Mass Effect 3 Demo Provides Temp XBL Gold Access

@Huey2k2 said:

@CosmicQueso said:

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

Oh for f's sakes... isn't the entitlement thing going just a tad bit far here?

Yes, how dare people who have been paying for Xbox Live for years and years be a little upset over the fact that people who haven't spent one single penny will be getting the same service as us, even if it is only temporarily.

FOR SHAME!

Man next you're gonna be upset at HBO for having a free weekend! OH NOES!

@MordeaniisChaos said:

You'd save what, 3 dollars? Fuck off. I have payed for Gold for a good few years now, and I'm perfectly a-ok with this. You're a fucking frugal idiot if you think you need those couple of weeks. Seriously, it's not even a month. Next thing you're going to ask that all your games come with Gold Extension cards because it's not fair that people who haven't spent anything can use those 2 days of gold, it should only be for paying members!

This is business, and it's a good thing of them to do. Are you going to bitch when Whiskey makes happy hours occasionally free to show people what their missing? No. But You're going to bitch about less than 5 dollars you aren't saving? Get over yourself.

I have nothing to add to this. Great post.

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

Why not cancel your Gold subscription to become a Silver member, take advantage of the this kind offer and then continue paying for your Gold?

ps. you sound like a miserly b*stard!!! *cough*

oh God, why do I read the comments? WHY!?!?!?

@wumbo3000: i think he meant just for the demo dude, not for the full game.

@HatKing said:

@Rasgueado: I'm fine with free trials, those are offered to everybody (and most require some sort of purchase anyway). This is a free two week period of a service that some members are being charged for and others are not. I'm not that upset over it, I think the internet did a good job of completely misreading what was written--as usual--but simply pointing out that it would be pretty cool if Gold Members saw something for the money they are paying (ie: a couple week extension or even a coupon for a few points off a XBLA title).

How pissed were you when they had a free Gold weekend for Gears of War 3? Or MW3? Did you expect some XBLA points or some extended Gold time?

@altairre said:

@MordeaniisChaos said:

You'd save what, 3 dollars? Fuck off. I have payed for Gold for a good few years now, and I'm perfectly a-ok with this. You're a fucking frugal idiot if you think you need those couple of weeks. Seriously, it's not even a month. Next thing you're going to ask that all your games come with Gold Extension cards because it's not fair that people who haven't spent anything can use those 2 days of gold, it should only be for paying members!

This is business, and it's a good thing of them to do. Are you going to bitch when Whiskey makes happy hours occasionally free to show people what their missing? No. But You're going to bitch about less than 5 dollars you aren't saving? Get over yourself.

I have nothing to add to this. Great post.

Spread the word!

@Brodehouse: The game-play wasn't the draw for me personally. I didn't find it as satisfying as Gears of War, and tactically I usually was exploiting the game's mechanics on higher difficulties. There was a lot of running around boxes waiting for cool-downs as I recall. Given, I'm not great at the ME games but I generally enjoyed them despite that.

I don't know whether the multi-player in ME3 has any context or not; that would be what I find interesting. Especially as your team aren't the usual soldiers or space marines, but actual characters. I think ME has space for that too, you could probably gin up some reasons for co-operation with other people while still letting people use their characters.

Beyond that, my favourite parts of ME are the world and the dialogue, neither lend themselves particularly well to multi-player. Multi-player is generally of a higher quality than a few years ago when it was thrown in most every game, but I really don't think ME needed it.

i was going to ask how can people argue over this but then internet

Weren't people who bought Battlefield 3 supposed to have Beta Access in like. January? When did that go away and become a demo for everybody at the same time?

@DefaultProphet said:

@Huey2k2 said:

@CosmicQueso said:

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

Oh for f's sakes... isn't the entitlement thing going just a tad bit far here?

Yes, how dare people who have been paying for Xbox Live for years and years be a little upset over the fact that people who haven't spent one single penny will be getting the same service as us, even if it is only temporarily.

FOR SHAME!

Man next you're gonna be upset at HBO for having a free weekend! OH NOES!

Or Baskin Robbins for offering ice cream samples. I paid perfectly good money for this Tooty Fruity, you freeloading pinkos!

@laserbolts: What? I don't really care myself, but I don't see any reason people can't complain about paying for a membership everyone gets for free for a while. Technically we're losing value. Unless you cancel your subscription when the free membership begins and re-up when it ends, you've been paying for a free subscription for a few weeks.

The whole thing's kind of weird. That they're pushing ME3 (specifically its multi-player?) so hard as to allow everyone access to it. The main reason people have Xbox Live Gold is to play online (I would expect). So, again I don't care, but technically this demo should be exclusive to Gold members on the Xbox 360, at least the multi-player portion.

I just gotta have sex with that Turian again. Thats the end goal right?

@MordeaniisChaos: That's a little hostile. People have every right to complain if they're losing value on what they're paying for. Some people might also care about the small amount of money they're technically spending on nothing. Free Xbox Live Gold just seems a little inelegant of a way to publicise Mass Effect 3 to me.

I understand the benefits to Xbox Live Gold but online play should be free. No quarrels. No bullshit.

It's nice that the demo is multiplayer only so you can get an idea of the mechanics without spoiling the real deal in the main game when you import Shepard!

@Zaxex said:

@MordeaniisChaos: That's a little hostile. People have every right to complain if they're losing value on what they're paying for. Some people might also care about the small amount of money they're technically spending on nothing. Free Xbox Live Gold just seems a little inelegant of a way to publicise Mass Effect 3 to me.

You are not losing any value. None. Nothing about this has any direct effect on you. Stop pretending you're a victim.

@patrickklepek This is incorrect, from the way I read it. Silver users will be able to play the demo, but will not get all the other Gold benefits.

@DeadDorf said:

@patrickklepek This is incorrect, from the way I read it. Silver users will be able to play the demo, but will not get all the other Gold benefits.

If you're a Silver member, you'll still have to wait a week before you can download it.

@ptys:

It is not just a MP demo, there is a bit of SP content in there as well.

so now i have an even bigger reason to play the demo on that other box then

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

Hey, Ben & Jerry's shops are giving away free Americone Dream Ice Cream on Valentine's Day but I've already paid for mine. Wanna join my support group?

I just renewed my 12 month gold membership 2 hours ago. *snaps fingers* Danggit!! /Kip Dynamite

Awesome, my gold expires a week before this.

@CosmicQueso: It doesn't really bother me, but where's the line that marks when people can complain? 1 month? Xbox Live Gold is a service, Microsoft have to make it an appealing proposition to pay them X amount per month. It's less appealing when they give it to everyone anyway. I know some people who take a lot of convincing to pay for a subscription, it's not just a given like it is with some of us, myself included. Microsoft are effectively giving everyone who uses their console a few weeks of Gold in order to push Mass Effect 3. It's a marketing move that EA probably had to pay for, which puts their priorities over that of Microsoft's paying customers. Hell, it slightly undermines Microsoft themselves, unless they expect people to pay for Gold when the trial ends.

So for a few weeks my subscription is meaningless, I could have the same features available to me whether I pay or not. If they don't reimburse people with extra weeks on their Gold subscriptions then yes, we have lost something.

I'm not going to do anything about it, I probably won't play the demo either - not interested in MP - but people who pay for a service can absolutely feel slightly cheated.

Guys, EA REALLY wants you to play Mass Effect 3.

If anything, I kinda don't want to play the demo. I want to go into Mass Effect 3 fresh. I'm just hoping it will review well and then I'll be all psyched up for it.

The 360 used to be my preferred platform for a game, but now I'm so over paying for peer to peer hosting. A few dollars a month isn't much but when all they're doing is restricting access to things that are provided free on other platforms, it's not worth just giving them my money. I remember on the original Xbox part of the justification for being a member was all the free DLC you'd get like PC gamers used to get. So much for that, Microsoft makes it so developers can't even give away DLC if they wanted.

Oh March 6th? You mean the EXACT date my gold expires. Great. My fucking luck.

@DefaultProphet said:

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

Are you serious. Like.....what the hell is wrong with you that you think this way?

yeah that's pretty weird. Nothing worth having unless it comes at the expense of others? Or can't enjoy what you have unless you know that others can't enjoy it too? pretty poor frame of mind.

Im only going to play the MP part of the demo. That way i can see how the action feels without spoiling anything :)

@tourgen said:

@DefaultProphet said:

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

Are you serious. Like.....what the hell is wrong with you that you think this way?

yeah that's pretty weird. Nothing worth having unless it comes at the expense of others? Or can't enjoy what you have unless you know that others can't enjoy it too? pretty poor frame of mind.

Not to mention that the cost of those 3 weeks is $3.46 total. It's so minuscule that it's barely worth thinking about.

@Stubee said:

Im only going to play the MP part of the demo. That way i can see how the action feels without spoiling anything :)

damnit! why would you plant that thought into my mind... now I might have to do that too.

EA payed nothing for this. MS probably wants people to try out Gold Membership and then subscribe.

Also, I played Mass Effect on the PC, so this does not affect me

@Sjosz said:

@ptys:

It is not just a MP demo, there is a bit of SP content in there as well.

Uh oh, I'm staying clear of that business then, in the words of Frank Costanza "I like to go in Fresh, Fresh!"

Really hope they tidied up some of the Shepard weapon animations, playing ME2 now it seems a little too stiff. Need to loosen up the movement, alla Nathan Drake/Gears.

I bet we'll see more of this kind of perk for demos. MS has to look at it as a chance to sell the gold upgrade if a mp demo really impresses.

@DefaultProphet said:

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

Are you serious. Like.....what the hell is wrong with you that you think this way?

i totally agree with u prophet, its not like MS is taking out the time from the gold members a/c's , if they want to make it free for 2weeks its their call because its there service and its also a good marketing move.

i mean how shallow and narrow minded are u ?

i'm sorry but its kind of disgusting how some people think now days, how are u getting hurt by this in any way?

My gold runs out on the 13th of February.  I'm not even joking.

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

wow.

It's Hulu Pluxxin' time!

@patrickklepek Do you know if this time will extend the time of someone who already has gold.

What a great idea, I will take advantage of this.

Time for some Huluing on my Xbox, don't rememver the last time I used it.

@HatKing said:

@Sharpless said:

@CosmicQueso said:

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

Oh for f's sakes... isn't the entitlement thing going just a tad bit far here?

Agreed. People complain when Microsoft's tight-fisted and restrictive, and people complain when Microsoft loosens up and throws users a bone. I'm pretty sure we gold members can live with paying a few bucks for something some people are temporarily getting for free.

The entitlement thing is about what is unearned. Gold members actually pay money for a service. That service is free for two weeks, but I highly doubt that Microsoft will be showing those who already paid for it any compensation. I don't care that Xbox Live is free for two weeks, but it should be free for everybody. Hardly entitlement.

You are an idiot. Truly, shamefully, an idiot.

Fucking awesome. I actually stopped subscribing to Xbox Live Gold back in September when my account got rolled back to Silver. I knew that I would eventually have to subscribe again when ME3 comes out, but guys? Did I ever pick a good time to not subscribe. haha Thanks EA/MS/Whoeverthehellisdoingthis. /no sarcasm

Holy Poop! I had no idea there was going to be a ME3 demo, and a MP one at that + a single player is really great. Having a MP demo seems like a really great idea especially for a loved franchise that has never done MP before. Seems weird to me that they would have a single player demo part though. Hopefully its one of them demos that does not have any of the actual single player story in it.

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

Oh for f's sakes... isn't the entitlement thing going just a tad bit far here?

Glad there is a single player portion of the demo because I don't really care about the multiplayer.

@Zaxex: Yes, I agree with your rational and well thought out argument, but this is the internet son. Prepare to hung by the neck until dead.

I wonder if any of you people complain when somebody buys a 12 month subscription that comes with an extra free month, and your subscription didn't come with it.