After EA and DICE developers insulted fans for their reactions to the new Battlefield V, the popular Battlefield sub-Reddit which has over 127,000 subscribers decided to censor their users by attempting to end criticism of historical accuracy.
Moderators of the Battlefield sub-Reddit decided that the best way to handle the situation was to censor criticism of the game which mentions historical inaccuracy.
On June 14th a thread was started by the moderator sloth_on_meth announcing the sub-Reddit’s new censorship policy:
“We’re done, its over. New rule: No more bitching about historical accuracy, it’s a game, not a history book. Violatons (sp?) will have consequences.
we get that y’all have valid criticism about battlefield V and the customisation options within the game. Sadly, this subreddit has proven to be unable to have a civil discussion about these things without devolving into name calling and slapfights.
Hate us all you want but we’re done with this bullshit. This issue has been discussed in a million threads but we’ve never been brigaded more than we have in the past months. Admins can only keep up with so much. We’re done wasting our time on this, every point has been made, no you’re not sexists or whatever, but this is just repetitive now.”
The post goes on to describe their reasoning for censoring historical accuracy criticism.
“Reddit admins have confirmed brigading and the modteams of the subs in question are fully cooperating to make sure it doesn’t happen again
Hate us all you want but we’re done with this bullshit.
This issue has been discussed in a million threads but we’ve never been brigaded more than we have in the past months. Admins can only keep up with so much. We’re done wasting our time on this, every point has been made, no you’re not sexists or whatever, but this is just repetitive now.”
Basically, it was easier to take a chapter out of the EA playbook by telling users that anyone who discussed or criticized the game from that point forward would face the “consequences.” Even though they may not be paid by EA, it sure looks like they are using the same tactics as EA’s Chief Creative Office Patrick Soderlund.
However, after declaring to end discussion on historical accuracy and customization criticism they decided to create a MegaThread at the top of the Sub-Reddit to discuss historical accuracy criticism. I’m definitely scratching my head at that decision. It doesn’t really make sense if they are ending all discussion on the criticism.
Some believed this MegaThread was a fair compromise, but the vast majority felt this was censorship of anyone who disagreed with EA and their “official narrative.”
Battlefield V will be available in October for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, but if the folks at EA and DICE continue to insult their fans and tell them not to buy the game, I can’t imagine the sales will be very strong.