The 2020 book of the Guinness World Records 2020 came out a few days and there’s a new record that’s been unveiled. EA Games, a company not unfamiliar with backlash, set a world record for the most downvoted Reddit post in history.
Back in 2017, EA released Star Wars Battlefront II and set gamers into a rage when it introduced the dreaded loot boxes to the popular franchise. Loot boxes are seen by many as a customer-hostile and bad-faith way of draining even more money out of gamers that have already paid to play the game.
During the controversy, a Reddit account run by the EA Community Team responded to complaints about their decision to make gamers unlock characters. This comment ended up being downvoted 630,000 times, and now, in 2019, it’s earned EA the Guinness World Record for the most downvoted comment in Reddit history.
The award is titled “Most-downvoted comment on Reddit” and includes a short description. “An official post by videogames publisher Electronic Arts, responding to players’ complaints about having to unlock characters such as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2017) through ‘loot boxes’, has 683,000 downvotes.”
Here’s the famous comment:
“The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.
As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we’re looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we’ll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay.
We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets.
Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can.”
Gamer Redditors didn’t take too kindly to EA doubling down on their hostile pay-to-play business practices and downvoted the post into the Reddit history.
For an idea of how hated this comment was, the second-most downvoted comment only has 88,906 downvotes and, in that instance, the user was literally asking for downvotes.
EA’s win isn’t something that EA is likely to be celebrating anytime soon. In fact, the company is this weekend facing backlash after censoring its official Sims 4 forums to silence criticism about their decision to introduce “Muslim-inspired clothing” into the game, but not representing other religions.
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