The BF Diaries: The Case for Boosting

There was a time when I eschewed boosters and the act of boosting entirely. The booster was a cheater in my eyes, cretins of gaming with no legitimate claim to their falsified stats that they undoubtedly brag about every chance they get. This was mostly when I played Call of Duty. My attitude towards boosting in BF3 has changed significantly.

In my humble opinion, by offering the option to purchase unlockables in BF3 Electronic Arts and DICE have legitimized boosting. It’s not so much that people can purchase equipment unlocks for their classes that bothers me as these unlock with time regardless of player ability. But vehicle unlocks have a major affect on gameplay. A jet running with just flares is going to get trounced by a jet running with radar and heat seekers every time irreverent of player skill.

Sitting on an empty server arming and disarming MCOMs with the help of your friends is not going to make you a better player. You’ll still be the same shitty player you were before you started boosting, you’ll just be a shitty player with access to a USAS and a SOFLAM. But an unexceptional gamer hopping onto an empty server with some of his friends and boosting his vehicle unlocks a bit will give him a fighting chance against the unexceptional player with too little time to play to get good and far too much disposable income to throw away on virtual items.

When you’ve paid $60 for a multiplayer game you should not have to pay more in order to be competitive. I never played NHL 10 multiplayer for this very reason. Thanks to Electronic Arts and their propensity for greed, these days I don’t fault people for boosting when I stumble across them in BF3 empty servers. I may even join them (if they are working on jets.)

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