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[KyoZz]

The plaintiffs alleged that EA was using its 'Dynamic DIfficulty Adjustment' technology to keep people buying loot boxes.

In November 2020, Electronic Arts was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging that its patented Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment technology was being used in games like FIFA Ultimate Team to push players into buying loot boxes. The plaintiffs claimed that the system adjusts player stats behind the scenes to make them seem weaker in the game than their listed abilities might suggest, which would nudge people into springing for player packs in hopes of finding someone better to add to their lineup.

The lawsuit claimed:
"This is a self-perpetuating cycle that benefits EA to the detriment of EA Sports gamers, since Difficulty Adjusting Mechanisms make gamers believe their teams are less skilled than they actually are, leading them to purchase additional Player Packs in hopes of receiving better players and being more competitive,"

Today, however, EA announced that the lawsuit has now been withdrawn, saying that the plaintiffs dismissed their claims after it provided them with "detailed technical information and access to speak with our engineers."
"While EA does own a patent for DDA technology, that technology never was in FIFA, Madden or NHL, and never will be," it said in a statement.
"We would not use DDA technology to give players an advantage or disadvantage in online multiplayer modes in any of our games and we absolutely do not have it in FIFA, Madden or NHL."

FIFA 'dynamic difficulty' lawsuit dropped after plaintiffs talk to EA's engineers

The plaintiffs alleged that EA was using its 'Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment' technology to keep people buying loot boxes.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Andodalf]

As I told you guys in the other thread, it had no basis. People just get salty when they lose

 

[Spaceman292]

As I told you guys in the other thread, it had no basis. People just get salty when they lose

You defending Fifa gambling loot boxes?

 

[EDMIX]

As I told you guys in the other thread, it had no basis. People just get salty when they lose

Agreed. No one is forcing anyone to fucking buy ANYTHING. Thats like saying DMC is hard THUS Capcom muuuuusssst be forcing it to be hard for da DLC and da loot box and or mtx.

Spaceman292 I doubt this person is, simply that you can't blame a company for your own actions. No one is putting a gun to anyone's head and telling them to buy shit. Whats next, we going to sue a company that puts out games yearly? Be like "yOu dEfEnDiNg yEaRlY reLeaszes?"

 

[VolticArchangel]

"after plaintiffs talk to EA engineers..."

 

[RedVIper]

As I told you guys in the other thread, it had no basis. People just get salty when they lose

I still believe FIFA does change how your team behaves depending on wether you're ahead or behind but,

1. They would never be able to prove it.

2.They can't prove it's being used to make people buy lootboxes

 

[perkelson]

"We would not use DDA technology to give players an advantage or disadvantage in online multiplayer modes in any of our games and we absolutely do not have it in FIFA, Madden or NHL."

That is the biggest pile of horseshit i have ever seen. Anyone who plays FIFA/PES knows how those games fudge player stats so that players can't win non stop. You can literally feel it when game decides that you should lose or concede a goal. It is almost comical to watch when suddenly every player on field behaves like clow with two foots made out of wood rather than pros. How you can't catch to player you previously were doing rounds around and so on.

Part of the reason why i quit playing football games since i had enough of that shit. Instead of making AI good they just rested on their asses and made player worse.

 

[Hugare]

Agreed. No one is forcing anyone to fucking buy ANYTHING. Thats like saying DMC is hard THUS Capcom muuuuusssst be forcing it to be hard for da DLC and da loot box and or mtx.

Spaceman292 I doubt this person is, simply that you can't blame a company for your own actions. No one is putting a gun to anyone's head and telling them to buy shit. Whats next, we going to sue a company that puts out games yearly? Be like "yOu dEfEnDiNg yEaRlY reLeaszes?"

DMC doesnt have PVP multiplayer modes, tho

But anyway, I dont think that this is much different from buying advantages in other multiplayer games, like better weapons in BF and COD games, like it was with TLOU multiplayer, and many many other games

I never support this shit, and only play multiplayer games where everyone plays with the same weapons (Rocket League/Fortnite/Counter Strike)

 

[EDMIX]

I still believe FIFA does change how your team behaves depending on wether you're ahead or behind but,

1. They would never be able to prove it.

2.They can't prove it's being used to make people buy lootboxes

Agreed. Even if anyone could prove this.....who cares? Its like me telling you Ninja Gaiden gets harder and I'm going to prove it (as if its illegal or something lol) None of this forces anyone to buy something, that choice is all on their own.

Would be like me suing Amazon and be like "Your honor, they know what the fuck they doing putting all that paid shit on Prime, out here FORCING people to buy episodes instead of da prime content" lol

Hugare Doesn't matter tbh. A video game getting harder isn't some illegal thing.... So..not asking you to support shit, but none of this makes sense for a lawsuit. Gamers tend to exaggerate shit to literally a hilarious degree. So I don't support many things, I also don't go around making it sound like its worth a lawsuit or something. It tries to turn everything you are against into some legal matter.

 

[Mmnow]

I've had my ass handed to me so many times in things like Call of Duty, and it's always definitely 100 per cent because of lag, hackers or some asshole moving when I wasn't ready.

I've never sued anybody over this delusion.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

I still believe FIFA does change how your team behaves depending on wether you're ahead or behind but,

1. They would never be able to prove it.

You could with save states in emulation. I would love to be able to run the exact same classic Madden late game turnover play over and over and see if every single time its a turnover no matter how you run it.

 

[Andodalf]

I still believe FIFA does change how your team behaves depending on wether you're ahead or behind but,

1. They would never be able to prove it.

2.They can't prove it's being used to make people buy lootboxes

"Momentum" or "Scripting" is a separate issue, and has also been denied, but not with evidence like was just shown for DDA. DDA is 100% not a thing. Momentum IDK

 

[TheKratos]

They should investigate COD games.

 

[Warablo]

This shit is real. Just like ice tilt in NHL games.

 

[Termite]

I could believe that there is "momentum" scripting in the games that increases or decreases stats based on the score (which is fair enough as the same can happen to teams in real life), but I don't believe that there's dynamic difficulty adjustment implemented solely to try to make players buy loot boxes.

I mean, why bother? The natural state of football and its various upsets and wild swings is going to do that for you. Players will lose to late goals that make them rage and then try to get better players whether you script anything or not.

Crazy shit happens all the time in football. In FIFA, where there are millions of games being played every day, it's no surprise that absolutely insane shit will happen from time to time. And when it does, people will swear it's scripted.

 

[Great Hair]

Spoiler

 

[Andodalf]

They should investigate COD games.

COD players just complain about SBMM which is at least actually real

 

[A.Romero]

Spoiler

The guy at 1:33, wow.

I had the chance to meet and talk with the dev team back in 2009 at E3. They were awesome. It wouldn't surprise me that they could have explained what was being done without paying people out.

I usually get FIFA once it costs like 5 USD, play the campaign and a few matches but I normally don't go online. To be honest I don't see the point. Playing local MP is enough or even against the CPU but I don't take that game seriously.

 

[Spaceman292]

Agreed. No one is forcing anyone to fucking buy ANYTHING. Thats like saying DMC is hard THUS Capcom muuuuusssst be forcing it to be hard for da DLC and da loot box and or mtx.

Spaceman292 I doubt this person is, simply that you can't blame a company for your own actions. No one is putting a gun to anyone's head and telling them to buy shit. Whats next, we going to sue a company that puts out games yearly? Be like "yOu dEfEnDiNg yEaRlY reLeaszes?"

No one's putting guns to people's heads and forcing them to kill themselves with cigarettes or blow all their money in casinos or betting websites either. But people do it. That's why those things are regulated. These things prey upon people who can't help themselves. That's the point.

 

[oldergamer]

Bullshit they arent using it. Ive talked to ea engineers too and they accidentally admitted that when i went on a losing streak i should have gone on a winning streak. Even though they could not explain why i should have had a win streak.

Anyway i dont believe them. That guy should have stuck to his guns and proven it in court.

 

[Jokerevo]

There's definitely some kind of weighting "bias". For example a brand new or inactive PES account can suddenly spin Ronaldo Messi in 3 spins. I mean I can literally demonstrate this now by creating a new account and watching the spins rain in.

Meanwhile the guy who's grinding like mad and "playing too much" is drawing duplicate players.

PES is full of scripting/momentum, it's gotten worse since they saw FUT success.

 

[EDMIX]

No one's putting guns to people's heads and forcing them to kill themselves with cigarettes or blow all their money in casinos or betting websites either. But people do it. That's why those things are regulated. These things prey upon people who can't help themselves. That's the point.

Nah bud.

We going to sue McDonalds for making people fat too? How about we sue Amazon for making delivery so fucking convenient? You have free will. I'm sorry bud, but people are free to not buy any of this shit. Thats like saying gaming IN GENERAL "prey upon people who can't help themselves" I mean people can't help themselves so they buy DLC? right? People can't help themselves so they buy games at full price too, People can't help themselves so they buy games regardless of price, lets sue everyone for everything. The people who build PC's and buy new parts all the time, its almost as if that greedy industry is um preying "upon people who can't help themselves" always coming out with new GPUs, making it easy to ship right to your door step /s


Everything doesn't need a fucking lawsuit, people have free will to buy what they feel like it or not. To pretend as if you are doing this to help um "people who can't help themselves" might as well apply to all things that can be bought, shit I can't help myself from buying games during them steam sales, help me build that lawsuit against Steam. (no /s necessary, yo boy SERIOUS)

 

[oldergamer]

Sure EA engineers can come out and say there is no Dynamic difficulty logic in the game. that's because its built into the server technology peer to peer and matchmaking tech! They set the variables at the start of the game, and sure you can get around them by fluke on occasion, it levels the playing field.

 

[Spaceman292]

Nah bud.

We going to sue McDonalds for making people fat too? How about we sue Amazon for making delivery so fucking convenient? You have free will. I'm sorry bud, but people are free to not buy any of this shit. Thats like saying gaming IN GENERAL "prey upon people who can't help themselves" I mean people can't help themselves so they buy DLC? right? People can't help themselves so they buy games at full price too, People can't help themselves so they buy games regardless of price, lets sue everyone for everything. The people who build PC's and buy new parts all the time, its almost as if that greedy industry is um preying "upon people who can't help themselves" always coming out with new GPUs, making it easy to ship right to your door step /s


Everything doesn't need a fucking lawsuit, people have free will to buy what they feel like it or not. To pretend as if you are doing this to help um "people who can't help themselves" might as well apply to all things that can be bought, shit I can't help myself from buying games during them steam sales, help me build that lawsuit against Steam. (no /s necessary, yo boy SERIOUS)

Oh my God you're stupid

 

[John Day]

So i’m out of the loop, but they own a system (DDA) yet they don’t use it in their games according to them in court?

 

[Old Empire.]

Behind the smoke and mirrors, you discover the truth. EA admitted years ago they designed, modern Fifa around a functionality called moments. Essentially, the game code acts up every game and tries to give the player an authentic feel of real football. Unfortunately it has a downside that EA ignores, and, this why you see, a goalkeeper messing up inside the box, shots going wide or hitting the bar. See Momentum shifts and players reactions slowing down, things like that.

 

[Great Hair]

 

[supernova8]

Ultimate Team is obviously a money pit. Anyone who spends money on that shit.... tough shit. I owned every FIFA up to about FIFA 20 and I never once spent any money other than buying the initial game.

I mean, why would you spend money on loot boxes? I don't get it. If it were spending money on permanent cosmetic/permanent buff items then I can mildly get it (still wouldn't do it) but spending money on what are essentially DIGITAL CONSUMABLES is the smartest thing gaming companies have ever come up with. Fucking genius and idiot gamers fell for it.

 

[Alright]

As I told you guys in the other thread, it had no basis. People just get salty when they lose

Except an internal presentation was leaked a few years back saying EA was going to do this, to sell more lootboxes

 

[Alright]

Nah bud.

We going to sue McDonalds for making people fat too?

That already happened and fat people won.

 

[IntentionalPun]

There's nothing locked behind a paywall.. that's all EA"s statement is claiming, not that it's realistic to buy every single best player at every position. You don't have to do that to compete in the game either, you don't even have to spend any money to be competitive.

It's all an insanely profitable thing for EA.. and you can obviously buy advantages.. and that's the strategy. But I'm on the side of "so don't play it, or don't pay" personally. It's entertainment people can spend extra on if they choose. Big fucking deal.

 

[MarveI]

''Withdrawn''...aka bought out.

 

[lukilladog]

Nah bud.

We going to sue McDonalds for making people fat too? How about we sue Amazon for making delivery so fucking convenient? You have free will. I'm sorry bud, but people are free to not buy any of this shit. Thats like saying gaming IN GENERAL "prey upon people who can't help themselves" I mean people can't help themselves so they buy DLC? right? People can't help themselves so they buy games at full price too, People can't help themselves so they buy games regardless of price, lets sue everyone for everything. The people who build PC's and buy new parts all the time, its almost as if that greedy industry is um preying "upon people who can't help themselves" always coming out with new GPUs, making it easy to ship right to your door step /s


Everything doesn't need a fucking lawsuit, people have free will to buy what they feel like it or not. To pretend as if you are doing this to help um "people who can't help themselves" might as well apply to all things that can be bought, shit I can't help myself from buying games during them steam sales, help me build that lawsuit against Steam. (no /s necessary, yo boy SERIOUS)

There is no free will, your actions are the result of genes and the enviroment.