Drama is never far away when it comes to gamers and those two things came to a head on the Apex Legends subreddit when the video game’s developers got tired of the awful comments they were getting regarding a new update and began clapping back at toxic fans.
Unsurprisingly, this merely threw fuel onto the fire and fans responded even more negatively. This culminated in a hilariously cringy Reddit thread titled “PR team and devs, well done. You have alienated your playerbase.”
Seriously, it’s copy pasta hall of famer.
This whole debacle soon got so out of hand that the Vince Zampella, CEO of Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment, issued out an apology on Twitter for what went down.
This whole saga is a snapshot of how the relationship between video game devs and fans have changed over the years. In the past, devs worked on a game, fans bought it (or not), and it’s onto the next game.
But these days, devs are forced by both fan demand and money reasons to keep working on something until it is deemed worthy by the masses rather than do the healthy thing of accepting their failure, learning from their mistakes and moving on. It’s a lose-lose for all parties concerned.
Gamer have become more entitled and devs get burned out trying to fix something they’d rather not look at again instead of working on something new.
Not only is it unhealthy but the whole industry suffers because it means less games are being made as devs are being forced to continually polish something that may not shine no matter how much effort goes into it.
A Super Jump article titled ‘You’re Not Owed a Perfect Game‘ rightfully points out that the important thing that gets lost beneath the sea of toxic comments is that developers don’t owe fans anything, let alone a “perfect” game. Devs are not your bitch, gamers, and demanding them to fix something just because you don’t like it isn’t a productive way of communicating your concerns, nor will it compel them to go implement the changes you so desperately want.
The Super Jump article notes that is difficult to create quality content, let alone a good video game that’ll appeal to everyone. Gamers need to understand that devs are not out to scam them, they’re simply doing the best they can. Just as how devs are doing what they can, we have to accept that not everything we buy is going to be brilliant no matter how much we want it to be.
With costs continually rising and development times getting longer, games are forced to implement various mechanics in order to earn money. For a free-to-play game like Apex Legends, this means implementing cosmetic items that cost real money.
So when fans whinge about getting ripped off or how EA/Respawn are not listening or making it tough to be an Apex Legends fan, it’s mindboggling. It’s actually quite easy to be a fan. No one is being forced to make continuous payments nor is anyone obliged to support the game.
We’re at a touchy point when it comes to developer/gamer relationships and there needs to be a rethink on how to make it less toxic. Besides, video games are meant to be fun and not something that devolves into a pool of petty back and forth exchanges.
And at the end of the day, it’s not like devs are forcing you to buy their games. You can just say no.