Disclaimer
This was written at the height of the Twitch Drop debacle in December 2021. For different reasons it was removed by the mods with a few requests to be changed. I implemented those changes but never posted it again due to life events distracting me. With all the discussion at the end-of-wipe of the current trajectory of Tarkov's development, I thought it'd be a good time to bring this back up as discussion. Seeing as we're starting to close in on end wipe, I think before the next wipe it's important we have a community discussion over Tarkov's current development cycle and what it means for us, the consumers. I've also left up the original examples from December 2021, as a reminder that our current situation in May 2022 is a continuation of a pattern of failures on BSG's part to engage properly with its player base.
TL;DR
BSG has built their game platform and engages with the community in a way that makes it difficult for them to be held accountable when they violate basic consumer practices. The Twitch drop debacle from December 2021 is one of many examples of this. This matters because BSG will likely continue to make poor decisions that hurt the community unless they are held accountable.
Let's start with the disclaimers:
- This is not a complaint post.
- I'm neither pro- nor anti- BSG. I'm just a customer and player like the rest of you.
- I'm not claiming BSG is a bad company (although I do think their development processes are bad).
- I'm not saying BSG or their employees are incompetent or that the game itself is bad.
- I, like many others, loved this game enough to spend $150 and will gladly spend more, should BSG fix their practices. I want this game to succeed.
- All of that is true, and can be true, and BSG can still be anti-consumer.
What do I mean by anti-consumer?
That their business practices hurt the interests of their buyers or unfavorably benefit BSG at the expense of their userbase. This isn't to say that everything BSG does is anti-consumer (I'd actually argue that's not true at all!), but rather that there are specific practices BSG has engaged in over the years that are to the detriment of its player-base. These include:
Deliberately withholding many minor patch notes and fixes "so the community can discover them." This also happens to be an easy way to ensure that the public is never sure of what's actually been fixed, or what might have broken again. It makes it almost impossible to hold BSG to account for fuck-ups because when something fucks up there's no real data besides what we can observe client-side.
- Example: Several small updates over the past few days have been pushed with no patch notes, with users claiming variously that server issues are better/worse for them after said patches. With no way to verify the truth, the players always remain in the dark as to whether performance is regressing or progressing for the whole community.
Engaging with hostility towards creators or journalists with negative articles or videos about Escape From Tarkov. BSG has been to DMCA takedown notices against content creators with negative opinions towards them, and has been cold or openly hostile towards journalists who have tried to go on record with BSG over different issues.
- Example: See above links.
Forcing all purchases through their own store and not hosting the game on another platform. BSG is well within their rights to do so in order to maximize their profit. However, it means that players have much fewer middlemen who can hold BSG to account for quality control or financial purchases, such as a third party platform like Steam or Epic Games. Note: BSG that they'll release at v 1.0 on Steam, but have kept silent since.
- Example: For recent purchasers of EFT there is no way to request a refund except through BSG, who is likely to decline it, or through chargebacks, which is a convoluted and long process.
A history of making claims with no evidence that we're supposed to take at face value while ignoring any incentives they have to obscure the truth.
- Example: Nikita claimed that the server problems are a "DDoS attack" on a recent Twitch event without providing any evidence.
Making developmental promises that are not kept, as well as constantly failing to update the player-base with substantial or reasonable information on updates, events, and the like.
- Example: Remember when said was going to be released? Or something even as simple as failing to signpost events for the playerbase within the game (such as at the main menu), instead requiring players to check their socials every day to figure out what's going on in the game. Hell, when was the last time we had a roadmap?
Ignoring or disabling official communication channels with BSG.
- Example: The bug report being disabled during the Twitch event, with long communication times for users who are submitting bugs via email.
Insensitive comments or actions that alienate portions of their playerbase. BSG have of that are, at best, foot-in-mouth incidents. Regardless of your opinion of them, there are many players who take offense at them.
- Example: See above links.
I'll note that some people might put their ineffectiveness towards cheating and the cyclical problem of RMT and sales in this column. I give BSG the benefit of the doubt on this, but YMMV.
There are other bullet points left off this list at request of the mods. I'm signposting this here to be transparent.
What's your point?
First, with the influx of new players it's important they understand the history of the organization they're paying money towards. When I drop good money on things I tend to do a dive on the organization to see how my money might be spent. This is a quick catch-up for those players that BSG, for all its great creativity, is not an organization that treats its userbase well (and again, I'm not saying they're a bad company or that EFT is a bad game, but rather that the majority of issues with BSG are user experience ones).
Second, there are many BSG apologists on this sub. I'm sure some are typing in the comments now. I'm not here for a debate, but I think it's useful to compile this information to point out that whatever their subjective experiences are, when we zoom out on BSG we see that their user experience is subpar (as this wipe shows). I don't care to discuss why at this point; I'm a results kind of person, so if the result is (for example) that every year at Twitch drop the game shits the bed, then I don't care what the reason is. Said company should be held accountable for its results. They are made of people with various motivations, but at the end of the day a company is not a person. Their motivations matter much less than their end product.
Third, I think it's important we view BSG through the lens of vertical integration of information — that is, how BSG controls the flow of information from start to finish. By suppressing voices of the community through shady practices and deliberately withholding information, BSG gets to keep doing whatever they want to do, regardless of its playerbase, because they can keep the playerbase in the dark on most issues. Because of their vertical integration of their payment and platform, there are few ways their users can push back or contest issues that arise, and suppression of voices in official channels or semi-official channels (such as this sub) means it is very difficult for the community to hold BSG to account. It is very reminiscent of the Russian state's philosophy of information warfare on its people: obfuscate, deny, and project until the people turn to attack each other rather than the problem itself. This sub is a great example of what that looks like in practice.
Finally, and most importantly, it seems clear that BSG has little incentive to respond to the community on performance issues — server woes, patch regression, general performance, bugfixing. I'm not saying they don't respond, but rather that they have little incentive to respond. One reason these issues continue to plague EFT is simply because there are few external pressures to hold them to account. Imagine a scenario where EFT could be held accountable for server woes through a third-party site's refunds. Do you think the servers would be as bad as they currently are if new players could request no-fault refunds for new purchases during Twitch drops? BSG has few external pressures to respond to scenarios like this, which allows them to drag their feet on fixes.
The Point
BSG engage in anti-consumer practices. This sub seems to not like that, so this is a post to compile that information, make it available for everyone, and then to have a discussion about it.
