Issues With Digital Distribution

I know what you're thinking "He's going to bemoan the prevelence of incomplete products shipping because of the allowance of downloadable patches!" Fuck no. That's been a problem since day one. Shit for computers always ships broken for someone, somewhere. You just never heard about it before because the internet didn't allow all those dip shits to yell about it to anyone who can hear. You ever try to play Aces Over Europe on a 486? Required a boot disk. Lots of self-patching to get it to run on any system with any less than 16mb of ram. But the box said it'd run with 8mb! A pox on you who forgets about broken games of the past.

No, my problem is this: micro-transactions. Micro-transactions are ruining everything. Well, not everything... but they're adding a level of "Capcom/EA/Activision/Valve shitting on our faces" aspect to the proceedings. I'm an avid Sims player. I've been playing the game since 2000. I bought every expansion pack (from Livin' Large to Makin' Magic or whatever that last abortion was) but I neglected to get a single pack for Sims 2. Now that Sims 3 is out I've been playing the game for about six months. I like it a lot more than the previous installments of the games. But I bought it online. I recently came to find out that EA Downloader isn't the amazing benevolent downloader that Steam is. No. I've got games on Steam that I purchased 6 or 7 years ago tied to an e-mail account that automatically come up when I install Steam onto a new OS or computer. My original borrowed copy of Half-life has followed me across 3 computers and countless OS installs. But EA will only give me one year with Sims 3, then I don't get to download it again if I need. They originally offered a service that would extend your ability to re-download a game for 3 years for the mere cost of $6. I refused. I guess when I need to reinstall the Sims 3 after a year, I'll just pirate it (showing that fucked up DRM leads to pirating).

But that's just one issue with digital downloads. The other issue is that the idea of "micro transactions" is placed in the head of the developer. They know that they can trickle customized items, new levels and new skins to us via download and charge us for them. Lost in Nightmares is a perfect example, as are the downloadable levels for The Force Unleashed. In both games, they offer extended gameplay via downloadable content, but somewhat overcharge for underwhelming results. Force Unleashed, in itself, was a fairly lackluster game. Beautiful graphics and amazing physics, but it lacked variety and any kind of story development. The problem was: the story had multiple endings, meaning that any content released taking place after the game would simply assume which ending took place. And the storyline was defunct in the downloadable content. Some taking place after the light side some taking place after the darkside ending. With Lost in Nightmares, they used a flashback from the game to release a paltry hour long episode. And each level costs about 5 dollars. And doesn't add much, if anything, to the game experience.

Valve and Rockstar have been good about this, offering episodic content at a reasonable price. Their initial episodes: Half-Life Episode 1 and Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and the Damned offered games that were a fraction of the length and price of GTA:IV and Half-Life 2, yet had almost as much content per dollar. The outcome was a welcome shift in release format. It was somewhat reminiscent of Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories, but with less content. (I'm still waiting on San Andreas Stories, by the way!)

But the transactions are getting more expensive and smaller. EA is by far one of the worst offenders of this. With Mass Effect 2 they are bundling in a secret code to access EA's distribution program VIA Xbox Live in new copies to curb people away from buying used copies. Initially this is not a big deal, given the launch releases were somewhat lack luster, but they are releasing seemingly episodic content that people who purchase used games will have to pay for. This gimping of the core experience is solely used as a means to prevent people from buying the used copy and essentially dry up the market.

So... The Sims? The Sims was proof they could do this to us. With each expansion pack they gave us a new game experience. And eventually they started selling us the same experiences over and over again. EA and Maxis perpetrated this atrocity of the industry. Companies like Lucasarts, Microsoft and Activision learned about this formula and promptly began anally raping us.

Don't complain that digital distribution has allowed the shipment of broken games, as it's allowed us to fix those broken games. Rather, digital distribution has simply given the companies a way by which to sell us the same experience over and over again for meager amounts of money that add up. The bonus materials packaged in later ports of certain games (IE: Resident Evil 4 on PS2) have been much more eloquently designed and executed than most extra downloads offered to us by any company short of Rockstar or Valve.

Suck my cock, EA. I want my fucking Sims to be playable this time next year you fuck-tards.

 (If anyone from EA ever reads this, I apologize. I was rather upset that I had to "pirate" my copy of Sims 3 in order to reinstall it after a harddrive failure. The new Origin Client has solved that problem, I appreciate your addressing these sorts of concerns, even if it wasn't directly to/from me.)