It seems EA has managed to lob a hornets’ nest into the Battlefield: Heroes gaming community. EA and DICE have received a hasty and vocal backlash to their announced pricing restructure of the free-to-play, combat shooter. Formerly the game held two different kinds of currency; Valor Points (VP) which players earn by simply playing the game (they operate as a form of loyalty currency) and Battlefunds (BF) which are purchased with real dosh. After EA’s changes to the game, the bottom has fallen out of the market value of Valor Points effectively forcing players to pay for Battlefunds in order to stay and play with the big boys.

Many players have complained about the new pricing structure on the game’s official message boards declaring that they don’t want to be forced to grind through the game in order to continue to play for free. Many have raised the valid point that the free play element was one of the original selling points of the title.

So how do companies get the balance right between offering a good product that people can afford and making money?