Bashing EA Is Fun And Easy
…at least with interviews like these being posted, regarding the somewhat mindboggling cojones that it takes to “monetize” single player games that, you know, you already paid for.
Chip Lange, Vice President of Online Commerce at EA, stated that the publisher was only providing consumers with a choice and that players can instantly unlock something – such as a golf course in Tiger Woods, rather than put 40-50 hours into the game – something which Lang claimed only 20% of people would do.
When drawn upon the issue of charging for what once might have been a cheat code, Lange argued, “There are places where cheat codes are free but those are on websites and those websites are making money by selling advertising.”
Setting aside for the moment that you can’t get actually find a paid Xbox360 unlock on “a website making money” through tiny classified ads (something the EA PR person responded to with “Uh, I need to research that”), the point remains that, according to Mr. Lange, there’s a pressing market for people too lazy to actually play games. Which, judging from the success of some folks in the MMO sphere, you might think he’s on to something, hmm?
Well, no. One of the quickest ways I can usually start an argument with others in the MMO industry is by saying, flat out, that if your MMO has an RMT problem, then your MMO has a design flaw by definition. Simply because if someone is paying money – the measure, by almost any criteria, of the value of a person’s time in our society – to avoid part of your game, that part of the game is not fun. Because if it were fun, why would they not, you know, play it?
After all, they theoretically are paying you already for the privilege of playing the game. Why should they pay for what essentially is a fast forward button? It’s like picking up a DVD of the Lord of the Rings, and then paying an intern/illegal alien/teen runaway/whoever you prefer to exploit to constantly skip straight to the battle of Helms Deep. Sure, you COULD, but you miss a bit of, you know, the rest of the movie. By doing so, you’re saying you don’t care about the rest of that movie – it holds little value for you, and your time is valuable enough that you’d pony up the cash to skip ahead.
This is an arguable point in MMOs, because of the multiplayer nature and people wanting to catch up to their friends, engage in the social community that congregates on the high end, et cetera. But in single player games? It’s just mindbogglingly stupid. If you feel the need to skip ahead to the end of a single player game… why did you buy it again? I am reminded of Old Man Murray’s reaction to when RMT was first announced in Ultima Online; they immediately threatened to sell their Half Life save games on eBay. Which makes about as much sense as anything else.
Should’ve stayed with EA Sports, Chip. Then again, when everyone else gets promoted or quits, being the last guy standing with a smile might help your career.
If you work at EA.
EA is admitting their games are so boring I’ll want to pay extra to skip playing them?
Refreshingly honest, but perhaps not the best advertisement.
This kind of behavior is self-correcting. Eventually, EA will learn to charge for actual added value for a 360 (or PC) game. Unlocking a cheat code is not what most of us would call “added value”.
As long as I don’t have to pay $5 to unlock the mauler, im all good, lol.
Personally, I would never pay to have something unlocked in a game. The whole concept is just ridiculous. Eventually they will have pop ups or end up spending real cash for better items in games– perhaps even bullets or a better gun that doesn’t jam.
One day all this will get out of hand.
Entropia already charges for bullets.
Most games are flawed. /shrug
RMT and now this paid cheat code are there so that people can enjoy the game they paid for.
By design the entire game (MMRPG anyway)isn’t supposed to be fun because there is still the attitude that leisure is supposed to be work.
Lum is correct in a sense because some aspects of MMRPG are just glossed over tread mills designed to be work so 5% of the playerbase can epeen over 40% that want epeen too and 55% for whatever reason still want to have fun but can’t.
If they can possibly make any amount of money out of it they will do it. EA has been at the forefront of ripping people off per year for so-called upgrades for their games anyway, why should this seem so different?
As for RMT flaws, I don’t think there is a game that has done it right yet, well at least the mmogs I have played. Everyquest was at the start good because the rate at which items that were needed dropped outstripped on the whole the amount of items one person needed so there was always a affluent second hand market for the leveling people (which is something WoW completely killed with bind on equip).
Hey, remember the video game tip lines that you could call to get advice on kicking Abobos sweetly or bringing your ikari warrior back from the dead? Granted, the info being available elsewhere is probably a large part of what killed them (are they still in business?), but the toll for the call is what really kept me away.
This whole thing is about as overhyped as the “spyware” in BF2142 that was going to bring about the end of the world.
First, TW07 isnt just a single player game especially on the 360. They have the whole ranked matches, ranked tournaments, and ranking ladders in place. People were paying for a fully “leveled” up toon so they could race up the ladder as quick as possible. That part had nothing to do with the single player side of the game.
Unlocking all of the courses in the game takes less then 5 hours of playing the single player game, not 40-50 hours. And its a side effect of the play not a goal or a roadblock.
This is just alot of noise about nothing. As long as the content is unlockable in game in a reasonable amount of time; not 50-60 hours; then it isnt a big deal. But part of me is glad that this getting made into a big deal because that will hopefully delay the onset of release content that can only be obtained by pay. If ES:Oblivion wasnt already full of content, they would have come real close to crossing this line.
Sometimes developers do stupid things in single player games and a cheat good is good to just skip over the stupidity. Currently playing MechAssult for the DS, and overall a decent game. Two things however ruin it to the point others should pass this one by, or wait till it’s in a bargain bin. One is a stupid “hacking” mini game you play to open doors or hijack mechs – nothing more than how fast can you drag things with the stylus – which is used in no other parts of the game so this feels like a “nintendo said we need to use the stylus” thing.
Second is the final battle. He gets: biggest mech in the game, you get: the smallest (power armor – not even a mech). WTF is that? So you get to jump around for 30 minutes shooting off pellets while avoiding getting hit even once. Developers here had no clue why fans play mech games.
So, bottom line, i would use a cheat code to skip those two parts and avoid the anger that wells inside from dealing with them. It’s not always cheating to skip to the end, it’s about removing the crap developers put there to start with.
Paying for cheat code – how would this even work? No software to date has ever had a non hackable “key” system – what makes EA thing they are any different. Add to this people won’t think of it as stealing; they paid for the game.
that’s crazy it’s cool they made the cheat but trying to charge.I’m sure that someboddy will put it on the web then it will be free.
It would be hilarious if players bought into RMT in single player games. And then demanded versions of the game that ONLY include the RMT content. Somewhat on the same lines as what poster #3 said. They could be forced to make things of serious value, as players would only be purchasing the RMT content and not the full game :p
Speaking of RMT vs timesinks, I think guildwars did it right. You cant really jump into WoW for some pvp as a new player.
You know, someone’s going to hang you with those words when your own game comes out friend.
RMT is going to go after every game they can. Even if you design a game to the point that it’s fun to play every step of the way, some asshat is going to pay to skip it all and ‘be at the top’ because their only definition of ‘fun’ = “Better than all those other losers.”
The root symptom isn’t always game design, sometimes its the players…
I was about to say… Grimwell is right. RMT will always be around as long as one can compare him or herself to others.
MMO Must Die…
If you can’t do the time, why buy the game. Cheats are more fun after you play the game…
Grimwell hit it on the nose. If you leave room for the players to ruin your game ( or like DDO make it actually profitable for them to ) then they will do it in a heartbeat. Many people don’t care about the content at all, they only want to get ahead. If getting ahead means pissing on everyone you meet, then a large minority of players will do that. The challenge is to make your game in such a way that the downside of inapropriate behavior is much uglier than the upside is attractive.
/rant off
Unless of course the correlary is “every MMO, by definition, is flawed.”
Does anyone remember when XBox Live used to be advertised as “a chance to get bugs fixed” yadda yadda…
These people are nuts if they think I am going to pay for anything unless it is a large add on and not some piddly sword. Heck, even The Godfather wants to go online and have you buy things! Good grief.
I agree with Lum and Grimwell both!
The problem is though that RMT companies hang the blame on the fact that the game’s broken systems are creating their customer base. The developers of the game hang the problem squarely on the RMT companies creating a secondary market out of their game. Then players blame it on people always wanting to be #1… if that was the case then there are millions of #1’s buying from RMT.
Unfortunately everyone is to blame currently, but who is to blame for the problem existing in the first place? Well I’m sorry to let you know that almost every major MMO developer sat idely by as the problem grew. They said “hey thats bad and we’ll ban you if we catch you”, but none of them said “hey we’re going to fix our games” because you know that costs money and stuff.
How fucking long did Ultima Online developers sit by as merchants were camped and exploited by RMT traders for in game goods (regeants, logs, furs, etc.)? That was a simple fix that they could have patched in, but they were too afraid that a few lazy gamers and RMTraders would bitch about it and that legitimate gamers would be hurt by the sudden lack of supplies in game. Well they can keep blaming the evil red PKs for all of UO’s trouble for all I care…
The iceberg was tipped when SOE basically said “RMT is OK if we are making a buck.” and decided to make the Station Exchange. Now the developers are giving RMT reasons to stay in existance and giving players the verification that developers are not going to make their games better.
And now we are where we are. Gamers buy the games and vote for RMT. No matter how much we complain about RMT in WoW or any other game… if you bought the game you are part of the problem now. You are telling developers to make games that let RMT wriggle their way in.
I didn’t buy Battlefield 2142 specifically because EA was making a buck off me on in-game advertisements. I will specifically avoid future games from SOE. If Warhammer Online ends up having some sort of advertisements or it is clear from day one that RMT will be as big an issue as it is in WoW I won’t buy the game. I am to the point in my gaming life where I am voting with my wallet.
ahh, Old Man Murray… a classic. They were always good for some side-splitting humor! I wonder if they archived anything…
err, back on track!
Oh hey looks like EA is doing it with their casual game service too – at least they’re equal opportunity leeches.
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/nov2006/id20061115_450379.htm?chan=innovation_game+room_top+stories