I considered replying individually to the folks who quoted me, but I'm fundamentally lazy, so I don't think I'll bother.
First off, read what I wrote: "people who for some unknown reason don't want to have their console online." Don't WANT to. Not can't, because those people are screwed either way, given that DLC is perpetually beyond their reach whether it is free or not. Rather, the people who are technophobic enough, or incompetent enough, not to want to hook their console up.
Secondly, I forget whose snarky comment went along the lines of me saying that people who don't play online "don't have a right to be gamers", again, read what I wrote. I said "probably shouldn't", not "don't have the right to be", so congrats for trying to put words in my mouth. Stay Classy yourself.
Next, an awful lot of people I've seen have tried to turn this into some sort of quasi-socialist moral crusade. "Activision makes lots of money, so they should give me stuff". That's the basic summation of that argument, and it's as specious here as it is if you dress it up with fancy language and moral posturing. They're under no obligation to give stuff away because they are successful; indeed, it can be argued that a certain mercenary sensibility is one of the roots of that success. Your argument is akin to saying: "Well, Jim Cameron made a boatload of money on Avatar, so he should make his next film free to all audiences, and just suck up the losses on it." It doesn't fly. Activision's responsibility is NOT to its consumers, but rather to its STOCKHOLDERS.
Finally, there remains this weird group who somehow feel that by buying used games, they're communicating to Activision some measure of disapproval for the way they do business. What you're communicating, in fact, is an approval of their product, and an unwillingness to pay what Activision is willing to sell it for. In a sense, you're reinforcing the idea of day 1 DLC; you're telling the company you like what they make, you're just too cheap to buy it new, so they need to find some way to coerce you into doing so.
First off, read what I wrote: "people who for some unknown reason don't want to have their console online." Don't WANT to. Not can't, because those people are screwed either way, given that DLC is perpetually beyond their reach whether it is free or not. Rather, the people who are technophobic enough, or incompetent enough, not to want to hook their console up.
Secondly, I forget whose snarky comment went along the lines of me saying that people who don't play online "don't have a right to be gamers", again, read what I wrote. I said "probably shouldn't", not "don't have the right to be", so congrats for trying to put words in my mouth. Stay Classy yourself.
Next, an awful lot of people I've seen have tried to turn this into some sort of quasi-socialist moral crusade. "Activision makes lots of money, so they should give me stuff". That's the basic summation of that argument, and it's as specious here as it is if you dress it up with fancy language and moral posturing. They're under no obligation to give stuff away because they are successful; indeed, it can be argued that a certain mercenary sensibility is one of the roots of that success. Your argument is akin to saying: "Well, Jim Cameron made a boatload of money on Avatar, so he should make his next film free to all audiences, and just suck up the losses on it." It doesn't fly. Activision's responsibility is NOT to its consumers, but rather to its STOCKHOLDERS.
Finally, there remains this weird group who somehow feel that by buying used games, they're communicating to Activision some measure of disapproval for the way they do business. What you're communicating, in fact, is an approval of their product, and an unwillingness to pay what Activision is willing to sell it for. In a sense, you're reinforcing the idea of day 1 DLC; you're telling the company you like what they make, you're just too cheap to buy it new, so they need to find some way to coerce you into doing so.
