rkrigney

Ahhh thanks for the heads up!

EDIT: Just played a game to check, and this wasn't showing up for me. Maybe it's just an issue based on how/when the update rolled out? Either way, will keep an eye out for it.

you say you want players to play throughout the season and many counterargue that we don't want to play that much, that we appreciated that it didn't take the whole season to complete so we could have a little break and also have time to play other games.

Makes sense to me. I think we need to do a better job of making people feel good about taking a break when they're tired of the game.

Like, obviously we always hope you'll get a lot of value and come back next season. But games shouldn't feel like you're working a 9-to-5. If we can mitigate that feeling while also serving people who DO wanna grind every day, we'll have really done something to be proud of.

Thanks for the note.

The simple way to think about comparing dailies in S6 vs. S7 is that the levels you get from dailies alone is about the same if you play three days a week, even though the 2 levels per week from reccuring weeklies is gone.

You get faster leveling if you play more than that, because dailies give a lot more now. And if you play two days a week, it's slightly slower (because of the lack of recurring weeklies). But not... much slower.

Still open to feedback here. And interested in seeing people do proper "quick maths" threads now that we've announced these changes. Some parts of the system are indeed slower and some parts are definitely faster. It depends on your playstyle.

If we want to meet our original goal of making the Battle Pass engaging throughout the season, we're certainly going to have to explore additional changes... and hopefully ones that are just straight up popular, instead of changes that are controversial or seen as as trade-off.

Yeah we figured it'd be best to give it to both BP owners and non-owners since we wanna be considerate of people on the free track too.

Two things I'm hopeful for:

1) That these changes make players feel that we've set things right (even if there is still some debate over things like the change from a focus on weekly recurring to juicier dailies)

2) That the next time we screw up—and we will screw up again—more players take the approach of "give them time, give feedback, and they'll get it right" instead of "this is all an evil plot."

I think we've got a lot-more trust-building to do before #2 becomes true. Looking forward to earning it.

Lol... as the guy who put together the AMA, i'm mostly sitting here just reflecting on how weird my job is

you gotta admit tho, this is high quality OC

Ah, this does actually have a very clear answer. When buying through a third-party platform (like Steam), you gotta go through their customer service. It’s true for third party platforms like PlayStation and Xbox too.

That policy page: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/account/returns-and-cancellations/

It's something we haven't totally settled on, to be super honest.

Sometimes "hours to complete" IS set as a target for daily challenges (aiming for around 1.5 for most of those currently, although debating whether we're hitting that mark) and for weeklies (they tend to be targeted at something between 2-10).

If playing makes it feel like you're making no progress, that's a sign we've got more to do, imho. Will push to get it right.

Parking a comment here. It's absolutely a fair question.

I don't actually know our policy, so I'm going to go ask and then report back here with what the policy actually is, regardless of whether the answer is popular or not. (may take a few hours)

5:46PM UPDATE: It’s Friday evening and I haven’t gotten a clear answer. For now, whatever EA support agents are telling you is the policy. I’ve heard that they’ll refund coins bought but not passes. I’m going to update this comment again by EOD Monday (72 hours from now) and will confirm whether I’ve heard differently.

9:25AM MONDAY UPDATE: I was able to get confirmation on the above: we can refund coins but not passes or battle pass content.

I wouldn't put anything off the table. We're planning more changes, but would probably give the most recent changes at least a little time to breathe to see what kind of impact they have.

FWIW, there's two main questions we're asking when we think about this stuff:

1) Are people going to finish their battle pass super early because of the changes we just shipped? This is something we're debating because dailies give more now. This might be something we decide doesn't actually matter! But it's something we're thinking about.

2) Even if "the numbers make sense" and WE think the system is good, are players still saying it FEELS bad, after they've had a couple weeks with it? If so, we probably have work to do.

Hope this makes sense. I know it doesn't fully answer your question but it should give you a better sense of where our heads are at.

I think it's a real screenshot of his LinkedIn as it has appeared for the last six months. He's just made changes to it this morning because hundreds of people started viewing his profile, pinging him on Facebook, etc. because they think he's talking about season 7.

His LinkedIn doesn't say anything about season 7, but refers to changes he shipped about six months ago. It's old. And "purchase rate" refers to popularity and sales of the Battle Pass (which, yes, of course we want more people to buy it, there's nothing to hide there).

I actually reached out to him and asked him to clarify on his LinkedIn that it's in reference to a past season.

His LinkedIn doesn't say anything about season 7, but refers to changes he shipped about six months ago. It's old. And "purchase rate" refers to popularity and sales of the Battle Pass (which, yes, of course we want more people to buy it, there's nothing to hide there).

I actually reached out to him and asked him to clarify on his LinkedIn that it's in reference to a past season.

EDIT: 2:07PM PT - THE AMA HAS OFFICIALLY ENDED

I know the Battle Pass is the big topic right now on Reddit.

I'm hoping to get questions on all things season 7 so all the devs I invited can participate, so if y'all can do me a favor, aim your BP-related questions in response to this comment and I promise we'll get responses in from our top dudes. Would also point to the thread from last night, which includes some answers to top questions we've seen. But feel free to p...

THE AMA HAS OFFICIALLY ENDED Some devs will probably stick around to answer more, but the main show has concluded. To everyone who posted, thank you sincerely. There were some fun ones, and some tough ones. Hopefully y'all enjoyed this, and we can do it again sometime.

Season 7 has just begun, and the team here at Respawn wanted to swing by Reddit to hear what you think of Horizon, Olympus, and all the other changes so far. Yes, including the Battle Pass. We’re here to talk about it all.

Got questions? Hit us.

Below is the list of devs participating in today’s AMA, along with their specific area of focus. Feel free to point specific questions at any of us by tagging us.

u/HkySk8r187 - Chad Grenier - Game Director - Overall Apex Legends lead

...

Talking about monetization is legit the hardest thing I ever have to do in my career. Imma do my best to take it to the next level though.

This comment was a journey, and I enjoyed it fully lol

To the point you raise in the very first paragraph, I'd say that the main challenge of working on an evolving game is understanding not just how some players play the game (or even how you play the game) but how all the different types of players experience it.

The nuances there make every decision potentially dangerous because you don't want to sacrifice one type of players' experience for the others (unless for some reason you absolutely have to). Just some thoughts.

Ideas like this are pretty appealing to me, personally. Don't tell the product team I said that though, I'm not supposed to add more work to their plate lol

I appreciate this follow-up, and definitely can see you're here in good-faith because you care. I respect that.

I don't have any nuance or argument to add here, just wanna say I appreciate the way you framed this.

It actually sounds like the way we sometimes talk internally. "We said our goal is this, but players want Y." It helps cut through the crap and clears up to people what we're really trying to do.

Thanks for your perspective.