠only to get a bit more than half of the product with "pay-to-win"-like issues in that the purchasable commanders give greater variety in tactics that a player might employ (this gives said player an advantage).
The intention was not to rant, not to incite a ragewar, but to get an actual response about what I deem to be annoying issues within this game.
A mod comes over...
Welcome to the forum, gents.
... and closes the thread.
There was also this exchange of messages. You don't have to read them, but the mod does apologize.
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I PM him with this
May I ask why you closed my topic with a rather sarcastic comment? (for the record, I've been on the forums before the wipe)
This is hardly a way to satisfy costumers and I felt that I was not aggressive in my original post.
And get this reply.
TZer0,
I closed your thread because it was essentially just a rant; it would never have gone anywhere other than to insult the developers, encourage people to argue and moan about 'P2W' DLC and so forth. You may not have assumed that at the time, and you may have felt some of your points to be valid (and some of them were, incidentally) but ultimately rants - valid or otherwise - are futile as forum posts because they can lead to little or no constructive discussion. The reply to your post only exacerbated this, and so it was easy to see where the thread was going.
In hindsight, I apologise for the sarcastic reply (that was unnecessary) but still feel that closing the thread was the right thing to do.
Please feel free to contribute to existing topics by discussing aspects of the game, however.
I hope you will accept my apology on this occasion.
I'm writing the following message back and I will send it once this thread is up.
First of all, you are so far the one inciting the most rage. If anything, sarcastic remarks like these are the best way for people like me not only to feel powerless about what's being done (and yes, it is actually a bit more shitty than what I described in the topic), but also get quite annoyed.
Your reply is basically telling me to not do anything about my dissatisfaction.
But I won't.
I'm posting our correspondence (I won't have a situation where you can claim that I'm being unfair for not posting your apology) and the original topic along with other criticism on coh2.org: <link to this thread>
And it isn't just me. Have a look:http://steamcommunity.com/app/231430/reviews/?browsefilter=toprated http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/company-of-heroes-2
I'll actually consider cancelling my purchase citing the reasons posted in that topic.
Then I realize that it isn't as bad as I first thought. It is worse.
In my opinion, SEGA's and Relic's handling of Company of Heroes 2 has been nothing short of deceitful and horrible.
Have a look here:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/231430/reviews/?browsefilter=toprated
Or here:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/company-of-heroes-2
These are the reviews. I don't want to delve into stuff like people complaining about lack of realism or balance, but there are a lot of thumbs down with high ratings (that is: negative reviews with which people agree).
They complain about the exact same things as I did and more.
Several people have pointed out the fact that several of the commander-DLCs are not visible from the Steam-store ! This means that you get less of an impression of how much of the content you'll be missing and what kind of content it is. I would say this is lying and that the community should demand better treatment.
Changes (removal of commander-DLC) would be the friendliest way to proceed.
At least, the commander-DLCs should be visible in the store with the naked eye (and even while digging, a lot of the DLCs are hidden), but I still feel tricked.