Digital Extremes: The Last Hope of Gaming Company Ethics
The gaming world is in turmoil. AAA game development companies are either participating in the bandwagon of appealing more to the casual gamer by creating shorter content and lootbox systems in new games to drain their patrons of their dollars for a CHANCE at fantastic game loot (sounds like gambling, but I digress) or continuing dying game titles because of their loyal fan base. These actions have left a sour taste in the regular gamer of today, leaving us to search high and low for an oasis title that feeds our desires for engaging, long term content. A lot of youtubers and gaming writers have held companies such as Bungie, EA (Electronic Arts) and Ubisoft to the fire for the decline of quality in their content over the years, yet there had been no regular response and solution to the growing gamer concerns. And then in 2013, Digital Extremes took a chance on an additional title to their roster of games that was said to be a “failure”. That game is “Warframe”.
Now I’m not necessarily just jumping on the bandwagon of “YEAH! I’M WITH THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE WINNING RIGHT NOW”, but I am jumping on the positive reviews of all the positive feedback I have seen from this company. When I first tried Warframe in about 2014-2015, I just was not sold on the concept. My first Warframe choice was Mag, the polarizing Warframe. The gameplay was quite fast paced and missions were coming to my inbox left and right. I felt like a law enforcement cadet with serious cases and no training in the police academy. Towards the end of 2017, after disappointment and lack of consistency with Bungie’s sequel title Destiny 2, myself and my gaming crew began looking for a new title we could all agree was a good title to play. As a group, we decided to return to Warframe...and we have been there ever since.
Through looking up information about the game, one of my clan mates shared that the company that made Warframe is a good group of men and women that actually respond to their fan base and makes adjustment where asked. As a growing cynical gamer, I took what my clan mate said with a grain of salt...but I found them on Twitter and read their feed. I found out what my clanmate said was true, the company was responsive and ACTIVE with the gaming community. I found myself contributing real world money for the game’s secondary currency to make space for more gear, which is an OPTIONAL action, unlike other games and their paywalls (check out my article on paywalls deeper in our website).
A couple weeks ago, DE hosted their 3rd Annual installment of TennoCon, their Warframe dedicated convention, in Canada. I could not attend due to funds (as I’m sure we all deal with in one way, shape or form), but DE was kind enough to not only stream the convention on Twitch, but also giveaway a vaulted Warframe for those that joined the stream for at least 30 minutes (to receive the warframe, the viewer also had to have a twitch account and amazon prime account linked to their Warframe account). I did tune in for the Warframe but I stayed for what was the best HOUR of streaming I have ever watched. From cosplay appreciation to content reveals to more gift giveaways, DE put on a great, engaging stream for the warframe community. After the stream ended, every Tenno alive tried to log in for the frame they tuned into the feed for, crashing their servers for the community (they even ACKNOWLEDGED the issue via Twitter). After a couple patient days, I received my warframe and I was a pleased customer. Just a couple of days ago, one of my clanmates, who was unable to view the stream, received a gift in his inbox...the warframe that was given out during the stream. My other clanmate informed us that DE was so pleased with the response to the stream, they released that warframe to those who met the other requirements (twitch prime account linked to his warframe account) to receive the warframe. That, to me, is responsive and showing appreciation for your community.
Every game has its flaws, and warframe is definitely one of them. However, the company driving the game is not above acknowledging issues the game experiences. They also take the actions necessary to acknowledge and fix their issues their community highlights. In turn, the community responds in kind, by contributing their valuable time and money as thanks for a great experience. The success of this game today is proof that you always take a chance on something you believe in, whether it will succeeds or fail should not determine how you execute your idea. Follow Digital Extremes on Twitter @DigitalExtremes. Warframe is a free-to-play cooperative third person shooter video game, available on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with a Nintendo Switch version in development.
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