GOOD NEWS! EAs future games will all feature microtransactions!
- Thread starter Maniacal
- Start date
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
Stop after what debacle?
Off the top of my head they killed Bullfrog (Populous, Dungeon Keeper) and Origin Systems (Ultima, Wing Commander). Spore was a twisted abomination of what it was going to be and one of the most disappointed games ever and Will Wright left Maxis (which is now a shadow of its former self and their new Sim City game is unlikely to have long-lasting appeal to most fans and is being screwed over by being MP only).
The Sims series is entirely designed to make people buy expansion packs for each new game that aren't a whole lot different from the expansion packs for the previous games plus all of the cosmetic ones . The Sims 3 doesn't even seem to be very well optimized or bug-free either. They've never fixed the major problem of how fast the time in the game goes (1 real second = 1 in-game minute) which doesn't match up to the relatively slow speed of the Sims themselves (you're lucky if they can manage to sit down to eat breakfast before they have to leave for work or school).
Bioware has been going downhill for a few years now as while they have made many great games designed for the consoles before, their writing quality has slipped along with gameplay quality (although it does depend a bit on the team). EA's acquisition of Bioware has not helped at all as they are exploiting its name as a new brand and founding new studios that have little or nothing to do with Bioware under its name. SW:TORtanic was much more of a failure than it was a success (no surprise given it copied WoW way too much). The DLC for DA:O was mediocre at best and horrible for the most part. Massive god damn waste of my fraking money. Plus the way you buy DLC on the PC is to buy Bioware points so you end up with some left over (I managed to avoid that thankfully with careful planning). There is co complete edition way to buy them either.
The recent two Medal of Honor games have been mediocre to the max as they tried to emulate CoD and go after CoD players and just ended up not being very good. Battlefield isn't doing much better although that is also the fault of developing it for the stupid xbox 360 as well, but Premium was (and still is) constantly pushed and advertised to players who don't have it (and even ones that do), half the expansions aren't anything amazing and it lacked quite a lot of what made BF2 so popular. BF4 is already going to come out this fall and it is unlikely to be much more than BF3.5.
Then there are the sports games, which have minimal improvements and mostly sell because of fan's ridiculous obsession with having to have the latest roster and the lack of financial skills that makes them think its worth $60 every year for that and little else. Plus exclusive rights ot various names and brands means its hard for anyone to compete with them.
Some people do go too far with the EA hate, but EA is not your friend. Its a corporation and it only cares about what makes it the most money, not what makes better and deeper games.
EDIT: Also the Command&Conquer series hasn't been doing well for a while and their newest one is an f2pay abomination of some sort.
EDIT 2: Pandemic Studios (Star Wars Battlefront games), really went downhill in their last few games before being shut down. LotR: Conquest was horrible.
Ha! I see what you did there.
Janusi
Warlord
I actually was interested in the new Simcity, it looks fun. And then I remembered that to play an EA game these days you have to install their spyware.
No, thanks.
No, thanks.
Ailedhoo
wonderer
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I too wish to see the fall of a disgrace to the gaming industry. Lets hope karma does its trick.
SouthernKing
crickety cricket
You are now at the start menu!
Pay $9.99 (plus tax) to start game!
Pay $9.99 (plus tax) to start game!
Adam7Eight
Emperor
You left out Peter Moore and his lies.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
I don't remember whom that is.
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It reminds me of a flash game that was called "Upgrade Complete" or something like that. You had to spend money to unlock the start menu among many, many things you could unlock (most of which was just basic functionality in the games, including actual graphics). Of course, you weren't spending real money and that was the joke.
Then EA played that game and said, "But people played that, so why can't we do that with real money?"
Adam7Eight
Emperor
The head of EA Sports, who basically told us PC gamers to go $%^@ ourselves.
Ahh yes, the great excuse of "If my game didn't sell well the only possible reason is pirates".
A bit backwards logic. On the one hand you can claim your customers just love micro-transactions; a complete smash hit. On the other, you claim that people are not willing to purchase your game, so pirate it instead.
A bit backwards logic. On the one hand you can claim your customers just love micro-transactions; a complete smash hit. On the other, you claim that people are not willing to purchase your game, so pirate it instead.
- Joined
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The logic also ignores financially successful indie games that managed without DRM (which is another point of microtranscations).
Though, I think the idea of micro-transactions, besides making money, is to make piracy slightly more annoying for pirates. EA is hoping that the laziness of most pirates, who might not be inclined to manually search for torrents of new DLC, patches, etc., will decide that buying the game would be a better idea. It makes sense, since anyone who does spend a ton of time searching for patches, DLC, and the works is probably in the game and should go buy it anyway.
The problem with the idea is that the system still doesn't work. Abiding customers are still forced to shell out extra cash for DLC that will probably include things that should be included in the game in the first place.
Though, I sure can't wait for the system to go with Sims 4 is they stop milking the cash cow that is Sims 3. Instead of paying for expansion packs, you can pay for parts of an expansion pack instead! Yay.
Though, I think the idea of micro-transactions, besides making money, is to make piracy slightly more annoying for pirates. EA is hoping that the laziness of most pirates, who might not be inclined to manually search for torrents of new DLC, patches, etc., will decide that buying the game would be a better idea. It makes sense, since anyone who does spend a ton of time searching for patches, DLC, and the works is probably in the game and should go buy it anyway.
The problem with the idea is that the system still doesn't work. Abiding customers are still forced to shell out extra cash for DLC that will probably include things that should be included in the game in the first place.
Though, I sure can't wait for the system to go with Sims 4 is they stop milking the cash cow that is Sims 3. Instead of paying for expansion packs, you can pay for parts of an expansion pack instead! Yay.
GoodGame
Red, White, & Blue, baby!
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I think most of the past 5-6 years of EA hate stems from Maxis and Spore, others from the corporate syndrome, and the reality that EA has mostly been a console game maker who tries to make successful PC crossovers of console games.
As a PC gamer, I don't relate to EA, but I can fondly recall the EA of the 1980s, making games for the Apple II, Amiga, etc...
How many bashers in this thread were also Sims3 fans that gushed over its release?
As a PC gamer, I don't relate to EA, but I can fondly recall the EA of the 1980s, making games for the Apple II, Amiga, etc...
How many bashers in this thread were also Sims3 fans that gushed over its release?
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
sims3lol
Talk about a series in need of a major overhaul.
Talk about a series in need of a major overhaul.
sophie
Break My Heart
Well, that and their sports games
Disgustipated
Deity
I don't mind micro transactions too much for an rpg like game if it's something cosmetic like an uber sword or something that doesn't affect the story or gameplay much. Because I can't just ignore them and be on my merry way.
I did read an article on the new Sim City coming out (when does it come out btw?) and it looks interesting. Although I admit I never played a Sim city game before. But I'm worried about micro transactions here making buy things for my city I need in order to do well in the game. Or be able to expand a certain distance. From the initial review, it looked like you can't build big cities anymore (I'm judging from the comments in the CNN article). Are we going to have to pay to build big cities? Or maybe the graphics can't handle it.
And yes I'm going to use this space to gripe about Dragon Age 2 some more. I'm still disappointed in this game. I haven't actually bought it, I played a friend's copy. How can they ruin the Dragon Age games with this crap? Why did they change the combat system completely around when it worked fine in the first game? EA probably told them people didn't want combat that slow (then why is Skyrim doing so well then?), and told them to speed it up to ludicrous speeds (swinging a huge 2 handed sword in under 1 second). They broke what wasn't broken. And the game was cheaply made reusing the same areas over and over with little attention to detail.
I can only hope these news games where customers pay the developers to make it before hand are successful. I'm talking about Wasteland 2 and Obsidians new RPG. I'm a bit worried about them since they are made by smaller developers. But I'd love them to succeed and show Bioware a thing or two (Bioware rips off Obsidian all the time anyways).
I did read an article on the new Sim City coming out (when does it come out btw?) and it looks interesting. Although I admit I never played a Sim city game before. But I'm worried about micro transactions here making buy things for my city I need in order to do well in the game. Or be able to expand a certain distance. From the initial review, it looked like you can't build big cities anymore (I'm judging from the comments in the CNN article). Are we going to have to pay to build big cities? Or maybe the graphics can't handle it.
And yes I'm going to use this space to gripe about Dragon Age 2 some more. I'm still disappointed in this game. I haven't actually bought it, I played a friend's copy. How can they ruin the Dragon Age games with this crap? Why did they change the combat system completely around when it worked fine in the first game? EA probably told them people didn't want combat that slow (then why is Skyrim doing so well then?), and told them to speed it up to ludicrous speeds (swinging a huge 2 handed sword in under 1 second). They broke what wasn't broken. And the game was cheaply made reusing the same areas over and over with little attention to detail.
I can only hope these news games where customers pay the developers to make it before hand are successful. I'm talking about Wasteland 2 and Obsidians new RPG. I'm a bit worried about them since they are made by smaller developers. But I'd love them to succeed and show Bioware a thing or two (Bioware rips off Obsidian all the time anyways).
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
It came out today, in NA. If you want Sim City, get SC4 Deluxe, its $19.99 and goes on sale every now and then.
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