EA's Online Passes Have a Limited Shelf Life

[FamoFunk]

Well, EA, this is just pointless now, isn't it?

 

[Strazdas]

and yet more oil on the burning EA office.

This however seems rather odd. no more "buy the game, play singleplayer, resell "like new" with untouched online pass i guess. not that i buy EA games anyway, boycotting EA and Ubisoft for their DRM for the last 2 years.

 

[Moffman]

I don't usually comment in anger and to my knowledge, never "troll". But this is possibly the biggest dick move I have seen in the industry in a long time! Now I will look at games see if they are backed by EA and consider not buying them for this fact. In fact just looked at my collection, looks like the only time I'll be giving them money in the foreseeable future is for Mass Effect 3.

 

[Johnson McGee]

snip

In what way does this have to do with money? If anything this idiotic nonsense is costing themselves money, not the consumer.

I mean, I'm all for being angry, but lets be angry about the right things.

Exactly what I was thinking, this is a pointless policy which results in EA's sinking its tech support's man-hours into reissuing online passes. This pointless move is losing EA money and customers.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Why would it expire if you can just ask customer support for free? Do they want to make it as annoying as possible so the lazier people won't actually claim it?

Close, they're expecting people to be lazy enough to just pay the $10.

My rage dial was cranked up to GFY ever since they started this stupid $10 Pass crap. I don't even buy games with it anymore.

My rage is now cranked up to Lewis Black level since I learned that the problem isn't so much pirating or used games but rather a smaller market for big budget games. They want us to pay for their incompetence and inability to expand the market. It's enough to get me to start buying used again, just out of spite.

The only games I play a lot online don't use that crap anyway.

 

[orangeapples]

According to EA:

As a rule, no Online Pass should expire, except those that do.

So what's the point of saying that no online passes should expire if you're just going to refute your very claim? EA, if you're going to troll, at least troll harder.

 

[KirbyKrackle]

Is EA's design philosophy "How far can we go to annoy our customers before they actually do something about it"?

Between origin, this, forum to game library bans, and years of just dick moves that have helped sully gaming, project 10 dollar, activation codes, selling cheat codes and unlocks.

How did we as consumers allow this to happen?

Because the majority of gamers now are new generation kids who only got into gaming with the advent of the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. They weren't a part of the "golden age" of gaming when games released without launch day DLC, zero day patches for game breaking bugs, beta releases with patch later mentality, and longer than 6 hours of game play.

The kids now just have money to burn ( or burn their parent's money) and expect mediocrity. Publishers have caught on to this and exploit it and now turn a deaf ear to legitimate complaints. They know they can develop trash and shovelware and turn profit on it thanks to launch day hype. They do it constantly and win.

We've lost what was once great and now have to wallow through the muck and trash thanks to over popularization of a once niche and directed hobby.

You damned kids and your virtual hula hoops!

Seriously though, your post demonstrates an incredible ignorance of the history and culture of video games as well as basic player demographics.

Hardly ignorant. I've been gaming since pac man on the PC ( used to play on my dad's old Digital brand pc remember them?) was amazing and the atari 2600 was state of the art. I've seen 25+ years of the gaming community and industry change. It really wasn't until the past 5-7 years that gaming moved out of niche and into a commonly accepted past time that wasn't looked down upon as a "geek" or "nerd" hobby. It can't be coincidence that this current downward trend has coincided with the rise and popularity of mainstream gaming.

Perhaps it can be be blamed more on the connectivity features (ie networking, downloadable patches, social networking) that has come with this generation, but hardly can it be denied that kids/young adults, aren't to blame for the current trends for continuing to believe hype and slapping down the money without a second thought. I lot could change if people chose to vote with their wallets.

By "young adults" do you mean everyone age 18 to playing-Wii-at-a-retirement-centre? Because that's the vast majority of gamers as well as the demographic with the most spending money, and they've been playing for more than a decade. And if you've been playing since Pac-Man then you're well aware of the shitty, unplayable games that existed during this "golden age" that never actually happened (think back, think waaaay back to what happened to the Atari and why). Nerds have no one to blame but themselves for the shit they consume.

 

[dubious_wolf]

Yeah no sh** I had a copy of Dragon Age: Orgins that expired on me. It's so frustrating that a company that is so customer disoriented can still function.
Oh and my Mass Effect 2 "Cerberus Card" was worthless.
EA is a miserable company.
I hate them.