Brightness Dimming on Battery while Gaming - Alienware 13 R2, OLED 1440p, GTX 965M

The Brightness automatically dims to 0 while gaming on battery mode. I have changed all settings: turned auto brightness adjustment off, changed power mode to maximum performance, disabled extended battery life for gaming. Problem continues to persist. Has anyone found a fix to this? I read on one forum that there is no fix. Am I to understand that we cannot game on these laptops without the power cord? That seems very limited for a gaming laptop. Support for Alienware customer service would be appreciated.