Okay so now that E3 is well behind us we can all come down off of the hype train….especially me, because during this time I look at the world through rose colored glasses. And thank god I’m back to normal because I just remembered one particular thing I’m not exactly enthusiastic about. Now what was it?…Hm….Oh I know, WHY ARE THERE MICROTRANSACTIONS IN MY BATTLEFIELD??!!
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised seeing as how it’s EA, of all companies, that’s doing it. They practically invented the idea of the season pass and quite frankly, with the rise of microtransactions, at this point I’d prefer a season pass. I’m getting so sick of these companies thinking that it’s a good idea to keep nickel and diming us in a game that is already costing us a fortune. From a business stand point I can see something like this making sense to, you know, maybe fund some content that could be added to the game later, like say maps for example. But…oh wait, that’s right they’ve got map packs to charge us for that now, how silly of me to think we’d get any more for free. I had a feeling that the whole free maps thing was just a teenage phase. And don’t get me wrong I don’t mind map packs, that’s kind of how it was done back in the day before the Internet went through a gigabit port, but to couple them up and sell them as “Macrotransactions” is complete and utter bulls%$t. Now you’re just feeding in to the bad vibes, EA.
I certainly like to consider myself a smart buyer when it comes to my video games these days; mostly because I don’t have a lot of disposable income, but I digress. No, a big part of that is simply because I’ve looked through all the tricks and lies over the years and realized that, eventually, things drop in price. And being that Battlefield is such a huge player (no pun intended) in the world of First Person Shooters, I know that the servers aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. So I waited and eventually ended up getting, not only Battlefield 4, but also it’s season pass for the price of an indie game. I’m proud of myself for holding out and “beating” the system, so to speak.
I’ve been a huge fan of Battlefield since number 2, which should be obvious otherwise I wouldn’t be writing about it. I’ve learned to forgive the atrocity that is the season pass and just deal with it in my own way. But it always seems that no matter how big a company is (EA being the biggest IN THE WORLD) they’re always asking for more money. Hey here’s an idea, how about funneling your billions of dollars that you have lying around into the projects that need it. You don’t need more money, $60 is more than enough to pay you and your employees, especially (if numbers are to be believed) since Battlefield 1 is anticipated to be one of the highest grossing ‘Battlefields’ in history. Supposedly it’s going to beat Call of Duty at it’s own game, but I can say without a doubt, if this keeps up, that trend will end real fast. Especially if this Battlefield repeats the mistakes of the past and has an amazing Beta but a really horse manure launch.
At this point some of you might be wondering why I (and many, many other people) don’t slander the developer (DICE in this case), for putting all of this stuff into their game. I mean after all, they’re the one’s making it right? So they should be held accountable for their actions and what they decide to ruin their game with. WRONG. If you know anything about how this kind of stuff works, the publisher (EA in case you forgot) has the last say in everything that, not only goes into the game, but also how it’s marketed and branded. So EA is going to be taking all of my hate on this one.
Listen, the sad truth here is that EA doesn’t listen to it’s player base. They never have. If they did we would have the things that we want in the games we love and not the things we don’t. But EA does what EA wants and what they want right now is more of your money and we need to take a stand against this. I will fully admit that I will be picking up a copy of Battlefield 1 (the standard version to be clear) myself but ONLY because somehow, in some crazy way, I feel as though I’m at least supporting a developer that I enjoy. I will NOT however be another participant in this corrupt culture of microtransaction bottom feeders. You do what you want with your parents credit card, I’ll be happy playing the game that I bought, unlocking things with the skill that I have, and getting my money’s worth. Some others enjoy having fun at getting worse, because that’s the kind of player EA is breeding.
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