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That guy killed me because he paid more money.

Fat Dragon

Arbiter
Joined
May 24, 2007
Messages
3,499
Location
local brothel
http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2008/03/21 ... pany-beta/

Well with the rise of the microtransaction age we were bound to see some exploitation, and it seems that the horse armor syndrome is rising again, this time over at EA. We've heard about it via several sources already, including a reader, and it appears that the Battlefield: Bad Company Beta lists individual weapons for sale via the XBLM. A total of ten weapons are locked that have text reading "Available for purchase on Xbox Live Marketplace" next to them. The details of this are a bit shaky as of now however, as of those ten weapons, five weapons are listed as simply available for purchase, and five are listed as available in gold edition or for purchase. The gold edition likely refers to the game's collector's edition which sports a faux gold finish and which will apparently have extra content.

Now, whether or not collector's editions having in-game items is a good idea isn't the issue, the issue is the microtransactions in regard to in game items. It isn't really an issue with single player games, as the content purchases of other players cannot effect your experience. But in the case of a multiplayer shooter having more weapons available to those with larger pocket-books just doesn't feel right. With EA experimenting with microtransactions in their new Battlefield Heroes PC game, it would seem only logical that they would continue the experiment in the console realm. But with the PC version's microtransactions based around things other than in-game items that effect balance (EXP, Skins, etc) we're hoping the console side of the experiment fails, and the PC one is widely adopted.

So basically, the game will have completely broken multiplayer gameplay. The ones willing to fork over more money will gain an unfair advantage than the ones who didn't.

Also, notice the word I highlighted. The weapons they're buying are already included in the actual game, they just need to buy a key to unlock them so they can be used. The sad thing is that many people will waste their money on it.
 

Schauman

Scholar
Joined
Oct 27, 2007
Messages
157
Location
Finland
Bring on the Pay-Per-Bullet system already.

TF2 - $29.99
Weekend supply of Kool Aid - $30
Playing with the heavy weapons guy for 12 seconds - $400.000
 

vrok

Liturgist
Joined
Jul 23, 2005
Messages
738
If you bought an Xbox you were asking to get screwed in the first place. That's what Microsoft specializes in, and in buying their complete mini-computer system you were made their bitch. First Xbox Live Gold membership for multiplayer access and now this. The funny part is more and more games will probably do this since there will always be some (lots, it's a console remember) stupid enough to pay to make it worth it for EA/whoever. I have no problem with EA milking the Xbox players for massive cash, maybe then they can relax a bit more when it comes to the PC, unlikely except maybe for Heroes but meh.

Even if EA did something this stupid on the PC, servers would simply disable the unlocks. A command that will be in if EA wants any clan activity at all, which they do. Unranked server for the win. Heroes is a different matter entirely since it's free. It looks like they're a little iffy when it comes to dedicated servers and clan support at all in that game anyway because of accessibility for morons. No biggie, it's free.
 

WhiskeyWolf

RPG Codex Polish Car Thief
Staff Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
14,756
My brother won't be happy about this. They should just go and die.

EA+M$="Give us more MONEY..."
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
And then there was this MMORPG called Guild Wars which didn't even charge a monthly fee and still brought enough money to its developers to make them develop a sequel...
 

MetalCraze

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
21,104
Location
Urkanistan
one thing is to bear a shitty gameplay of every 9 out of 10 games of today.
but the other thing is to actually pay for the shitty gameplay again and again.

codex: "omg that new EA guy says so many smart things - he will change the EA shitty policy for sure!"

you gotta love EA.
 

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