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Why EA's Latest Corporate Ploy Should Be the First and Last Straw

Also My Thoughts on the Current Trend in DLC and Micro Transactions

By Callum MunroPublished 6 years ago 4 min read
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Let me start by saying I have never really hopped on the Anti EA bandwagon, and often defended their use of DLC/Microtransactions from a fairly neutral standpoint.

DLC, after all, is additional content and if you don't enjoy the base game, then there would be no reason for you to spend your money on the extra content anyway. If you enjoy the base game up until the first DLC release, then the £50 price tag (which has not increased over the years contrary to popular belief), is definitely justified, as is paying for extra content for a game that you are enjoying. If you bought premium or a season pass BEFORE you knew whether or not this game was worthy of your time, then that is your own fault for jumping the gun too early.

Micro Transactions are horrible and devious additions to games and we have all been caught out by them at one point in our lives. However I must disagree that they are ruining games like Shadow of Mordor and Star Wars Battlefront II.

I am (at the time of writing this), around 10 hours into Shadow of Mordor and well into the second Act. I am yet to come across a mere mention of a micro transaction, and I find my character to be kitted out with awesome Legendary gear without me spending a penny. It is clear that the micro transactions are there to take away the grind that us avid RPG fans live for, which is quite sad, but it doesn't actually affect those of us who wanted to grind away our hours in Middle Earth anyway, so why get so upset? The people who say that the game is "designed around this economy," seem to be forgetting that actually most good RPGs are designed this way, and it's to force you to spend longer in their world they designed for you, not to force you to pay money. Otherwise, where are the micro transactions in other older games that feature heavy grinds like Final Fantasy and Monster Hunter?

Now to begin talking about EA with Battlefront II. Players are able to spend money on Loot Boxes which will allow them to gain cards that will help them gain stat boosts for their classes. Stat buffs are hardly ever an issue in multiplayer games, they are in probably all multiplayer games that I can think of and hardly ever cause any noticeable issues. The fact you can bypass having to actually play the game to gain these boxes with your money is obviously a step in the wrong direction, however it should not warrant whether or not you buy the game.

With all that said and now it hopefully being clear where I stand on the subject matter, the story that has come out within the last 24 hours regarding EA should absolutely warrant whether you should buy the new Battlefront or anything from EA ever again. (Shadow of Mordor is safe from this by the way, Monolith is a fantastic studio and Shadow of War is a great game.)

The previously upcoming EA/Visceral Games Star Wars game was probably one of the most promising projects I had heard about in recent years. Amy Hennig, who worked on the Uncharted series before leaving halfway through the 4th installment, was now heading this project, meaning Star Wars was sure to have a blockbuster single player experience on the way.

EA have come out and announced that not only will the Star Wars game no longer be made, but it will be getting a pivotal change to its design, because apparently a "single player linear adventure concept" was not being received well by test players, which is absolute horseshit. It doesn't take a genius to work out that they are basically saying that in a linear adventure game there is no where they can fit in some form of micro transaction system. Not only will the game no longer go ahead, and we will instead receive some awful corporate version of "Star Wars Destiny," but they have also decided to shut down Visceral Games, who before they were used and abused by EA with Hardline and Army of Two: Devils Cartel, made some awesome PS2 classics and the phenomenal Dead Space series.

Micro transactions and DLC should never be the reason for someone to boycott a game or a company, but when these corporate design choices are the actual reason for promising projects that fans were looking forward to to be cancelled, and in turn the reason for a incredibly talented and much loved studio to shut its doors, that is when we know there is a problem. I always have found boycotting a huge company like EA ridiculous, but even after thoroughly enjoying the Battlefront II beta, I will most likely not be buying it, as I will not be able to enjoy anything endorsed by that disgusting company again. It's a shame because I like DICE very much, and it probably wont be long until they are also forced to close their doors for the gain of EA.

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