- Joined
- Apr 2, 2011
- Messages
- 2,680 (0.56/day)
Ahem*cough*Mass Effect 2*cough*wheeze
Anyone else catch this sudden sense of deja vous? It's like this bull has been passed around for the last several years.
In Mass Effect two there were multiple armors and guns that only came when you preordered a specific version of the game. Gamestop (in the US) had cerberus armor, online had riot suppression armor, and if you ordered it with dragon age you got medieval style armor. $180 for some crappy extra armors is the greatest waste of money since someone decided to create furby.
In this case, I had no problem purchasing the good underlying game. In protest to this crappy policy, I used cracks to make sure my preorder allowed me to get all the dlc that I should have gotten for supporting the game. This is technically piracy, but entirely reasonable to the people I talk with considering that retailer specific dlc is a shitty way to breed customer loyalty.
Do I want to boycott a good game, no. Do I feel that the moral high ground is in piracy, yes. Does this topic raise more issues than can be addresses with a simple boycott, definitely. Do I believe EA has jumped the shark, nuked the fridge, and smiled during the whole process, yes. I just don't see the average consume as able to change any of this, because the business model of these companies is basically that the consumer is a thief. Without the smallest modicum of trust developers are going to keep screwing consumers, and driving the call from pirates to stop developers from gouging consumers.
Twenty bucks for a movie may provide ten hours of enjoyment (assuming 5-7 playings before it becomes "old"). Sixty dollars for a ten hour game is inexcusable (I'm looking at you Crysis 2). Developers need to decide that the pretty graphics should take a back seat to good mechanics, gouging the consumer drives long term piracy even if it drives short term profits, DLC run well (HL episode 2 was great, now I'm waiting with bated breath for a third episode) can pad the bottom line better than anything new, and DRM generally protects games well until they are released (at which time it only impedes your paying customer base).
~sigh~
Anyone else catch this sudden sense of deja vous? It's like this bull has been passed around for the last several years.
In Mass Effect two there were multiple armors and guns that only came when you preordered a specific version of the game. Gamestop (in the US) had cerberus armor, online had riot suppression armor, and if you ordered it with dragon age you got medieval style armor. $180 for some crappy extra armors is the greatest waste of money since someone decided to create furby.
In this case, I had no problem purchasing the good underlying game. In protest to this crappy policy, I used cracks to make sure my preorder allowed me to get all the dlc that I should have gotten for supporting the game. This is technically piracy, but entirely reasonable to the people I talk with considering that retailer specific dlc is a shitty way to breed customer loyalty.
Do I want to boycott a good game, no. Do I feel that the moral high ground is in piracy, yes. Does this topic raise more issues than can be addresses with a simple boycott, definitely. Do I believe EA has jumped the shark, nuked the fridge, and smiled during the whole process, yes. I just don't see the average consume as able to change any of this, because the business model of these companies is basically that the consumer is a thief. Without the smallest modicum of trust developers are going to keep screwing consumers, and driving the call from pirates to stop developers from gouging consumers.
Twenty bucks for a movie may provide ten hours of enjoyment (assuming 5-7 playings before it becomes "old"). Sixty dollars for a ten hour game is inexcusable (I'm looking at you Crysis 2). Developers need to decide that the pretty graphics should take a back seat to good mechanics, gouging the consumer drives long term piracy even if it drives short term profits, DLC run well (HL episode 2 was great, now I'm waiting with bated breath for a third episode) can pad the bottom line better than anything new, and DRM generally protects games well until they are released (at which time it only impedes your paying customer base).
~sigh~