How battle passes are ruining multiplayer games

The concept of a battle pass has become well and truly normalized in online gaming. These provide players with a range of cosmetics, boosters, and gear exclusive to playing the game. But what initially seemed like a fun way to keep players engaged has become one of the worst things to happen to online gaming for me.

The rise and attractiveness of battle lanes

Valve’s first major battle pass has been released Dota 2 during International 2013but the game that really popularized this concept was fortnite. The game’s outstanding popularity, combined with the initial appeal of battle passes, made it a great success $9 billion in revenue In the first two years only.

It’s a financial success that few other publishers can boast. Naturally, others followed suit and launched their own ideas on the Battle Pass concept.

Soon battle passes became everywhere: Rocket League, Genshin Impact, Call of duty, Fall of men, MonitoringAnd other live service games. Although not all games with battle passes are battle royale games, many of them are. Games like PUBG and Call of duty war zone It has extensive sandbox-style maps that make it easier for developers to create new challenges.

On the surface, battle passes look like a win-win for all parties involved. Publishers make enough money from battle pass sales to make the game free for everyone. Players who purchase Battle Passes get a lot of rewards while playing. Battle Passes are often priced between $10-$15, which is much cheaper than a single good skin in most games.

Despite the low price, the rewards are usually of above average quality. Additionally, many battle passes reward the player with enough in-game currency to purchase the next battle pass if they can complete enough of the current one, effectively providing you with an endless supply of skins and accessories for as long as you keep playing.

Battle Passes turn games into Grindfests

One of the main attractions of Battle Passes is the exclusive skins, weapons, amulets, and other accessories for a limited time. They often follow a theme of some sort, which makes them more attractive. After all, who doesn’t want to run fortnite As their favorite Marvel hero?

Unfortunately, this exclusivity comes with a major downside: fear of missing out (FOMO). FOMO It is a strong form of social anxiety that arises when we believe that others are having fun while we cannot participate. It sucks when everyone on the server is showing off cool level 80 battle pass skins, but you’re still stuck at old level 46.

Another downside is that since everyone unlocks the same skin, any sense of personality and uniqueness that the skin uses will be lost.

To prevent FOMO, you’ll have to devote a lot of time to grinding the battle pass and finishing challenges, even long after the game stops being fun. You can’t play a movie or play another game because you have to finish that week’s challenges before they’re gone for good, and you’ll never be able to accumulate enough Battle Pass points to unlock Spider-Man.

Once you purchase the Battle Pass, your primary goal is no longer to win the match or kill a lot of enemies; The only important thing is to finish all the daily and weekly challenges to advance in the battle pass. The game basically turns into a weekly chore. It gets worse when the challenges are stupid or frustrating, like collecting more rubber chickens in an area than anyone else in the match.

Players are obsessed with Battle Pass challenges

When you log in for the first two days of unlocking weekly challenges, you’ll notice that half the server is just grinding the battle pass instead of playing the actual game.

A 100-player battle royale match stays with only half the players for a few minutes, as people complete the challenge and die so they can take on the next challenge in a new match. It’s as if there’s no one there to enjoy the actual gameplay; It’s all about checking the boxes to unlock new weapon enchantments and the limits of profile icons. It’s simply not fun.

If you don’t have the Battle Pass or don’t care much about progressing, it won’t be fun when only half the people are trying to beat you. It’s even worse in team-based games, where you can no longer rely on random teammates (even less than usual).

The focus on battle-passing challenges completely disrupts the natural flow of competitive multiplayer games because the goal is now to complete arbitrary tasks that often have nothing to do with the game.

It should be noted that not all games rely on daily or weekly challenges to progress through the Battle Pass. Some games allow you to make good progress just by playing the game, which is healthier for the overall experience.

However, you still need to play the game more than you might want to if you want to unlock the entire battle pass in time. I remember I had to play Warzone 2.0 For a few hours every night to finish the battle pass. After I finished, I quit the game permanently.

Burnout and player retention issues

Once you’ve purchased the Battle Pass, you’ll need to stick with it if you want all the rewards and enough in-game currency to “make your money back.” This way, you’ll be able to spend the currency on a new battle pass or in-game microtransactions.

Nobody likes routine tasks, so this mentality often leads to burnout, especially when you want to play other games but don’t want to lose Battle Pass progress.

To keep players pushing in the game, the developers are adding more exclusive skins. After several cycles, players tire of the loop, leading to resentment and withdrawal. To combat their newfound dissatisfaction, the publisher spends a lot of time and money creating a new “version” of the game, such as a remake. fortnite and War zone seasons, causing the cycle to start over again.

Ignore the Battle Pass (or play games without one)

It’s easy to get sucked into a skin addiction once you buy a battle pass, but addiction doesn’t always equal fun. In fact, this rarely happens. If you find yourself playing a game that is more frustrating than fun just because of the battle pass, stop wasting your time and stop playing the game.

While it’s fine to buy a battle pass once and then skip the next ones, it’s easier to not get stuck in the loop in the first place. That’s why I recommend completely ignoring the battle pass and just playing the game for fun. This way, you will have the flexibility to choose which games to play without being restricted.

Better yet, play games without the battle pass system. This way, you won’t be tempted by FOMO. Unfortunately, such online games are becoming rare. I personally like him Battlefield Vbut you can also try Titanfall 2, World of Warcraftand Forza Horizon 5.

Games should provide you with a few hours of fun at the end of the day. If you find a game that does this for you, skip the Battle Pass, and it will stay that way. Although you can’t control whether other players will focus on the challenges rather than the core gameplay loop, you can avoid the tedious work altogether — and you’ll have a much better time.