Sad trend in gaming

[Ded10c]

The rumours of a "The Truth" DLC seem promising. And reasonable.

[Psychedelic Rhino]

Somewhat analogous to what you are saying Twinshadow, is paying for game server access.

Back in '98, when multi-play games were really kicking into gear, I thought BZ's Activision servers was a bargain almost too good to be true. Play the game for an entire weekend and it costs nothing beyond electricity and your internet bill!

I played at H.E.A.T. the first 18 months or so because the games were monitored, so hacking was basically nonexistent. Loved it there, it was free as well.

The popularity soared, then came the death blow. . . they decided to charge. The site went belly up a few months later.

[Red Spot]

For me gaming is about relaxation. I dont want to keep my wallet close when I game, or have to consider that I not need to forget to pay my monthly fee.
For that reason you wont find me in games like Eve/WoW. I can imagine it works the same for others, or it simply is a financial matter were they simply cant (properly) shed more money.

[Apollo]

H.E.A.T. used 1000bytes of bandwidth IIRC, the rest went to ads, I couldn't even join a game it was soo bad.
Wow, BF3 already shutdown servers, maybe they should sell multiplayer separate if it will become useless soo soon.

[Psychedelic Rhino]

Back in '98 and '99, 56K was considered a very healthy speed, many had 28K or lower, so sites with bandwidth what we now consider miserable was "normal". I played BZ with a 24K connection for most of '98.

[GSH]

Another daft idea, if implemented.

-- GSH

[MrTwosheds]

Yes, strikes me as a waste of effort, what with platforms constantly evolving, trying to make games that are multi-platform compatible might just extend development time deep into any given platforms life expectancy.

[GSH]

This (alternate link/story) seems like fraud -- charge people for an app they can't play.

-- GSH

[Zax]

This (alternate link/story) seems like fraud -- charge people for an app they can't play.

-- GSH

Or a step in the direction of gaming becoming alike to fast food. Cheap, eaten fast, likely to cause diarrhea, then gone leaving you hungry in an hour anyway.

[Nielk1]

IIRC apps that cost money and cannot continue to provide their service must reimburse those who purchase it.