EA and DICE began a grand experiment in North America with Battlefield: Heroes, a free-to-play, casual shooter that would allow anyone to download the client and play for free. You could buy certain items to give yourself an edge, sure, but it was just as easy to earn in-game Valor Points (VP) to purchase weapons and widgets for use in the game. Many gamers did just this, earning VP in their regular gaming session without ever paying a dime. Others made a few purchases here and there to round out their items.

It seems gamers simply weren't spending enough money, though, as a recent price restructuring destroys the ability to play without spending real money. The cost of all items in terms of the free VP has been increased substantially, while the cost of items in "BattleFunds," which you buy with real money, has been decreased. In other words, it's now impossible to earn or keep decent equipment simply by playing; you're going to need to get out the checkbook to stay competitive on the servers. The game's player base is, to put it mildly, enraged.

While you'll never be stuck without a gun, upgraded weapons and gear give players a huge advantage in practical terms. The new pricing structure ensures that no one will be able to play enough to earn gear in the game. The response from the community has been immediate and negative: as of publication time, the thread talking about the change has reached 69 pages, each page filled with unhappy gamers.

One gamer worked out the math to figure out how much he would now have to play to earn a single super weapon. "So, 450 VP a day... at a maximum of 7 VP a game, that's 50 games a day. About 4 hours worth of playing," he explained. "Now, when you lose a round you can only get 5 VP, making the amount of rounds you need to play each day to keep ONE weapon about 60, which is about 5 hours playtime, every day, for one Uber/Super weapon." That may seem dense with in-game jargon, but the point is clear: no one but the most hardcore players will be able to use high-end weapons without paying for them.

Some players have linked the original trailer for the game, where games that reward grinding are mocked. Ironically, in one update EA and DICE have inflicted Battlefield: Heroes with the very disease it was supposed to cure.

What should be troubling is that many of the complaining gamers stated that they were occasionally buying items just to support the game and to give themselves a boost here and there. The trick was no one felt like they had to spend money to have a good time. Now to play at the same level they were enjoying, there is no choice but to dump cold, hard cash into the game.

Other gamers make their points clearly, and not a little sadly. "Now it's impossible for me to play the game for free. I can't even afford the long ranged pistol anymore, let alone bandages. Let me make this clear: now it takes 22 wins for us to earn enough VPs to rent a weapon for a day. If each match is 10 minutes long, that means I'll have to play for 3 hours and a half with a stellar team just to afford the weapon. This is not a casual game. I can't even be a knife + pistol commando anymore," one poster wrote.

"As a commando, I can't be around a soldier all the time. I need bandages to stop burning bullets, and I need them to heal myself after each knife fight. Since I can't afford bandages anymore, this means that even if I manage to knife a gunner down, I'm going to die next time I attack someone, because I won't have any more HPs. Well, that's not going to happen, because I quit. I don't want to do this, but I really have no choice other than paying to play, and I can't afford it right now."

That sort of reasoning is repeated over and over throughout the thread. People want to play, but the new pricing means that in order to be effective in the game you either have to play for hours upon hours a day, or pay money. The "free" nature of the game has been eliminated; as configured now with the current pricing, it simply won't be fun unless you pay for items.

The signatures in the game's forum have taken a humorous tern—we've included some of them in this story—but this update has a very real chance of ending the game. People enjoyed Heroes because it didn't require a grind, and it wasn't expensive. Now EA has forced gamers to make a choice between three options: quit, start playing for hours a day, or get out the wallets. Bad news for the game's population, as none of those options are very palatable.