Originally posted by: BD2003
Originally posted by: ciproxr
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2032460,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532
Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start -- most kids with an NES knew the Konami code. The all-in-one unlockable allowed some of us to actually beat a few of those nastily difficult action games back on the day, even if using the password was a dirty little secret.
But Electronic Arts is moving away from the days of button pressing; starting with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 on Xbox 360, they've officially started charging for the ability to unlock hidden content.
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# Unlock Golfer - 200 points
# Pro Shop - 300 points
# Maxed out Player - 200 points
# Sunday Tigr - 240 points
# Unlock Courses - 200 points
That's not to say you can't access this content without forking over money; all EA's allowing players to sidestep the unlocking process from the get-go.
It's a massive conflict of interest. They can justify charging for it, because you can "unlock it" without paying.
The whole concept of the unlock was originally to give a little bit extra to the guys that went the extra mile. It gave you an incentive to play. Some developers went a bit overboard, and locked so much content from the start that you needed to really dive into the single player in order to unlock the majority of content for multiplayer.
Then there was the "horse armor" fiasco, with oblivion. People actually paid for it, amazingly. They managed to have in hundreds of types of weapons and armor in the game. But a single piece of it is worth $5? Get outta here!
But EA really, really wants your money. If they can make money off of unlocks, two things are going to happen:
One - the amount of unlocks is going to go WAY up. EA is the master of giving just enough to satisfy people; just enough new content, just enough bug fixing, etc. They'll get this down to a science, hell, they'll probably hire mathematicians to figure out exactly how much to leave in, and how much to make unlockable, in order to maximize profits. They'll push it more and more as time goes by, and if they do it slow enough, most people wont even notice.
Two - unlocking things is going to become WAY harder. They might make the first few easy. Then it will probably become borderline impossible. They'll spin it off as an added "challenge". If you fail while trying to unlock something, they'll prob hit you with a splash screen - "Having a tough time? Why not just buy it! Only 400 points...POINTS! ITS NOT EVEN REAL MONEY!!" And of course, in true EA style, you will not be able to skip this splash screen, even if you've seen it 50 dozen times, and are not interested in the slightest bit. Hell, you might just end up paying just to keep that damn splash from popping up.
Imagine if we bought DVDs, and we got home, and we tried to watch the special features, it told us we had a choice of paying 5 dollars more, or watching the movie 50 more times? Or if we bought an album, and there were two hidden songs at the end - in order to listen to them, you have to pay more, or listen to the album 50 times, and hook up a mic and prove that you can sing every note on the album perfectly in tune?
