I haven't blogged in a while but there have been following quite a bit of gaming issues that i feel i would like to voice my opinion on some of them.  Plus i love Giant bombs all in one deal for gamers (wiki database for game stuff, reviews, lists, forums and the big things Achievements, although i would like to see some PS3 trophy support). 
 
So the new Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package trailer just came out.  Looks great but what i'm here to talk about is whats all the fuss about with the price.  For people that don't know its $15.  This is new to many gamers.  DLC has always been in the $1-$10 area and the $10 area usually means quite a bit of content (like a whole 10 hours more of gameplay)  but $15 for 5 maps (which are probably small cause thats how modern warfare maps work).....wait your telling me two of them are from the first modern warfare  game?! THIS IS MADNESSS.  ACTIVISION SUCKS MW2 SUCKKKSSS. 
 
Ok lets tread back and define certain things.  Modern Warfare 2 has an interesting social community which consist of two types of people.  There are gamers and mw2 gamers.  Gamers are people that enjoy a variety type of games and enjoys their gaming with more than one game be that an action RPG, thriller adventure whatever it may be.  Then there are mw2 gamers.  Ever since the release of mw2 all they have played is modern warfare 2, they may have started playing some other game but found it to be not as fun as mw2 so they went back to playing mw2.  I'm not saying these people are bad people just saying this is how they enjoy games.  (although i will rant, one time bunch of friends of mine were playing one match where we lost and this one douche started saying "you clan SUCKS, all you guys sucks....for the whole intermission, i would like to say, at least all of us have lives outside of mw2.  ok end rant, those people are bad people)
 
 Now that we have two different groups, lets see how they react to the pricing of mw2.  Gamers will look at this and cry outrage.  $15 for this type of content is insanely overpriced they will point all the faults of mw2, make some whitty Kotick/Activision remark or praise Bad Company 2 or Team Fortress (i like how many commenters do some stupid stuff like, "oh the maps look cool.....*goes back to playing bad company 2*" everytime i read this i roll my eyes, unfortunetely it leads me to get dizzy and crosseyed) .  Mw2 gamers will see this as more reason to play modern warfare 2.   
 
And this is the reason why its priced at $15.  Activision has obviously calculated how they can make the most profit out this.  And they have probably calculated that if 3 million people buy this pack for $15 as opposed to the 4 million that will buy it for $10 thats $45 million vs $40 million.  This has obviously been targeted to that mw2 gamer audience  that does not care about the price because they feel that with the amount of time they are going to play with the new pack (since they play 8 hours a day 7 days a week) is worth it.  And there are going to be people that restrain at first but when they see all their other firends playing it, will probably succumb to it. 
 
As gamers we know this is overpriced, but then this pack isn't really targeted to us.  From the actions Activision has made in the past year, they are not here to win the hearts of gamers, they are here to make money and lots of it. They really don't care about giving back to the commuinity.  Most of us will eventually buy the pack may it be peer pressure or that the price comes down low enough that we feel the money is justified.  And for those people that don't end up buying it and are enjoying another game, good for you, just don't start bitching when Activision makes another move like this....its all business.

I haven't blogged in a while but there have been following quite a bit of gaming issues that i feel i would like to voice my opinion on some of them.  Plus i love Giant bombs all in one deal for gamers (wiki database for game stuff, reviews, lists, forums and the big things Achievements, although i would like to see some PS3 trophy support). 
 
So the new Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package trailer just came out.  Looks great but what i'm here to talk about is whats all the fuss about with the price.  For people that don't know its $15.  This is new to many gamers.  DLC has always been in the $1-$10 area and the $10 area usually means quite a bit of content (like a whole 10 hours more of gameplay)  but $15 for 5 maps (which are probably small cause thats how modern warfare maps work).....wait your telling me two of them are from the first modern warfare  game?! THIS IS MADNESSS.  ACTIVISION SUCKS MW2 SUCKKKSSS. 
 
Ok lets tread back and define certain things.  Modern Warfare 2 has an interesting social community which consist of two types of people.  There are gamers and mw2 gamers.  Gamers are people that enjoy a variety type of games and enjoys their gaming with more than one game be that an action RPG, thriller adventure whatever it may be.  Then there are mw2 gamers.  Ever since the release of mw2 all they have played is modern warfare 2, they may have started playing some other game but found it to be not as fun as mw2 so they went back to playing mw2.  I'm not saying these people are bad people just saying this is how they enjoy games.  (although i will rant, one time bunch of friends of mine were playing one match where we lost and this one douche started saying "you clan SUCKS, all you guys sucks....for the whole intermission, i would like to say, at least all of us have lives outside of mw2.  ok end rant, those people are bad people)
 
 Now that we have two different groups, lets see how they react to the pricing of mw2.  Gamers will look at this and cry outrage.  $15 for this type of content is insanely overpriced they will point all the faults of mw2, make some whitty Kotick/Activision remark or praise Bad Company 2 or Team Fortress (i like how many commenters do some stupid stuff like, "oh the maps look cool.....*goes back to playing bad company 2*" everytime i read this i roll my eyes, unfortunetely it leads me to get dizzy and crosseyed) .  Mw2 gamers will see this as more reason to play modern warfare 2.   
 
And this is the reason why its priced at $15.  Activision has obviously calculated how they can make the most profit out this.  And they have probably calculated that if 3 million people buy this pack for $15 as opposed to the 4 million that will buy it for $10 thats $45 million vs $40 million.  This has obviously been targeted to that mw2 gamer audience  that does not care about the price because they feel that with the amount of time they are going to play with the new pack (since they play 8 hours a day 7 days a week) is worth it.  And there are going to be people that restrain at first but when they see all their other firends playing it, will probably succumb to it. 
 
As gamers we know this is overpriced, but then this pack isn't really targeted to us.  From the actions Activision has made in the past year, they are not here to win the hearts of gamers, they are here to make money and lots of it. They really don't care about giving back to the commuinity.  Most of us will eventually buy the pack may it be peer pressure or that the price comes down low enough that we feel the money is justified.  And for those people that don't end up buying it and are enjoying another game, good for you, just don't start bitching when Activision makes another move like this....its all business.

This post seems a bit biased against MW2/Activision...... 
but whatever. I have more games than MW2 to play but I have probably gotten the most entertainment out of MW2 than any other game that I have ever played. I played the campaign twice (which I pretty much never do) and I have sunk 50+ hours into the multiplayer. So therefore, since it is one of the most fun games that I have played, I consider it to be one of the best games that I have ever played. And I believe that $15 for 5 maps is completely justified (edit: for me at least), considering the amount of enjoyment that I will get out of them. 
But I agree completely that I'm fucking sick of these guys that go on the MW2 forum, and simultaneously claim that they hate MW2, they don't care about MW2, that MW2 is somehow ruining other games, and how they don't even fucking own MW2. I swear, some of these guys spend more time bitching about MW2 on these forums than I actually play the fucking game.

...I think that 70$ for Modern Warfare 2 is a rip off.

i do also have a problem with a price. i kind of think that it is expensive for 5 maps and two of them were already on the first modern warfare.

But I agree completely that I'm fucking sick of these guys that go on the MW2 forum, and simultaneously claim that they hate MW2, they don't care about MW2, that MW2 is somehow ruining other games, and how they don't even fucking own MW2. I swear, some of these guys spend more time bitching about MW2 on these forums than I actually play the fucking game.

 I've probably had enough of MW 2. I played the heck out of the 1st game, then played this one. It was fun while it lasted but in the end it just didn't feel as exciting as it once was... It sucked going up against people who had better pings and even worse, using imbalance weapon and perk combinations that would totally break the game and ruin the experience.   

Now given that I own the PC version, this doesn't affect me as much since as of now, the map packs aren't coming on the PC anyway. I do own a 360 though. Seeing that price tag somewhat ruined it for me. 3 new maps and 2 "possibly updated" old maps for 1200 MS point or $15 doesn't seem like a fair price. Compare this to what Epic did with their $15 Dark Corners pack for GOW 2, which includes 7 new  maps plus 1 deleted scene from the campaign. Shadow Complex, a great stand-alone XBLA game is also priced at $15.  
 
Activision is just being aggressive with their pricing and if this turns out well for them, everyone else follows. In the end, everyone would end up suffering for it and we would be seeing DLC or add-on prices for all the other games getting a bump in the future. To all the video  game enthusiasts who own the game and do not want this to happen, you should vote with your dollar. Don't buy it now and just wait till the price drops.