Why Battlefield 3’s Rent a Server Has Damaged The Online Experience (Xbox 360)

What components make a multiplayer game successful? Is it the gameplay? Or perhaps a levelling system that is so commonly seen these days? Well for me it needs rewarding gameplay and a variety in maps and this is something that Battlefield 3 had. The problem that I have with it now on the Xbox 360 (not played on Playstation 3 or PC) is the rent a server. The idea of it is great, let players customise the rules to fit their liking and on paper, it should be great for players like me who can hop on the server browser and find lots of matches with different rules and find one that suits my play style. This is what i was expecting when i recently started playing it again, only for expectations to be shattered as i only found people playing the ONE map, that being Gulf of Oman.

Even when I do join such a match expecting the next map to be different, it’s not. This wouldn’t be a big problem if I could jump into a quick match on a map of my choosing, with the full 24 players, but this doesn’t happen at best I got 6 on each side. This makes the matches a lot less exciting and chances are you will jump into a custom match where the duration of it could be up to an hour. Again I have no problem with this, it’s just a tad frustrating when I know that I will lose bonus XP if I quit. The problem with the one map could also be seen again once the Close Quarter’s DLC is out, or maybe the complete opposite will happen and players will continue to play Gulf of Oman, leaving the players who bought the DLC to use the quick match option, possibly limiting the total players.

For me, DICE needs to find a way to balance the situation out, giving players the freedom they want with their matches, but at the same time allowing the other players to find the matches they want and play with the rules they want. Maybe this could be achieved with a better description of the rules next to each server.

Close Quater’s DLC is scheduled to be released On June 12th on all platforms. What are your thoughts on this rent a server? Do you love it or hate it? Let us know in the comments below.