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Why BFBC2 Vietnam should be free.

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  • Why BFBC2 Vietnam should be free.

    It needs to be free and here is why.

    I absolutely love and hate (maybe more so) expansions or sequels for every multiplayer game I have ever played. They add more content, but in the process they split the community and no matter what the community always loses. People buy the expansion and play it for a couple month and then the amount of servers declines and you end up having to stick with the game or expansion that has more people playing since most of the time you can't find a server with enough people playing to be fun.

    One example would be Desert Combat Mod for BF1942 (yes I know it's a mod but in it's own right it was an entirely new game). When BF Vietnam came out it was a decent game, but it was buggy and unbalanced. There were some good bits however and I know a lot of people loved it, but they are a small minority. After about 4 months the amount of servers at least in my area went from I think over 350 down to about 150 (I really can't remember how many servers there were so don't take this as fact) and most of those were admin'ed by total dicks. Three months later even more servers were gone. The last time I tried to play BFV was back in 05 and it just felt like a waste of hard drive space and my time. Anyway, within the first 3 months of BFV being released most people were back playing Desert Combat. Want to know why? It was because Desert Combat didn't split the BF community since everyone who had the base BF1942 game could play, it's a better game than BFV, and it's FREE.


    I want DICE/EA to do three things for at least the PC players of BC2.

    1. Release the Bad Company 2 Vietnam expansion for free to everyone with BC2.
    2. Limit everyone who didn't buy the expansion to only the starting weapons and gadgets and no custom kits.
    3. Allow people who didn't buy the expansion to pick up the kits of people who have bought the expansion so they know what they are missing out on.

    This would allow the entire BC2 community to play together so as not to be split up and also give people incentive to buy the expansion so you can use all the other weapon unlocks and gadgets. EA would probably get way more sales since people would want to use the better weapon and gadget unlocks.

    There are way fewer people playing the PC version of BC2. When they come out with the expansion maybe 10-20% of the PC community will be playing it exclusively. Right now there are only about 1250-1400 servers with people playing (when someone reads this it will be different, currently as of this post there were 1301 servers with people playing) and on weekends it goes up to maybe 1600. There is close to 6800 servers total.

    1600 x 32 = 51200 This is being generous because not all the servers people are currently playing on have 32 player slots and 1600 is a peak number of servers with people playing.

    1300 x 32 - 25% = 31200 That is a more reasonable "estimate" of how many people are actually playing world wide. If you subtract 15% of community that will be playing the expansion only, you have only 26520 people left playing BC2 worldwide.

    There is a chance the expansion could bring in more people or people who stopped playing, but without any real data on the size of the community except for how many populated servers there are it's hard to speculate how large the PC community really is. If you estimate how many people are actually playing you will see why the expansion really needs to be free so it doesn't split the community.

  • #2
    Re: My thoughts on the BC2 Vietnam news.

    I still play Desert Combat for 1942.

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    • #3
      Re: My thoughts on the BC2 Vietnam news.

      I really doubt it will be free. DICE is a company and they are in business to make money. Giving us free maps is one thing but an expansion pack takes a lot more work to complete.

      I bought the SF expansion for BF2 as well as AF and EF. Got many hours of enjoyment from it. I also bought the NS expansion for BF2142 and loved the hell out of that too. Not as popular but still some of the best maps for 2142.

      To be honest i don't mind paying. When you buy the expansion pack you will be playing with people who actually there to play the game. They spent the same money as you and want to get enjoyment from their game. Less asshats cause they won't be buying it.

      Every game has the haves and have nots. Nobody said life is fair.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: My thoughts on the BC2 Vietnam news.

        Moved this post to first post.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: My thoughts on the BC2 Vietnam news.

          I played BF2142 expansion, Northern Strike.

          I do agree, the servers are hard to populate for NS. Only a few of them have consistent population.

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          • #6
            Re: Why BFBC2 Vietnam should be free.

            Nice. CptainCrunch is awesome for renaming this thread to what I should have named it in the first place.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Why BFBC2 Vietnam should be free.

              I can finish this thread right now.

              Why BFBC2 Vietnam shouldn't be free : Because EA is a company that creates money, no fee = no money.

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              • #8
                Re: Why BFBC2 Vietnam should be free.

                Originally posted by RYKUU
                Why BFBC2 Vietnam shouldn't be free : Because EA is a company that creates money, no fee = no money.
                So by that logic Valve doesn't make any money out of TF2 since they've been releasing free content for 2 years now?

                Free content promotes the game and get new people to buy the full game. TF2 is still on Steam top sellers list, no doubt because of the promotion and free weekends. Then again, Valve supports it's game whereas EA is in just to make quick buck out of buggy game.

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                • #9
                  Re: Why BFBC2 Vietnam should be free.

                  Originally posted by L-iNC
                  TF2 is still on Steam top sellers list, no doubt because of the promotion and free weekends.
                  Yup. I just bought it 6 months ago.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Why BFBC2 Vietnam should be free.

                    Originally posted by L-iNC
                    So by that logic Valve doesn't make any money out of TF2 since they've been releasing free content for 2 years now?

                    Free content promotes the game and get new people to buy the full game. TF2 is still on Steam top sellers list, no doubt because of the promotion and free weekends. Then again, Valve supports it's game whereas EA is in just to make quick buck out of buggy game.
                    See, there is your difference: EA vs Valve, two separate companies with separate goals.
                    It isn't free content, you either need to pre-order a game or redeem a code, it is not free. Yes, there are "free" items, however how does that differ from wow? this positions you to view the developer as more "friendly", it is just another tactic. TF2 is one big active advertisement HUB, targeting gamers directly in a subtle way.

                    That is your opinon I like EA, some people hate IW and others don't. Unfortunately your opinion does not determine a developers popularity, money does.

                    Companies are here to make money or promote a product, which can be viewed the same way.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Why BFBC2 Vietnam should be free.

                      Originally posted by RYKUU
                      See, there is your difference: EA vs Valve, two separate companies with separate goals.
                      It isn't free content, you either need to pre-order a game or redeem a code, it is not free. Yes, there are "free" items, however how does that differ from wow? this positions you to view the developer as more "friendly", it is just another tactic. TF2 is one big active advertisement HUB, targeting gamers directly in a subtle way.

                      That is your opinon I like EA, some people hate IW and others don't. Unfortunately your opinion does not determine a developers popularity, money does.

                      Companies are here to make money or promote a product, which can be viewed the same way.
                      Ummm, yea that makes no sense at all. You pay the listed price for TF2 and that's it, I don't know where you're getting these "codes" and "pre-order" notions from.

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                      • #12
                        Re: My thoughts on the BC2 Vietnam news.

                        Originally posted by Killerus
                        I bought the SF expansion for BF2 as well as AF and EF. Got many hours of enjoyment from it. I also bought the NS expansion for BF2142 and loved the hell out of that too. Not as popular but still some of the best maps for 2142.
                        Same. Well worth the $$ for the countless hours of fun I got out of those expansions. Can't have everything for free, especially not these days.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Why BFBC2 Vietnam should be free.

                          Originally posted by RYKUU
                          See, there is your difference: EA vs Valve, two separate companies with separate goals.
                          It isn't free content, you either need to pre-order a game or redeem a code, it is not free. Yes, there are "free" items, however how does that differ from wow? this positions you to view the developer as more "friendly", it is just another tactic. TF2 is one big active advertisement HUB, targeting gamers directly in a subtle way.
                          The only things in TF2 that require anything other than gameplay to unlock are Bill's hat (L4D2 preorder), earbuds (login from a Mac), and Max's severed head and the pistol and revolver reskins (buy Sam & Max).

                          Everything else is completely free. With the free content and updates Valve provides it, TF2 promotes itself. I just bought it last week.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Why BFBC2 Vietnam should be free.

                            Originally posted by Wizrdwarts
                            The only things in TF2 that require anything other than gameplay to unlock are Bill's hat (L4D2 preorder), earbuds (login from a Mac), and Max's severed head and the pistol and revolver reskins (buy Sam & Max).

                            Everything else is completely free. With the free content and updates Valve provides it, TF2 promotes itself. I just bought it last week.
                            Oh I didn't even know about those.

                            But those are hardly game essential items.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Why BFBC2 Vietnam should be free.

                              the days of DICE and free are long gone, EA is a publicly traded company, investors dont like giving away free ****.

                              besides, it's a full conversion, I'm pretty sure BFBC2 only has 4 true maps as it is too so with the game modes it will be just the same size. i have no issues with paying for a expansion pack that's basically a mod as long as it's good. I'm more concerned about the community division,having to have separate servers for each and so on. player counts tend to drop at a pretty decent clip as soon as DICE divides the community.

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