EA Isn't Trying to Blackmail You

[shadow skill]

Imagine being able to only have a chapter or character in a novel if you buy the novel new. Ridiculous right? Why shouldn't the same thing be true for video games? They are both fun escapist experiences.

Again, this has been explained. If you're missing a chapter in a book it ruins the entire experience. If you're missing the DLC you haven't missed anything important to the intended experience of the game. I could've done without Shale, Zaeed, and the Normandy crash site and it wouldn't alter my enjoyment of the game. In fact if they were included in the game I would have been critical of them - they just aren't necessary.

You can still make sense of a book even if it is missing two or three chapters in the middle.

No offense meant by this, but if you examine that statement and it really holds true, and you can take chapters out of your favorite books and the books will still be just as enjoyable and make sense, and you can honestly compare optional DLC to those chapters - then you have been reading some really awful books.

The metaphor just doesn't work.

So it doesn't work because you arbitrarily decide that if it did work the books with which it did work are bad? Right. You and I don't get to decide what is consequential and what is not for everyone else. How do you know if the item box in DA:O being DLC didn't negatively impact the gameplay experience of someone who did not have the Warden's Keep DLC?

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Nickle and diming piecemeal DLC sucks. Expansions that enhance the entire game experience and add to the main story are good.

 

[ShadowKirby]

Yay for the gaming press and individual people standing up for faceless multi-million dollar corporations that primarily want to squeeze the juice out of you and can't defend themselves. You go team!

Maybe you'll get a letter of commendation from their PR department.

It's less about standing up for big business, and more about shooting down people who are getting disproportionately angry over a fairly minor issue.

That's right, it's never the corporation's fault, it's always the users fault. Keep barking for your corporate masters.

No one's forcing you to stay here if you believe this place to be a front for "The Man".

This is why I whole-heartedly approve of this, until they start releasing games where you require the DLC in order to actually play it (which is the logical progression of where this path will take us).

Now you're just being paranoid. Do you really think any publishers could actually release a 60$ plastic disc you can't do anything with and then ask you in an evil voice "Now pay us 60$ more to play the game mwahahaha" and get away with it? You people are bitching for 10$ or optional content so I highly doubt your doomsday scenario would fly for long.

If you are so pissed at the big bad corporations, don't buy the games. They are not essential to your life you are so pissed at paying for them. Don't pirate them either, or else you're just an hypocrite.

 

[HentMas]

actually the blood armor in Mass Effect 2 looks quite impressive

i wore it for like 30 minutes and then switched to a more particular armor (something more suited for a sniper)

yeah... its cool content but i wont die if i dont get it

 

[yoyo13rom]

This time I'm going with Susan's opinion. I mean:
1. Gamer ARE whiny little consumers, unsatisfied by anything. E.g: If the "Game" will never ever be perfect or good enough, and the publisher rules will never ever be "fair". That still doesn't mean that some rules aren't utter rubbish and that their sole objective is to get he gamer's money right out of his wallet.
2. I for instance never quite cared for DLC. Usually it's something insignificant compared to the whole game. If it's something more context based then no publisher will ever give it for free.
Is DA:A The Awakening gonna be free? NO!(or at least I don't know that it is)
+ I really don't know any game that offers a DLC worth buying(except for The Stone Prisoner from DA, but that can be bought with achievement points). I mean the usual DLC offers a bonus to XP, or upgrades, or something to help the player, no something that changes the game experience.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

This is why I whole-heartedly approve of this, until they start releasing games where you require the DLC in order to actually play it (which is the logical progression of where this path will take us).

Now you're just being paranoid. Do you really think any publishers could actually release a 60$ plastic disc you can't do anything with and then ask you in an evil voice "Now pay us 60$ more to play the game mwahahaha" and get away with it?

Not the evil voice and stuff no, but what you are describing is exactly what they did with the orginal Mass Effect DRM. After your third installation you get a message telling you that needed to go out and pay another $60 dollars to play the game you had already paid for.

It was only because a bunch of "whiners" started "bitching" that EA decided to not to go down this road anymore.

You people are bitching for 10$ or optional content so I highly doubt your doomsday scenario would fly for long.

If you are so pissed at the big bad corporations, don't buy the games. They are not essential to your life you are so pissed at paying for them. Don't pirate them either, or else you're just an hypocrite.

Customers expressing what they would like from a business isn't "whining" or "bitching". It is called "consumer feedback", and is the process by which smart businesses work out what the customer wants and then deliver that so that the customer returns to them. If you can offer a good reason for this kind of DRM then feel free to point it out.

I already have - it will bring down the price of second hand games. Why should I buy Mass Effect 2 new when I can buy Mass Effect 2 and Divinity 2 for the same price?

 

[LordZ]

Ok you can complain, but it makes you whiny.

You're whining about whiners so right back at you.

 

[yoyo13rom]

what A load of tripe!
the ONLY people who get money with every transaction, new or used, is the government. THATS the way the world works (and thats bad enough). and of course if a company comes out and says "we want more too" people are going to be pissed off! and its not fair or reasonable! just to be clear, I work in the games industry, as a developer, I make a living off of selling games. and even I think this is retarded!!

After reading you little rant, I think I've gotten a better picture of the situation. And I agree with you on some aspects(this may come as a contradiction to what I previously said).

"Why?" you may ask me. It's simple really. Project 10$ really doesn't affect me(and I mean only those from my country). Where I live, there are no such thing as used-games-salesmen. If you buy a game it's yours and no one would want it back. No one would by a used game just to save a little money! They would go for the real deal, or would wait a year or two for prices to drop, or would just pirate the game. That's how things work in my country.
So project 10 buck has no meaning here. This is why I can easily go:"yeah you're right" while yawning and not giving a hoot. Why would I give a hoot for the evil governments abroad, when I'm taking all the piss mine gives me.(when you can't even get a job at McDonald it's bad, really bad)

But on topic, hell yeah the governments are evil greedy little bastards that profit from anyone's mischief.

 

[LordZ]

It's less about standing up for big business, and more about shooting down people who are getting disproportionately angry over a fairly minor issue.

Yeah, it's disproportionate alright. There's usually more people who get upset over getting less for the same price. Public outcry, where are you?

Cheapening the value of a product and leaving the price the same is a fair reason to be angry.

I'm personally not all that angry about the DLC, so much as I am the NPC begging for real world cash. They might as well have just placed a giant turd in the game and put a sign next to it saying "We care this much about our games and your enjoyment of them."

 

[loremazd]

Imagine being able to only have a chapter or character in a novel if you buy the novel new. Ridiculous right? Why shouldn't the same thing be true for video games? They are both fun escapist experiences.

Yeah, but this would be more like buying Lord of the rings with the part where they hang out with Tom Bombadil for months cut out. Plus, people don't sell used books, they donate them to libraries.

 

[loremazd]

Ok you can complain, but it makes you whiny.

You're whining about whiners so right back at you.

Better than doing a "You can't control ME!" hissyfit.

 

[LordZ]

Imagine being able to only have a chapter or character in a novel if you buy the novel new. Ridiculous right? Why shouldn't the same thing be true for video games? They are both fun escapist experiences.

Yeah, but this would be more like buying Lord of the rings with the part where they hang out with Tom Bombadil for months cut out. Plus, people don't sell used books, they donate them to libraries.

I know at least a few people who would be outraged over that. Just because you don't consider something valuable doesn't mean everyone else has to feel the same way. I've known people to spend large chunks of money on nothing more than shrink wrap.

 

[loremazd]

It's less about standing up for big business, and more about shooting down people who are getting disproportionately angry over a fairly minor issue.

Yeah, it's disproportionate alright. There's usually more people who get upset over getting less for the same price. Public outcry, where are you?

Cheapening the value of a product and leaving the price the same is a fair reason to be angry.

I'm personally not all that angry about the DLC, so much as I am the NPC begging for real world cash. They might as well have just placed a giant turd in the game and put a sign next to it saying "We care this much about our games and your enjoyment of them."

If you could tell me how an entire team spending hundreds of hours for the soul purpose of entertaining you equates to them not giving a shit about you, i'll give you a medal. In fact the way you're acting tells me that you don't really care about them.

 

[LordZ]

You're whining about whiners so right back at you.

Better than doing a "You can't control ME!" hissyfit.

I fail to see how that's better. How about I make a new thread whining about news articles that whine about whiners. I'm sure that'll be really constructive.

 

[LordZ]

If you could tell me how an entire team spending hundreds of hours for the soul purpose of entertaining you equates to them not giving a shit about you, i'll give you a medal.

That's easy. They did it for that shiny they get from their boss when they get laid off. It's great how companies like to fire off experienced employees so that they can just hire an experienced employee of another company at entry level pay. Don't lie to yourself, the companies only make it because they want money. Whether they entertain you or not is only a side-effect.

 

[loremazd]

If you could tell me how an entire team spending hundreds of hours for the soul purpose of entertaining you equates to them not giving a shit about you, i'll give you a medal.

That's easy. They did it for that shiny they get from their boss when they get laid off. It's great how companies like to fire off experienced employees so that they can just hire an experienced employee of another company at entry level pay. Don't lie to yourself, the companies only make it because they want money. Whether they entertain you or not is only a side-effect.

Ahh, so you don't care about them, or walk a mile in their shoes. Stop kidding yourself, the world actually doesn't run the way your cynacism tells you. People don't code because of the money, they code because they enjoy coding. There's far more lucrative positions out there. Same with art designers, 3d animators everyone involved with the design. Companies aren't some bile retching organism that puke out products, they're people in the same place making something.

And people certainly don't work because they'll get more money when they're fired. That's absolutely rediculous. I've never met a single person who's ever thought that way.

 

[LordZ]

Ahh, so you don't care about them, or walk a mile in their shoes. Stop kidding yourself, the world actually doesn't run the way your cynacism tells you. People don't code because of the money, they code because they enjoy coding. There's far more lucrative positions out there. Same with art designers, 3d animators everyone involved with the design. Companies aren't some bile retching organism that puke out products, they're people in the same place making something.

As a person who writes code, I take offense to that. I don't work for a company like EA specifically because I care more about what I code than money. If Bioware cared so much about their games, they would have chosen to fold or depend on community support instead of cashing out by selling to EA. You don't produce crap games like EA unless you're doing it for the money. Anything they produce that happens to have any quality to it is by pure accident or because it was made and then bought by EA.

Also, I have to say, even when you're working on something you really care about, writing code is mind numbing work. There may be better paying jobs out there but you either have to be really skilled or completely brain dead to get one. Also, I'd hardly call the pay you get for working on a game meager. You get into entertainment for one of two reasons. You really care about that particular part of the industry or you want large wads of cash. If you make games for money, you work for a corporation like EA where you don't have to worry whether your next pay check bounces. If you're in it because you love games, you work for an indie company that may or may not ever make it because of the shoe string budget they often have to work on.

 

[loremazd]

Ahh, so you don't care about them, or walk a mile in their shoes. Stop kidding yourself, the world actually doesn't run the way your cynacism tells you. People don't code because of the money, they code because they enjoy coding. There's far more lucrative positions out there. Same with art designers, 3d animators everyone involved with the design. Companies aren't some bile retching organism that puke out products, they're people in the same place making something.

As a person who writes code, I take offense to that. I don't work for a company like EA specifically because I care more about what I code than money. If Bioware cared so much about their games, they would have chosen to fold or depend on community support instead of cashing out by selling to EA. You don't produce crap games like EA unless you're doing it for the money. Anything they produce that happens to have any quality to it is by pure accident or because it was made and then bought by EA.

Also, I have to say, even when you're working on something you really care about, writing code is mind numbing work. There may be better paying jobs out there but you either have to be really skilled or completely brain dead to get one. Also, I'd hardly call the pay you get for working on a game meager. You get into entertainment for one of two reasons. You really care about that particular part of the industry or you want large wads of cash. If you make games for money, you work for a corporation like EA where you don't have to worry whether your next pay check bounces. If you're in it because you love games, you work for an indie company that may or may not ever make it because of the shoe string budget they often have to work on.

The only way you could do a job you like is if you work for an independant company? Absolute drivel.

The world does not work in absolutes, not in the least bit.

 

[LordZ]

The only way you could do a job you like is if you work for an independant company? Absolute drivel.

Well, I choose not to count masochists. If you enjoy being the whipping boy of a corporation, that's all you.

If you're working for EA because you love games, you're doing it wrong.

You either absolutely love games more than money or money more than games. It's impossible to love money equally to a game because games and money are two different worlds.