There is much to discuss in attempting to provide succinct opinions on this topic. The concept of stating that this game "shows how to do a service game right", manifests that there has been a comprehensive review of games and also presents a unified and commonly agreed definition of what a game that does it "right" looks like based on objective qualifiers rather than opinion. We all have opinions, but can hardly state that such opinions are facts or realities, but rather a point in the spectrum of identified data that points us to norms, or what we can call "empirical evidence". Regardless, I have an opinion as well. I bought this game after having played Division 1 since its early announcement and having played the Beta. Spent the money to purchase the higher-level bundle for Division 2 in anticipation of what could be next. To say I was an avid gamer addicted to this game was an understatement. I even scheduled my consulting hours and family dinners around time to progress with my crew. So I feel I was not a casual player and have intimate knowledge of what it takes to be successful in this game and tried everything that this game released until I quit after Descent.
I will give my opinion on the statements made by the article.
1. This game presents "Things to buy, but you don't have to pay to play". True, I agree with that, it was my experience that no one in my clan or other clans I knew cared about clothing, or some skin, or a face mask, enough to spend money on it. Div 1 has a vendor in the terminal, don't know of a substantial amount of people spending money on purchasing a meme or jacket they don't already own.
2. It's easy to participate without needing to consume your life. Completely Disagree. This game caters to hardcore avid players who can dedicate a substantial amount of time "grinding". Can you play it casually? Of course, yes. Will you have the same experience, level of satisfaction, and success? No. Case in point, people who tried to do the first-ever raid (before there was a softer option for "practice" raiding) and did not have the top-end gear optimized, would most likely be frustrated and so would their team. How could you ensure a higher level of success? well, if you spend the time to grind and as a team help each other obtain those rare lucky drops of gear to have the correct level to endure the raid and be successful, then you also spend a lot of hours. No casual playing here. The same goes for everything inside the scope of this game, if you want to be at the top of the game and feel like you are running through all this game has to offer without a problem and just enjoying the ride, then you better be prepared to spend a significant portion of your weekly free time grinding. This game punishes casual players, they don't have the gear to be successful and people do not want to play with someone who does not have the right top-end gear to help out, instead, it provides frustration.
On the topic of being a game that continues to provide content. Well, yes and no. Manhunts and seasonal events are lackluster, a copycat with the same premise of utilizing the concept of Search and Destroy missions from Div 1 and making it seem like "new content". You do the manhunt to obtain a trinket that does not affect the game and then you wait for a "season" full of nonsensical grinding to obtain clothing items, just because. I hardly call this content and more like busywork. Kind of like working in an office and someone telling you to staple a thousand packages only to later tell you to un-staple them, just because. Don't get people started on how many times this game has also "recalibrated" itself, meaning you had to grind for everything all over again, just because someone thought it would make the game experience better. Just because. Grinding "components" and thousands of weapons to optimize gear, meant spending hundreds of hours to have top-end results, just because. You end up spending more hours grinding, than enjoying the time you do meaningful play.
Seems to me that the game masters here create this busywork paradigm to keep us working because there is no real content to go through. I rather pay for a DLC than have this "free" content that is just plain nonsensical grinding, for the sake of grinding, so I can try to enjoy the results I used to have, but because of ongoing changes, I am forced to spend more hours again, grinding.
This game had a lot of promise and a lot of expectations, but it has repeatedly failed miserably to live up to its potential. So much so, that if you look at data from player counts you can see how it has dwindled. It has upticks whenever there is new content, but then it dwindles again. Compared to Division 1 and modes like Survival and Underground, Division 2 lacks replayability. Even Division 1 missions had their personality while Division 2 "incursions" all seem the same, featuring a boxed environment in smaller quarters where you can rely on "meta" gear (oftentimes tech in the early to mid years) where you place your tech, grab a cup of coffee and come back to go to the next boxed room.
I do hope that they don't mess up Heartland, which from what I read, is undergoing an overhaul because of poor results from the Beta. Are they still trying to build a better mousetrap? Not sure, but I wish they learned something from their mistakes and took what worked from these last two games. This is the only industry where you can purchase a product, test it for them, tell them what you didn't like and still have an end product that you will pay high-end dollars and still obtain a subpar product with a lot of errors in production. In any other industry, these people would be fired. I hope they do better and find their sweet spot.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram