Incremental tweaks will proceed more significant changes.
Following vocal dissatisfaction from fans over Anthem’s loot systems, BioWare is aiming to make “significant changes” in the coming months.
Last week, Anthem patch 1.0.3 dropped earlier than anticipated – it became available March 9 instead of the originally planned March 12. With it came a host of changes and fixes, including the removal of respawn restrictions, improved stability, audio improvements, and common (white) and uncommon (green) drops no longer appearing for players that are level 30.
However, just before the patch dropped, a bug occurred that rewarded players with multiple masterwork and legendary items in end-game stronghold missions – this was quickly fixed with the patch. After receiving a small taste of frequent, quality loot, fans are becoming more and more vocal about their dissatisfaction with how loot is handled in Anthem. In response to this feedback, BioWare will be making significant changes “in the next few months.”
In the next few months, we’re expecting to make significant changes, but we’re starting with some incremental ones so we can better navigate that evolution. Our goal is to ensure the best possible player experience.
— Chad Robertson (@crobertson_atx) March 9, 2019
BioWare’s head of live service Chad Robertson tweeted over the weekend, saying “We’re not yet fully happy with the game’s loot behavior either.” He explained that the developer will be making more incremental changes to its loot systems at first in order to better navigate how the changes impact the game’s complex systems.
However, it appears some fans might not be willing to wait a few months for larger changes to take effect. In a loot drop megathread on Reddit, players are airing their grievances over the currently stingy state of loot drops. While some fans are asking for BioWare to “meet us in the middle” with loot changes, one thread in particular is calling for a boycott of the game until quality loot becomes more prevalent, saying “Since there has been virtually ZERO dev response to the horrendous loot system, the best way to get the message across is a boycott.”
User Fnacot08 wrote “Started my boycott this morning. Got sent back to the menu after doing 4 stronghold runs and not getting anything but purples to show for it. I’m done until something happens.” User fahdriyami, after reading Robertson’s Twitter posts, wrote “Thats a start. But that it will take ‘months’ to address is ridiculous. The loot system is the reason to play. If thats broken then there is no reason to continue. They can do better than months surely.”
BioWare has been making changes and fixes to Anthem since its launch last month, including an initial response to loot concerns and a patch that aims to prevent PS4s from crashing. Even with these changes, there are a lot of problems we feel should be fixed ASAP.
Colin Stevens is a news writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.
