Evilmetal

I don't like the free to play aspect of the game.  If you want to unlock a class you need so many experience points (XP). So for example, there are some classes (for example) worth 18,000 XP or 280 GP.  GP is  their gold points (GP) currency to buy the locked classes and weapons. GP are acquired by spending real money.  There are weapons that are like 100,000 XP or 780 GP. 
 
Let me tell you.... a  few times I was in a round playing as a technician, it was a freakin' mad house... enemies all over the place, I was repairing shit left and right; I was putting up sentries... racking up kills... repairing sensors... guns... mad house, fuckin' mad house I tell you... and at the end... at the end of this madness, I got a few hundred points of XP, like 300-400.   And it's not a madhouse all of the time. This was a rare case and I remember how I played, I felt, hard and at the end it's like you don't get anywhere near to access new tools.
 
(my experiences are from capture the flag only) 

You can do the calculations yourself to see on average how long it will take to unlock a 100,000 XP weapon. Rounds are about 15 minutes. I don't know if there is a statistics page showing play time and so on and so far, but I'd estimate that I average 300 points a game maybe 400. I don't go for flags, I do defense.
 
The game revolves around you upgrading things to improve your guy so that you can counter enemy attacks.  So the reduced points told me they didn't want me to 'get ahead' without paying. Even if I played like awesome.   At the end of every round, your XP earned are shown. It also shows how many XP you could have earned if you were a paying member.  So they want to hit home that it is in your interest to pay. They have a bar graph showing your pathetic free-non-paid XP earned, and they show how many XP you could have earned had you paid.
 
I remember playing the demo of Tribes back in the day, and I could play the sniper class and other classes and it felt fun. Everyone had the same tools available. With the free to play aspect, if you paid you get access to better tools. If you don't pay.... you won't have a fair shot. If they said, 'pay $50 and you unlock everything'  it would be something to consider. But the sneakiness of the free to play model is that you don't have an 'end' to paying. Customers can perpetually pay and pay. I don't like that. The developers play on gamers' emotions (from being 'pwnd' or wanting to get an edge on others) to pull the trigger and make purchases. That's low class. They should just say "here's our world class game, buy it, get access to all the tools, and have a blast!".
 
When you play a game like CS or 1942/BF2 everyone has the same available tools, and the idea is how do you use these tools to win.  In Tribes Ascend...  you start off with a dude with one wooden leg and crutches and you gotta sit down and draw mental diagrams to figure out how to beat some guy with a metal exoskeleton and a mini-gun....    is it really worth the time? 
 
I don't think this game, and free to play games in general, are worth your time if you are not going to drop some money (like they want you to). Getting aggravated because some dude bought a tool and you didn't, is just not worth it and it's part of the business model; to get angry and make an emotion purchase, which lack logic.   
 
Even though I'm not paying and won't pay for the game, I gave the other gamers an "AI" of sorts.... an ADVANCED AI, if I may say so myself.  Many developers speak of hiring advanced AI programmers from Harvard and MIT and so on and so forth... well... what better gaming AI than a human being?  So  I was giving that "paying person" and non paying person, entertainment (target practice) for even less than slave labor wages. I have an advanced AI... dynamic path selection.... aggressive or defensive play styles...  works in teams with other, less advanced AI... etc.   If my wooden leg beat the crap out of some dude, he could have been inclined to make an emotional purchase to bust me up. I provided target practice and potentially gave the developers a paying customer. What did I get? access to play the game... keep wooden leg, upgrade a crutch.

there's a reason their face is hidden It's probably hideous inside there. Maybe their skin is like that bad guy from Robocop after he gets drenched in toxic waste....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjEdLuqK1RQ&t=0m35s

is it the Mordin voice from ME2? or a new voice?

You kids need to stop being so anal about digital platforms. Because there only gonna be more of them in the coming years, not less.

All over online I'm reading many people are up in arms about ME3 being Origin only. They proclaim they will wait for 'Razor1911' to help them install the game properly.  It seems like people are looking at Steam/Origin as two restaurants; where Steam may wipe the floors in the restroom and keep an overall clean appearance inside. But EA's 'restaurant' has a foul urine odor all over... the floor... walls... the waitresses clothing.....

@Evilmetal said:

@HaltIamReptar: Sure today publishers have eroded the difference between physical and digital version, by making people with physical copies still go through the procedures of logging in and making accounts with either Steam or Origin. Functionally I'd say there is a difference, certain freedoms are removed. The digital version says that you must login; you must be a member; you must be a privileged user, and not some random guy anymore. When EA talks about 'connecting with their customers' they really mean it. In the past you'd go buy the disc, install it, and play it. If after that point you wanted to be 'connected' with the developer/publisher, you had the ability to voluntarily initiate the connection. Today you are forced. The developer/publisher, whether you like it or not, has the power to data mine information about yourself. This action prepares the user to accept a world where you are always observed and can be put under scrutiny for your actions. There are several articles online that discuss the connection between mental deficiencies and playing video games. Can you imagine, for example, someone using the statistics of your play time to diagnose you? "Oh, you've played X hours of video games across your various gaming accounts. Research a,b,c,d, etc, say you are diagnosed with a mental disease." EA forcing Origin, with a massive library of entertainment, on customers shows the path gaming and society is going; that your actions are tracked and databased, where's the protection of privacy for the person? These companies talk about 'respecting your privacy'. They respect your privacy while at the same time violating it. They are ridiculous scum bags.

I'm not interested in this conversation at all. Also, it has nothing to do with what I posted. I'll take a step back to clarify, as I'm sure that there is miscommunication here.

@mazik765 said:

@WinterSnowblind said:

@Clutch414 said:

@WinterSnowblind: Portal 2 and The Orange Box aren't Valve games?

Again, they're not on there.

Perhaps they are in certain countries though.

They appear for me, but they are only physical copies. I don't see any digital option.

There is no distinguishable difference between a boxed copy of a Valve game and a digital copy other than the box. You literally cannot play any post-Steam Valve game without Steam legally.

I wasn't talking about the implications of DRM, I was talking about the literal reality of Valve games. If you're still insistent on this conversation, I am really, really confused.

Look at this ancient interview from June 2010 -- http://www.gamereplays.org/redalert3/portals.php?show=news&news_id=633194 
"Candid interview with former C&C Developer Greg Black"

 8. What do you think about Command&Conquer 4? Many people are state C&C 4 is not a game true to the C&C franchise.

It's unfair of me to pass judgement on C&C4 as I did not work on it nor have I played the final game. I was however at the studio during much of C&C4's development and have played pre-release builds. The important thing to know is that C&C4 was never meant to be a true Tiberium universe canonical game, but rather an experiment in online play. It originally started as out an Asian market online-only version of C&C 3. At some point the company executives decided it made the most business sense to add a single player campaign, call it C&C4, and put it in a box. The team of course protested this change in direction but the decision stood. The team did what they could to make a good game given the realities inside EA, but ultimately it was the product of a dysfunctional corporate culture.

So PS3 users are experiencing the Back to Karkand DLC. I'm sure there are PS3 owners of BF3 Limited Edition and BF3 Standard Edition. I'm wondering what happens when you are playing on a server with a vanilla BF3 map and then it switches to a Back to Karkand map? 

It will be both a client update -- approximately 2GB in size -- and a server update. The client/server combination will be incompatible with older clients/servers. All players will be prompted to download the update once it has been released. All RSP companies will begin upgrading their servers at the same time.

The client update is large because it contains most of the content for Back to Karkand. This is not ideal, so we aim to make potential DLC content in the future as optional downloads.

 
they are continuing Bad Company 2's way of operation... still not a modular design. It's a terrible way forward because why should a customer who doesn't have Back to Karkand be punished hard drive wise?  Somebody who has not purchased BtK will have 2GB taken that potentially could have been used for some other software application, that you would have FULL access to; unlike the BtK DLC that would take up space but remain inaccessible.   
 
The only way a blind eye can be given is if they gave the expansion free to everyone. 
 
Their action, of forcing the BtK content even without purchase, makes it seem as if EA intended to give Back to Karkand free to everyone, but in the end they decided to wrap a pay-barrier around BtK; and to force people to pre-order. Thus they did not have time to program the expansion to operate in a modular fashion, without forcing the 2GB expansion to everyone whether they bought it or not, because it was originally intended as being free for everyone.   This logic is sound when you consider, for example, Wake Island being included for free in past iterations of Battlefield.