Anthem has had a rough go of things since it’s tumultuous launch. The game has been victim to bugs galore, and players aren’t happy by a long shot. Some of the more irritating bugs involve the loot drops within the game, which is pretty game-breaking for a loot-shooter like this game. Some bugs caused items to drop with no stats or the wrong kind of modifiers, making them useless, for example. In a recent patch to Anthem, Bioware and CO. attempted to address a variety of issues.
But things only got worse from there, as it turns out that some of the issues relating to these drops were in fact bugs caused by other bugs. One commonly cited problem with the rarity and quantity of loot drops was addressed in a recent update, but this “fix” made things worse. The loot drop values were actually above what they should have been thanks to one bug, and Bioware applying a patch caused the unintended effect of reducing drop rates way below their intended values.
This had to obvious effect of angering the playerbase, as the entire point of loot games is the shower of rare items that players get drowned under. And without that incentive of piles of treasure, players questioned whether they should keep playing at all.
Anthem’s Subreddit has been flooded with complaints regarding the loot issue, as well as the nerf to crafting materials. Some players are offering constructive feedback and even statistical breakdowns to point out why buffing loot drops would be good for the health of the game in the long-term.
All of these issues culminated in a call on the game’s Subreddit, which is already filled with anger and backlash, for owners of the title across all platforms to stage a “blackout” protest of these changes and the general poor state of the game. The stated aims of the call, which are reflected in thousand of comments and upvotes on the thread, is a boycott aimed at forcing Bioware to revert the changes to loot drops:
The Gameplay, once you are playing is immense fun. The Story was fun to play through for me as well, you progress story and gear wise and get more powerfull. Until you hit 30 and repeat the very limited activities over and over and over for next to no return vs. time invested atm.
Time Invested Vs. Reward is a complete Joke at this point. Getting Gold and Platinum thrown at you for just stating that is more than enough to prove that point. But are you willing to stick to your beliefs?
It still remains to be seen whether more players end up participating in Anthem’s blackout, or even if this act would be of any impact, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens on that front.
