EA in a nutshell lol

[tr1age]

 

[Delduwath]

I was on the fence about getting a game recently. I then noticed it was published by EA; that made my decision not to get it easy. I feel confident I made the right choice.

 

[Zevrix]

Posted yesterday (bold done by me):

EA will be integrating microtransactions into all of its games in the future, the publisher's CFO has revealed.
Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference, Blake Jorgensen said the publisher was interested in adding further ways to monetise its games.

"The next and much bigger piece [of the business] is microtransactions within games," said Jorgensen.

"We're building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way, either to get to a higher level to buy a new character, to buy a truck, a gun, whatever it might be, and consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of the business."

A strong, secure backend is certainly important to handle the millions of payments needed to make console games with microtransactions profitable, and Jorgensen thinks his company has this taken care of.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/43388/EA-taking-microtransactions-in-house

So now even if the game ISN'T free to play, you'll still have to pay to unlock things.. YAYYY!

Why must SimCity be sold by EA. Whyyyyy?! /whyyouno
I very much want to NOT support EA, but...

 

[tr1age]

Sadly EA is not the only one doing this. Why? Because it is a really good way to make money. Tell people to stop being fooled by "EA bucks" as not actually 50 dollars for a pixelated HAT and they will stop putting it in. This is basically the LEGAL version of chinese gold farmers or the old EQ items that sold for thousands. http://www.ign.com/articles/2001/01/31/everquest-virtual-item-debate-goes-to-the-courts

 

[Zevrix]

Sadly EA is not the only one doing this. Why? Because it is a really good way to make money.

I was not happy with ArenaNet when they released details about the gem shop before GW2 was out. Its only saving graces to me were that the game was free to play per month and that gems could be bought with game currency (mostly that one). And even with that, it's hard for me to get enough gold to buy gems for holiday things. The Black Lion Chests are just a racket- really grinds my gears. And even though I know the effectiveness of boosters isn't amazing or anything, that still pisses me off too.

EA is not the only game company on my list of questionable businesses.

 

[tr1age]

I was not happy with ArenaNet when they released details about the gem shop before GW2 was out. Its only saving graces to me were that the game was free to play per month and that gems could be bought with game currency (mostly that one). And even with that, it's hard for me to get enough gold to buy gems for holiday things. The Black Lion Chests are just a racket- really grinds my gears. And even though I know the effectiveness of boosters isn't amazing or anything, that still pisses me off too.

EA is not the only game company on my list of questionable businesses.

Facebook games business model is based around micro transactions.

 

[Zevrix]

Facebook games business model is based around micro transactions.

And that's why I stopped playing them.

 

[TIG]

I actually prefer a microtransaction model as long as there are 2 things that happen with them.
1. Items sold by microtransaction are not integral to the game play or advancement
2. Items can still be bought with in game currency even if that exchange rate is bad.

Doing this lets me choose if I want the item bad enough and it brings down the up front price of the game. It's basically letting me decide how much to pay for the game myself. Also I can play the economy side of things and get what I want for free*.

*I pay with my time instead of cash.

 

[Keleynal]

I prefer the pay $50-60 up front for a great game and never pay again model. If I don't want to pay that much, I can wait to get it used.

That model doesn't work as well with MMOs because it is expected to have ongoing support. In that situation, I think a subscription is the best for a well-supported game.

The "free to play, pay to be good in any reasonable amount of time" model is often frustrating for me. I much prefer games that reward skill, not paying out extra money to the company.