The Battlefield Blog announces that February is "Battlefield 4 Player Appreciation Month," a chance to reward loyal Battlefield 4 players for the growing pains they've suffered with since the launch of DICE's military shooter sequel. Oddly, most of this seems to involve inspiring players to play more by offering rewards that require them to play less. Or something like that. They say: "We’re going to have more information available on each of the Battlefield 4 Player Appreciation Month activities throughout February. Check back here for those details." Here's a bit of what they are saying in the meantime:

A Battlepack a Day
Every day that you log into the game in February, you’ll receive a Bronze or Silver Battlepack. For those of you who haven’t started opening your earned packs yet, these Battlepacks contain bonuses like XP Boosts and soldier camos. Normally, it would take approximately 30 hours gameplay to earn that many packs. Every day that you log a multiplayer game during the month of February, you will receive a new Battlepack. During weekdays, these will be Bronze, and during Saturdays and Sundays we will give away Silver Battlepacks. Remember to activate your earned XP boosts in the in-game menu to accelerate your progress.

Shortcut Bundles
We are preparing two shortcut bundles for Battlefield 4 that we will make available for download at no cost during the Player Appreciation Month. These voluntary shortcut bundles will unlock all grenades and handguns for Battlefield 4 (the base game) so you can make up for lost time. Or if you’re new to the game, they will help you catch up with players who have been on the Battlefield since launch. We will get back to you with more details once we have set release dates for these items.

For all of our Battlefield 4 Premium users, we’re adding two additional weapon shortcuts, unlocking DMR’s and shotguns. That way, if you like, you can quickly get your hands on a large portion of the weapons available in Battlefield 4.

Double XP Weekend
During the Player Appreciation Month, we’ll be running a double XP weekend for all players. If you’re one of our many Battlefield 4 Premium members, you’ll also get an additional double XP weekend during the Player Appreciation Month as an added bonus.