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This thread has been linked to the game 'Mass Effect 3'.
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.
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.
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Paying customers acting as Capcom police?, can really see that happening........
Hmmm.... Play ball or be banned.. Not much of a choice really!
Perhaps the next step is paying customers rewarded for acting as Capcom/ea/Ms police?
Hmmm.... Play ball or be banned.. Not much of a choice really!
Perhaps the next step is paying customers rewarded for acting as Capcom/ea/Ms police?
Dr. Garin wrote:
Oh Pete, what are we going to do with you....
What did you have in mind?........o 0
Via their official forum Capcom are requesting help in catching users illegally playing on XBL with these characters.
''Yes, we're seeing news of this. Quite ballsy for folks to be taking hacked Xbox 360s on Live where they are detectable.
In any event, we already have openned channels of communication with MS on these issues Friday night. If you can capture screens or video of this in action (as some have already) we're working on bans for boxes and accounts with MS for haxxors.
I'll leave this thread open for people to post pics/vids and the like and we'll bring them to MS (as we have the last three that were reported to us).''
Posted by Christian Svensson
Corporate Officer/Senior Vice-President of Capcom.
Paying customers acting as Capcom police?, can really see that happening........
Oh Pete, what are we going to do with you....
What did you have in mind?........o 0
Via their official forum Capcom are requesting help in catching users illegally playing on XBL with these characters.
''Yes, we're seeing news of this. Quite ballsy for folks to be taking hacked Xbox 360s on Live where they are detectable.
In any event, we already have openned channels of communication with MS on these issues Friday night. If you can capture screens or video of this in action (as some have already) we're working on bans for boxes and accounts with MS for haxxors.
I'll leave this thread open for people to post pics/vids and the like and we'll bring them to MS (as we have the last three that were reported to us).''
Posted by Christian Svensson
Corporate Officer/Senior Vice-President of Capcom.
Paying customers acting as Capcom police?, can really see that happening........
Oh Pete, what are we going to do with you....
I see what Chas is getting at, a 'no publicity is bad publicity' kind of thing as in the past I suspect this method has been used to hype/increase demand for items with great success. Having something banned is always a good one, people want to see what the fuss is about and this creates demand for it (remember Manhunt?). Thrill Kill which never officially saw the light of day was massively sought after through non-conventional channels for exactly this reason. If people are talking about something then it's fantastic publicity and probably the most effective marketing a company could hope for.
As we have already discussed, in the case of Streetfighter X Tekken Capcom have stated that they have set about removing this content from the forthcoming PC game disc. This process is surely costing them money as this version was apparently finished and ready to go? It seems a very strange thing for them to do if this was all intentional? (unless they're not doing it at all and it's all just a big publicity stunt?!!). I very much doubt that is the case though as the hacked 360 version is very easy to find and I really can't believe that Capcom are at all pleased about that situation. Has it just been a simple case of Capcom trying to save a few quid on Microsoft & Sony hosting fees by 'hiding' this content on the game disc and ending up looking rather foolish when it has been discovered, hacked and dished out early and for free?
As we have already discussed, in the case of Streetfighter X Tekken Capcom have stated that they have set about removing this content from the forthcoming PC game disc. This process is surely costing them money as this version was apparently finished and ready to go? It seems a very strange thing for them to do if this was all intentional? (unless they're not doing it at all and it's all just a big publicity stunt?!!). I very much doubt that is the case though as the hacked 360 version is very easy to find and I really can't believe that Capcom are at all pleased about that situation. Has it just been a simple case of Capcom trying to save a few quid on Microsoft & Sony hosting fees by 'hiding' this content on the game disc and ending up looking rather foolish when it has been discovered, hacked and dished out early and for free?
Yup yup yup. The thought of people battering me with Blanka and Christie Monteiro already has my blood boiling
Alfonse wrote:
I don't understand your point
Well, actually, I'm sort of agreeing with you, except "retarded" I think should really be replaced with "intentional".
Strikes me that the singular most efficient way of creating some interest in a product is to ensure that some WILL have it and be using it, whilst others will need to buy it in order to keep up.
Marketing 101 I believe...
I don't understand your point
Well, actually, I'm sort of agreeing with you, except "retarded" I think should really be replaced with "intentional".
Strikes me that the singular most efficient way of creating some interest in a product is to ensure that some WILL have it and be using it, whilst others will need to buy it in order to keep up.
Marketing 101 I believe...
I don't understand your point
Alfonse wrote:
"But I was really kind of disappointed that it created this kind of environment where a bunch of players were playing the characters but a bunch were unable to play with them."
Yeah it's not like you created that dichotomy in the first place or that would be a completely retarded comment to make
...'cos that sort of thing would be useless for creating a desire to buy amongst those who hadn't got them yet....
..or is that me being cynical now?
"But I was really kind of disappointed that it created this kind of environment where a bunch of players were playing the characters but a bunch were unable to play with them."
Yeah it's not like you created that dichotomy in the first place or that would be a completely retarded comment to make
...'cos that sort of thing would be useless for creating a desire to buy amongst those who hadn't got them yet....
..or is that me being cynical now?
"But I was really kind of disappointed that it created this kind of environment where a bunch of players were playing the characters but a bunch were unable to play with them."
Yeah it's not like you created that dichotomy in the first place or that would be a completely retarded comment to make
Yeah it's not like you created that dichotomy in the first place or that would be a completely retarded comment to make
Dr. Garin wrote:
So no contradiction as far as I can see because we dont have the answers to so many questions about it all.
Yeah maybe, you're right we don't have all of those answers but it does seem rather strange to me though that apparently the first 12 additional Streetfighter X Tekken characters had to be included on the disc but the other 6 do not?
One of the games developers has recently commented that he is ''disappointed'' and ''really surprised at how skillful the hackers were''. Perhaps what he really meant was ''How stupid were we to create a scenario where the chav's with their flashed 360's have had most of additional content early and for free?''
The single additional character in Namco's recent Soul Calibur V was downloadable not disc locked and he works perfectly online so it can be done.
It will be very interesting to see if Capcom ever do this again.
So no contradiction as far as I can see because we dont have the answers to so many questions about it all.
Yeah maybe, you're right we don't have all of those answers but it does seem rather strange to me though that apparently the first 12 additional Streetfighter X Tekken characters had to be included on the disc but the other 6 do not?
One of the games developers has recently commented that he is ''disappointed'' and ''really surprised at how skillful the hackers were''. Perhaps what he really meant was ''How stupid were we to create a scenario where the chav's with their flashed 360's have had most of additional content early and for free?''
The single additional character in Namco's recent Soul Calibur V was downloadable not disc locked and he works perfectly online so it can be done.
It will be very interesting to see if Capcom ever do this again.
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