EA explains lack of official DICE servers for Battlefield 3
Some Battlefield 3 players have been lamenting the recent lack of official DICE-run servers when playing online
Some Battlefield 3 players have been lamenting the recent lack of official DICE-run servers when playing online--even on consoles. Ever since the launch of user-rentable servers, many have been finding it difficult to play "vanilla" gametypes. "I rarely got kicked from a DICE server," our own Tyler Smith lamented, speaking about his experience on consoles. "But once the rented servers bit took off I got kicked quite a bit." He claimed that it's now "damn near impossible to find official servers," and that many rented servers feature games with absurd requirements. "I don't want to play a TDM to 500 kills or a conquest to 700 tickets," one commenter voiced on VentureBeat.
So what has been going on?
Some have accused DICE of shutting down servers, but an Electronic Arts representative told us that this is simply not the case. "DICE is not shutting down servers," the rep told Shacknews. However, EA did confirm that the apparent lack of official servers comes from community members claiming servers. "If DICE-managed servers appear unavailable, it is because they have been rented and customized by players."
"Custom Servers have always been extremely popular with Battlefield PC players. With Battlefield 3, we've introduced a Custom Servers program to console gamers. Response has been overwhelmingly positive. Custom Servers gives players the ability to tailor the settings and parameters of a given server, which directly affects gameplay. It also gives players more choice as they select which server and gameplay style they like best."
Unfortunately, it's that choice that has been causing the community grief.
"As with any new innovation, there may be some confusion among players who are experiencing Custom Servers for the first time. We encourage players to use server filters and 'favorite' options to find the servers that best suit their play style," the rep advised us.
But what about the fans that prefer playing on official servers? Unfortunately, not only are official servers currently in short supply, they are difficult to find. There is currently no way to filter official servers from the fan-operated ones. Are their concerns being addressed? "We have enormous respect for the Battlefield community and are listening to the feedback. It is our #1 priority to ensure all players are having the best possible play experience," the rep told us. "DICE will continue to add servers and will reserve a percentage of servers for players who prefer to connect through DICE-hosted servers."
Given the outrage of certain fans, that percentage is clearly not high enough yet. Has EA damaged the game's reputation in exchange for the revenue brought in by rentals? Perhaps. "To think I actually liked it more then COD but now I am back to COD rather deal with that BS," one commenter noted.
-
Shacknews
replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, EA explains lack of official DICE servers for Battlefield 3.
Some Battlefield 3 players have been lamenting the recent lack of official DICE-run servers when playing online-
GGs Dice.
-
I reinstalled BF3 a week ago after not playing after a few months and I was really disappointed in the server selection. Everything seemed to be 1000 tickets, instant respawns, Metro 24/7, etc. which is not my style of fun. It feels like UT2004 where every server is running a crappy mutator that only a few people like.
-
The server selection is truly abysmal
-
Either that or when I search by any servers with some empty slots, the only ones that come up are the shitty ones because the good ones never have empty slots. That would suck.
-
Naw you have to check every box exactly how you want it to be filtered. If it is not checked it won't consider it. Also, look at the score on the right to see how many tickets the server is running. And furthermore, there is a queue that you join when you join a full server, which works automatically and gets you in game fairly quickly, especially on larger servers where people are constantly going in and out.
-
Unfortunately you can't filter some things, like fast vehicle respawn (which completely ruins how the maps are balanced, but people still like it because they're fucktards).
-
Agreed. Nothing is worse than jets flying overhead spraying everything in sight, then crashing into everything because they respawn so fast.
-
-
-
-
-
This is why I actually argue against dedicated servers. People have fucking horrible taste and it makes it hard to actually play the game as designed
-
They really need to provide a way to filter out instant-respawn servers. Those break the game horribly.
-
If you look around, you will find servers that you like. We have a PC server, The Catbox, that is Hard Core with no playing rules at all. That way, you can use the flashlight without being kicked, ride the MAV if you can still figure out how to do it (you still can if you try hard), use Claymores (I had to leave another server the other day because they "outlawed" the use of them), etc. Believe me, many of us rent a server so that we can get away from the Asshats that make so many rules. We agree that instant-spawn tanks and other such things are a PITA. However, We just can't abide by the Normal rules (where people and tanks auto heal, etc.)--hence Hard Core mode. We are open to suggestions from people that stop by regarding ticket counts and maps, and are trying hard to come up with map mixes and settings that will draw more people in. I believe that there are a lot of people that have servers that are trying to do the same thing. There should be no problem finding some favorite places if you look around.
-
metro is the absolute worst...and on PC, its about 60% of the servers.
-
-
-
Wouldn't be a problem if you could just run your own from home.
-
[deleted]
-
It's nice to have dedicated servers that you can run yourself. But the problem is that with EA renting out the normal setup servers, they seem to be leaving few non-Metro 1500 ticket conquest servers.
Console players are just starting to see why I've played less and less of this game on PC as that trend went on over there.
Eventually you try to find and favorite a few more normal servers, but finding those run by decent people seems to be a task at present. -
The problem is the fact that they rented out the majority of their servers rather than actually adding servers for players to rent. Which then ruined the experience for the players that liked the "vanilla" server set ups. All so they could rake in even more money. Probably charging even more than it costs for them to run and maintain the servers. Eliminating an operating expense and creating additional profit. Great for the shareholders, bullshit move for the consumers.
-
-
"Cause we cheap muthafuckas"
-
Problem with them saying to use filters to find servers with more normal settings is that neither PCs nor consoles have filters for ticket counts. I do not want to play on 1000 ticket servers where rounds take half the day, and half the map is leveled to rubble when I spawn in.
Give me a ticket filter DICE, and I'll stop complaining.
At least on PC you can now see the tickets once you click on an individual server, but I still want a filter and I want some normal games. -
I would love to play BF3, I would, but any time I search for a match recently, I can't find anything. It is a barren wasteland.
Any time I DO manage to get into a game, it is either laggy to the point of being unplayable or I get kicked.
Another problem is that it takes WAY too much time to upgrade/get new weapons. It's not even worth the time.
I want to play the game, I really do. But at this point it's not even worth trying on 360.-
-
haha it wasn't until the end that i realized it would be important to note
-
-
-
-
Then you're being dense.
-
-
Ah, the misinformed jumping all over my nuts just for shits and giggles. Why is this a "problem" to begin with? It's not.
Find a damn server or a handful of servers you like and stick with it. Gosh, that's so hard to do! PC gamers have been doing this for ages now, fucking adapt to it already.-
How am I misinformed? I own the game on two platforms, and finding normal servers just isn't that easy when they don't give you ticket count filters.
And I'm not "jumping all over your nuts". I just asked why you seemed to imply that consoles should deal with the same crap as PC just because we PC people always have had. The console world has different expectations because this was now how the game was when most of them spent their money. At a later stage in a game's life, DICE/EA significantly changed their server availability.
It's a great option that they gave to console players to allow them to admin servers, but that doesn't mean EA should wash their hands of the responsibility of providing servers with normal rules, either.-
Well, from what I understand this was a feature that was really in demand. Now it is in place, the vocal minority gets loud. It is not really a thing that is unique or surprising.
I am a big fan of the vocal minority though, so ill give you a nod. It is all just another example of a gigantic corporation who makes video games making some kind of feature or change based solely on popular opinion/assumed desire and doing it hamfisted just to get those pie charts to look better. If it really is an issue, they might fix it, but given its EA/Dice, you might get an acknowledgment of the problem in 3 or 4 months in a vague twitter post, and then a patch that breaks a bunch of other shit 6 more months later.
But I will also point out that asking for sympathy over something a console game is suffering from, due to implementation of a generally PC unique feature, is delicious and hilarious. PC gamers get shit forced into our half assed ported games all the time that cause the game to suffer and the players to gnash teeth. Its pleasing to see it go the other way around, and I am probably an ass for saying it. -
^^ What he said. Just because PC players have had to suffer it, doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be improved so nobody has to suffer it. That's a stupid view you (Zips) has, if you think "well, I suffered through XYZ, so you guys should too." Nothing would ever improve.
I get they offered us a great feature, and I'm OK with this. What they didn't think about, or very hard anyway, was that -- anyone who picks up the game off the shelf, right now, and has no idea about this new feature is going to want to jump into MP and realize...where'd all the f'n servers go? -- and it was fine until this last patch.
Seems like a simple thing to fix. Provide a patch that gives the option to filter Custom Servers out of the list of Official Servers and provide more official servers or pull back (ha ha yeah right) on those that have been. Then everyone is happy and nobody has to get fucked in the end.-
No, see. Consoles gamers begged for it. They should know full well what they were getting and bad admins or rules they don't agree with are part of the whole package. Unless, of course (and God forbid!) people just blindly jumped onto the bandwagon and requested something without knowing that not everything would be sunshine and roses? Perish the thought.
Frankly, this is one time where I will bust out the whole notion of how "entitled gamers" should just shut up. You wanted a feature, you got a feature, now deal with the entire package or go rent your own server and run it as you see fit.
It's absurd how people feel like they need to be spoon fed to get it to be "their way or the highway" with regards to servers, especially when there are alternatives that people have been making use of for years now.
-
-
-
-
-
I just want to play conquest vanilla settings. I don't want instant vehicle respawn, I don't want 1000 tickets, I don't want banned weapons/gameplay, I don't want to join a fucking 4 player only server, I don't want 24/7 anything. I refresh the server browser and this is all I see. Where is the filter for REMOVE servers with criteria? Where are the 100+ EA/DICE servers running vanilla fucking conquest. Why are they so fucking stupid despite themselves?
-
-
One of the groups I play with bought a server in order to play 'normal shit,' as they put it. Custom servers are great for groups that can populate an entire server together, but I feel sorry for anyone who jumps into a custom server they haven't used before, only to discover that the deck is repeatedly stacked against them, match after match (and long matches at that), because the group running it puts all of the best players on one team, which outnumbers the other team, finally adjusting all of the rules and locations of things so that only they know what's going on. The custom server system is not my favorite update, to say the least. Before my friends set up a normal game server, I thought I would just quit Battlefield altogether. Oh, and for what it's worth, I've been playing with CRY (Crypt Keeper's server). I play with some other groups too, but they tend to unbalance the teams so that they can get all of their friends on one side.
-
My Platoon did the same thing. We've got about 7 people playing a weekly game and it was worth the almost $10 to each of us to have 3 months of playing time on a server we could set to "normal" and get on reliably.
I just don't understand why DICE doesn't have a check box at the bottom that truly filters out non-DICE servers. Shouldn't be that hard to implement... -
for some reason, I cant see the full title of some servers either. That's my first warning sign that its going to be some shitty custom server.
When I see "CLAN{PBJ} LOW PING NO CLAYMORES FAST RESPAWN 1000 TIX..."and then it cuts off, I'm out of there.
-
-
Damned if they do, damned if they don't.
-
I see, so it is the customer's fault, got it.
-
[deleted]
-
Damn, EA kills BF3 Right when I finally get a PC that can run it properly.
-
Regrettably I too am returning to COD (for now). It seems anything with an EA stamp on it turns to shit.
-
[deleted]
-
You can Download this game for free from http://Mygame9.com
-
