So there's some turmoil that's been brewing on the internet over the recent Resident Evil 5 "Versus Mode" DLC that Capcom released earlier this week. The file itself turned out to be just a hair under 2MB, leading many people to wildly speculate, using the ancient art of ridiculous hyperbole, that it was an unlock key to content already on the disc and therefore this is the worst thing since Nickelback or Hitler and it will only lead the industry down a slippery slope where we're going to be paying ten million dollars for a single game after all is said and done.
It does seem shady, and a practice that I would not support, but after spending a little bit of time giving it a good amount of thinking I have a few problems with this argument. First off, this entire Angry Internet Man March is presupposing that it is a file that is unlocking content already on the disc, and while 2MB is pretty small, that's fairly large for a key. Capcom has said as much in a statement released yesterday. While it may be naive of me to believe what the company in question is saying, I'm inclined to believe it, mostly when taking into consideration that Sony has begun to charge publishers for bandwidth used on the Playstation Network. That would also do away with the argument that Capcom padded the file out to make it appear not to be a key, and while, again, 2MB isn't a large file, I don't know why you'd intentionally increase the cost of doing business just so you don't piss off teh hardcorez gamers.
Second, having played through it, Resident Evil 5 is not a game bereft of features or gameplay. This is a game that features a full single-player campaign that you can also play beginning to end with another player, the same goes for the arcade-y Mercenaries mode you unlock for beating the game. It also has weapons you continually upgrade and improve that carry over between difficulty settings, encouraging multiple playthroughs. Compare that to an extremely similar title like Dead Space, which has no co-op or extra modes to speak of, and costs the same amount as Resident Evil 5. I'm not slagging on Dead Space, it is an excellent game that you should definitely consider buying, but the point is that Capcom, again presupposing the content is already on the disc, isn't selling a hobbled product. It's also worth noting that this extra "Versus Mode" wasn't even announced until mere days before the release of the game, long after the demo had come out, where I would assume the majority of the people getting upset over it had probably already made up their minds about whether or not they were buying the game in the first place.
Third, and this is key, you don't have to buy it. This is how these things generally work for any product. A deathmatch mode for a Resident Evil game does not sound appealing in the slightest, and I have no desire to own it, a sentiment that many of its opponents also seem to hold. Not paying for it is the strongest statement you can make, not endlessly comparing Capcom to the Third Reich on an internet video game forum.
As for the whole "slippery slope," yes, the practice of paying to unlock content on a disc you've already purchased is an extremely dubious concept, but I don't believe that's what was done here. We should probably save those tears for when we're asked to pay $4.99 to play the next level, not because Capcom put out a deathmatch mode nobody seems to want anyway.
Gamers have the most absurd sense of entitlement I've ever seen, and I hate you so much.
-K.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Do Shut Up
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
BOOM BOOM BOOM!!
Been a busy week here so I haven't had much time to throw anything up and, as I've stated in the past, posting from home is simply impossible.
Remember way back to the days before Quake 2? Before Quake? Before Wolfenstein 3-D? Wait, too far. A time when id Software was a tiny outfit made up of about a dozen guys making platforming games like Commander Keen. Here's a fun piece of nostalgia that John Romero threw up on his site a couple days ago (Also, remember when he wasn't a punchline?):
A Visit to id Software from john romero on Vimeo.
The lengthy bit early on with Bobby Prince showing off the MIDI music he had created runs a little too long and a little too dry, but the fun of the piece is Romero showing Doom off to a couple people. Doom still holds up fairly well and I'll go back to it every now and then, but this video really reminded me of how revolutionary it was. Wolf 3-D was a milestone, but, and you can hear it from the reactions, nobody had ever seen anything like this before. Simple technical things like networked deathmatch and vertical movement and textures you could see and shoot through, these were all impressive technical feats at the time. I need go to load it up again, I've got demons to punch in the face.