A recent Anthem update may have just wiped out any earned event currency. That's not too big of a deal on its own — special, time-limited currencies get removed or rendered useless after special in-game events all the time in various different games. What is a big deal is that the consequences of this update apparently weren't communicated very effectively and a segment of the players are rather upset.
Here's some background: Anthem has just wrapped up their Cataclysm event. One of the things this event had was a special currency called "Crystals" which could be used to buy items during the event. Pretty standard fare, with one important caveat: as PCGamesN notes, a Community Cortex post stated that the event currency would not carry over to the next Seasonal Event:
- Second (and this one is important), your Crystals will not carry over to the next Seasonal Event.
Again, this isn't all that unusual. However, many games tend to repeatedly communicate important information like this. Overwatch, for example, will put out a blast in the last days of one of their events so players don't miss out on earning the goodies they want to before their last chance is gone. That didn't happen for the Cataclysm event... with the exception of an obscure tweet.
Lack of Anthem Update Reminder Upsets Fans
As far as I, PCGamesN, or Reddit's /r/AnthemTheGame submission on the topic can tell, there was no reminder about this most recent update removing the event currency save for this tweet from one of the game's developers:
Also, you'll probably want to spend any crystals you've got leftover from the Cataclysm before maintenance..... https://t.co/ib2iRZB1Rd
— Jesse Anderson (@Darokaz) October 15, 2019
Understandably, the poor communication here has upset more than a few people.
"So.. the way I find out I should spend all my crystals because they'll be disappearing in less than 24 hours isn't through an announcement on the sub or in-game," read a comment from /u/iceplanet2002. "It's via someone asking a question about the CM's retweet. We all knew BioWare's communication sucked, but they don't seem to be trying to be better."
"After not playing since launch I hopped back in just a couple weeks ago to see what had changed...and now this?" began another comment from /u/Asami97. "No warning [in-game], just a Twitter response? Really? How is it that Bioware never learn from their mistakes. They are either completely inept or they just don't care. Bioware could give all their content away for free, they could balance the game, fix the bugs, shower loot on us and fill it with content. But it still wouldn't fix Anthem because there is something rotten at the core of Bioware."
Although some people were upset, not everyone forgot about the currency being removed; several users have stated that they expected the event currency would be removed in some fashion and others had pointed out the Community Cortex post. Nonetheless, several people seem to have been caught off guard by the latest Anthem update removing currency and it's pretty clear that the developers could have (and should have) done a better job with communication.
What do you think of the latest Anthem update removing currency with no reminders about the changes? Do you think BioWare should have done a better job of communicating or was the original Community Cortex post enough? Let us know in the comments below!