Warning: EA is now a Sith Lord

It's been speculated prior, but today's launch marks EA's making good on threats to cut into the used video game market. The problem: Autolog, from Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Autolog, for the uninitiated, is the expansive online component for the aforementioned title, providing access to races, tracking your friends' statistics, and providing unique challenges as play the game. Simple, right? No. Should you buy this game used don't expect to find an unusued activation code for Autolog in the packaging. Without this code you cannot go online or do any sort of interactive gaming inside of Need for Speed. Additionally, if you should chose to upgrade your console, your Autolog access will not move with you due to the terms and conditions currently stated upon activation. $10 bucks, buddy.

Needless to say, this is an act of pure greed on the part of Electronic Arts. The only give here is the first console used to activate Autolog will allow all Xbox Live Gold members on said console to access and play online freely. Move consoles? You're screwed. Want to pick up a used game because your budget dictates as much? Add $10 to the sticker price. Paid for your year of Gold for the multiplayer? That is so 2009 - pay again. Want to loan the game out to a buddy? Hope they enjoy solace.

I am disgusted by this practice. While I understand publishers do not make money on used games - that's too damn bad. Consumers have, will, and are legally entitled (in the US) to sell their property at any time of their choosing, without the meddling of the manufacturer. The system has been designed to work like this - to allow a fair share of consumer rights to exist. EA's greed is spit in the face of every gamer out there.

Microsoft and Sony have an obligation on the part of all Xbox Live and PSN users to step in and put a stop to this practice, immediately. XBL and PSN multiplayer cost money and have little reason to allow this practice. To pay for multiplayer and then be slapped with an additional fee for the same multiplayer is not something that should be tolerated by the console manufacturers - used game or not. This is wrong. Period.

EA, you are (pardon my french) greedy assholes.

Rockband(s)

I sincerely hope at some point Activision and Harmonix get back in touch with the gaming public soon - we are TIRED of buying instruments in this area of $4.20 per gallon gas. Besides destroying available real estate within my house, I simply cannot afford to drop $200 everytime a new version of Rockband comes out. What happened to the good old days of allowing a peripheral to be used with several games before a new version is even considered? Is Dance Dance Revolution the only holdout that doesn't require me to buy a new dance pad with yodeling ability with every new mix released to the public?

I speculate, but perhaps the developers of these hugely grossing games have massively large houses they purchased at the cost of a few mil. This could explain why they're able to justify the high cost of the "Mary Poppins Box of Band Instruments" with each new version of the game. Not to mention their massive houses could actually store all these toys, unlike my fair size apartment (as far as apartments go). If this trend continues buying an iPhone could actually be cheaper than buying a video game!

As "authentic" as these games are trying to be, it's getting gimmicky to the point of ridiculous. A drum set that is velocity sensitive and can adjust the volume for the sound it makes in the game? Adding more things to hit instead of something manageable to a newer player? Excluding bands who won't provide master tracks? At what point do you throw down the controller and go start an actual rock band? Have we reached this point already? Guitar Hero: World Tour allows for a full electronic drum set to be used in place of the drum peripheral. Next the publishers will just provide sheet music, right?

Activision and Harmonix - most of us like your companies and definitely get into your music games, but for the love of pete, will you stop with the oneupsmanship in the instruments and let us actually ENJOY them for a while? I don't think I'm the only one who is becoming turned off by these iconic titles due to the high cost of entry. You stand to make a lot more money by simply releasing a new version of the game that uses my current peripherals, instead of making me choose between money for groceries and a game.

Stop Challenging Everything!

"I've been around this here internet a few times" and have definitely played witness to more than a few instances of anti-Electronic Arts sentiment. Common criticisms are cookie cutter games made for cheap profit, bastardization of smaller studios upon acquisition, and inferior product being pushed out due to deadline priorities. Sounds like your typical corporate America company. EA breaks the mold and not in a good way necessarily.

Gamers have been relatively spolied by a good abundance of titles that generally sport solid back end coding. A lot of this rests with the 1980s Nintendo limiting releases from third party publishers to no more than a few per year and setting a quality bar. Not every game for the NES was deemed a critical success - but the back end code was good, as opposed to the wildly varying subject matter. Generally your character would not spontaneously fall through the floor, explode, fly into oblivion, or randomly die in any manner. With EA taking more of the market since the late 1990s, however, the term "Getting EA-ed" has been coined on Xbox Live, to indicate when some spontaneous error has occured that should not have.

It is not uncommon now to purchase an EA-published game or game by its second party developers on release day only to find that an update has been released through Xbox Live or the Playstation Network the second you pop in the disc. For $60+ a pop gamers deserve better than this. Perhaps this is where the Wii wins - Nintendo does not allow for game patches on WiiConnect24 and so developers must more ruggedly test their code.

Another common criticism of EA is their forcing of gamers to upgrade to newer editions of franchise games by limiting or completely shutting down online play once a new edition has come out. Recently this was done for some of the older Burnout games and is regularly done with EA Sports-brand titles. This is no new strategy either - EA planned this years ago when they wrested control of their titles' online components from the primary Xbox Live servers. EA again screws gamers - for $50 a year games deserve to have access to online functionality in their games as advertised. On the flipside some speculation does exist as to if Xbox 360-based EA titles can be so easily fettered with due to Microsoft's strict Live-Experience requirements and underlying console dashboard in all games. This theory is further supported by the restoration of Burnout 3's online capabilities due to the recent re-release of the game in the Live Marketplace. Only time will tell.

I'm getting so very tired of this BS coming out of the biggest American publisher. This isn't good for the industry, good for gamers, or good for other publishers. EA is setting precedents that only contribute to the lowering of game standards and the value per dollar that I dish out for games and online service.

EA, get with the program. You're starting to lose your market share from a combination of bad ideas and practices and you missed the Wii entirely. Bring back the days of Nerf Wars and get back to the industry's roots - unfettered creativity. After all, a cookie cutter is a cookie cutter and you're far better than that if you want to be.