SOEâs DayZ-ish zombie MMO, H1Z1, just launched on Steam Early Access. That means it is, on no uncertain terms, unfinished. However, even fans with that knowledge were surprised to discover a microtransaction airdrop that affects gameplay. They felt like theyâd been misled.
The real money microtransaction, an airdrop players can buy and call in, has many players upset and worried. In a survival wasteland where resourcesâdiscarded scraps, precious bullets, makeshift weaponsâare everything, thereâs a lot to be said for magical rain from the zombie-free heavens that can sometimes contain guns, ammo, and other equipment. At this point, very few of those words are positive. SOE is offering full, no-questions-asked refunds through Steam to make up for the fact that many players feel this is not what they signed up for.
Refunds â if you are upset about the airdrop P2W issue and want a refund email [email protected] and we will take care of you
â John Smedley (@j_smedley) January 16, 2015
Back when H1Z1 was first announced, SOE agreed that gameplay-changing microtransactions had no place in this sort of game. In a Reddit post explaining monetization plans to players eight months ago, SOE president John Smedley was adamant that H1Z1 would only reward the Richie Riches of the world with appearance options:
âWe will NOT be selling Guns, Ammo, Food, Water⌠i.e. Thatâs kind of the whole game and it would suck in our opinion if we did that.â
In fairness, things do change over the course of a gameâs development. They tend to change a lot. However, the âno buying guns ânâ ammo ânâ stuffâ refrain was repeated elsewhere in the lead up to release, most recently during an official stream, er, a few days ago.
Players, understandably, went ballistic when they saw streamers calling in airdrops that included guns, ammo, and the like a few short days later. In their eyes, it was basically the same thing as purchasing weapons and gear from a store, even if the process was more randomized and open to sabotage by other players.
SOEâs Smedley, however, believes players were given adequate warning, that they werenât lured into purchasing H1Z1 under false pretenses. He once again took to Reddit to offer up his side of the story:
âIâm going to weigh in here on this subject. Weâve been showing it clearly in all of the streams we have been doing. I made a point of personally doing it during last Fridayâs streams. We want them to be server events⌠so we make sure the whole server knows theyâre coming and Iâve personally been killed many times after I paid for them myself. So I fundamentally disagree with the argument. In terms of us not being honest about itâuntrue to an extreme.â
And in fairness, airdrops were floated around as an idea months ago, to mixed responses. They also appeared in videos like this one, released in August of last year.
The bigger issue appears to be that SOE wasnât entirely clear on the featureâs real money component, nor did they clarify that guns, ammo, and other key items could be found in airdrops. Players were expecting more basic supplies, not game-changers. Unfortunately, concise, straightforward explanation is tough to find outside H1Z1âs âWhat You Can Expect from Early Accessâ page, which was published yesterday.
Smedley also noted that airdrops arenât even an option until a server is at least one-fourth full, and their crisp, gunmetal-accented flavor brings the slavering undead your way in droves. Moreover, the plane moves slowly and loudly, so as to attract other players. In other words, if you want your reward, youâve got to take a mighty big risk.
However, Smedley and co understand that their vision of a perfect paradise where paying players and non-paying players frolic through the zombie gardens together still needs some work. Here are their plans for the immediate future:
âWeâre going to be making some big changes to [airdrops] in the next day or so. 1) Dramatically widening the radius they come inâitâs too small from what weâre observing. 2) Making sure the chance for guns is a much lower chance so they are much more rare. 3) Upping the minimum number of people on a server to even allow air drops. Itâs set at 50 right now and weâre going to at least double it. We are serious about these being server events and contested. 4) Making the plane fly even slower.â
So significant changes are on the way, though some players are still fuming. On the upside, at least they can get a refund, as can players miffed by shaky servers and other launch issues. A word of warning, though: the refund offer is only good until Monday, so act fast.
It will be interesting to see where SOE takes this feature after the initial eruption of outrage. Itâs not exactly an auspicious start to a multiplayer sandboxâs life (or un-life, as it were), but Early Access exists so developers can work out kinks before primetime. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. Weâll see.
Update: Senior game designer Adam Clegg has offered an apology and further clarified upcoming changes to airdrops. You can read the full thing here, but this is the gist:
Here are the first pass initial changes:
1) Make the plane move slowly (53% of current) This increases the ability for other players to react to the plane coming in.
2) Make the drop fall more slowly (80% of current) This increases the ability for other players to react to the plane coming in.
3) Less accurate maximum drop radius (was 250m now 700m, so with these settings it would drop up to 700m from the calling player)
4) New minimum distance of 250m for airdrops to appear from a player. This is a little less than ½ the player density of 700m distance with 120 players on a server. Therefore more players are likely to be near the airdrop when deployed.
5) Increase the minimum number of required players to 120 (a little higher after more discussion about player density being important to keeping airdrops contested)
Also, the percentage rate on drops that contain guns and ammo has been deceased to ten. Sounds quite a bit better, if you ask me. What do you think?
