Have you been surveyed by EA recently? Looks like EA is trying to sell maps and mods

[ABD_Bangbus]

Community made mods > EA mods

Bingo. If I pay money for anything it had better be a full fledged expansion, not some bullsh!t skin. If thats the case I will just go to the community mods. You wanna push customers away then this is the way to do it. Release a buggy game, announce an expansion before you fix any bugs, then charge for little BS mini expansions.

[joepez74]

Just wanted to add 2 more cents.

I definitely agree that the mod community can churn out great additions to games that never existed (one only needs to look at CS to see what mods can do), but if you want to play on EA's ranked servers then you'll need EA approved content. That's the catch. Like having pts, badges, ranks? Then you need EA approved content. From their perspective it is a smart thing to do.

When I was there, another thing that they looked at was the whole notion of ranks/badges. For those who don't know they run Pogo, and man do people like to collect badges on Pogo. So unfortunately that same concept was passed around to every game dept to figure out how to make “badges” (insert no stinken badges joke here) important in every game. So, want to earn those badges and have the bragging rights, which is the whole point of all the visible swag in MMORPGs (feeding egos)) then you need to use EA's servers, which means EA's content.

To Kronos's point about content, I agree that games shouldn't play a bait and switch (provide quality content with the game the 1st time), but honestly how many games can you think of that actually came with "extensive" content in the past? Everything always looks shiner, but in reality most older games were pretty lousy. Don't believe me, go check out some of the classics on any Abandonware site and see how great the content is in light of today’s games. I've been playing CPGs (every genre) since CPGs started and I can count on two hands the number of games that had truly deep & extensible content (Morrowind comes top of mind). Besides like all things there’s a tradeoff between depth and quality (like shiny graphics they cost money along with extra content).

I agree that a subscription for BF2 wouldn't be a great idea, but selling incremental content that is usable anywhere, but especially on their servers then prepare for the future, because it is coming to every gaming platform from every major publisher to you. Case in point look at MS’s marketplace for the 360, soon as that hits, every publisher will follow suit in every platform because they won’t be able to deny the revenue opportunity

Disclaimer: In case you haven't figured it out I was in marketing at EA, and this is what I get paid to do. Figure out how to grow businesses by creating new revenue streams. I don't work at EA anymore, I now work for a large computer manufacturer whose product you may be using.

[excalibur69]

wow doesnt this make them seem money grubbing. Come on, $3 for a new map? please this is the stupidest thing i have ever heard. Its not enough i paid $60 for the game, only to have the stats servers down once a week, and patches that cause memory leaks. How bout trying to fix the problems with the game before asking people for more money...We deserve a free set of maps after all the crap that has happened with this game over the past 2 months

[Praetorian145]

joepez74 - Personally I could care less about having first dibs ont he commander spot, and getting badges no one can see (not that they would matter much if they could). The only thing that I would really miss are the unlockable weapons, but they arent amazing. I probably wouldnt abandon vanilla BF2 entirely in favour of a good mod, but I probably would spend a lot of time on one. With all due respect to you and what you do - I dont think that these ideas are actually very good. Businesses are built on people deciding to buy their products, and forcing people into spending more than they want, or getting less than they expected, or being denied things because they wont pay money on top of what they thought they were paying for a full package jsut frustrates people, and ultimately it will back fire on you. Microsoft holds a virtual monopoly so within reason it can do whatever the hell it likes. If EA thinks it's another Microsoft then it has another thing coming, and I think that it might come in the form of a sudden drop in profits, and developers moving to other publishers so that they can get their games sold.

[imported_idash]

I paid $34.99 for BF2 during the first week of the release at Fry's.

Hopefully, they will sell the expansion for less than retail($24.99) too!

[Saureco]

Screw EA. Embrace the wonder and generosity that is Valve. Valve made the right move and made their product open source and free (the SDK). Granted it was a little buggy, but they provided their fixes and updates free of charge. When a mod team feels that their game/mod would amass a good amount of revenue, they could buy the Source license from Valve for a fee, then reap the rewards of their work. You don't see Valve swooping in on their competition, buying them out, then giving them the boot and finger all in one gesture. Valve doesn't make competition; it makes potential assets. For the last couple years we've watched EA spiral out of control in their conquest to buy out their competitors and wear them down to a bunch of overworked, underpayed drones. I remember when EA was a sports game publisher. EA Sports was a strong franchise. Then they took a stab at FPS games, and just because MOHAA was a success, some moron had an epiphany that this was the genre for EA to be in... minus all the hard work of their competitors.

Face it. Every FPS after the MOHAA series fell short of the bar. Remember BFV? Remember the rediculous "Rambo of Sprinting Death" M60/LAW combo? So many players dropped the game after a server was grossly stacked on the US side. To make matters worse, the mass exodus happened before EA even bothered to fix the kit with a patch. As much as I'd like to say EA is the only culprit out there doing this, we watched the same BS happen with SOE and Planetside. A Core Combat expansion pack only 6 months after the beta... I mean "retail" release?! Another fine example of rushing a product to meet unrealistic deadlines set forth by a marketing department.

Show me a successful, quality game and I'll show you a grassroots studio. Money is one thing, but if you didn't give your customers a good product to begin with, then it will show. EA is strong now, but I'm curious to see how long these giants can run before they stumble.

[gogtaylor]

I would just like to mention one of EA's past offenses to their customers...little known game(because of bad marketing) called Motor City Online. Ya after paying 10 bucks a month to play and 30 dollars to buy the game it was a rip, but the game was awesome and truly unique. EA just pulled the plug, rendering the game useless because it had no singleplayer. EA doesnt give two flyin f**ks about the consumer...which makes me madder than a legless etheopian watching a donut roll down a hill!!!

[imported_Soda]

I am not fan of UT2004 but they have great support for their game. They always kept making new content for it in new patches like maps and stuff, contests, and other stuff.

[Chenzo]

Community made mods > EA mods

Red for truth

[Holle]

Lots of the survey questions are about how much you want to pay for (specifically BF series) mods, updates, map packs from EA (one question asked me if I want to pay $4.99 for a new skin, how about that, $5.99 for a new weapon or something too). So free contents are history now?

Say no to the greedy b*****ds like I did.

They did this with BFV to. I basicly said if you make me pay for stuff, I'll find a new game to play.

[nikorasu(cz)]

I have no problem with the subscription idea, but you can not do both, sell initial package at full price and add more to that later. It's like you bought a car at full retail price with cash and then asked to pay additional leasing charge every month for driving in it.

Not really. You would pay additional charge every month, but they would give you new paints and replace your engine and stuff.

I agree with the paying for extra features, if it is for a reasonable price of course. But what about those who don't live in USA ? How will they pay for it, eh ?

[AT39]

Look at Half-Life 2: They are releasing the equivalent of an expansion pack FOR FREE!!! Also, there are a lot of people like me playing BF2 that either cannot or will not get a credit card to pay for this sh1t. (I'm too young )

[PureBlueFlames]

No, no! They will charge us for ammo, and for free with the expansion packs will come a free (with a hidden activaion fee!) credit card reader.

$.50 for 200 rounds!
$1.00 for 500 rounds! (OMFG, L4WL, R4WFULL, WHAT A ST3AL FOR A FR33 100 r0undz!)

I can't wait!

</sarcasm> :laugh:

I like that idea, it forces you to improve your ammo efficiency.

How about game for free but you BUY gun and ammo to play. If you got killed, you can either 1) try to retrieve your gun under enemy fire, 2) pick up a gun from a dead body or 3) use Daddy's credit card to buy a new one on ebay.

[Kixfox]

next we will pay per min of game use

"You want to play BF2?"

"No, I can't afford it, I have to wait until next month when I get my money check".

[Wynterheart]

it's amusing all of the "EA greed" responses. what naive people. gotta love the generation of stolen music off the internet, and the "entitlement" mentality.

you'd pay 4.99 for a ****ing skin or 5.99 for a ****ing weapon? wtf, you are ****ing retarded or so rich you can just throw money away.