Escape from Tarkov is something of a success story. A hardcore shooter which popularised extraction gameplay, mixing the thrill of being in danger of losing gear from the map that you are trying to extract with the bloodlust of limited life competitive combat, and played upon the 'Russian ruins' aesthetic of the dormant S.T.A.L.K.E.R franchise. The game was conceived as a quick fund raising vehicle for the next serious project the team wanted to work on, but ended up blowing up to such an unreal degree that the little fundraiser ended up being promoted to being the team's core-most project. (Or should I call that an 'unheard' of degree? I'm getting ahead of myself...) Nowadays Tarkov is considered one of the few really successful hardcore competitive games on the market and treated with the indie sensibilities that the team probably no longer align with given how wide they have grown.
Theirs was a game considered fondly for a while, and those on the outside of the community filed it away in the back of our minds as one of those games that made it. But what if I told you all that was a smokescreen? And that Tarkov has been pushing the buttons of it's community bit by bit over the years to the point where they genuinely thought they could get away with a €300 game mode without it spreading into a public relations incident? Well then, we'd have to take a look at everything happening with the 'Unheard' edition from the broken promises to the insane asking price to what I think isn't being discussed enough- how insane of a height this company is setting itself to fall off of. All over the space of like- three days! (The devil be coming for folk quick these days!)
So to start with the basics- Tarkov is getting a PVE mode! I know- wonder of wonders! Imagine what one can accomplish with a mode based around PVE, why- I can just dream about what such a remix could have achieved for other PVP central franchises like Overwatch! (Sad, broken, dreams) And how does one access such a mode? Well that is exclusive to people who purchase the Unheard edition of Tarkov retailing for that aforementioned abominable price. But that isn't all they get! There's also a backup radio to call friends into games, and a token which renders certain enemies passive if you cross a certain reputation marker with the right faction. Essentially it's your basic pay-to-win stuff, I'm not sure how common this is within the Tarkov space but seeing as how none of those others doodads where the topic of backlash from within the community- I assume they're used to those sorts of gameplay effecting MTX. What they are less happy about, however, is backtracking and lies.
You see, Tarkov has sold extraordinary priced packs before chock-full with grand promises about what they give players access to. We could go through and critique the ethics of each balance switch-up, for the purposes of this drama all we need is to examine is the now-defunct Edge of Darkness pack. This $145 pack claimed to give players, along other goodies, access to all future DLC that would release for the game. A claim which ran up afoul of the fact that the only way to access this upcoming PVE mode would be the $250 Unheard of edition mode. That is- well, it's breach of promises. (Perhaps even contract depending on how seriously we take marketing descriptions.) Tarkov's excuse to try and get away with this? "Uh... the new mode isn't DLC guys!"
Oh yeah, they tried to get into the semantics argument! You see- they consider DLC to be a very specific type of content and a game mode to be another kind entirely. By their reasoning- the PVE, which bear in mind is considered so substantial it is provided exclusively in a several hundred dollar valued pack, does not constitute enough to be consider downloadable content. Which is rather stark, when you think about it. So what, is this considered a whole new game? Or is it considered less than a DLC? Because the former would imply a new executable, and the latter would imply they are overcharging for their content. What is this catch-22 that Tarkov has locked themselves within?
And then, of course, we have the petty stuff. Discord channels have been silenced by those afraid of being called out by their own community, Tarkov's Twitter handlers directly attacked another extraction genre-title who made some subtle jabs their way by calling them a 'rip off'. It's been an absolute mess. All whilst I stand in shock and ask the question that no one seems to be asking: what in gods name is so special about this PVE mode that it's worth $250? No, really! We're talking about a PVE mode tacked onto the side of a PVP shooter, a decent PVP shooter by all reckonings, but a shooter nonetheless. Typical wisdom would insist such content would be a bit of a messy bending of systems and mechanics to fit a purpose they weren't created to serve. You can find fully polished campaign shooters for $60. What has Tarkov got up it's sleeve worthy of a 400% mark up over everything else on the market?
What this smells like to me is rank exploitation of their most devoted fans. This is a game that is a hobby for a great many out there, one of those forever games that people stick staunchly to and come back to time and time again. Tarkov has thus been infested by that same loathsome corporate bug that insists- "Heh! We provide so many hours of entertainment to these people and yet we charge the same as other games out there! Some people come back to our game year after year when they only play through the latest AAA game once! Why don't we charge the equivalent of 4 triple AAA games, then? Isn't that fair?" A hilariously short-sighted 'utopia' of meritocracy that these cretins really don't want to get into. Start charging by the hour and be overwhelmed by how high our standards soar. Mild server issues that kick us off the game for a couple of hours will be lawsuit fodder for breach of contract. You want that smoke? No? Then how about you sit back down!
In the new day Tarkov's developers are performing the backtrack I honestly did not expect out of them. Typically I assume situations like these are grand publicity stunts, but the extent to which these developers ceded their general goodwill in full view of everyone- this would be the worst publicity campaign ever- if it truly was. Now the PVE mode which they explicitly stated would be inaccessible to everyone who didn't buy the pack- that's coming to everyone for free... in about six months time. Now the pack is giving people six months 'early access', which is... honestly a lot better. Let the idiots waste their money on that crap, I don't care. It's just a shame they had to drag their own name through a circus of mud to get to this basically reasonable policy change that any rational mind would have led out the gate with. Marketing- where competence goes to die.
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