Summary
The battle pass concept has become well and truly normalized in online games. These provide players with a bunch of exclusive cosmetics, boosters, and gear for playing the game. But what initially seems like a fun way to keep players engaged has become one of the worst things to happen to online games for me.
The Rise and Allure of Battle Passes
The first mainstream battle pass was released in Valve’sDotA 2duringThe International 2013, but the game that truly popularized the concept wasFortnite. The game’s outstanding popularity, combined with the initial appeal of battle passes, resulted in an outstanding$9 billion in revenuein just the first two years.
It’s a financial success that few other publishers can boast about. Naturally, others followed suit and released their own takes on the battle pass concept.
Soon enough, battle passes were everywhere:Rocket League,Genshin Impact,Call of Duty,Fall Guys,Overwatch, and otherlive service games. Though not all games with battle passes arebattle royale games, many of them are. Games likePUBGandCall of DutyWarzonehave vast sandbox-style maps that make it easy for the developers to create new challenges.
On the surface, battle passes seem like a win-win for all parties involved. The publishers make enough money from battle pass sales to make the game free to everyone. Gamers who buy battle passes get a ton of rewards as they play. Battle passes are often priced at around $10–$15, significantly cheaper than a single good skin in most games.
Despite the low price, the rewards are usually of above-average quality. Plus, many battle passes reward the player with enough in-game currency tobuy the next battle passif they manage to complete enough of the current one, effectively providing you with an endless supply of skins and accessories as long as you keep playing.
Battle Passes Turn Games Into Grindfests
One of the main appeals of battle passes is exclusive limited-time skins, weapons, charms, and other accessories. They often follow a theme of some kind, making them even more appealing. After all, who doesn’t want to run aroundFortniteas their favorite Marvel superhero?
Unfortunately, this exclusivity comes with a major downside: the fear of missing out (FOMO).FOMOis a powerful form of social anxiety that arises when we think others are having fun while we can’t participate. It sucks when everyone on the server is flexing their cool tier 80 battle pass skins, but you’re still stuck on the old tier 46 one.
Another downside is that, since everyone unlocks the same skin, any sense of personality and individuality a skin used to bring is lost.
To prevent FOMO, you’ll be compelled to allocate a lot of time to grinding the battle pass and finishing challenges, even long after the game stops being fun. you may’t turn on a movie or play another game because you have to finish this week’s challenges before they’re gone forever, and you’ll never accrue enough battle pass points to unlock Spider-Man.
Once you purchase a battle pass, your primary objective is no longer to win the match or kill lots of enemies; the only thing that matters is to finish all the daily and weekly challenges toprogress the battle pass. The game essentially turns into a weekly chore. It’s even worse when the challenges are something stupid or frustrating, like collecting more rubber chickens in an area than anybody else in the match.
Players Obsess Over Battle Pass Challenges
When you log in on the first couple of days when the weekly challenges unlock, you’ll notice that half the server is just grinding the battle pass instead of playing the actual game.
A 100-player battle royale match is left with only half the players a few minutes in, as people complete a challenge and die so that they can do the next challenge in a new match. It feels like nobody is there to enjoy the actual gameplay; it’s all about ticking off boxes to unlock new weapon charms and profile icon borders. It simply isn’t fun.
If you don’t own the battle pass or care much about progressing it, it simply isn’t fun when only half the people are trying to beat you. It’s even worse in team-based games, as you can no longer rely on your random teammates (even less than usual).
The focus on battle pass challenges completely disrupts the natural flow of competitive multiplayer games because the objective is now to complete arbitrary tasks that often have nothing to do with the game.
It’s worth pointing out that not all games rely on daily or weekly challenges to progress the battle pass. Some games allow you to make good progress by simply playing the game, which is much healthier for the overall experience.
However, you still need to play the game more than you’d probably like if you want to unlock the entire battle pass in time. I remember having to playWarzone 2.0for a couple of hours every night to finish the battle pass. Once I was done, I quit the game altogether.
Burnout and Player Retention Issues
Once you buy a battle pass, you’ll need to commit to it if you want all the rewards and enough in-game currency to essentially “get your money back.” That way, you’ll be able to spend the currency on a new battle pass or in-gamemicrotransactions.
Nobody likes chores, so this mindset frequently leads to burnout, especially when you want to play other games but don’t want to lose battle pass progress.
To keep paying players in the game, the devs add even more exclusive skins. After a few cycles, players get tired of the loop, leading to resentment and drop-off. To combat their newfound resentment, the publisher spends a lot of time and money on creating a new “version” of the game, like the newFortniteandWarzoneseasons, causing the cycle to start all over.
Ignore the Battle Pass (or Play Games Without One)
It’s easy to get sucked into the addictive grind for skins once you purchase a battle pass, but addictive doesn’t always mean fun. In fact, it rarely does. If you catch yourself playing a game that’smore frustrating than funjust because of the battle pass, stopwasting your timeand quit cold turkey.
While it’s fine to purchase a battle pass once and then skip the following ones, it’s easier not to get sucked into the loop in the first place. That’s why I recommend ignoring the battle pass altogether and simply playing the game for fun. This way, you’ll have the flexibility tochoose which games you playwithout getting tied down.
Even better, play games without a battle pass system. That way, you won’t be exposed to the temptation caused by FOMO. Unfortunately, suchonline gamesare getting rarer. I’m personally fond ofBattlefield V, but you can also tryTitanfall 2,World of Warcraft, andForza Horizon 5.
Games should provide you with a couple of hours of fun at the end of the day. If you find a game that does that for you, skip the battle pass, and it’ll stay that way. While you’re able to’t control whether other players focus on the challenges instead of the coregameplay loop, you can avoid the grind altogether—and you’ll have a much better time.
