I didn’t pick up Battlefield 2142 because, well, I didn’t really want to pay EA $50 for the privilege of having my PC scanned and ads sent JUST FOR ME. However, they apparently have issues beyond that. A blog reader sends this in (although you can blame me for most of the snarky links):

When GameSpy went with a Communist Russia theme for their latest clo..err.. revolutionary new chat app nothing like XFire, they seem to have taken it a bit too far and have it ‘equalizing the masses’ by actually wiping the experience of Battlefield 2142 accounts. While I’m sure Lenin would be proud, players don’t seem to have the same rosy outlook regarding their forced demotion and subsequent return to newbie gear.

Apparently, during the configuration process of Comrade, a duplicate soldier is mistakenly created in the Battlefield 2142 account server and becomes the only soldier you can login to with that name. Of course, this pod-soldier is fresh off the vine and doesn’t know how to use things like, say, grenades, but hey, you can’t overthrow the Battlefield bourgeoisie if you’re sitting on a stat horde of your own now can you?

One would think that this rather major launch blunder (especially since Comrade was bundled with BF2142) would be followed by a fix – adding the experience together of the two soldiers still in the Battlefield 2142 database and prescribing something for the multiple personality disorder, but GameSpy has a much better idea: just delete one of them!

After all, adding two numbers together would be far too much of a programming burden on GameSpy (which is likely true – we’ve seen GameSpy Arcade), and gamers surely won’t mind losing a week or two worth of experience. After all, if getting there is half the fun, and you force them to get there twice, you’ve effectively increased their fun 50%!

Well played, Tsar GameSpy! I’d raise my glass to you, but my soldier and I are busy waiting in the bread line.