Sorry to mutilate your post like this, but it helps me to write in a less rant-like manner.
Owyn_Merrilin said:
They call it extra content, but it's usually on the actual disc with the rest of the content, and all the code does is unlock it. From my point of view, if I pay for a disc, whatever is on it is mine.
Really? Because I've always seen it more as the physical disc being mine and that I paid
company x to play the contents of the disc. You don't own whatever software is stored on that disc, you simply own the right and ability to play what you paid for.
And as I said, the extra content might be on the disc but is still doesn't change the fact that the extra content was put there
specifically to reward players who purchase it brand new. If you purchase second hand then you aren't entitled to play that extra content; think of it as the V.I.P. are of a club.
Owyn_Merrilin said:
As for why making multiplayer a part of Project $10 is so bad, it's because multiplayer is no longer an added bonus to a game -- it is every bit as much a core part of the experience as the singleplayer, heck, it's closer to the core in a lot of cases.
Exactly! And to keep this multiplayer running developers are going to need money. It's perfectly fair for EA to charge a $10 fee. Most PC games can't even be sold second hand, which is a shame because I'd gladly pay less for World of Warcraft but then pay a small fee for a new product key from Blizzard. Of course if you'd bought it brand new then you wouldn't have to pay the $10 because the full cost of the new copy would have covered this.
Owyn_Merrilin said:
they've also already been paid for all of the content that they are denying you, and the person who paid for it can no longer access it, having sold his or her game to you. EA is out no money for your used purchase, anything they take on it is pure profit, profit that is completely undeserved in this case.
But why
shouldn't they make a profit? That's right, they have been paid for it, but not by you. The person who bought it brand new paid for the right to use the extras and online. You've paid a fraction of that (none of which went towards publishers or developers) and so your experience is limited to what you paid for.
Owyn_Merrilin said:
You don't pay the publisher every time you buy a used book, do you?
You're assuming that both forms of media work similarly. When you purchase a book you own that physical copy of that book, that book is now yours. You can sell that book but you can't sell the ideas within the book.
Here's how I feel:
Someone who purchased the game first hand has paid a percentage to the publisher. If they then sell that game they are knowingly selling you the game without the features they bought it with. You can point the finger at whoever you like; consumers for being so entititled or publishers for being greedy or even the distributors for knowingly selling you this.
But it all comes down to this: EA have decided that they want to make money from second hand sales of
their intellectual property. Distributors are simply doing their job: distributing. Consumers are doing their job: consuming. Smart consumers will see that like it or not things won't change and will either fork up the $10 for the activation/online pass or will purchase brand new.