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Why The Bad Company Win Isn't A Win At All

Posted by Luke Plunkett at 4:00 PM on April 10, 2008

So EA & DICE have, as you've probably heard, altered their decision to charge users for certain weapons in the upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company. Cue high-fives and slapped backs across the internet. It's a victory! Score one for the little guy! Take that, big business! I'm sure a lot of people feel very proud of themselves! Thing is, how many of you have really sat back and considered what, exactly, just happened?

 

EA made the initial decision to charge for guns so they could make some money off you. That's what they do, they're a business. No harm in that. The way they went about it, though, well, it wasn't ideal. You can nickel-and-dime the kids for soundtracks CDs and tin boxes and action figures and gamerpics all you want, but when you open up a game's mechanics to the free market, giving those paying for content an advantage over those who don't, well, you're paddling right across the Rubicon.

Yet cross the river EA did, and an outcry followed. Petitions were begun. Boycotts threatened. "Don't you fuck with this game, you heartless corporate bastards" was the gist of mutterings by thousands across their dimly-lit keyboards. And for once, for a single week, the various warring tribes of internet fanboys set aside their differences and united against EA under a single banner. Tear-jerking stuff.

So a few days pass, the unrest grows louder, the petioning and emails continue, then...and then the darndest thing happens. EA announce the guns are coming for free (something I'm sure they were going to announce down the line anyways). Your complaining and crying and petitions worked. They'd seen how angry you, the consumer, had become, and rather than shout "let them eat cake", have instead said "here, cake's on us, sorry for the trouble". In other words, VICTORY.

Except...it isn't. And anyone who thinks it is are kidding themselves. Remember, EA made this decision so they could make some money. No doubt somewhere at Electronic Arts HQ is a ledger, and next to Battlefield Bad Company on that ledger is a projection saying $XX is estimated to be made by selling guns in the game. Now that they're not selling those guns, do you think they're just going to write $XX off the books? Not a chance.

No, they'll replace that "lost" money with the advertising dollars they rake in via the "marketing programs" anyone wanting the game's better guns will need to sit through. Or with other DLC offered later down the line (premium grenades, perhaps?), when this has all died down. They're not giving the money away, then, just shuffling it around a bit so you won't notice it so much. This isn't the end of stuff like this. The next EA game will have silly DLC, and the next one, and the next one.

Which means the boycotts (for a game you weren't going to buy anyways), the anger, the petitions, they're all pointless. This is a hollow victory. Why am I bringing this up, even though it will rain on more than a few people's parades?

Because while your hearts were in the right place, you all went after the wrong guy.

Online petitions aren't worth the bandwidth they're slung along. It's like trying to break down the walls of Helm's Deep by pissing on them. EA, who are a massive global corporation, sell their games to millions of people, and millions of those people don't ever read a messageboard or comment on a blog or sign online petitions. So your opinion doesn't mean as much as you think it does. You should know this. We're years on from stuff horse armour and "key codes" and paying-for-cheats and EA are still lacing their games with extortionate DLC, so it's obvious there are people are out there who are not only buying this content, but buying it in sufficient quantities for EA to keep on doing it.

They're the ones you need to be going after. Not EA. This is a free market. If something sells, EA will keep selling it. If something doesn't sell, they won't. Simple stuff. Clearly, DLC is selling. And you can hate and vent and write and bitch and moan all you like, EA won't stop selling it just because it makes you angry. You weren't buying it anyway. But if the people who are buying it stop buying it, well, that'll get you some results.

And I know, convincing them will be hard. These are your family we're talking about. Your friends, your co-workers, that kid you talk to at the bus stop. It's a lot harder having to explain this to them, and maybe even listen to their counter-points, especially since they're a real person and not some faceless corporation at the other end of an anonymous messageboard post. But hey, you want a real victory, and not a hollow one, you have to expect the fight to be longer and tougher than a few day's worth of words on the internet and some mouse-clicks.

Tags: battlefield: bad company | ea

 

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