The Glade 4.0

EA wants people to pay for beta-testing demos.

/boggle

Yeah, I saw that. I suppose, though, that the MMO industry may share some of the blame for EA thinking that's okay. Afterall, that's not a huge leap from the pre-order beta codes.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

It's not, but at least you're not paying directly for the beta. That money is being applied toward the actual game, you're just paying a bit of it upfront.

I wouldn't have as much of a problem with this if it were largely the same thing...pay a bit now and get early access to a beta/demo for, say, God of War III. Use those players' feedback as beta testers. Then when the actual game is released, that money is routed toward the price of the actual game.

This, however...this is ****.

Yeah. If you got a coupon sent to you, or something, to knock the cost off your final purchase, that'd be one thing.

But **** paying for content twice.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Come on man, isn't EA the company that would release an online shooter, and then charge you "microtransactions" for some massively overpowered guns that you would need to be competitive?

Can't fault a snake for biting you. It's a damn snake.

They keep charging for crap because people keep paying. I was one of the people who said "WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would pay to put advertisement clothes on their virtual avatar on xbox live?" Apparently, they're selling like hotcakes.

This is why I am not rich. I continually overestimate the American consumer.

seconded

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Why don't they sell the demo for 15, the game for 50, and if you already have the demo you can get the game for 35?

If they already thought of that, cool--but I don't put it past them to never have thought of that. Greedy bastards.

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Ron Paul 2012

*Starts a chant*
Buuullsh***t. . . Buuullsh****t. . .Buuullsh****t. . .Buuullsh****t

Let's not kid ourselves though. EA would charge you to insert the disc into the tray each time you take it out, if they had the ability.

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Well, you don't have to buy it. They're just testing what people will pay for. EA IS FORCING ME TO PAY, OMG EVIL! It's not like it horse armour DLC.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Obviously the people complaining won't pay for it. The thing that sucks is that others will pay for it, leading to a trend that changes the entire industry. If we don't like something, we can do more than just not pay for it; we can explain why we don't want to pay for it. What's wrong with that?

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Nothing, I just don't think it's evil.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Evil or not, it's a bad thing for humanity as a whole. Generally, people associate bad things with evil. If it's true money is the root of all evil, EA will be held in the 7th level of hell in the afterlife. EA has demonstrated behavior over the past 20 years that are extremely unethical and borderline evil. You can call it simply business, but that doesn't make it not evil or bad.

In this particular case, I don't think it's necessarily evil...it just sucks for consumers. EA has done far more unethical, evil things than simply making a beta that costs money. There aren't many corporations that literally dick over their customers as much as EA does consistently. Most companies at least care about their customers to some extent. Even from a developer involvement in the community, EA is continually last in that department. The company simply doesn't give a sh*t about what you or I think. They want money and for us to shut up and buy it.

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Or you could not buy it. If people don't want to pay for a beta, they won't and then EA will stop offering the service. People are dumb and will pay for anything though. It doesn't really affect me or humanity.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

That's a pretty ignorant view of economics.

If people are willing to do things you aren't willing to do, eventually it will affect you because things you are willing to pay for (shared interests with those same idiots) will rise in cost as well. For example:

These idiots pay for micro-transactions that EA offers will eventually lead to them thinking that ALL additional content needs to be charged, eventually probably including patches to their own broken games. Why? These patches won't only fix things, they'll claim it adds some new content of some kind, which warrants being charged. Eventually, rather than including the content up front in the game to begin with (which you're paying $60 for), they'll hold some content out just to charge for it later because these idiots will pay for it.

Micro-transactions are prime example of this principle leading to negative outcomes. In the case of micro-transactions, you don't have to buy it, you're right. However, they intentionally make it so that in order to remain competitive (in online environments), you have no choice but to buy their stupid upgrades. EA is at the forefront of that movement as well. Eventually these kind of trends lead to diminished value in the $60 product you paid for upfront.

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I think it's you that has an ignorant view of economics, but whatever. It doesn't affect me now and won't. Even if it did spread like a horrible virus that every publisher adopted, I'd just not pay or quit playing. It's just a video game and I can fill my time some other way. Even now, if I must play an EA game, I buy a used version so they don't see the profits. I think you're just being paranoid.

Even then, according to what you said, you should be less upset with EA and more so with people that would pay for it. Why hate EA for finding a way to make money? I'd say it's not such a bad deal if paying for beta participation got you a discount or something for the full version. Otherwise, I wouldn't pay to be a beta tester.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I dont have a problem with this. People want to beta test because they get to play the game for free.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

I'd like to beta test StarCraft II, because I love StarCraft and want it right now goddamnit! Would I pay? ...hmm $10 bucks maybe? This would be a special case though, just because they're taking forever to release it. Not a lot of games I get that excited about before hand, I've been waiting for SCII for literally 10 years now. If I only got to play the beta a couple months beforehand, I'd say gtfo. A year in advance... I'd beta test that **** for em. Maybe even $20. Good practice for pwning noobs when it's released for real.
But I love StarCraft and played a ton of it, so obviously not everyone would be so keen on it. I can't imagine caring enough about CoD IX or whatever generic FPS is coming down the line. I can't imagine what I'd want to pay EA to beta.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn