Battlefield 3 'Premium' Service Offers New and Exciting Way to Give EA Money

From the "turgid feelings" linked article:

"How do you continue...[to keep it fresh?] You need to add map packs or whatever it is."

I'm so glad they realize that keeping it fresh = same game + new textures. But they won't make as much money as Activision until they consistently apply this wisdom to annualized full retail releases.

More steps down the path of making new games $60 demos and selling us the "complete experience" later.

@GreggD said:

@mlarrabee said:

I'm pretty sure server queue priority manipulation violates unwritten TOS for the original game.

It's a bit like Sony removing Linux support from the PS3, but less understandable. And skidgier.

You can't be serious.

It lowers the quality of service sold to the purchaser. I payed a certain amount of money for a certain (standard) server priority. If other users can bump me down to a lower priority level on the same number of servers, I'm getting less than I purchased.

If Sony wants to ADD servers for priority members, or had announced on release that server priority might eventually be altered, then everything would be fine.

Wait, does that bullet point about the expansion packs really say I can pay them money in order to have money-paying priority? How the fuck is that a benefit? For me, I mean.

@GunsAreDrawn: You're right, but it's just a reskinned knife. Beyond that, it's a "buy it all at once" dlc pack, really.

fuckin' gutter trash, $60 isn't enough.

It slightly pisses me off at the idea that they'd announce Premium without even bringing up a discussion about fixes the bugs introduced in the last patch :/

I stopped playing BF3 months ago. Don't get me wrong, it's a great multiplayer game, but unless you are really into it and practice a lot and form clans and play with a lot of friends, it isn't worth playing because everyone else will be far better than you.

I can't play BF3 on the PC anymore, because it's just got to that point where the people who are still playing it are really into playing it.

@PenguinDust said:

• Priority access to server queues (translation: jump ahead of the non-paying gutter trash!)

No good can come of this, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see more and more of this in the future. You want to play online and not have to wait, or have access to the best, fastest servers? Pay up, chump. It's basically the online equivalent of a VIP room or the velvet rope. The sad thing is I bet too many gamers will some how justify this and even defend this practice by EA and other publishers.

Though online PC gaming has done this for years. People who donate to certain servers get the same kind of (or at least equivalent) treatment.

I would say this might only apply to EA/DICE servers but IIRC they were shutdown?

I wonder if the independent servers can disallow such a thing? Or if it's a Battlelog thing and somehow push you the front from there?

No EA, I'm not going to give you money to play a game I already own and for content that hasn't even been completed. This is disgusting. I'm just going to play Counter-Strike.

Yeah, rEAper is completely without shame. They'll talk bad about CoD even as they copy every one of their services....

It's a realization I think I sorta came to when reflecting on the incredible prices on a TI 83 calculator. They charge that much because they can.

So, as always. Buy if it jives with your desires (all DLC and then few other bonuses). Don't buy if you're not into that thing (don't plan on getting all of the DLC; don't see the bonuses as valuable). What I think is funny is that if this was a $50 season pass-esqe deal, that all it came with was all the DLC, then I don't think anybody would complain. Add stuff in, suddenly they're shitting all over everyone... which is kinda true. To raise one up you gotta push one down.

Can't really complain about this. If you want this kind of service, buy it. If its not your thing, don't buy it. It might actually be worth it for people who haven't bought any of the BF3 dlc and maps.

I just want to know how much it would cost to buy all the DLC/expansions separately. I'd be willing to spring for this if it saved me $10 or so, since that kind of downloadable stuff rarely goes on sale.

This is gross.

Wahh wahh wahh is all I hear in the comments. All the shit that EA is doing today, they gave you a chance about 4 years ago for the stuff you want. Innovative games? No one bought Mirror's Edge. Free DLC? Gave you tons of it in Burnout Paradise, and Mass Effect 2. Sports games that were actually different? Not a peep more sales in NHL.

Sequals sell, Paid DLC Works, and the internet is wrong. Put your money where your mouth is, or just shut up and stop complaining because you were probably part of the problem about 4 years ago.

I wouldn't buy something like this for anything except Starcraft and luckily Blizzard appears to treat their fans with some respect.

@insanejedi: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/241306/dice-well-never-charge-for-battlefield-maps/

I'm just saying... that they said it. I'm probably the millionth person who said that here, but whatevs... I'm not buying it. I'm not going to go all out and say I'll never buy an EA product again. Just got ME3. The multiplayer dlc for that game is free...

@SpartanAmbrose said:

Sounds like a great idea for hardcore Battlefield fans. Luckily I'm not one of them.

There are no hardcore battlefield fans, this game seriously took the franchise from grace and made it shit. I'd rather have battlefield 2 with a frostbyte 2 engine patch than battlefield 3. And I'm not the only one that feels this way. But congrats maybe this will cater to Rival Gaming since they're elitist battlefield turds.

Really sad to hear. I thought that the servers were half cool and half bad when I first saw them but... this is nearly the price of a whole game. I mean come on.

I got no problems with season passes, but they should lead off with this.

"Priority access to server queues"

Ha. This stands out to me for some reason, wow, something that belongs in a F2P title in a so called AAA title. You're a fucking hoot, EA. No wonder so many people were anally ravaged enough that they won that worst company thing, they're so shit.

Totally buying this.

@urban_ryoga: the ME3 MP DLC (acronymsplosionnnnnnnnnnn) is only free because the money hat is the booster packs.

Expansion Packs?

Yeah. I doubt we will see a single expansion pack for Battlefield 3.

This is pretty much just pre-ordering the DLC and getting it early with a few extras. It seems like a good deal if you wanted to buy all the DLC drops. 6000k MSP if you bought them all separate or 4000k MSP if you get this. I don't see why so many people are shitting on this..

Can't wait to wait longer to get into servers the community is paying for because people are paying EA to bump me down in line.

Can't wait to wait longer to get to pay them for DLC. That's a privilege now apparently.

Can't wait to discover what else magnificent things the worst company in America will be bringing us through this premium service.

I hate this manipulative, artificial value, premium exclusive benefits, F2P service bullshit, in case my thinly veiled scorn wasn't apparent. Keep your filthy digital revenue business model nonsense out of the games I buy please, or I'mma stop doing that. Which will make me really sad because Battlefield is perhaps my favorite game series of all time.

Riccitiello says once people are invested you can essentially spring whatever kind of crap you can think of on them and they'll pay for it. This feels like the trojan horse for that. Hopefully people will be inclined to look a gift horse in the mouth, because it does smell of Greek soldier to begin with.

@Rebirth1337 said:

This is pretty much just pre-ordering the DLC and getting it early with a few extras. It seems like a good deal if you wanted to buy all the DLC drops. 6000k MSP if you bought them all separate or 4000k MSP if you get this. I don't see why so many people are shitting on this..

Because it's not pretty much just a season pass.

You can't pick and choose a specific part of the package that your money is going towards. It's a package, you're paying for all of it, including making things worse in various manners for those who don't pay up, and whatever else scummy things EA may introduce. BecauseEAlikessurprises.

@mewarmo990 said:

I just want to know how much it would cost to buy all the DLC/expansions separately. I'd be willing to spring for this if it saved me $10 or so, since that kind of downloadable stuff rarely goes on sale.

Close Quarters at the very least is going retail.

http://www.zavvi.com/games/platforms/pc/battlefield-3-close-quarters/10614259.html

No thanks, I don't even want the Close Quarters DLC.

Wow this didn't bother me at all untill.

@Alex said:

• Priority access to server queues (translation: jump ahead of the non-paying gutter trash!)

Lets hope not many people buy it.

This explains why the patches are so few and far between. They're making weapon skins instead. Great stuff.

@Arker101 said:

@onan said:

It's a good rule of thumb to just avoid all EA games.

FTFY

I'm not that jaded, yet. That would mean I would have missed Mass Effect 2.

Paying for "server queue priority"?

EA!!!

I didn't care about this till i read server queue priority.
 
Everything to do with these services so far has been content based, if you want more game and you don't mind paying it's for you... but joining a server is a basic function of the game, having functionality be decided by money is fucking disgusting.

server queue stuff sounds like some bullshieeeeet

@onan said:

@Arker101 said:

@onan said:

It's a good rule of thumb to just avoid all EA games.

FTFY

I'm not that jaded, yet. That would mean I would have missed Mass Effect 2.

I understand, I didn't become this way until just recently. It was Dragon Age 2 and BF3 server payments that did it to me.

Regarding Battlefield 3, I'm merely a casual player that jumps in every once in a while to have fun for one or two games. This premium service is definitely not for me.

I was waiting for such an absurd announcement from EA, greedy bastards.

I guess this is where I get off the BF3 train. Will be getting rid of my copy in the next few weeks, just want to wrap up a few more achievements. It's been fun, but not as fun (or as appealing in terms of value) as BF BC2 was.

I guess I'm just "old" since the pricing seems to be accepted by most people now, but these map packs that they put out for BF3 and MW3 seem incredibly overpriced.

I enjoy BF3, but not enough to spend the money on a premium service. Also, I tend to have 2-3 games that I am alternating between at any one time, so I tend not to be too loyal to any one game.

Having said that, if you are really, really into BF3, and that is all you play, I can see how this might appeal to you.

Perhaps it's because I play on the PC, but I never have to deal with server queues. I have so many servers saved on my History and Favorites that I jump around on that there's always room in at least one of them. So whatever.

I dunno, I'll probably get it. I was planning on buying all the expansions for this game anyway since they actually feel worth the money.

Bought it last night. The way I see it. I'm just giving them my money now for the dlc so I don't have to later.