CoD Black Ops: Activision Newest Money Making Scheme?

[RavenSEAL]

So yes, its official, Activision has yet found another way to rape your wallets. Upcoming title "Call of Duty: Black Ops" will feature a weapon/perk "store", which will allow players to purchase the weapons they wish with points gained in game, rather than unlocking them every two ranks or so. What does this mean for those looking forward to purchasing the title? Activision will most likely establish a system to allow players to purchase those points with real world cash in order to unlock more items. While this system can be looked at both good and bad, it will frustrate many players, and from experience with shooters that use this model, i can tell you it won't be easy to get points in-game, MS points or PSN wallet will most likely be the used methods. While this is just my speculation, i find no other reason as to why Activision did not plan it this way from the start. CoD Black Ops will be hitting stores Novermber 9th.

 

[SneakyStuff]

People shell out money all too willingly for their DLC so what reason do they have to stop? Remember everyone complaining about the $15 map packs for MW2 yet an overwhelming number of people purchased both map packs anyway?

 

[dougp]

You do realize that this should have been posted in the CoD:BO thread? And until something is announced, this is pure speculation. Also, it looks like you completely stole that from an RSS feed, so you should link your source.

 

[gorcorps]

This isn't new... several games already have had DLC that were just unlocks that you could earn for free if you just played the game. Don't act like this is just an activision idea, because it isn't at all.

 

[RavenSEAL]

You do realize that this should have been posted in the CoD:BO thread? And until something is announced, this is pure speculation. Also, it looks like you completely stole that from an RSS feed, so you should link your source.

#1 My source is GameInformer Issue 210 pgs.60-63

#2 I typed it myself.

#3 If you want proof, go buy a copy of the magazine.

 

[dougp]

#1 My source is GameInformer Issue 210 pgs.60-63

#2 I typed it myself.

#3 If you want proof, go buy a copy of the magazine.

And everything you listed as a concern was already in the Black Ops thread - we've known there would be a "store" in game that you can buy stuff with before you unlock it. Next time prefacing this by "Hey, I just read about this in the new Game Informer!" would probably have stopped me from saying you ripped it off of someone

 

[Mike Gayner]

As long as people keeping buying this crap, they'll keep making it. In the PC Games thread the vast bulk of users were bitching, moaning and whining about MW2's server fuckery on the PC, yet almost all of them bought the game anyway. Looking at the Steam group started to protest this issue was hilarious on launch day, where 75%+ of them had already purchased the game.

Solution: if you don't like it, don't buy it.

 

[TheUnk]

Wow Dougp is a dick.






This is not OT.

We hold our posters to a higher standard in the tech forums.

Knock off the name calling.


esquared
Anandtech Administrator

 

[stag3]

people are stupid enough to buy it why not charge them.
i bet tons of people are gonna fork out the 25-30 for the in game cutscenes
too

 

[BD2003]

So yes, its official, Activision has yet found another way to rape your wallets. Upcoming title "Call of Duty: Black Ops" will feature a weapon/perk "store", which will allow players to purchase the weapons they wish with points gained in game, rather than unlocking them every two ranks or so. What does this mean for those looking forward to purchasing the title? Activision will most likely establish a system to allow players to purchase those points with real world cash in order to unlock more items. While this system can be looked at both good and bad, it will frustrate many players, and from experience with shooters that use this model, i can tell you it won't be easy to get points in-game, MS points or PSN wallet will most likely be the used methods. While this is just my speculation, i find no other reason as to why Activision did not plan it this way from the start. CoD Black Ops will be hitting stores Novermber 9th.

If you have actually been following the black ops thread, youll know that nearly all of what you just said is a steaming pile of nonsense.

You still have to unlock the weapons like before, only now you have to purchase them. Its not so much a limitation as an addition to the progression system that allows more flexibility without just giving you everything. For instance, you have to unlock the weapon by leveling up, but you can buy any camo you want for it right off the bat. The weapon costs and everything else is already out there, everything is cheap, the currency is not going to be a limitation to the point where you need to buy points with real money - which you almost certainly will never be able to, given that they can be wagered, which might brush up against legality in many states.

Your speculation is wrong.

 

[Kabob]

Wow Dougp is a dick.

Actually he's just following forum etiquette...we don't need a new thread for every single scrap of news about this game. And as he mentioned all of this has already been mentioned.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Not to mention that this part about buying points with real money is a completely baseless assumption:

Activision will most likely establish a system to allow players to purchase those points with real world cash in order to unlock more items.

Whoever wrote this article is making a wild assumption and one which has no factual support. It's fun to take ideas and state them as fact

 

[dougp]

Not to mention that this part about buying points with real money is a completely baseless assumption:

Whoever wrote this article is making a wild assumption and one which has no factual support. It's fun to take ideas and state them as fact

Which also a large reason why I asked for a source. People can consider me a dick all they want, but this is a large release, and like other large releases we have a dedicated thread. Isn't it much easier to find the main thread and search through that instead of running a search and having dozens of threads pop up?

 

[purbeast0]

good for them.

since time is money, and some people would rather spend $5 than spend 200 hours in a game to earn weapons, why not give them the option to simply purchase them so they can use em?

i don't see anything wrong with this at all.

 

[BD2003]

good for them.

since time is money, and some people would rather spend $5 than spend 200 hours in a game to earn weapons, why not give them the option to simply purchase them so they can use em?

i don't see anything wrong with this at all.

The fear is what it could lead to. It could be done in an innocuous way. But then once they realize how much money is there to be had, it can quickly change from something optional to something necessary. Right now if it took an hour to get a gun, no big deal. But if they were to price the guns outrageously, some content could be so time consuming to unlock that it becomes more of a necessity to lay down cash, especially if they made a blatantly superior gun that gave people a serious edge. Then you need to pay up just to stay competitive.

And there's nothing stopping them from doing that other than a potential backlash. Thankfully that's not what they're doing, but they could if they wanted to. What you're saying makes sense, but there's potentially a really ugly side to it.

This is activision we're talking about here. They'd sell you the cutscenes from a game for $30 if they could get away with it.

 

[artemicion]

The fear is what it could lead to. It could be done in an innocuous way. But then once they realize how much money is there to be had, it can quickly change from something optional to something necessary. Right now if it took an hour to get a gun, no big deal. But if they were to price the guns outrageously, some content could be so time consuming to unlock that it becomes more of a necessity to lay down cash, especially if they made a blatantly superior gun that gave people a serious edge. Then you need to pay up just to stay competitive.

And there's nothing stopping them from doing that other than a potential backlash. Thankfully that's not what they're doing, but they could if they wanted to. What you're saying makes sense, but there's potentially a really ugly side to it.

This is activision we're talking about here. They'd sell you the cutscenes from a game for $30 if they could get away with it.

Haha. Wouldn't it be hilarious if they actually did implement a buying guns with real money system? Then we could have awesome matchups of rich kids with cutting edge military equipment vs. poor kids with knives and cold-war era AK's. Kill-Death ratio be damned, I'll run with the poor kids guerilla squad.

 

[Malak]

Complete baseless speculation. Anyone that buys into the drivel in the first post can simply read everything we already know about Black Ops to see that it is ridiculous.

THERE WILL NOT BE POINTS FOR SALE IN THIS GAME.

The point system in the game is to allow people more freedom in their unlock choices as well as to be used for a new game mode. Anyone and everyone gets points while playing for free, so trying to make a market for it would be silly.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Complete baseless speculation. Anyone that buys into the drivel in the first post can simply read everything we already know about Black Ops to see that it is ridiculous.

THERE WILL NOT BE POINTS FOR SALE IN THIS GAME.

The point system in the game is to allow people more freedom in their unlock choices as well as to be used for a new game mode. Anyone and everyone gets points while playing for free, so trying to make a market for it would be silly.

Lol...i'm guessing you've never bought an activision game?

 

[Malak]

Lol...i'm guessing you've never bought an activision game?

I've been buying Activision games for years. Quit the nonsense, you already lost this one.

 

[American Gunner]

I am surprised that people are surprised about this. Activision has been milking everyone for money for years. Oh, and this game is gonna suck anyways, so why does it matter?

 

[RavenSEAL]

I've been buying Activision games for years. Quit the nonsense, you already lost this one.

We'll see come November 9th...or later.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Haha. Wouldn't it be hilarious if they actually did implement a buying guns with real money system? Then we could have awesome matchups of rich kids with cutting edge military equipment vs. poor kids with knives and cold-war era AK's. Kill-Death ratio be damned, I'll run with the poor kids guerilla squad.

ROFL :thumbsup:

 

[PimpJuice]

We'll see come November 9th...or later.

We might, and we might not. That has nothing to do with you being owned in this thread.

You've provided no source, yet keep continuing to try and pass it along as fact.

 

[RavenSEAL]

We might, and we might not. That has nothing to do with you being owned in this thread.

You've provided no source, yet keep continuing to try and pass it along as fact.

Read more post less...I said it was MY SPECULATION considering how greedy Activision is and considering the circumstances. They saw how stupid the MW2 crowd was buying repacked maps and like 6 new ones for $30. Why would they stop there? Really, think about it, why would they bother changing a system that has worked just fine for the last 2 releases? Like my high school teacher Mr. Sugimoto would say...It's all about the....

 

[Malak]

Read more post less...I said it was MY SPECULATION considering how greedy Activision is and considering the circumstances.

Your considerations fly in the face of rational thought and actual comprehension of the game's design. How about you post less for a little while?