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Today’s ‘Killing Floor 2’ Reveal Did Not Go Well
There aren’t very many words that can so effectively ignite the fiery passion of the gaming community than microtransactions. Tripwire Interactive learned this with the just-announced Trading Floor, a new in-game shop in Killing Floor 2 where players can take a break from murdering Zeds to purchase cosmetic goods.
“The Trading Floor allows immediate access and purchase of these items outside of the field of combat,” reads an announcement on the official website. “Simply access the Trading Floor and peruse the available selections anytime, from the comfort of your quarters. These items are designed and made by people just like you. Buy their creations, learn their secrets, use them better and, most importantly, look good doing it!”
Some members of the community aren’t having it.
For now, the Trading Floor won’t have any impact on the delicate gameplay balance that must be maintained in every multiplayer game. It exists so Tripwire can use the additional funding to invest in future content, such as “new and ever-more exotic locations in which to exterminate the Zed menace.” These free updates cost them money, so it makes sense that they’d want to create an additional source of income to keep them coming.
As first reported by Destructoid, the Trading Floor has been met with an overwhelmingly negative response from players. The backlash is coming from a few different places. Some are upset that an Early Access game is charging for content, others have simply refocused their lingering frustration after last month’s Payday 2 loot safe fiasco, and then there’s this Q&A from the Trading Floor FAQ.
Q: Will I have to spend money to remain competitive?
A: No. All of the content added in Trading Floor at launch will be cosmetic only and not affect gameplay in any way. In the future we may be adding weapons with new gameplay for sale, but this will appear in the “Shared Content” area on the server. This means that, if any player on the server has a weapon (like the Chivalry Zweihander now), then every player on the server will be able to use it. No-one gets any “advantage”. Co-op game – everyone starts out equal! Our goal is for any such weapons to be side grades anyway, so they won’t provide an edge over the current tier of weapon power.
There are valid points on each side. Tripwire needs money to continue making progress on Killing Floor 2 and their fans need to know they aren’t being cheated.
“Not much time left to change anything before the update, but we are listening.” wrote Tripwire Vice President Alan Wilson in a response to the community. “And, to those asking “why not get the game out of Early Access first?” – well, here’s your answer. Feedback, leading to changes in what we are doing with this, changes to future plans. So that, when the game comes out of Early Access, it is actually finished, with core systems like this ironed out and working the way people want it to.
There’s no release date for this update yet. When it does arrive, it will bring with it two maps and the new Gunslinger perk, in addition to the Trading Floor. Out of curiosity – where do you stand on this?
All of us here at Bloody Disgusting are deeply saddened to learn that George A. Romero Foundation Founder and President Suzanne Desrocher-Romero has passed away.
GARF shared in a statement on socials, “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Suzanne Desrocher Romero. Suzanne passed away of natural causes on June 24 at her home in Toronto after a prolonged illness.”
The statement continues, “Suzanne was the fierce leader of the George A. Romero Estate and The George A. Romero Foundation. She worked tirelessly to preserve George’s legacy. Her work at the foundation will continue to inspire and live on for generations to come. The family asks for privacy at this time.”
Desrocher-Romero founded GARF in 2018, after her late husband’s passing in 2017, and has been a fierce advocate for his legacy and the arts. It was her mission to “strengthen horror as a serious field of global study,” and she was a tremendous fighter on behalf of Romero’s works and supporting new filmmakers inspired by his legacy.
It was Desrocher-Romero who spearheaded the recovery and restoration of The Amusement Park, and, as the person in charge of the George A. Romero estate, worked closely with author Daniel Kraus on completing unfinished novels like Pay the Piper and The Living Dead. She most recently celebrated the restoration of her favorite of Romero’s zombie films, Day of the Dead, and was hard at work producing the upcoming film Twilight of the Dead.
That passionate advocacy led to Suzanne Desrocher-Romero becoming family to Bloody Disgusting as well.
2023 marked the start of an ongoing partnership between Bloody FM and GARF on The Dead, a scripted audio series spanning multiple seasons that saw Desrocher-Romero working closely with the Bloody FM team and mentoring the series’s contributing writers with GARF. To say her loss will be felt internally is an understatement.
“Anytime George Romero is mentioned is good, because what we are doing is to provide a healthy legacy. We’re uplifting his legacy, we’re supporting the archive, and we’re also supporting the Horror Study Center. So, all of these three things are what the Foundation is striving to do. As far as I’m concerned, the more we say George Romero’s name, the better it is,” Desrocher-Romero recently told BD.
It’s the perfect encapsulation of her unwavering enthusiasm for supporting Romero’s legacy and the horror genre, and just a glimpse at how much she contributed to preserving it. She is, in short, an inspiration.
We send our deepest condolences to Suzanne Desrocher-Romero’s family, friends, and GARF.
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