BULKHEAD has sized up the sentiment around the recent season two update in WARDOGS and concluded it didn’t hit as hard as they expected. The player count shot up very nicely when the update was released on October 15, but the arrival of the patch was met with backlash from fans everywhere.
The team admitted on social media that the ‘fresh start’ that was supposed to be introduced with this update in the form of a wipe ‘never really landed’, and changes to progression were named ‘the wrong call’. In response, BULKHEAD has vowed to bring forward the game’s third season ‘significantly.’
Early Access = Teething Issues
In an announcement on social media, BULKHEAD, the studio behind WARDOGS, the exhilarating first-person shooter that has taken the world by storm, admitted things hadn’t landed of late:
Season 2 was meant to be a fresh start, and for a lot of you it hasn’t felt like one. We sped up progression on deliberately and tried to balance the game better, as set out in the patch notes, but it was the wrong call.
Some players are reaching end game gear like Tier 4 armour and MBTs within days, so the wipe never really landed.
Some things are clearly out of balance and we’ll fix them. Others have the community split, so we want to see how those play out first.
The comments under the posts were packed to the rafters with people lambasting BULKHEAD for some of the operational changes. Admittedly, many of the comments are constructive: ‘Bro, the season isn’t balanced at all; it’s been a few days why can’t you do a hard reset now rather than play it out with the current state for a long time?’
But BULKHEAD stressed that’s exactly what they don’t want to do. They don’t want to rush another change, but they will accelerate the pipeline that leads to season three:
We won’t be doing a knee jerk reset this weekend, as that would be unfair on everyone already enjoying the climb. Instead, we’re looking at significantly bringing forward Season 3 and some of its content, so you get a proper fresh start. More details in our dev vlog next week.
This is what Early Access is for. Thanks for playing and for the feedback.
WARDOGS remains in a good place, player base-wise. At the time of writing, the game boasted 209,000 players on Steam, making it the fifth most-played game on the platform behind AION 2, PUBG, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike 2.
Are you still playing WARDOGS? Let us know what you think about the game’s second season and the wipe on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
Not quite sure I undersand their Corpo-Speak “Never really landed” What I particularly found bad and dismissive by Bulkhead is “This is what early access is for”
I would have a problem hearing that as a player
But that is literally what early access is for. If you want a complete, balanced game then do not ever opt in to early access.
Bulkhead themselves released an entire video prior to releasing the game giving you reasons NOT to buy the game if you’re not ready for the Early Access grind.
Early access is specifically for user filled, ongoing beta testing which is very good for live service games like this. People expecting end game content, perfect balance, and a plethora of QoL changes are the ones that are wrong here.
Bulkhead has said they are fine with people not playing if they aren’t having fun and anyone who isn’t having fun playing a VIDEO GAME should probably stop rather than complain that it’s not the exact game or state they would like it to be in.
The people hitting t4 already is insane, I work full time and have a family I spend time with. I just unlocked the mosin. Over progressing is a problem of people with to much time on there hands not your average gamer with a family and job. 14 hours a day is not logical for a large number of us.
Their level system brings power, instead of horizontal progression. So, every wipe will be a failure and they need to adress that, not Xp progression.
With a slower levelling process, you’ll still have the same problem a day or two later AND casuals will always be understuffed.