The war MMO Foxhole allows thousands of players to play together on one map. However, the logisticians have now gone on strike. The reason: The increasingly demanding supply at the front.
What kind of game is this? Foxhole puts you as a soldier in a fictional, persistent game world. In this world, a war inspired by World War II is raging. You decide which side you want to stand on and take part in massive battles. You are thus a soldier in a huge army.
- It is played from an isometric perspective. You control your character from a diagonal top-down view. This gives you the necessary overview to keep an eye on your surroundings. As a soldier, you have relative freedom in how you proceed in the game world.
- In Foxhole, you join one of two factions and fight against the other enemy army. It’s not just about shooting your way through, but also about tactics and resources.
- You can create bases, ammunition, and important materials yourself. Players can act as medics to treat their teammates or as drivers to transport their troops across the map.
Since the last major update, up to 3000 players can be active on a map simultaneously. Players take on various tasks for their team. Supplying the front with ammunition and other war materials is the task of the logisticians.
They have recently become increasingly dissatisfied with their task and accuse the developer of making the game increasingly strenuous for them. Now they have organized to enforce changes.
1,800 players form a union for the logisticians
What exactly is behind this? While soldiers in Foxhole primarily fight the enemy, there are also numerous supporting units that take on logistical tasks. They produce weapons and ammunition and transport it to the front.
This requires time and effort, and these logisticians are thus less often involved in battles than in the midst of action. Recent changes have now increased the workload for this group of players even further.
This seems to have now become too much for some of them. About 1,800 players have now collectively founded a union called “Logistics Organisation for General Improvement (LOGI)” (via logiunion.com). In German, this means “Logistics Organization for General Improvement”.
They are advocating for changes to be made to the game that will improve the player experience for logisticians. In an announcement, it states:
The cumulative effects of the changes made to other systems within Foxhole have increased the stress and responsibility placed on the logistics player base. We believe that Foxhole should not provide a player experience that causes so much frustration for players.
via logiunion.com
Additionally, they have made 11 specific proposals aimed at improving the game. These outline design weaknesses of the individual mechanics that take too long or are too cumbersome to control.
The individual steps increasingly take time, which is said to cause too much stress for players given the constant demand for resources.
Therefore, LOGI is now calling for a strike to enforce their demands. They aim to disrupt important supply chains in the game to worsen the player experience and thus draw attention to the importance of logisticians. The statement was signed by around 1,800 players.
The explosive growth of our organization has shown that these problems are recognized by a large part of this community. Our frustration has begun to overshadow our patience.
Although this list does not include all the problems we have raised, we consider them to be the most urgent and believe that only by addressing the aforementioned problems in a timely manner can the attrition of logistics players be mitigated.
vialogiunion.com
The union emphasized that it is not interested in destroying the balance of the game: “Our goals are a healthy dialogue between the developers and our community, increased player retention, and an improved player experience.”
Although 1,800 players do not constitute the majority of the total player count, there are already reported impacts on the servers according to kotaku.com. Already, there are matches where hardly any logisticians are active. Thus, enemy armies have to fight with pistols since no weapons and other resources are available.
3,000 players fighting only with pistols do indeed seem less spectacular than a fully equipped army.
How is Foxhole received by the players otherwise? On Steam, the war MMO is consistently rated positively. Of around 18,000 votes, 83% are positive (as of January 18, 1:15 PM).
The dense atmosphere of the game is particularly praised. The importance of teamwork is also highlighted, and the intensity of the large-scale battles is positively received by numerous players.
It is appreciated that players cannot just blindly shoot their way through every battle but must apply tactics and pay attention to resources.
However, criticism remains regarding the stressful work for logisticians, and there are also isolated reports of cheaters.
