Fat Dragon
Arbiter
http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2008/03/21 ... pany-beta/
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.
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.