Re: My Rant Against EA
 

Can I get that in writing?



As far as I know for Rock Band, in order to get your Rock Band 1 songs on Rock Band 2, you needed to pay. Then again I don't have either of those games, so I'm not entirely sure.


I mean, I see what the big kafuffle is about. Something that was in a game previously was removed and sold as an add-on. There could be reasons for that. Most likely the chance of getting extra money. Or possibly they didn't finish it in time for launch, so they released them extra. But then again, it's most likely the chance of getting extra money.

The reason I don't see it as a big deal is because I never create plays for any game, be it hockey or football. I wouldn't have even noticed the option wasn't there. But if you ever remove my fantasy draft option, there will be hell to pay.

Re: My Rant Against EA
 

True, but it was cheap and there was at least a more logical reason behind that - they couldn't offer all of those songs on a new game without paying the right holders for it.

Re: My Rant Against EA
 

Yeah, I don't think its nessicarily EA's fault for starting it. It just that a lot of EA games suck so they're easy to pick on (plus they have the best selling PC game of all time and its ridled with add ons), but I agree completly with you. That's one of the things that turns me off about Xbox 360 in general too. (Yeah I know now I'll make some enemies~)

But on Ps3 out of the box you're getting a good wireless controler, 120 Gig HD, full internet features, a wireless router, and a Blu ray player (which for the sake of comparision, lets call it a "HD Movie player").. All of which I utilize. And all of which come in the $299 package.

If I bought a 360 with all of those features, I'd be spending over $500 to get it rolling, then another $50 per year.. Not that I think its horrible to buy a watered down package to make it cheaper, but when Ps4 ends up being worse then Ps3 out of the box to make it cheaper.. we can't really blame Sony.

Re: My Rant Against EA
 

Glad someone bought up Halo, which IMO goes a step further into DLC bullying.
As it currently stands, I believe you can only play 2 online modes if you do not have 3 of the 4 DLC map packs released with friends, and maybe 3 by yourself.

Forcing you to buy some combination of the 3 to get access to the majority of modes.

Well, you are looking at it in the current spectrum, but you got to realize in order to get all those features, the Ps3 had to come out 200-300 dollars ahead of the Xbox.. a year after the Xbox released.

So now it looks like a fine package, but up until the start of this month, it would have pretty much even out.

Re: My Rant Against EA
 

True, though I think the HD DVD player was $150 around Ps3's launch, the wireless router was still $100, and Xbox live was still $50. Though I don't know the price of the base unit that came with a hard drive back then.

Re: My Rant Against EA
 

Well we could also add 40-50 for a mic for the PS3 as it still doesn't come with one, and 50 bucks for the DualShock 3 controller, which I assume is the ones that comes with the PS3 now and not the SixAxis?

But we are getting off the talking point... though think one of the few times, the forum pretty much agrees down the line...:ohreilly:

Re: My Rant Against EA
 

Yup, comes with DS3 now. And neither system comes with a mic.

But, setting all that aside, my point was more that, the gaming industry is going to (if it already hasn't) move towards selling watered down products and charging extra fees for little things that could have been included in the package int he first place.

MMORPGs might be the trail blazer for this one, now that I think about it. The mix of having monthly fees and tossing on expansions.. and charging for things like server changes, and character recustomizations.. And making the begining product so watered down that it needs countless updates just to make it feel like a solid game..

Re: My Rant Against EA
 

The Xbox comes with a mic unless that has changed recently?

Re: My Rant Against EA
 

Hmm, actually you're right it does come with a mic. I thought the mic was part of the Xbox live package like with the older xbox.

Re: My Rant Against EA
 

The original Xbox Live (and Gold Membership) cost a yearly fee. You don't pay for the broadband or bandwidth (*coughAOLcough*) and many of the tiered services offered that you have to pay additional for have been offered for free on other platforms (*coughPCcough*) for ages. I'm not totally undermining Xbox Live, I think many of the services SHOULD cost money, including the arcade.

Have you seen STEAM? It gives you one Friend's List for ALL the games available through STEAM. And STEAM is free.

Also, PC gaming isn't quite as archaic as you are making it out to be. Sure, some games had pretty lame Multiplayer GUIs back in the day, but PC gaming for the most part is "with it."

Edit:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/joinlive.htm

Like, the fact that the SILVER EDITION of XBox Live doesn't include "Online Mutliplayer Gaming" is pretty pathetic. Perhaps Microsoft should take 5% off your monthly bandwidth bill when you subscribe to the Gold Service.

Re: My Rant Against EA
 

I've been playing Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne lately. I love all the new neutral heroes they added months and even years later. The new maps, the bug and balance fixes. I think I might have wanted to pay a euro per new hero or something. But it was all for free.
TF2 is another good example.

Makes me wonder how Blizzard will handle Starcraft 2. Will they keep providing free content updates? Or does their new market system mean that they'll now charge for their stuff? We'll see.

Oh and I've never paid for DLC. Unless you count transferring my WoW character from my brothers to my own account.

Re: My Rant Against EA
 

I agree about that EA didn't start it. The nickle and diming started well before! However like Professor S said, EA took a feature that was previously in the game and turned it into additional paid content, which is different then a map pack. A lot of times you see "classic maps" unlockable in a game (and unless there is a new engine for the game, you should never have to pay for classic maps).

In MUA, the issue was that the characters were already IN the game and EA was just unlocking them for you. If a month later, they added additional characters to the game, that'd be different. In fact, I wouldn't mind them introducing new characters all the time assuming it's a good price point.

And those RB/GH songs also weren't in the game originally and are priced quite well.

I think there are some good examples of nickle and diming (Fable 2, RB/GH, SOME map packs) but usually the stuff is either ridiculous that you have to buy it or is WAY overpriced.

Re: My Rant Against EA
 

The Arcade doesn't come with a Mic but that makes sense since it has no HDD and therefore not the BEST online gaming console.

They should have removed the Arcade and dropped the Pro to the Arcade's price. But that's getting off topic.