Who else feels like the online pass situation is getting crazy?

When I first heard about project $10, I didn't care too much. To be honest, starting with the EA sports games wasn't a big deal to me. The few EA sports games that I buy, I tend to keep. And the same can be said for most of the people I know that play them. In this country, FIFA is a big deal and the people that play it don't trade it in. the same can be said for MADDEN for me.

I didn't even care when it hit Battlefield: Bad Comapny 2. The online pass hidden within the "Limited Edition" simply meant that without it, you were stuck to the standard on-the-disc multiplayer. You could still play the game online if you wanted to, it just meant you took a large size $10 kick off the server when the online pass maps were played.

the online pass was created to make sure that game publishers (NOTE: Publishers, NOT developers) can take a piece of the pre-owned market, under the guise of "making sure game creators are paid for their work even when a game is sold on".

I have more than one issue with this.

For me, the biggest problem is the complete lack of honesty from these companies. It doesn't matter how you feel about EA as a company, but I would rather they came out flat and said "you know what, we want a piece of the trade-in pie" But instead, we get a load of waffle about developers hemorrhaging money because of the slow down in sales. Some of the greatest deveolpers appeared and grew during the PS2/xbox era. There was no online pass,there was no control over trade-ins, but these developers still thrived. Back in those days, I was an apprentice, earning a pittance, so trading in my games was a great way to save a little money

My other problem, really, is the lack of quality in these games.

Don't get me wrong, we have had some truely brilliant games in the past couple of years, but we have had more than our fair share of absolute rubbish. And the problem is, it feels like these developers are subsidising their income by adding this $10 fee to games that they are fully aware are sub-standard and are more tha likely to be traded in.

Let's take "Homefront" as an example.

Personally, I thought it was a pretty cool game. But it was painfully short. I mean, a sub-4 hour game should not have an online pass attached to it. the multi-player in that game, I thought, was something special. the problem is, no-one knew it because they didn't bother with it. Those that did, that bought it used, got to play the MP to level 7 before they got the $10 gamer tax added to their price.

I mean seriously, Medal of Honor 2010 was the same. It was a mediocre game. But some of us bought it, and activated our online pass, with the promise of access to the Battlefield 3 beta test phase. But come on. 2 days early access to the completely PUBLIC beta. This is not a reward for buying the game new. This was nothing but a cheap attempt at getting us to buy the game new instead of pre-owned. Further proven by the severe LACK of additional multiplayer content that anyone got. Whether or not you bought it new or used.

Now, every game with a multiplayer component has an online pass. and only the occasisonal multiplayer gem in the piles of boring rubbish are actually worth spending the money on.

But it gets worse..................

Rage developer id recently announced that the multiplayer in their game would not be the target of the online pass.

Instead, gamers that buy Rage used will be locked out of parts of the single player game. This, in my humble opinion, sets a dangerous precedent for the games industry. If i buy a game used, or rent a game that I am not sure about, I am fully aware that the MP is not accessible to me most of the time. But I can stll 100% the Single player if I want.

While I aint sure who's idea it was, both id and Bethesda are culpable as far as I am concerned and when it works, who's to say Skyrim isn't next?

I can really see this turning into the day of the paid demo. With Rage's new found boldness for taking away the single player elements from me because I tried to save a few notes in this ass of an economy. How long is it really going to be before you get to hour 3 in your game and a pop-up box appears saying "ACTIVATE AND BUY YOUR ONLINE PASS NOW" ?

So, instead of buying used, I am going to have to go the other route.

Bargin Bin my friends.

While there are games that I can't help but buy on day one (Battlefield 3, I'm looking at you) but you know what, BF3, and possibly Assassin's Creed: Revelations, will keep me happy long enough to go out and buy Rage, Need for Speed: The Run and Resistance 3 all once they hit the under £20 mark. Sure, I wanna support the developer, but I simply can't be part of the daylight robbery that we are all simply sitting back and accepting.

If once, just once, all the people I see screaming "boycott!" actually found the balls to boycott just one of the many games that are finding new and creative ways to rip us off, maybe the publishers responsible would sit up and pay attention to the very large, but generally silent, gaming community.

I would love to hear how others view this idiocy, and how they feel about it.