EA to start charging for Online play with used games

[Zthun]

I would strongly disagree with you that internet law and DMCA have anything to do with whether or not publishers will continue to push for new means through which they can profit from or eliminate the used game market. Even if the supreme court comes back in a case and rules that consumers have the right to freely sell and transfer digital content (which is very, very unlikely), I can't imagine any legal basis for forcing publishers to maintain game servers at their own expense for the benefit of used game purchasers. We are well out of the transitional period and with the dominance of iTunes and other digital content systems already destroying the previous record company sales model and download services already gaining a significant percentage of market share on the PC side, it is only a matter of time until more and more companies adopt the EA model. Personally, I don't blame them and I fully understand the business reasons for doing so. As a collector, it raises concerns, however, as it is not really possible anymore to collect the "entire" game in this era of day-one DLC, server based gaming, etc...

This is in really poor taste, but this whole scene is just like an abusive husband situation. The husband starts out normal like anyone else; then, he snaps at his wife. Of course this was just one time, so he apologizes and she forgives him. Then he snaps again, he apologizes and she forgives him. Eventually, this becomes routine, and now he can call her a fat ass bitch all he wants and she won't do anything about it cause she's so used to it. Then he hits her for the first time. Apologizes, promises he won't do it again, and she forgives him. Then he does it again, and again, and again, and the next thing you know, he's whupping her ass every day on an alcoholic binge while she's scared shit-less of him and won't leave him because of her fear that he's going to kill her.

In the above situation, it was baby steps. He psychologically got her used to his abusive nature and in the end, he finally overstepped his bounds, but she was so far into it that she didn't want to risk her life by leaving him. This situation is similar with EA. Eventually, they will overstep their bounds, but people will be buried in so deep psychologically with the way the gaming industry is that they will think that this kind of stuff is normal. What's worse, is people get very addicted to gaming, so no matter what EA, or Ubisoft does, people will pay. Gaming is almost like cigarettes - thetruth.com can mouth off about them all they want, but cigarette sales still go strong.

I've done this song and dance before with World of Warcraft. When Blizzard made everything light years easier near the end of Burning Crusade, I left. Did my leaving affect anything. Nope, in fact, quite the opposite. Blizzard got about 2 more million customers. The fact is, this is a business, and business' are out there to make money - like it or not, they are going to choose the model that will net them the most profit, regardless of what customers want.