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"EA further penalizing people who buy Mass Effect 3 second hand."

Over the past year or two there's been a trend emerging of penalizing people who buy second hand copies of games. Typically this involves giving people bonus downloadable content if they buy a game new, via redemption of a code. Or - and this is a bit more unethical - withholding the multiplayer portion of a game unless you buy a new copy or spend extra money to buy a multiplayer code.

However, EA - who coincidentally have been nominated for The Consumerist's 'Worst Company' award - have taken things a step further with Mass Effect 3. Mass Effect 2 gave you a bunch of extra bits and bats if you bought the game new or purchased a 'Cerberus Pass'. Mass Effect 3 doesn't have this option - instead, if you buy the game second hand you have to pay extra to get access to the game's online features of the game.

So how is that new? After all, Mass Effect is largely a single player experience. The difference is that to get the best ending in Mass Effect 3 - although I could make a separate post about how poor the endings are - you need to have an in-game military strength of 5000. This means completing a bunch of side quests etc to raise your military strength to this level. But your ending is also affected by the in-game 'galactic readiness' stat. If you don't play the online portion of the game, this is set at 50% which means that your military strength is halved.

What this really means is that if you buy the game second hand, it's twice as hard to get the best ending. Having a new purchase only multiplayer portion isn't all that new, but Mass Effect 3 actively penalizes people who bought the game second hand, making it harder to properly 'win' the game. Which given that, either way, you've paid money for the game, is a hell of a thing to do.

Alfonse wrote:
No. You're wrong, I never said anything was intended to be sold as part of the main game. I'm arguing games are being developed as a whole and are then being cut up and having parts sold off as DLC. The fact that Streetfighter X Tekken is being sold as a whole game on one system and then has part locked on another supports this. You're being purposefully obtuse and you know it.

So apparently DLC is being developed as DLC but also its part of the whole game so it can be cut out (this is the evil bit). And I'm the one being obtuse.... :/

Anyway, this is going nowhere.

Alfonse wrote:
The fact that Streetfighter X Tekken is being sold as a whole game on one system and then has part locked on another supports this.

Capcom have now stated that they are 'removing' the on disc DLC from the forthcoming PC version of Streetfighter X Tekken so that version is indeed being stripped down from its intended state.

That article clearly states:

''Capcom is taking time and resources to purposefully remove the DLC from the discs''

and yet they are to included it in the PS Vita version?

Dr. Garin wrote:
Alfonse wrote:
[i]Nothing's been developed as DLC except the unlock key. A game has been built and they've sectioned off part of it. I don't know what further evidence you require

Now you're just arguing over semantics I think. We know the content is already there so if you wanted to be facetious you could say its not DLC. But that misses the point of your original statement. You're trying to claim its content that at some point was intended to be sold as part of the main game and not an optional extra. Those characters may have been intended as optional extras from day one. In which case nothing has been cut from the game because it was never in it in the first place.[/i]

No. You're wrong, I never said anything was intended to be sold as part of the main game. I'm arguing games are being developed as a whole and are then being cut up and having parts sold off as DLC. The fact that Streetfighter X Tekken is being sold as a whole game on one system and then has part locked on another supports this. You're being purposefully obtuse and you know it.

Alfonse wrote:
Nothing's been developed as DLC except the unlock key. A game has been built and they've sectioned off part of it. I don't know what further evidence you require

Now you're just arguing over semantics I think. We know the content is already there so if you wanted to be facetious you could say its not DLC. But that misses the point of your original statement. You're trying to claim its content that at some point was intended to be sold as part of the main game and not an optional extra. Those characters may have been intended as optional extras from day one. In which case nothing has been cut from the game because it was never in it in the first place.

Sorry to interrupt the conversation. I haven't really read everything but I just wanted to comment on DLC.

I'm not a fan. In fact I dont like achievements or any involvement with social sites like Facebook.

This would have ruined my childhood.

I don't mind losing the ability to sell off my old games, just as long as they don't cost an arm and a leg. I know people like pb have done very well trading in old games.

Dr. Garin wrote:
Alfonse wrote:
[i]Dr. Garin wrote:
[i]In those games we know DLC was developed along side the main game. That isnt the claim you're making though. You're saying content is being cut out of games. That implies the DLC was originally intended to be part of the main game.

Those characters in Streetfighter X Tekken are free on the PS Vita[/i]

So the Vita is getting DLC for free, presumably a deal with Sony? Not sure how that backs up your claim really.[/i]

You don't download anything. The characters are there by default, they are there on the other versions too except you have to pay to unlock them.

Nothing's been developed as DLC except the unlock key. A game has been built and they've sectioned off part of it. I don't know what further evidence you require

Alfonse wrote:
Dr. Garin wrote:
[i]In those games we know DLC was developed along side the main game. That isnt the claim you're making though. You're saying content is being cut out of games. That implies the DLC was originally intended to be part of the main game.

Those characters in Streetfighter X Tekken are free on the PS Vita[/i]

So the Vita is getting DLC for free, presumably a deal with Sony? Not sure how that backs up your claim really.

Alfonse wrote:
Dr. Garin wrote:
[i]In those games we know DLC was developed along side the main game. That isnt the claim you're making though. You're saying content is being cut out of games. That implies the DLC was originally intended to be part of the main game.

Those characters in Streetfighter X Tekken are free on the Ps Vita[/i]

That really sucks, especially as the extra characters are going to be so ridiculously expensive to buy on all the other formats. I have started 'voting with my wallet' of late, as a big beat em fan I was going to buy Streetfighter X Tekken and now I am not and I was interested in SSX but with EA deciding not to put any proper multiplayer modes in that game, I'm going to give that a miss as well. If decisions like this count for my expectations being 'unrealistic' then so be it.

Dr. Garin wrote:
In those games we know DLC was developed along side the main game. That isnt the claim you're making though. You're saying content is being cut out of games. That implies the DLC was originally intended to be part of the main game.

Those characters in Streetfighter X Tekken are free on the PS Vita

Alfonse wrote:
Or they could stop charging for worthless garbage altogether. Now that's an unrealistic expectation

Horse armour anyone?

....Or we could just stop buying the worthless garbage, thus encouraging said companies to think a little more.

But perhaps that's an even less realistic expectation.