Battlefield: BC & Hoop Jumping For DLC

[Psykoboy2]

After dropping the madness (http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48167) that was paid DLC for extra weapons in EA's upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company, many wondered how we'd obtain these items if we didn't want to buy the "Gold" edition of the game at a higher price.

Well, at a community event last week, Joystiq found out (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/21/how-to-get-the-five-battlefield-bad-company-dlc-weapons/) how that will happen. Brace yourselves: Although the official site has only revealed one of the ways, Planet Battlefield has outlined all five methods:

QBU88 Sniper Rifle: Pre-order the game online or at any participating retailer. So far we know Gamestop and Amazon are part of this deal.
UZI Submachine Gun: Download and play the demo
M60 Light Machine Gun: Sign up for the Battlefield newsletter
F2000 Assault Rifle: Register your Battlefield soldier name
USAS12 Shotgun: Check your Bad Company stats online at launch.


Okay, so, Joystiq asked the question and I'll ask it here...is this better than paying for it?

[GrinR]

No. It's more marketing bullshit and I won't have any of it. Even asking for it is too much. It's like someone saying, "look, I heard all the complaining about the face-spitting, so I decided I won't spit in your face but I still have to treat you like shit somehow so I guess you'll be getting a bitchslap instead. Happy now?"

No. No I'm not. You make me want torrents, and that's bad business.

[ldi222]

Its a pretty heavy handed marketing tactic but better than micropayments. Anyone interested in playing Battlefield would most likely do all of the above anyway. If companies are going to start nickeling and diming over in game content, there are far worse ways than the above described.

[Telefrog]

Registering your Soldier name and checking your stats aren't that big a deal. The others? Yeah, they suck.

[Devilturnip]

I was looking forward to this game, but now I hope it tanks with a vengeance. This is just plain ridiculous.

[MSUStud911]

Of course it's better than charging for it. It's no skin off my ass to sign up for the newsletter and check my stats online to get a gun.

[dark_inchworm]

I don't think any of that is too bad, except for the preorder bit. Signing up for the newsletter isn't tempting, but I'd say take the weapon code (I assume they're giving you codes for this) and unsubscribe for the newsletter.

I'd do it if I gave a damn about Battlefield, which I don't.

[AversionFX]

Just goes to show that gamers will whine about anything

"Be a member of our community, we'll give you cool shit."

"Fuck you, man!"

You guys are hilarious.

[sparkfizt]

Just goes to show that gamers will whine about anything

"Be a member of our community, we'll give you cool shit."

"Fuck you, man!"

You guys are hilarious.

"M60 Light Machine Gun: Sign up for the Battlefield newsletter"

Sign up for spam is the only one that really bothers me. While this is better than paying for em it's just getting silly at this point.

[digitalErich]

Just goes to show that gamers will whine about anything

"Be a member of our community, we'll give you cool shit."

"Fuck you, man!"

You guys are hilarious.
Nice straw man. Here's another one:

"Pay us $60 for our game, but do X, Y, and Z to get all the content that's on the disc you just bought"

Both are overly simplistic to the point of being useless as talking points. Yes, it is a simple act to perform each one of those tasks on the list. However, I do think it is valid to be questioning stuff like this, on a less specific, higher-concept level.

[MSUStud911]

I can see both sides of the argument, but I myself don't mind doing any of those things to get free content. Hell, I already preordered when EBGames.com offered free overnight shipping on it, which I'm a total sucker for.

[BigJonno]

It's a matter of perspective, I guess. You're either a glass half full, "hey, freebies" kinda person or a whiny fucking bitch who manages to use free stuff as an excuse to moan about EA.

[MSUStud911]

It's a matter of perspective, I guess. You're either a glass half full, "hey, freebies" kinda person or a whiny fucking bitch who manages to use free stuff as an excuse to moan about EA.
Like the man said though, presumably you've already paid $60 for the game, which is no small fee. Requiring people to do anything at all (other than play the game) to get content that's already on the disc is sort of distasteful, but like I said before, I'll still do it.

That's not exactly what's going on here anyway. All of this stuff is costing Gold Edition purchasers $10 extra, right? So making gamers jump through some low and wide hoops isn't too much to ask in this particular case.

[AversionFX]

Nice straw man. Here's another one:

"Pay us $60 for our game, but do X, Y, and Z to get all the content that's on the disc you just bought"

Last I checked, almost no game started out with players having absolutely everything in the game. You do this thing called "earning your unlocks." So BC has some unique methods of unlocking content.

Big fucking deal. You bitch if it costs you .25c, and you bitch if you have to get off your fat ass and look up your score or subscribe to a newsletter. Waa.

Like the man said though, presumably you've already paid $60 for the game, which is no small fee.

So because you paid 60$ for it, that entitles you to not have to play and earn your unlocks? Wow.

[Disgustipated]

Last I checked, almost no game started out with players having absolutely everything in the game. You do this thing called "earning your unlocks." So BC has some unique methods of unlocking content.

Big fucking deal. You bitch if it costs you .25c, and you bitch if you have to get off your fat ass and look up your score or subscribe to a newsletter. Waa.



So because you paid 60$ for it, that entitles you to not have to play and earn your unlocks? Wow.

I'm guessing people are more worried that these would be the ONLY ways to unlock stuff. I think if you have to do these to get the weapons faster, so be it, but I believe they also mentioned that you'd get the weapons after hitting max level.

[MSUStud911]

So because you paid 60$ for it, that entitles you to not have to play and earn your unlocks? Wow.
That's not what I said, but if that's what you got from my plain English, I can tell you must be a riot to argue with. Here is my quote verbatim. I bolded the relevant text. Feel free to shove it straight up your ass.

Like the man said though, presumably you've already paid $60 for the game, which is no small fee. Requiring people to do anything at all (other than play the game) to get content that's already on the disc is sort of distasteful, but like I said before, I'll still do it.

That's not exactly what's going on here anyway. All of this stuff is costing Gold Edition purchasers $10 extra, right? So making gamers jump through some low and wide hoops isn't too much to ask in this particular case.

Obviously playing the game to unlock content is different that signing up for a newsletter. Presumably I bought the game because I wanted to play it, thus playing to unlock is sorta the whole point. I doubt many of us buy a game because we're itching to sign up for a newsletter.

Regardless, I already said myself I don't think it's a big deal at all, but I can understand others that find it distasteful. Oh, and apparently saying "Wow" after completing your thought adds some special emphasis in your eyes so: Wow.

[UnderHero5]

Last I checked, almost no game started out with players having absolutely everything in the game. You do this thing called "earning your unlocks." So BC has some unique methods of unlocking content.

Big fucking deal. You bitch if it costs you .25c, and you bitch if you have to get off your fat ass and look up your score or subscribe to a newsletter. Waa.



So because you paid 60$ for it, that entitles you to not have to play and earn your unlocks? Wow.

I agree with what this man says.
I actually love unlocking stuff in games. You know what you're getting right off the bat when you buy a game, and if you don't... do your research and don't buy blindly.

Unlockables are a huge draw for me, in games. I feel that they add a lot. This just has some unique ways of unlocking stuff. The only one I don't like is the pre-order one, because I never pre-order... and that might mean any one who buys the game after launch doesn't get that gun.

[Roc Ingersol]

Withholding content that was clearly already bought and paid for is pretty obnoxious in general.

this is a weaker sauce than unlocking through play, though an improvement over charging for it. I still won't bother with these guns though.

[Khash]

I can understand both points of view. Both of which are much better than paying for it. I don't think the requirements for these weapons are too bad. It's actually kind of clever.

[captainspankypants]

I'm guessing people are more worried that these would be the ONLY ways to unlock stuff. I think if you have to do these to get the weapons faster, so be it, but I believe they also mentioned that you'd get the weapons after hitting max level.

If that's true, then it doesn't matter much. I was one of those people thinking this was the ONLY way to get this stuff, which made me dry heave a few times.

[Pluvious]

The whole thing has left a bitter taste in my mouth, and I'm not going to even bother buying it, torrent'n it or nothing. They lost my interest and I say F* them. I expect the whole game for $60.

[SacredWeasel]

Last I checked, almost no game started out with players having absolutely everything in the game. You do this thing called "earning your unlocks." So BC has some unique methods of unlocking content.

Big fucking deal. You bitch if it costs you .25c, and you bitch if you have to get off your fat ass and look up your score or subscribe to a newsletter. Waa.

So because you paid 60$ for it, that entitles you to not have to play and earn your unlocks? Wow.

Funny how this post is about bitching, since all you do is bitch about bitching...

Just goes to show that gamers will whine about anything

That little quote is also just filled with irony after looking at both your posts in this thread..

Personally, I'm against this kind of marketing bullshit. It's just an annoying and stupid way to get some advertising money.

[Lunar Blue]

Just let me fucking earn the weapons by playing the game like in BF2 god damn it.

[AversionFX]

Obviously playing the game to unlock content is different that signing up for a newsletter.

Thanks for clearing that up! Hopefully that'll put some people at ease who have been debating that very topic for weeks.

Funny how this post is about bitching, since all you do is bitch about bitching...

That little quote is also just filled with irony after looking at both your posts in this thread..

Good job, tiger. You can spot irony! You win the prize!

[MSUStud911]

Thanks for clearing that up! Hopefully that'll put some people at ease who have been debating that very topic for weeks.
You're clearly just a dick to be a dick because your previous disagreement with me was totally baseless as you couldn't be bothered to fully READ my post and now you post a comment that makes little to no sense. I'm not aware of any fundamental debate about unlocking things by playing games. It's an age old staple of gaming. But whatever. You're gonna be upset and dickish regardless, so have at it!

[AversionFX]

You're clearly just a dick to be a dick because your previous disagreement with me was totally baseless as you couldn't be bothered to fully READ my post and now you post a comment that makes little to no sense. I'm not aware of any fundamental debate about unlocking things by playing games. It's an age old staple of gaming. But whatever. You're gonna be upset and dickish regardless, so have at it!

Not really. Nobody's requiring you to sign up for their newsletter. If you're a completionist or just really want that unlock, you'll do it. And honestly, how much effort does that take? Unless these are the only unlocks in the game, I don't really see a problem with spending a short amount of time acquiring these unlocks.

And if you don't like it, nobody said you had to do any of it. If people want everything handed to them, and provided to them, they should start going to homeless shelters, and not playing video games.

[SilentScreams]

Personally I would have preferred to pay a small amount of cash and just have them rather than jumping through all these hoops, but then again, I'm not one of the ones who was bitching about paying for them in the first place.

[evild]

No one should have to worry about pre-ordering to get the Sniper rifle. I'm sure those codes will be out on Gamefaqs.com on or before the day of release.

[Dag-Sabot]

Wait... Is this game even remotely supposed to be any good?

[f1sh3r]

it's gonna turn out that we'll have games with one weapon, nothing to earn, nothing to unlock, because someone is gonna whine and cry about it. if you don't want to sign up for a newsletter, don't. you simply won't have an extra gun you probably wouldn't use anyway. i'm guessing most of the people complaining have no intent to buy the game anyway, but that is a whole other thing.

[Inspector Fowler]

I actually think it's kind of neat. Sorry. I just do.

Now, compared to CoD's or R6's way of getting guns, bleh. But you could do worse than a scavenger hunt.

[Judas]

I think jumping through all these different hoops is chicken shit! You either pay an additional premium over and above the cost to purchase a crappy game, or you have to do what Bobo says to do to get a fix. Members willingness to toss money around like that makes me want to open a game company and do the same

When are gamers gonna stop putting up with this control? You should be outraged. I hope EA chokes on your profits.

[Tel Prydain]

You can buy the guns, unlock the guns through gameplay or unlock the guns via the above loopholes. Why are we all crying again?

[SacredWeasel]

it's gonna turn out that we'll have games with one weapon, nothing to earn, nothing to unlock, because someone is gonna whine and cry about it. if you don't want to sign up for a newsletter, don't. you simply won't have an extra gun you probably wouldn't use anyway. i'm guessing most of the people complaining have no intent to buy the game anyway, but that is a whole other thing.

You're right about not buying the game. I just don't like these kind of things and I don't like where it's heading.

On the other hand, a couple of people said you can also unlock these weapons via gameplay. Is this confirmed? If so, well, then there's really nothing to complain about.

[Chainblast]

It's better than paying for it but it's not what the complainers wanted, myself included. However I am more likely to sign-up for title-related promos (I have an email account especially for this type of thing) than I would be in paying.

[Å®ÇTÌ¢ VåmÞ‡®Ë]

You can buy the guns, unlock the guns through gameplay or unlock the guns via the above loopholes. Why are we all crying again?

How dare you bring logic into a thread about an EA product.
BLASPHEMER

/sarcasm

I honestly didn't think they were too awful, but if you can unlock in game or do the above I can see some doing the above.
If the content is only by doing the above then I agree that it just sucks.

[Morratut]

I don't like this because it might make the online mp unfair.

If however the weapons are balanced and you can unlock weapons through normal play then I don't mind too much. I will just kill the player with the unlocked weapon and pick it up, run around with it knowing he is getting loads of spam :D