Buying play passes for online games sucks...

[Trill Co$by]

So I rented Madden 12 from GameFly, and have recently purchased WWE '12 and a few other online multiplayer games. And when I bought those games, the main reason for me buying them has been because of wanting to play them online. However, with those games that I've bought... in order for me to play online, I now have to PAY to have an online pass. In WWE '12 that costs me around 20 bucks... in Madden, I'm not too sure but almost all of EA's games nowadays are requiring me to buy SEPARATE gaming passes just to play online.

Now, I understand that for PC games like World of Warcraft and all that yahoo they use subscriptions to continuously make money off of the same game that they created YEARS ago while also making more patches for them. But when it comes to yearly released shooter games and sports games, what the hell is the point in gaming passes?

I can accept the fact that at times there are new content to games and therefore I have to buy the extended content, but for companies to CHARGE us a second time to play an online multiplayer game when we've already paid retail price for the game in the first place is ridiculous.

Does anyone else feel the same about this, or am I on a boat of my own here?

 

[wwfoldschool]

Im there with you bud, it makes me sick that we have to pay (in my case) £39.99 for a retail game, and yet, we have to buy online passes.

With rented games im not too sure how that can work out.
This is how i see it,
Some one buys BF3 on release day/retail for full price.
They used the online pass, therefore making it invalid.
They then complete it, get board of it and decides to sell/exchange it.
The next person to buy that game 2nd hand, will now have to buy a new online pass
witch is about £7.99 the last time i checked (if i remember correctly lol)

I understand it cost's money to make these great games, but still.

Now im reading about this site that you can buy/download the game's to your PS3, and that the reason to this is because according to some game company (cant remember who) the 2nd hand gaming market is hurting the bank balance of the company's who make these games.They say they lose money, how can they be?
They release a new game, it retails from £39.99 - £60, they sell millions on release day, so no matter what, buying a 2nd hand game is not losing them money, because some one already paid top price for it in the 1st place.

If we all bought and downloaded these games via this new service, we wont have control of our games. We will not be able to try and get a bit of money back from it if we dont like the game etc.

The world of gaming is expanding, getting better, but at the same time getting even more expensive.

Sorry for this major rant, witch probably dont even make sense lol.

 

[Cracka Jack]

This whole practice came about as a method to stem used game sales. See, companies that publish these games get profit from sales when they're bought new, but not when they're resold through some other means. Being greedy corporations (like all others, of course), they feel entitled to make something off of every purchase of one of their games, first time or otherwise. I guess part of the justification for it is that, since you'll pay less for the game anyway, what's a little extra fee to go online? Well, depending on how high it is, and how much one paid for said game, it may end up being more than retail price. This isn't too likely to happen, but it can, with some passes being about $10 each. I can't recall who started the trend, but there was talk of it coming up eventually anyway. It sucks, but we'll all have to get used to it.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

I don't have a problem paying for WoW or any other monthly subscription-based game. That's how they operate, and it takes money to keep up their servers and offer the game at the extent they do. I'm sure they're making millions off our $15/month, but it's been run that way for so long I don't really care. On the flip-side, I don't really play anything like that anymore. WoW just got so terrible I quit... I may start back up with Old Republic, but I'm waiting for more reviews and for them to fix the bugs within the first few patches.

ANYWAYS, what I can't stand is dropping $50 on a game, and then having to pay another $10-15 to play the full damn game. I get trying to cope with used game sales, but in my opinion...the developers need to put out a game and look forward, not back. Stop worrying about what people do when the product is out of the warehouse. If they sell it, or buy it used...who the hell cares?

Or we could just all play League of Legends, and none of this matters. Why pay $60 for DOTA II when you can play a better game for free...?

 

[Davi323]

I have never, and will never purchase any game that requires me to have a separate monthly subscription to play it. I believe that once I purchase a game, I should OWN the game, and everything that is part of that game, and not have to continue to pay to play it. If it has an online multiplayer mode, but also does single player without a connection just fine, that's little different, I am talking about games that are designed specifically for online play.

I am old enough to remember good old fashioned LAN parties with my friends, playing multiplayer against my friends using IPX, let alone TCP/IP connections...at no extra charge. You could play against anyone you wanted, assuming your computers could link up.

 

[wwfoldschool]

To me, its all about greed lol. They want to make more money, which is fair enough. But its started to happen, and i suppose we will have to either deal with it, or miss out on great gaming.

Services like cod's elite thing, thats kinda different, even tho the £39.99 per year will eventually become very very costly lol. But i geuss i will never know because i stoped playing COD after MW2 ( BF3 for the win ) lol.

 

[Arkham Noir]

I have a question, are you buying these games new? Every game that I've played will give you a code included with the game to play online (granted, I don't play many games that have online multiplayer). If your buying the game used than I see where your coming from, but if these games are actually requiring you to pay a $20 fee to play online and your buying them new than that is some serious bullshit.

However, let me make myself clear, I think having to pay to play online at all is some of the greediest bullshit I have ever seen. Some publishers do it to discourage people from buying a game second hand, but give me a damn break. If someone is paying the full price for a game, than wouldn't logic dictate that one should get the full game? If someone is buying the game second hand than maybe it is because they can't afford paying the full price, and if they can't afford the full price they sure as hell aren't going to be able to afford shelling out extra cash for playing online.

While I do see some logic from a business perspective (companies probably do lose money from places like Gamestop having a trade and save deal), the trend looks like it is slowly going from making up the difference they might lose through people trading in games, to them just wanting to find another way to make money off of games. The best example of this is the Call Of Duty franchise. I was curious a couple of days ago and wanted to see how much their DLC costs. They have map packs that cost $15, and there was like four different packs. That's $60 in DLC, which is what the game costs to buy in the first place. I know DLC is different than an online pass, but it is all a part of the same idea; that people are willing to blindly pay if they are charged.

It's ridiculous, but I guess I'm lucky in that I don't like playing online anyways. Just wait, your going to start getting more games like Call of Duty that are primarily played online, and than you'll be charged for an online pass.

 

[TheGamea]

Im with the last guy where are you getting these games from and are you on xbox or sumthing because PS3 is free, I do redbox and gamefly and Ive never had to pay...

 

[Mayonnaise Warrior]

I think this is a way to stop people from buying used. What is going to happen is people are just not going to buy the game at all.

 

[Trill Co$by]

Im with the last guy where are you getting these games from and are you on xbox or sumthing because PS3 is free, I do redbox and gamefly and Ive never had to pay...

Do you play Madden online? Or any EA Game? Because I've had a PS3 and they've had the same online pay pass as the XBL did. Even WWE '12 has an online pass that you have to buy.

I use GameFly more than I use anything else, and I've encountered plenty of games where I still have to use a pay to play pass.

 

[DirtyJosé]

I'll be the one to "go there": servers aren't free. Providing an online service for the people who buy your game is likely pricey enough without the math of used games or pirated/hacked games entering into the scenario. People like to throw around the term "greed" as if they are entitled to free services for no reason, but how is it greed if the money you paid to buy the game used never ends up in their pocket at all? That's not greed, that's just called trying to stay in business. Some 2nd hand game store gets to make all of the profit off of your work repeatedly, and you're stuck with the tab of providing the online content free where applicable.

If I were to call bullshit about all of this on anything, I would start with the effect this has on XBox Live subscribers. These are people who are already paying to play these games online, so I hope there is consideration for them in the scheme of things. All other console gamers who are crying about "greed" need to take a step back and stop being blinded by their own inconvenience.

And before it gets brought up in a response, yes, I'm well aware that most games are expensive. That doesn't sway me as an argument. If you aren't able to afford new games once in awhile, you should probably have other priorities in life than gaming.