matrimelee
Hardened Shock Trooper

- Joined
- Jul 16, 2003
- Posts
- 426
Having played some Halo 3 Team Swat last night, I came to the conclusion that every game publisher needs to come up with their own paid online play (ala EA and THQ).
EA recently started including vouchers for free online play with their new sports games, and THQ did the same with UFC 2010. So the rub is that they're charging people that don't buy new, or that buy outside the code's expiration date.
Hold your applause. The popular thing for internet gaming websites to do, is to rail against this idea. Then again, to rail against any idea that makes a game company money... As they happily take their advertising dollars.
Back to Team Swat. It's rampantly savaged by unscrupulous players, in the worst way. Halo 3 has a ranking system, where you can rank up or down based on skill level. This was a great idea on paper, but in reality you have skilled players making brand new live accounts (often with the free 48 hour trial) and utterly destroying people that are below their skill level. Imagine if they had to pay $5, every time they reset their skill level to 1. Probably wouldn't happen so often, would it?
Halo 3 isn't the only game that's being ruined by people like this, they come in all kinds. People hacking Left 4 Dead, people quitting out of matches in fighting games, getting banned from live and coming right back with new accounts...
Has anyone thought of this paid online play this way? Basically you're applying serial numbers to console games, mating them with gamertags. Awesome, if you ask me.
Sure, encourage people to buy new (which is for the best anyway). I'm sure a lot of people would be bummed to not save $5 on a game at Gamestop, but have patience folks. Games haven't dropped in price this quickly since the big crash. Many retailers are slashing new game prices, and adding gift cards on top of that, hoping you'll come back next time.
One more thing, in defense of buying new. Who would YOU rather give your money to? The guy selling used stuff, or the guy that made it? It's really that simple, anyway.
EA recently started including vouchers for free online play with their new sports games, and THQ did the same with UFC 2010. So the rub is that they're charging people that don't buy new, or that buy outside the code's expiration date.
Hold your applause. The popular thing for internet gaming websites to do, is to rail against this idea. Then again, to rail against any idea that makes a game company money... As they happily take their advertising dollars.
Back to Team Swat. It's rampantly savaged by unscrupulous players, in the worst way. Halo 3 has a ranking system, where you can rank up or down based on skill level. This was a great idea on paper, but in reality you have skilled players making brand new live accounts (often with the free 48 hour trial) and utterly destroying people that are below their skill level. Imagine if they had to pay $5, every time they reset their skill level to 1. Probably wouldn't happen so often, would it?
Halo 3 isn't the only game that's being ruined by people like this, they come in all kinds. People hacking Left 4 Dead, people quitting out of matches in fighting games, getting banned from live and coming right back with new accounts...
Has anyone thought of this paid online play this way? Basically you're applying serial numbers to console games, mating them with gamertags. Awesome, if you ask me.
Sure, encourage people to buy new (which is for the best anyway). I'm sure a lot of people would be bummed to not save $5 on a game at Gamestop, but have patience folks. Games haven't dropped in price this quickly since the big crash. Many retailers are slashing new game prices, and adding gift cards on top of that, hoping you'll come back next time.
One more thing, in defense of buying new. Who would YOU rather give your money to? The guy selling used stuff, or the guy that made it? It's really that simple, anyway.