Why We Need Quick Games and Why Apex Legends Is Losing Me

I’m a busy guy and, based on what I read in the news, I’m far from the busiest person out there. You work 8+ hours a day and when you get home you have to worry about food, family, friends, chores, and the fact that Nazis are back. So when you want to relax with a video game, that 100+ hour AAA video game isn’t always going to be the right fit. This is where quick games shine.

Now, what do I consider a “quick game?” I mean a game you can pick up, play for 15 minutes, and put back down again while still having a complete experience. The two big examples of this in my life currently are Magic: the Gathering Arena for PC and Apex Legends for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Magic the Gathering Arena is, very simply, a digital version of the card game Magic: the Gathering. It’s free to download with the option to pay real-world money to unlock more card packs or participate in special play events. Players can also purchase card packs with in-game currency, which is earned by winning matches and by completing in-game challenges, such as “kill 25 enemy creatures.” Apex Legends in the latest, and debatably greatest, in the long line of Battle Royale games. In it, 20 teams of 3 players each deploy to a large map where they will scrounge for weapons, armor, and supplies while also killing anyone they see until they are the last squad standing. None of the gear players find in one game of Apex Legends carries over into their next game, so every player starts each game fresh and on an even footing. What does persist between games is a player’s level, which helps them unlock new customization options for guns and playable characters or “Legends”, as well as in-game currency used to unlock new Legends. Apex Legends is another free download but players are more than welcome to pay real-world money to get more customization options and characters.

The reason these games appeal to me is because any amount of time I put into playing them, I can make progress towards new cards to make my deck better or a snazzy new outfit for my favorite legend. On top of that, the short game time removes almost all of the stress, because if a game is going poorly, who cares? I’ll be in a brand new match in less time than it takes to watch an episode of TV. It’s impossible for me to lose anything, so there’s nothing to worry about. Though perhaps their greatest strength is in their clearly defined endings. Win or lose, you’re kicked back out to the main menu, forcing a break in the action. This means you can’t get lost as easily as in the continuous play of a game like Stardew Valley or Civilization, where hours can disappear in the blink of an eye because you can just keep playing without ever having to stop and look at a clock.

Unfortunately, Apex Legends has thrown a rather large wrench into their otherwise perfect machine with the introduction of their Season 1 Battle Pass. If you don’t know, a Battle Pass is a ticket that allows you to unlock new customization options for your guns and characters, earned by playing games and earning experience points during the set season. It costs 950 Apex Coins, which is an annoying corporate way of saying it’s about $10. To be clear, the problem is not that the Battle Pass costs $10 in a free game, game developers deserve to be paid. The problem is that Season 1, like all seasons, will come to an end in 3 months. This destroys the low-stakes atmosphere of Apex Legends and replaces it with a tense, competitive environment where every moment you aren’t playing, you’re wasting your money. Even if you are playing, you need to be playing better to be earning more experience to get more rewards. Your shots need to be better, you need to be surviving longer, and your teammates need to better because you need those rewards. The game goes from a care-free romp to a high-stakes competition where every move matters. Possibly the most insidious reward is the ability to unlock 1000 Apex Coins, which is enough to buy the next season’s Battle Pass, ensnaring you in a cycle of playing Apex to unlock more Coins so you can get the next Battle Pass so you can play more Apex to unlock more Coins and so on until the Sun goes supernova and engulfs the world in radioactive fire.

There is one saving grace balancing the scales in favor of the Battle Pass: even if you don’t buy it, the game tracks your Season 1 progress and informs you of what you would unlock if you did buy the Battle Pass. If players like the sound of what they’ve earned so far and buy the Battle Pass, all of the rewards they have unlocked so far are awarded to them instantly. This gives players the chance to play however they want throughout the season and decide at what point the Battle Pass is worthwhile to them on an individual basis. Even with that, though, it’s not likely I’ll pick this up.

In today’s culture of games as a service, where the companies that hold the funding want gamers to play their game for months or years, paying a few dollars here and there as time goes on, I understand why this decision was made. But if they wanted my money, they would remove the time limit, let me play at my own pace, and unlock the new hotness in my own time.