People are getting angry at Mass Effects day 1 DLC

[MrBoBo1]

Game companies are taking thier own characters hostage and demanding ransom.

Man, where is cable in all this? Or televised sports?

This could be a gold mine for them. Digitally remove key characters or players and then charge extra to unscramble them.

You can micro-monetize anything that's digital.

The greed in gaming now is just staggering. I blame consoles, pc gaming didn't really have any of this until consoles become online. Now what people are paying for, are essentially mods. Console gaming now, I mostly can't be doing with, it's ruined alot of the greatness of pc gaming (as have filthy pirates).

[MrBoBo1]

and complaining that they aren't giving you more for free simply because they could is a bit pathetic.

Why is it pathetic? As a customer, you are well within your right to demand value.
Sega are interested in lowering customer value, I have seen this myself with the steam sale. They upped the price to £39.99 (from £29.99) days before a 60% off steam sale. After the sale was finished it was dropped to £29.99 again, standard price. That to me is the sign of a scummy company, one that will quite happily lower customer value for personal gain. Practically every company will get away with something like this if they can. If people actually said "i'm not buying this" (which will never ever happen) then the attitude would change as money is all they care about. We are the ones who provide food on the table. Companys are more than happy to abuse that trust. Mostly thanks to console gamers.

[Feud]

Why is it pathetic? As a customer, you are well within your right to demand value.

Certainly, you are well within your right to demand value. But demanding premium content, for free, by suggesting that they are somehow obligated to do so shows one to be spoiled, ungrateful, entitled, and childish. Such behavior is pathetic.

Sega are interested in lowering customer value, I have seen this myself with the steam sale. They upped the price to £39.99 (from £29.99) days before a 60% off steam sale. After the sale was finished it was dropped to £29.99 again, standard price. That to me is the sign of a scummy company, one that will quite happily lower customer value for personal gain.

What you just cited is an issue with a distributor, not the developer or producer. It has nothing to do with content.

[MrBoBo1]

Certainly, you are well within your right to demand value

Of course I am.

But demanding premium content, for free

The content is supposedly free. And I wouldn't exactly use the term "premium" to make it acceptable.
When you say "premium" your saying content that has been developed in mind, at or around the same time of the main development and with-held at launch and months after release, to be resold, giving the perception to users this is fresh content, which in fact, it isn't, it's content that existed on launch. And getting angry at that makes you pathetic and spoilt? Really? I don't agree at all. In fact being aware and actively trying to do something about it makes you not ignorant in my opinion as well as defending consumers.


Something we didn't bring up was the issue of multiplayer. The content is chopped up without the ability other than buying the entire game again to get the (most likely) withheld content and no guarantee of it being sold down the road. And at that, used in multiplayer possibly giving special advantage to specific players such as certian abilities. With steam accounts linked to a single account, re-buying the entire game again may not be an option either. So pay to win without the possibly option of getting to pay in the first place.

by suggesting that they are somehow obligated to do so shows one to be spoiled, ungrateful, entitled, and childish. Such behavior is pathetic.

What I suggest was that we were are not obligated to purchase the product. Which, regardless of what derogratory terms you want to throw out, would make them obligated as we (as in you and me) would be the dictators, as money is the driving force and the exact reason they do this sort of thing. Unfortunately people do not care, about anything. Which is why the monopoly of gaming has absolutely no limits to speak off.

What you just cited is an issue with a distributor

The distributor "steam" does not set the price. The publisher does. Which is why I specifically cited "sega" and not "the creative assembly". And it does have to do with content, specifically the user, not getting it. which is down to Sega as far as i'm aware and not the creative assembly.

[Flaminius]

I'd be very happy if they released the bonus/exclusive clans as a DLC sometime after the game goes live

[Rewjeo]

It's childish to ask that you get more for your money? Isn't that what CA is doing here? Putting in the same amount of money as it would take to include the clans but asking to get more in return for it?

To be honest, these clans being kept as preorder doesn't bother me that much. This is a game about civil war- the different factions won't be that different. This isn't a whole lot of content, but the idea of it and where it could lead (for instance, Mass Effect basically requiring the paid DLC) bothers me, although I would be surprised to see CA doing something more than a small reward for preorderers. What really bothers me that I'm seeing, though, is the idea that we should just take what we're given and not ask for more or complain.

Edit: Also, the reasons CA has given in their official thread satisfy me further.

[HumbleServant]

I think it is a very difficult topic we're talking about. On the one hand I can understand why CA/SEGA/retailer think that they need some sort of "incentive". Even different incentives for each retailer. On the other hand I can understand people getting angry about this too.

The best solution would probably be if they would only create incentives which don't change the conent of the game (no units, factions, etc.) and more things like the soundtrack and so on. Then nobody would feel like being ripped of, but I guess this will never happen. The more vital the incentives are the more money they can make.

A good solution would be if the pre-order incentives weren't different. This would give us customers the feeling that we can really decide what we get (because we want it or not).

The worst situation is the one we have now. We simply don't know whether we will have the chance to get these ("premium") factions after the release as DLC or not. We don't even know if they're worth to pre-order FotS.
But there is one thing that makes even me angry. If I pre-order a game I pay the highest prize there is and I get an "incentive" because I decided to buy it even before release. But if the "incentives" get released afterwards WHY did I buy it for the highest prize in the first place. A simple time advantage is no advantage for me.
Btw I pre-ordered Shogun 2 bought the DLCs and I realised in the end that other people can get all of this just for the money I payed for Shogun 2 without the DLCs.

Maybe a conclusion by all this could be that for pre-ordering you get a prize-decrease for all DLCs which'll be released later (some sort of code/coupon). So there won't be any content which you can't get. Or you slightly smaller prize-decrease and the system of today with an incentive (but it has to be sure that all incentives become released as DLC!).

What do you guys think about this?

[justyhawk]

Isn't it entirely possible that if it wasn't for pre-order incentives that the 3 clans in question wouldn't have been developed in the first place?

I agree with your idea humbleservant, a slight price decrease would be very fair. Probably too fair!

[Rewjeo]

Isn't it entirely possible that if it wasn't for pre-order incentives that the 3 clans in question wouldn't have been developed in the first place?

CA said that was the case.

[Jungle Rhino]

Because they are a bonus that is being offered to encourage and reward a given behavior.

If you wait a month after the game has been out, seen the reviews and such, then buy the game, they get money and you get the game. Both parties win. But pre-ordering is an act of faith, it's trusting the company to produce something that you will enjoy and committing to purchase it regardless of what that result is. Those sales benifit the company, as it improves their ability to market the product and it ensures a revenue source. In this case, since the buyer is demonstrating trust in the company the company has decided to encourage and reward that trust with additional content. If they included the exclusive content in all versions, regardless of when it was purchased, then it's no longer rewards those who trusted CA by pre-ordering.

Whether it took them more time, energy, or money to restrict that content, and whether they could include it for free to all, is irrelevant. It has taken them time, money, and resources to produce that content, and it is theirs to distribute in a manner that they feel is appropriate.

If they promised it in the game for all, and it was then removed, then complain all you want. If they promised it in a pre-order, then refused to give it, complain all you want. That would be dishonest of them and unethical. But there is nothing unethical about a company offering additional services to those who contribute extraordinarily in their consumption, and complaining that they aren't giving you more for free simply because they could is a bit pathetic.

This has nothing to do with pre-orders and customers or faith in the happy fairy of happiness. It is CA getting bent over by their distributors who are demanding exclusive content to sell the game for them. I would HAPPILY pay an extra $10 for access to ALL the pre-order content (i.e. through a premium edition). But I can't. The reason I can't is because CA is not allowed to sell this to me because then their distributors would no longer have any exclusivity.

So from my perspective CA is LOSING revenue from this arrangement - because I'm pretty darn sure most of the other STW2 fans like myself would happily pay an extra $10 for some limited edition all faction bundle with a ****py pewter katana (you know you want one).

As a result, I'm not pre-ordering, and buying on release.