First of all, may I point out that this article / opinion came to me initially as a one liner. Then I found myself going on….some may say a rant! I just want to say it’s purely my opinion.
Is it just me? I refuse point blank to pay out extra money to in effect shorten, my gaming experience. It appears there are a lot of people out there that simply want to buy their way through games these days. I say buy their way through but what I mean is skip through what is by far the key elements of gaming ie. exploration / reward / bragging rights!
FIFA 13 is just one example. With it’s “Ultimate Edition” retailing at up to £65, it is aimed at the people who play Ultimate Team but do not want to actually play the game as it was designed ie. build up your team over time. That is certainly the attraction for me….yeah, it’s tough at times, but that surely makes the rewards so much sweeter.
FIFA 13 Ultimate Edition should be labelled FIFA 13 Shortcut Edition!
Of course this isn’t new. Battlefield 3 and the NFS series are just some other games that sell the shortcut ability. All of them seem to have a common theme, or should I say connection, Electronic Arts (EA)!
EA, we know you’re in it for the money and not the love of gaming, but there is no need to milk the hell out of it! Don’t forget, EA also incorporated the online game pass which affected the pre-owned market substantially.
Is EA out to kill gaming for the mass market where only a privileged few can afford it? In these times of recession, surely the opposite should be demonstrated.
Free to play (F2P) games (Guild Wars 2 / Planetside 2 ) is also another area that continues to grow, drawing you in with a dangled carrot only to be told you need to pay for extra content, to get more from the game. ITunes offer free version(s) of games. Admittedly, if you like the game you purchase the full game. The difference here is that this is it at a reasonable price.
Maybe it’s progress. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe a choice should be offered! In my opinion, it’s wrong, almost immoral to offer game shortcuts for a price. Just make the games cheaper to buy….sell more, enough said!
Glad I got that off my chest… phew….
David Southern
What’s your opinion?
Written by: DSUVZ
Tweet me @DSUVZ
Yeh I agree but the F2P is different from the blatant money grab from EA. New Star Soccers F2P is essentially a demo, you pay the (69p) for the actual game part – the career mode. It’s not a shortcut to anything, it’s just another way of drawing in punters.
I do think console owners are there for the taking really – you’ve got a captive audience. EA’s antics are all about ‘maximizing revenue from their IP’ *natch* which you can put alongside half-arsed Collectors Editions of games (it’s like the normal version but with a 3″ figurine and artbook).
Posted by PeteG | October 4, 2012, 10:29 amSame for me. It is also the same time, that I give feedback on a blog post. You aosblutely nailed it with your video podcast. The question, I always ask myself, is: Well, what should I leave in the comments, that would add value to the discussion? But it is not about that. Value is added through the diversity of comments, and the interplay between the feedback provider and the receiver.Also, the question will answer itself, once practise comes into play. So here we are.Thank you very much for this and all the other fantastic insides from a professional practitioner a fantastic blog!!!!By the way: The ideas of using blogs as a medium to improve the project communication, and also to initiate a learning process through trying to establish an insight into otherwise very tacit process, is on my mind for quite a while now. But I find it very hard, to establish the usage in our projects, due to opposition from current rather chaotic practises.What do you consider to be the most critical success factors in using blogs in projects?Thank you very much in advance.
Posted by Betty | February 16, 2013, 12:59 am