I donât consider myself part of the âgame is deadâ crowd, but I do have my reasons to be dissatisfied and worried about the future.
Letâs start with the most obvious:
Youâll note that even the optimistic players are having trouble actually playing the game. The whole point of âplease slow down and fix thingsâ is to fix things.
Instead, we get the announcement of slowing down and an update that doesnât fix some of the major game-breaking bugs and UX pain points. Oh, and part of the announcement is that weâll get a smaller update between major updates. Not âsmaller updatesâ, but âa smaller updateâ. Was this latest update the one? If so, does that mean that people who are âwaiting for bugs to be fixedâ to âplay together when â and if â they are fixedâ going to have to wait at least 3 more months? Who knows. 
Okay, but what does any of that have to do with the Battle Pass? Nothing directly, but a lot as part of a bigger picture.
For one thing, not everyone hated it universally. Yeah, there were complaints about FOMO, and there were complaints about the grind, and there were complaints about the UI, but a lot of people actually liked having new shŃt to do with each chapter. And you only had to pay for it once, so it wasnât a drain on your finances. And if you got fed up with it halfway through, you could go spam it in single-player mode and be done with it.
But thatâs not why it bothers me. Itâs not the first time Funcom took away some aspect of the game that I actually liked, it wonât be the last, either.
No, the reason it bothers me is because it makes me wonder about what paradigm shift inside Funcent caused this.
When you cut something out, itâs because the cost outweighs the benefit. Whatever Funcomâs benefit from the Battle Pass was supposed to be, it sure as shŃt wasnât about direct revenue, because you only had to pay for BP once and you were set.
When you track the changes they made to BP over time, you can see indications that they were trying to get people to play more regularly. Sure, thatâs only speculation, but it seems like a solid hypothesis given their actions.
So why does that not matter anymore? I could be an optimist and say that the cost of producing all the content for BP was too high and that they decided they would try different tactics to drive engagement.
Except that the removal of BP just happens to coincide with the slowdown of the release cadence. So what different tactics are we talking about? It sure ainât new content, because that will come at a slower pace.
What then? More out-of-game marketing bullshŃt, like Twitch drops?
Or is it that the optimistic interpretation is wrong, and they simply donât care about raising engagement anymore?
Nobody knows. And Iâm betting that the upcoming Q&A wonât really clarify that, either. Itâs a company, theyâre not gonna sit down with us and put their cards on the table. Not to mention that whatever they say, the trust the players have towards them is so low that even a pygmy limbo dancer couldnât squeeze under it.
Starting is easy. I could show you my âProjectsâ directory on my hard drive as evidence. 
They keep starting. Be nice if they could follow through. Like so many others, Iâm waiting to see if theyâll do it this time around, but Iâm not holding my breath.
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