Dear Battlefield 2142 Community,
We, the web sites signed below, have come to an agreement that based on excessive delays, unsatisfactory excuses, and a poor communication EA and its partners; Gamespy, a division of IGN, and Dice, a division of EA, are not planning, nor ever have planned, to release a method for the public to retrieve stats for Battlefield 2142.
While we have already pleaded and begged with EA/DICE/IGN for the release of stats data, they have shown little to no real interest or intent to work with us. At this point, we can do nothing but turn to you, the Battlefield community, to tell our story. We do this so you know that the lack of stats is by no means for a lack of want.
While we hope we have wildly misconstrued events, we believe that EA has never planned to provide stats, and all press releases and/or emails to the contrary were attempts to placate the community until they were able to release their own EA branded stat site.
Excessive Delays
The first confirmed email stating there would definitely be a stats feed was received on Oct 18, 2006. Before then, we have been asking for stats since the early beta stages of BF2142. Since coming out, there has been a press release claiming there would be a stats feed offered to the community and many emails claiming the same. However, outside of these hollow promises, there has been no concrete information offered or efforts to work with leading community websites.
When Battlefield 2 was released it took roughly 2 weeks for IGN to produce a working and viable stats feed. However, despite the fact that 2142 is built on proven technology (BF2) and regardless of the fact that EA has managed to produce a production quality website with stats, we are to this day being told that a stats feed for the community still “isn't ready.” Yet, we have seen successful efforts to grab the data feed like the game does. Some efforts have even gone as far as data scraping the stats directly from the official EA website. If these things can be reverse engineered so quickly, what has taken EA/DICE/IGN so long to create a feed directly from the source?
To prepare, we requested to at least be provided with examples of the data feeds we would be gaining access to so that we could setup our sites. Yet, time and time again EA, Dice, and IGN were unable to provide sample data files or simply wouldn't. Our guess? There isn't really a feed to get sample data files from.
Unsatisfactory Excuses
We've been told, on multiple occasions, that the delay is being caused because of “performance concerns” with the data feed. For a system already tried and tested true from Battlefield 2, where did these mystical performance issues come from? After over a year of operation, this process should be smooth as a whistle. Regardless, where are the performance concerns when it comes to sites like EA's own stat site, or 2142-stats.com which ran, unblocked, for several months. How serious could these so called “performance issues” really be?
Poor Communication
While we think that what we've requested to be fair and simple, perhaps we are incorrect. If that were the case, then the least we would expect is prompt, regular communications about the progress of the project from EA/DICE/IGN. However, we've been ignored for months on end, and when we do get communications from the other side, they are simply regurgitations of the same “please, just wait it's not ready yet” story which has been spoon fed to the community leaders for months.
We publish this letter with the intention of explaining how hard we have tried to bring 2142 stats to the community through 3rd party providers. We wanted you all to know that we haven't given up, and that if there is to be any chance of 2142 stats happening, we're going to need your help to push EA, DICE and IGN into recognizing that there is a desire for this to happen.
Thank you for your support,
- Greg Thomas, BF2Player.com
- Jeff Minard, BF2S.com
- Marco Kawon, BF2142Tracker.com / BF2Tracker.com
- Nick van Rossum, BF2142Stats.nl / BF2Stats.nl
We, the web sites signed below, have come to an agreement that based on excessive delays, unsatisfactory excuses, and a poor communication EA and its partners; Gamespy, a division of IGN, and Dice, a division of EA, are not planning, nor ever have planned, to release a method for the public to retrieve stats for Battlefield 2142.
While we have already pleaded and begged with EA/DICE/IGN for the release of stats data, they have shown little to no real interest or intent to work with us. At this point, we can do nothing but turn to you, the Battlefield community, to tell our story. We do this so you know that the lack of stats is by no means for a lack of want.
While we hope we have wildly misconstrued events, we believe that EA has never planned to provide stats, and all press releases and/or emails to the contrary were attempts to placate the community until they were able to release their own EA branded stat site.
Excessive Delays
The first confirmed email stating there would definitely be a stats feed was received on Oct 18, 2006. Before then, we have been asking for stats since the early beta stages of BF2142. Since coming out, there has been a press release claiming there would be a stats feed offered to the community and many emails claiming the same. However, outside of these hollow promises, there has been no concrete information offered or efforts to work with leading community websites.
When Battlefield 2 was released it took roughly 2 weeks for IGN to produce a working and viable stats feed. However, despite the fact that 2142 is built on proven technology (BF2) and regardless of the fact that EA has managed to produce a production quality website with stats, we are to this day being told that a stats feed for the community still “isn't ready.” Yet, we have seen successful efforts to grab the data feed like the game does. Some efforts have even gone as far as data scraping the stats directly from the official EA website. If these things can be reverse engineered so quickly, what has taken EA/DICE/IGN so long to create a feed directly from the source?
To prepare, we requested to at least be provided with examples of the data feeds we would be gaining access to so that we could setup our sites. Yet, time and time again EA, Dice, and IGN were unable to provide sample data files or simply wouldn't. Our guess? There isn't really a feed to get sample data files from.
Unsatisfactory Excuses
We've been told, on multiple occasions, that the delay is being caused because of “performance concerns” with the data feed. For a system already tried and tested true from Battlefield 2, where did these mystical performance issues come from? After over a year of operation, this process should be smooth as a whistle. Regardless, where are the performance concerns when it comes to sites like EA's own stat site, or 2142-stats.com which ran, unblocked, for several months. How serious could these so called “performance issues” really be?
Poor Communication
While we think that what we've requested to be fair and simple, perhaps we are incorrect. If that were the case, then the least we would expect is prompt, regular communications about the progress of the project from EA/DICE/IGN. However, we've been ignored for months on end, and when we do get communications from the other side, they are simply regurgitations of the same “please, just wait it's not ready yet” story which has been spoon fed to the community leaders for months.
We publish this letter with the intention of explaining how hard we have tried to bring 2142 stats to the community through 3rd party providers. We wanted you all to know that we haven't given up, and that if there is to be any chance of 2142 stats happening, we're going to need your help to push EA, DICE and IGN into recognizing that there is a desire for this to happen.
Thank you for your support,
- Greg Thomas, BF2Player.com
- Jeff Minard, BF2S.com
- Marco Kawon, BF2142Tracker.com / BF2Tracker.com
- Nick van Rossum, BF2142Stats.nl / BF2Stats.nl