EA DICE withdrew nearly every official server from BF3 (PS360)

gregor7777 said:
There are a ton of servers. They removed the Official servers. Just a shit move in general.
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That's why I said almost, if I'm understanding this correctly. I'm not sure how many console players are paying for private rented servers, but it surely can't be lots of them.

I've got Battlefield 3 sitting in my Origin account since Christmas and I haven't ever been able to play it since then either offline or online, and I was considering to get the console version instead, this is a godsend for my wallet, but I do feel awful for the rest of the console players. :/

Does the PC version even have official EA servers?
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I'm curious about this as well, it seems I can only try to join in user created servers, never official ones.
 
Magnus said:
I don't think I'm properly understanding the article.

Correct me if I'm wrong:

It isn't possible to play console editions of BF3 online anymore unless you/a friend rent a private server for $30/month.

Is that right? That can't be right.
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No.

You can join any server, but you're at the mercy of the owner/admins.
 
Magnus said:
I don't think I'm properly understanding the article.

Correct me if I'm wrong:

It isn't possible to play console editions of BF3 online anymore unless you/a friend rent a private server for $30/month.

Is that right? That can't be right.
Click to expand...

Can't you just join any dedicated server? (Haven't played the console version).
 
Enkidu said:
Isn't this pretty much the same situation as it is on PC? I don't notice a lot of official EA servers around. It seems logical that as the community starts hosting its own servers the need for official ones disappears. Besides, this might actually make EA keep the game alive longer without turning off the servers.
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You have a point that this might actually increase the longevity of the game if EA doesn't have to be bothered maintaining their own servers.

But this is close to indefensible on the console side of things. Is there any precedent of console gamers having to rent servers to play their games online? On top of an Xbox Live fee? Barely 7 months after the game came out?
 
Even near launch there were so many servers that were ghost towns. It sounds like EA/DICE took notice of this and decided to strip things down a bit. And it makes sense that they'd remove the freebie ones from the server browser because they're offering the rented dedicated servers now.

It doesn't strike me as a totally anti-consumer move, really. It seems like a smart business decision. But the whole "EA sucks" hate train is the cool thing to ride, I know.

I seriously doubt that half the people in here are still even playing BF3 on console. I know I'm not anymore. Even if I wanted to start playing again, I'd just hop into a server that someone had put up.

EDIT: stuminus3, there is a pass with BF3. You can get a 48-hour trial here, however..
 
I'm pretty certain what happened is that EA issued a directive of the nature of cut costs or else and Dice is doing that by junking their official servers.

Servers cost money man.
 
I'm still playing for free and have no problems findign a game to play. The community has slowed down quite a bit, so it's not a big deal at all. Why keep hundreds of empty servers up and running? It makes sense.
 
soultron said:
Even near launch there were so many servers that were ghost towns. It sounds like EA/DICE took notice of this and decided to strip things down a bit. And it makes sense that they'd remove the freebie ones from the server browser because they're offering the rented dedicated servers now.

It doesn't strike me as a totally anti-consumer move, really. It seems like a smart business decision. But the whole "EA sucks" hate train is the cool thing to ride, I know.

I seriously doubt that half the people in here are still even playing BF3 on console. I know I'm not anymore. Even if I wanted to start playing again, I'd just hop into a server that someone had put up.
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How is charging people to rent servers because you don't want to bother paying for them yourselves and without giving them any real control over the server not anti-consumer?
 
Found this.

If they're "looking into that" does that means that it's a problem on their end? Otherwise I would expect a "we'll release info about that matter later this week", or something.
 
soultron said:
Even near launch there were so many servers that were ghost towns. It sounds like EA/DICE took notice of this and decided to strip things down a bit. And it makes sense that they'd remove the freebie ones from the server browser because they're offering the rented dedicated servers now.

It doesn't strike me as a totally anti-consumer move, really. It seems like a smart business decision. But the whole "EA sucks" hate train is the cool thing to ride, I know.

I seriously doubt that half the people in here are still even playing BF3 on console. I know I'm not anymore. Even if I wanted to start playing again, I'd just hop into a server that someone had put up.

EDIT: stuminus3, there is a pass with BF3. You can get a 48-hour trial here, however..
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With over enthusiastic admins on their own servers able to kick you for whatever they want this move by EA is bullshit.

Maybe if you still played it you might know this.

Also when people are paying for online passes its even more bullshit.
 
And yet everyone will buy the next shitty overhyped mass market game EA makes. Nothing will ever change because people are stupid sheep.
 
I think maybe some are over reacting. This does not stop anyone from getting a game, and allows people that wish to pay for games with custom rules to do so.

You are not required to pay for a server to play, in any way shape or form. Servers that are not rented, are 'official servers' with standard rules. It's just that at the moment, they have pretty much rented them all out, so finding a game with standard rules takes a bit more effort.

I have yet to find one single custom server that was locked to public. I don't even know if they exists for sure.
 
Dave Long said:
When it gets there, I'll just stay retro. Lots of games for me to play sitting on shelves at home already.
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I hardly ever play online games as it is. It won't be any skin off of my back if I'm unable to play them online next gen for the most part. No skin especially for some safe action shooter like Battlefield.
 
KieferCrimson said:
That's why I said almost, if I'm understanding this correctly. I'm not sure how many console players are paying for private rented servers, but it surely can't be lots of them.
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You would be wrong. There are lots of them.

Still, having vanilla official servers would be nce, given all the money they've made.
 
soultron said:
Even near launch there were so many servers that were ghost towns. It sounds like EA/DICE took notice of this and decided to strip things down a bit. And it makes sense that they'd remove the freebie ones from the server browser because they're offering the rented dedicated servers now.

It doesn't strike me as a totally anti-consumer move, really. It seems like a smart business decision. But the whole "EA sucks" hate train is the cool thing to ride, I know.

I seriously doubt that half the people in here are still even playing BF3 on console. I know I'm not anymore. Even if I wanted to start playing again, I'd just hop into a server that someone had put up.
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I've got no beef with people being able to rent servers and control their own matches. I'm okay with community stuff like that. But I do think there's some eyebrow raising mean spiritedness to essentially bottlenecking a game's entirely multiplayer feature to rely on those who are happy to pay monthly fees.

It's great most people won't have to, but if this is legitimate it's basically EA saying "okay community, if you want to play this game, you need to pay us". Some fan has to be paying them just so you can play your game. That's pretty low.
 
since most official ea servers stay empty i don't really see the problem. The reason matchmaking favours player rented servers is because most poeple who do rent them, make an effort to fill them.
 
BibiMaghoo said:
I think maybe some are over reacting. This does not stop anyone from getting a game, and allows people that wish to pay for games with custom rules to do so.

You are not required to pay for a server to play, in any way shape or form. Servers that are not rented, are 'official servers' with standard rules. It's just that at the moment, they have pretty much rented them all out, so finding a game with standard rules takes a bit more effort.

I have yet to find one single custom server that was locked to public. I don't even know if they exists for sure.
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Yes they do exist and admins can kick you for no reason if they wish.
 
EatChildren said:
this is legitimate it's basically EA saying "okay community, if you want to play this game, you need to pay us". Some fan has to be paying them just so you can play your game. That's pretty low.
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That is not correct though, as if no one pays them, they turn back to official servers.

Edit: @Jburton- have you had that happen? or is it the possibility that you are unhappy with?
 
Jburton said:
Yes they do exist and admins can kick you for no reason if they wish.
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Uh, are you new to the whole dedicated server thing?

The solution to this problem is simply find another server.


KieferCrimson said:
Found this.

If they're "looking into that" does that means that it's a problem on their end? Otherwise I would expect a "we'll release info about that matter later this week", or something.
Click to expand...

Maybe the servers are just offline?
 
soultron said:
Even near launch there were so many servers that were ghost towns. It sounds like EA/DICE took notice of this and decided to strip things down a bit. And it makes sense that they'd remove the freebie ones from the server browser because they're offering the rented dedicated servers now.

It doesn't strike me as a totally anti-consumer move, really. It seems like a smart business decision. But the whole "EA sucks" hate train is the cool thing to ride, I know.

I seriously doubt that half the people in here are still even playing BF3 on console. I know I'm not anymore. Even if I wanted to start playing again, I'd just hop into a server that someone had put up.

EDIT: stuminus3, there is a pass with BF3. You can get a 48-hour trial here, however..
Click to expand...
Soultron is soultron'ing hard in this thread. Haha I love it.
 
BibiMaghoo said:
That is not correct though, as if no one pays them, they turn back to official servers.
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Is this in writing somewhere? Is this EA/DICE's statement on the situation? Because if it's not, then you don't know that, no matter how likely it might seem.
 
BibiMaghoo said:
That is not correct though, as if no one pays them, they turn back to official servers.

Edit: @Jburton- have you had that happen? or is it the possibility that you are unhappy with?
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if no one is paying them, no one is playing the game, and if no one is playing the game, they'd just shut everything down.
 
So what was the cost of an online pass for?

I guess now we know why they never added filters for official/unofficial servers.
 
AppleMIX said:
Uh, are you new to the whole dedicated server thing?

The solution to this problem is simply find another server.
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Thats no solution, if EA provided servers where available I would not have to worry about some mini hitler.

I am not new to the whole dedicated server thing.
 
Great. I'll get kicked from every other server, see intro messages like "NO SHOTGUNS" and then sit in matches with 1000 tickets that last 45 mins with 6 players. The game went WAY downhill when they started renting servers.
 
elcapitan said:
Other people are renting the servers and you can play on them. For the vast majority of players, the only difference is the rulesets in each server, although it opens the door for admin abuse (kicking out players for no reason).
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This happened to me a few times. I mean, I'm no crackshot super soldier, but I wasn't being a tool either. Then I joined a server with "play nice" as the tag, and had a ball for a few hours.

Still a dick move by EA. I mean, you should give people the option to play on an officially moderated server.

Step 1: pay for game

Step 2: pay for online pass (presumably for server maintainance and such)

Step 3: pay for server space, on top of the online pass

Step 4: pay for inevitable DLC

Granted, step 2 isn't needed if you buy new, and step 3 & 4 are entirely optional, but that is clearly EA's ideal situation. It doesn't bode well for a DD only future. They now realise that they can not only charge for server costs, but then ask you to pay for your own, and then cancel the one they initially charged you for. We are slowly and gently being bent over the proverbial barrel. With this "rent-a-server" BS they are rubbing the tip up and down your arse crack. Some seem to like it I guess.
 
I remember when people wanted private servers for MW2.

This is more or less a good thing people. Oh sure, some random asshat might ban you, but you'll find another server.
 
BibiMaghoo said:
That is not correct though, as if no one pays them, they turn back to official servers.

Edit: @Jburton- have you had that happen? or is it the possibility that you are unhappy with?
Click to expand...

Oh it has happened, go over to the community thread and see other examples also.
 
The really shitty thing about this is the fact that the game comes with an online pass (yes, I know that's also an easy way for them to counter used sales), and requires Xbox Live Gold to access online features.

I could understand this if that weren't the case; but this is a bit cheeky to be honest.
 
EatChildren said:
Is this in writing somewhere? Is this EA/DICE's statement on the situation? Because if it's not, then you don't know that, no matter how likely it might seem.
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filter the server browser for official servers. They are there but most are empty, there's no reason to have 100dreds of empty servers if players prefer the rented ones.
 
I don't own the game, but this is BS.

MS needs to sort this out, MS need to wake up and realize that EA needs them more than they need EA. They can't allow EA to continue using their own servers and log in BS come next gen.

Clamp down on that shit, MS.

Sony, well I doubt Sony even care what the hell EA does so long as their games are on the console.
 
watership said:
Great. I'll get kicked from every other server, see intro messages like "NO SHOTGUNS" and then sit in matches with 1000 tickets that last 45 mins with 6 players. The game went WAY downhill when they started renting servers.
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Exactly, it seems a lot of the people defending EA (smh) don't actually play the game and /or understand the issues / concerns.
 
Jburton said:
Thats no solution, if EA provided servers where available I would not have to worry about some mini hitler.

I am not new to the whole dedicated server thing.
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Actually it is the solution. I've been gaming on PC for years and if I don't like the rules of a server I simply find one to my liking.

The server admin payed for the server and they can run it however they see fit.
 
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