Battlefield Heroes

Probably a lesser known instalment in the Battlefield series, Battlefield Hereos is an multiplayer online third person shooter.  Unlike the other games, Heroes takes a more cartoonish style look which turns out to be less violent and keep the rating at Teen.  However, much like the other titles, this game features the typical capture the flag, king of the hill, and control point gameplay objectives.  Being a Free to Play game, the developers' main source of income ultimately comes from the customization options that you can purchase more of with real money.

Since it's release in 2009, Heroes has certainly changed its selling point on the game.  Its first purpose was to point out that the game is easily free to play and a novice player won't get "shot in the face repeatedly by a swearing, ultra-skilled 15 year old boy who plays the game every day for 8 hours." (trailer) I personally played the game for about two years when it was released I've witnessed much of its development.  I've noticed that after the major bugs were fixed with the core mechanics, the developers had nothing left to add.  Nothing, that is, except customization content.

Just like every other free to play game, I'm afaid that Battlefield Heroes has fallen into the same groove of this money-driven shmoozefest.  Free to play games have turned customization into a cheap tool to make money.  How ironic.

I enjoy customization.  It gives the player control over the personality of thier character.  It creates a bond between them that not very much else can.  It allows you to change the color of thier mustache.  Customiztion is a powerful gameplay element that should not be taken lightly.  If free to play games keep using customization to try to bring every 12 year old to thier website, then I'm afraid that its dignity will be lost.  To customize is to insert a part of the player into the game.

After analyzing some games, I have found that I get a little upset with how some games have tried to use mechanics.  This one in particular was rather disappointing.  Battlefield Heroes used to be a really great game to just relax and shoot people in.  Now the shoot-you-in-the-face-repeatedly 15 year olds have come and EA is too concerned with fitting the model of some rabbit ears onto the player models.  I believe that some people are missing the target and customization hasn't been hit by F2Ps for quite some time.  This field has some work to do before things get too bad...