I have left a copy of this message on the battlelog, but I hope it has a better chance of getting a response here.
Dear DICE,
Thank you for providing more information and clarifying the developers stance on these issues. However, I remain upset with this decision. Small communities, such as my own, have very few methods of ever becoming larger communities if we cannot find a way to populate our servers. Seeding is probably the only option available to us. What your company is doing is in effect killing smaller gaming communities. My server only started to populate after I turned it to 24/7 Air Maps and disabled the minimum player requirement.
With regards to stats padding, this is a problem that has been created entirely by game developers. You have created a system which provides small rewards for people to invest time in playing your game. This becomes addicting and is what keeps people playing. Aside from the issues this causes from a balance perspective, it is a cheap and simplistic way of keeping an audiences attention. I won't say that it doesn't work, as I too feel a small sense of satisfaction when I earn a new unlock. In the long run I believe this has harmed online gaming, as it has made playing on an unranked server feel artificial in many ways. I will also add that developers deliberately establish things that try to "force" ranked servers on their players. For example, the default server browser settings always favor ranked settings. This makes it harder for unranked servers to even get noticed by the vast majority of the community. I for one personally wish you would invest lest time in these artificial systems and instead provide us with more actual gameplay content.
I have heard DICE developers say that one reason they won't charge for maps is because they don't want to artificially split the community. Why then do you insist on doing it with these ranked/unranked silliness?
In the long run, all of this comes down to control. Developers such as DICE are trying to control how their game is experienced and promote a fair experience. I respect your intentions, but I believe it is continuing to take us down the wrong path. I believe these decisions should be left to consumers, particularly when you require your consumers to pay money to even have access to a server. A 64 man server costs around $80 a month from the cheapest providers. Frankly, if people wanted to pay and host a cheater only server I think they should be allowed to do so. If we weren't willing to pay to rent servers your online gaming network would need to be funded entirely by your company.
I sincerely hope DICE reconsiders the directions it has taken with ranked/unranked servers. I believe this continues to split the community and over the long term does harm to what you are trying to accomplish. Games are supposed to be about fun, and online games are most fun when you can enjoy it with your friends and the same individuals over time. Communities are the heart and soul of online gaming. They are what keep people playing the same game for years at a time long after its shelf life was supposed to expire. Stop working against that.
Sincerely,
Carmen
