I was kind of in an argumentative mood this week, it seems, and there was a certain thread on Reddit that caught my ire. In this thread, the poster took a screenshot of a pre-trailer ad for Gears of War 3 stating that people could gain a code to unlock a playable character for Horde and multiplayer named “Griffin”.
While I didn’t think this was a big deal, the title for the article stated “Developers, this is not OK!”. My first thought was, why isn’t this OK? It’s just a harmless code based on liking a Facebook page that doesn’t change the game in anyways. It confers no additional advantages to you, unless you end up playing with a guy who gets really jealous that he doesn’t have a playable character voiced by Ice-T.
I shot back at the guy (see if you can find my comment) and got into a back and forth with a few people who said that this was shameless advertising. I maintined that you aren’t going to “like” a game on Facebook that you’re not going to buy anyways, so this is just a simple bonus.
What do you guys think? Is this an evil move by Epic and Microsoft? Have you got my back?
Source – Reddit
I hate the “pre-order with X and get this awesome thing” or “pre-order and get awesome X” or “insert something stupid and non game related and get X” for in game items. I think its shameless and a hassle. What if I dont want to pre-order? I guess I loose out on content then. What if I wanted that content? What if I dont like store X and dont want their promo. And lastly, what if I dont have a twitter,facebook, account on their promo site..ect? Guess I loose out again.
So why the big fuss if its only cosmetic and doesnt matter. I greatly dislike not being able to get content someone else has just because they spent more or did something completely un-game related. Now if he was better than me and did something in game thats skillful, fine. While it doenst ruin the game, it kind of makes me sad/upset I cant get full content.
Shameless advertising? So what? They are trying to sell games.
Meh, I wouldn’t consider extra playable characters for a game that isn’t a fighting game worth anything anyways. I shrug and say “I’m still not buying your game.”
Definitely on your side.
If it cost money, sure. This is a click. Sometimes I cant even browse reddit, if this was Valve itd be the greatest thing to some of those kids. I wish I could give you more then one upvote, your comments are the most sense I read on there in a while.
I totally agree Mitch, I find it stupid when people get all up in arms about pre order bonuses and stuff like this. “They’re making us miss out on content if we don’t want to pre order or like the facebook page!”. My answer to that is for one, you’re only missing out on something so minor as to a multiplayer character skin, not a whole damn mission out of the campaign. And second you are gonna buy the damn game anyway, go out and just pre order it so you can guarantee your game and get the bonus content, or like the Facebook page because obviously you do “like” the game. Don’t have a Facebook account? If you want the character really badly, make an account, it literally takes five minutes. Advertising makes the business world go around, and the game industry is no different. At least we are rewarded for the advertisements and promos.
How does this hurt anyone?
BUT ANTHONY, FREE STUFF HNGGGGGGG
@raider66 Thanks! Man, /r/gaming really bugs me sometimes. It’s mostly “Valve is the best” and “hey remember how good gaming was”? It’s kind of annoying.
[quote comment=”17361″]BUT ANTHONY, FREE STUFF HNGGGGGGG
@raider66 Thanks! Man, /r/gaming really bugs me sometimes. It’s mostly “Valve is the best” and “hey remember how good gaming was”? It’s kind of annoying.[/quote]
I dont think Ive ever read a page of comments without seeing “Battlefield is better then Call of Duty” “Wasnt Ocarina of Time great?” or “If you dont play on a PC you are worthless.”
Still… that damn site is addictive
Wait a minute, when were video games some artistically pure medium that didn’t stoop to shameless, gimmicky advertising?
Have these people never seen ads and promotions from early 90s video game magazines?
Would it somehow be “okay” if this character were only available as a download for five bucks? Would that somehow be less shameless?
I thought I used to be pretty keen on when to be outraged over “corporate greed” but I guess I’m too old to be hip to what constitutes grounds for indignation these days.
Games are part of business.
They are a corporation.
They want to make money.
This is part of the plan.
Don’t Like it Don’t Buy it.
What the difference.
I say as long as they don’t have an unfair advantage and its just a simple aesthestics thing then whatever.