WoW: COD Edition
Date: 6/1/2011, COD Elite
WoW: COD Edition
Call of Duty is rolling out a new subscription service
called COD Elite. Much like dating sites, COD Elite will offer the basic
services and features for free, as well as a premium membership which will
provide additional services for a small monthly fee. Before getting into how
absurd this is, lets take a minute to do a rundown of this exciting new
service. There will be the stat-tracking, grouping systems, contents, and
tactical aid (*read hints) all for free. So essentially, the things you can
find all over the internet and even within current games will all be free with
COD Elite. The premium service will offer a multitude of other features, such
as a standalone service to provide 24-hour programming and customer service.
These were the only two features mentioned before E3, because the real feature
set “is tied very closely with MW3 and I’ll have to wait for those guys to talk
about their multiplayer offering before I can get into what else we have.”
There will be a beta this summer using COD: Black Ops, which will make use of
the services previously listed, and apparently each successive COD title will
add new features to COD Elite. You might even get a reward for being loyal to
the company (*read take part in the beta).
This sounds vaguely like a cop out to me. With the online
pass system that Mortal Kombat and Rockstar are now implementing, this seems
like another way to nickel and dime poor nerds who happen to enjoy COD titles,
I promise they do exist. While Playstation 3 owners may not have a big problem
with this monthly fee, those of us who prefer Xbox 360 already pay upwards of
$60 a year for the opportunity to play online. This is without purchasing all
the goodies that make playing online fun; like new guns and silly hats and more
maps. Admittedly, I’m not the biggest COD fan, so this does not hold the
biggest draw for me. I may test out the beta to see what will actually be
involved in the free part, and how exciting it will be.
The comparison to World of Warcraft is an easy one to make;
it is the most popular game to require a monthly fee to play. At least WoW
provides its gamers with a newly cataclysmed world to fly around and destroy
the inhabitants of, which many feel is worth the $17.99, as evidenced by this
being the biggest MMO in the galaxy. Elite currently provides stat tracking and
contests and a matchmaking system, things which are found in any number of
multiplayer games, specifically First Person Shooters. This doesn’t seem worth
it to me.
It is interesting to know that there will be a free version,
but I suspect that it will be similar to dating sites; you don’t get any real
goodies you can’t find elsewhere, and can’t send potential matches friend
requests. I’m sure there is some website out there to offer a built in social
network to come together and find people to game with whenever they decide to
plan an event, now if I only knew the URL.
This strikes me as absurd, with the potential to alienate a
huge amount of gamers. I was against the online play pass that Mortal Kombat
did; you shouldn’t need to pay an extra fee to play with friends. We already
pay enough to have access to online gaming, regardless of the service; unless
that service is free and gets hacked. I really hope this does not usher in a
new age of gaming, and having to pay the game companies to use their games
fully, although I do condone things that cause Gamestop monetary damages.
No comments:
Post a Comment