Battlefield 2042 players are demanding a traditional scoreboard

Battlefield 2042 has only just launched for those who buy into the game early (you can read out review-in-progress here), and players already have a wishlist of changes for DICE to implement. Chief among them, judging by BF2042's official subreddit, is a traditional in-game scoreboard.

The scoreboard DICE cooked up for Battlefield 2042 intentionally doesn't tell the full story of a match. Pressing Tab (by default) mid-match shows a ranking of every squad, including their kills, assists, and revives. It doesn't show you the stats of individual players unless they're on your squad and it won't tell you how many times someone has died.

Many vocal fans miss the traditional scoreboard from past Battlefield games that broadcasted every player's kills, deaths, score, and ping for all to see. "Why keep out something so simple and standard in all shooters? I like to see my personal stats, stats of the squad, overall stats, if teams are balanced. Please bring this SIMPLE feature back," wrote user where-ya-headed on Reddit.

"How come they remove[d] one of the most used feature[s] of the Battlefield games?" said At0m11c.

Redditor xEu20Matar is so fed up, they're holding Battlefield's cute little penguins hostage until a classic scoreboard arrives.

bring_the_scoreboard_back_or_the_penguin_gets_it from r/battlefield2042

It is a little weird to play a Battlefield game that gives you so little information about the other players on the server, but it seems like DICE is trying to deemphasize individual performance to encourage teamwork and discourage harassment based on performance. Text chat can regularly get nasty about player performance in games like CS:GO, Rainbow Six Siege, and Valorant. Battlefield 2042's scoreboard is essentially toxicity-proof, at least outside of squads. In the normal Conquest mode, pressing Tab only shows three neutral or positive stats about your squad—kills, assists, and revives. You can still see a complete list of players on the server from the pause menu, but only the three teammates on your squad can see your individual stats, the rest just see the name of your squad.

With this layer of obfuscation, there's not much for players to complain about. A fed up squadmate could decide to give you a hard time about your kill count, but without a death count or kill/death ratio to back them up, there's little statistical ammo to abuse each other with.

Hiding personal stats may also have the desired effect of encouraging more teamplay in Battlefield, a team-based series that can often feel individualistic in practice. Without a server-side leaderboard to stand at the top of, we might get fewer snipers taking pot shots from hilltops for the entire match.

scoreboard_is_an_element_that_makes_a_game_more from r/battlefield2042

Overwatch has a similar system that I imagine DICE looked at when making Battlefield 2042. Blizzard's scoreboard doesn't surface any other player's individual stats, just your own (though toxicity is still rampant thanks to the Gold/Silver/Bronze medal system).

I'm not sure how nasty Battlefield 2042 would get with a more open scoreboard. In my experience, Battlefield players tend to ignore the overall match and focus on themselves. I can't recall any instances of getting harassed over my team contributions. In my eyes, goofing off has always come with the territory in Battlefield. I'm sure harassment does happen, though, and I appreciate that DICE is taking player behavior seriously. I've seen some players similarly bemoan BF2042's lack of an all-chat channel, but I won't miss randos having a fit to the other team over getting sniped.

I can empathize with the desire to compare yourself against 127 other players. Even if I rarely break into the top 5, the compulsion to hit TAB and see if I'm the best is strong. It feels good to be on top! Maybe DICE will see a big enough demand to make it happen, or maybe players will stop caring and get used to the new scoreboard in a week.

Right now, I'd settle for a Battlefield 2042 that works: The game's having some serious server issues on launch day, although the situation appears to be improving.