Friends, fans, & devoted gamers,
While it's become difficult to make this decision, we feel it's perhaps the best. Medal of Honor was a fantastic franchise until the 'rushed cycled' was implemented into its development & marketing strategies. Let us take the time to explain why this is a terrible model for game development, and why we're shutting our doors. This notion may burn a few bridges, although that's not my goal, it may be what's necessary to get EA's attention. I have many friends inside EA and their respective studios, none of which enjoy the direction that Electronic Arts is heading with its company.
EA has admired the Call of Duty model for some time now, but they lack the loyal fan base to mock it. For those unfamiliar with the Call of Duty release model, there is a new title at the end of every year with two different development teams working on the rotating titles. To successfully implement this model, you need a fan base that will buy your game out of trust & loyalty that you've made a product that will no doubt be fun and a worthy investment. Medal of Honor 2010 was a reboot to the franchise & had one of the largest marketing campaigns to date. It utterly and completely failed consumers at launch and with post-launch support. Consumers, from that point on, were wary of EA's bad practices.
Warfighter was promised to be revamped with Frostbite 2, complete with Micro-Destruction, an amazing interface, and better maps and gameplay. None of which were actually true. Let's review.
- Micro-Destruction: A key factor in modern FPS games. It allows you 'chip away' the cover the enemy and provide a sense of realism upon a bullet hitting the surface of an object. In Warfighter, you can't even break a wooden pallet with your rounds.
- Interface: The overall look of the game's menu system and in-game HUD. The user interface/user experience in Warfighter reflects that of an amateur Photoshop user. Semi-transparent boxes with white text fill the screen & are not something that belongs in a AAA title.
- Maps: I met the map designers at the Danger Close studios in Los Angeles earlier this year. Needless to say, they seemed absolutely clueless as to what their job was. When I mentioned why the maps were so tiny and bland, the look on their face was priceless. They legitimately thought they had created maps gamers would enjoy.
- Gameplay: Choosing your weapon and unlocks alone is a hassle to understand. There are the same weapons with different names, leaving only 1-3 actual weapons-per-class to choose from. The unlock system is amazingly ignorant as (Going back to the interface design) you are forced to use a scroll-based system to see what you've unlocked for a weapon, and even so, you can't tell what you've unlocked or not until you reach that specific item on the scroll system.
"But although the combat feels smoother online, poor visuals and bland map design sour the experience. When compared to the slick, refined content of its main competitors, on this evidence it seems unlikely the Medal of Honor series will survive without a major rethink." - The Guadiarian.co.uk
"...just generally being a bad, boring game" - PCgamer.com
"I'm here, unfortunately, to tell you that Medal of Honor: Warfighter is purely mediocre. Its average presence is further brought down by bugs, texture oddities and sloppy AI. It's best you avoid this one." - technobuffalo.com
The product was rushed in a terrible manner. There were rumors, now confirmed, that the executive producer was quietly removed from Danger Close approximately two months before release. EA proceeded to assume complete control and release the game without any leadership. The sheer fact that the Battlefield 4 beta text was larger than the text for Medal of Honor was a hint at what was to come of this game. Perhaps it's time for the 'major publisher' model to cease, or a change in executive leadership.
Whatever EA's future may be, we wish them the best of luck and hope to see the proper changes made to their products. Maybe with the largest Medal of Honor community shutting its doors, it may spark interested to take new paths. I would like to extend my gratitude to the community managers for Medal of Honor, Daniel Chin (No longer with Electronic Arts), and Seeson Mahathavorn who have done an outstanding job. The problem lies "mostly" within the upper management of Electronic Arts, not within the hard working people that make and contribute to the game.
Please share this page over Twitter. The more tweets we get, the stronger our message will become.
Signed,
Joshua Bearden
Director of MOHHQ, BATTLEFIELDO, and the "Overpwrd" Community Network.
jrb@overpwrd.com
Signed,
Cory Niblett
Director of MOHHQ, BATTLEFIELDO, and the "Overpwrd" Community Network.
pr3sident@overpwrd.com
Signed,
Oliver Lumby
Director of MOHHQ, BATTLEFIELDO, and the "Overpwrd" Community Network.
cmdshift@overpwrd.com
Guess I have to. The MP had 4 maps globally with people on them last night. That in of itself tell you what kind of product you get. They really need to make this right.
