Battlefield 2 Booster Packs Coming

EA is a faggot. They're a giant corporation with giant shareholders. They're in it for the money as much as the biggest and baddest.

They've leeched on the good will of the people who host FPS servers by inducing them into PAYING EA MONTHLY TO RUN THEIR SERVER SOFTWARE.

Now we get to pay for little snippits of content, oh yay, how nice of them.

I plan to buy from and encourage developers who launch products complete, and fix errors quickly after release for free. Not ones who leave unfixed issues in for a year. Not ones who release new pay-content rather than leave existing content out to dry. Not ones who leech through every money making channel they can technically pull off and then screw the consumer in the end for an extra buck.

These booster packs might turn out well, but given past experiences I'm guessing not so much. Since the BF expansions of the past didn't do well, they've made these new expansions contain content that regular players can see but not really use. You can bet they continue to intice players with these booster packs by making people who pay have access to extra features in the same game as those who do not pay.

And maybe that will be cool in the long run, I don't know. But I prefer the methods of companies like Epic and ArenaNet, releasing tons of extra content, tons of extra patches, listening to consumers, and not sucking money like evil snakes.

This post brought to you by one year of constant free content brought to ME by ArenaNet with Guild Wars. That is one refreshing title. EA and ArenaNet are polar opposites, where one is in it for the buck and one is full of people who actually care about making good games for gamers like themselves.

Wow, another troll board. As far as I'm concerned whenever there is a EA/Dice/BF news thread, the Shack may as well strap on label link "Trolls Click Here for Maximum Amusement". 99% of these posts are negative and hold absolutely no merit. OK, so the shack doesnt like Bf2, thats fine, but its the 3rd most popular online fps next to cs 1.6 and cs:s so obviously some people find it fun.
Why the hell does the shack turn into a massive shit flinging contest everytime a bf2 thread is posted?
Alright, I'm going to go back to playing BF2 now.

I suggest that we don't buy the damn things.

Extra banana clip $10, Extra smoke grenade $10, bulletproof jockstrap, priceless. But seriously EA is trying to pimp us out of every penny. I mean $30 for a so so Special Forces that wasnt that great and now we are supposed to pay for maps and weapons!??? Everyone should not purchase these so called expansions, I mean COME ON. If no one buys them they surely arent going to just throw them in the garbage. Lets start showing EA how to treat their customers right.

So I read the headline and immediately thought, "Eh?! Booster packs like Bobba Fett has? How's that going to work?"

Yay EA has figured out a way to make us pay for patches!

When does the "booster pack" that fixes the server browser come out?

That server browser must really be a piece of shit since they're so afraid to fix it.

Dear EA,

Every gaming company is better than you.

Sincerely,

Hardcore Gamer #72,324,523

I'm glad that I didn't buy BF2 this time around. I bought BF1942, R2R, and unfortunately BF:NAM, but I was finished with Dice and EA's bullshit then.

This is going to split their fanbase so much that online play will be ridiculous.

I'm sick of being nickled and dimed to get patches...

"We see online sales as a very interesting channel in the future. Digital Illusions work together with EA to find the best solutions that favours both the consumers and retailers."

"Very intersting" indeed, Mr. Soderlund. Why did you even include the word "consumers" in there since we're the ones getting screwed thanks to your greed and unholy alliance with EA?

I will be telling everyone I know who buys games not to buy this "interesting" crap, after supporting you from BF1942 on.

Out of interest. How many mods for BF2 are as popular as Desert Combat or even close?

Omgz, freedom hating pinko commies!!!!111 They're only trying to make money!!!1111

I hunted the BF2 DVD edition down, finally got a copy. Installed it...and just got cheated on by script kiddies and got to listen to them spam the mic. Uninstall...not fun. Then they release a patch that removes jump+shoot and methinks 'ok I can install this again'....then they go and ram it harder up our asses with this stuff..and I think..ya know..I don't need to own any EA products and support this kinda crap.

Valve (even though they take a lot of shit for being a bit slow) and Epic are my top two favorite developers because they listen to the community and patch things and give it away for free because they know that will make them more $$ in the long run.

Maybe EA will figure it out someday....or maybe they're just too far gone.

Well, people paid $15 a month for Planetside on the promise that some of that money would go towards adding new content; that never happened. Yep, Epic and Valve are awesome with their free content releases but I think more than anything else it shows how much the FPS genre is lacking on the PC these days. Have to wait and see what they plan on offering for the money, I sure don’t see anything to challenge BF2’s dominance anytime soon.

People play for a few car addons and few extra tracks here and there over XBL for PGR2, whats the difference? I welcome the conept.

If they had been more vigilant about fixing the bugs in the original game in a timely manner, I wouldn't care too much about this announcment. As it is, I don't trust them to deliver the patches that will be needed, and I don't trust them to make polishing the game a priority. It seems pretty clear what the priority is here, and I could do without the indigestion.

I was just about to buy the expansion too, but now I don't think I will. This sucks. I just want the game to be more polished and refined. I don't mind paying for extra content, but I do mind it when it takes them so long to fix the game.

I hope this doesn't mean more 220+mb patches for Vanilla BF2 to accomodate booster pack people so they can play on vanilla servers ala Special Forces >:L

Sony's doing this with EQ2, look where it is now.
pwned by wow

I'm fine with it.
They aren't necessarily selling patches, they are selling additional content. If they discovered a game crippling or annoying bug (Dolphin Diving, etc) and then made use pay to fix that, then I would be pissed. But they aren't doing that. This whole LOL EA SUX a Dick I won't PAY for PATCHES LOL mentality is just fucking pointless. Making pointless assumptions helps to drag the collective intelligence of the gamer community down. Mmmkay?

BTW...

I just want to pass on the knowledge of how much power you people actually have. I have worked for several development companies and I can tell you firsthand how many times the opinions of 10 people (be they focus testers, fans who wrote letters, or opinions of gamers who just happened to be at a press / store event) has changed / influenced development decisions. Entire game features, even.

A few times I was stunned along with fellow developers that we were making such a large change because of the feedback of so few people, and not always to our agreement.

So you do have the power. Instead of bitching on an internet forum or holding a boycott of one person, take 5 minutes and write a letter. Not only do they listen, I think they overreact. They tend to write off fan forums because those bring out the worst in people...but fan feedback...they do listen to.

Yep. By paying for what amounted to a mini-mod you've won the right to buy patches! Well done!

So... If I'm playing along, happily enough, and the server loads a map I haven't bought the booster for, I get booted?

Sounds fucking great. Real fucking great. >:

What makes this any different than what Valve is doing with Steam?

Extra content, new missions / maps, etc....

Families gotta eat!

I for one welcome our new episodic content overlords.

As much as I am a supporter of online distribution this just smells of nickle and dime chipping away at the community. This will just fracture the BF2 servers even more.

Despite being an EA hater, I don't really have a problem. As long as there is no distinct advantage and the leagues remain fair for the basic players, I don't mind. They would not add more content for free, so this is the only way the public will get it. I actually am a huge fan of online distribution because the retail stores are the real evil.

hooray instead of actual patch content we get to pay for it.

Poor DICE. I wonder if they even get $1 more for digital distribution.

Also, i wonder if they threatened to go to steam unless EA gave them a break for a better deal with the online distribution. DICE are after all independent and not (yet) owned by EA.

This is why I give my money to companies like Epic and not EA most of the time. I really dunno why I bought Battlefield 2. :/

ROFLCOPTER... First, the digital distribution of Special Forces wasn't cheaper than the retail version, and now they're giving us the finger by charging us for trivial extra content. EA have made more than enough cash with BF2 (monthly charges for ranked servers LOL), but they're shamelessly rorting it even more.

Spring 2006 eh? Isn't that when the PS3 will be out, along with UT2007? Or maybe (hopefully) ET:Quake Wars will be out by then. In any case, there's no chance in hell I will be getting those booster packs when there will be better games out by then.

God. Damnit. This isn't suprise I'm feeling, its anger. Pure. Anger.

Way to ruin a franchise you greedy fucks.

A great man once said.. I say we grease this ratfuck son of bitch

i still can't get the special forces addon to install because it won't patch. Never again will I buy EA

Is this the booster pack that makes the game fun? Or makes the game functional for that matter?

Thats Fucked Up.. Seriously.

Bah, give me a fucking break. You don't see Epic or other companies doing this shit!!! If you're gonna add anything else to the game, give it away for free instead of fracturing your online player base more!! *sigh*

Episodic content vs. EA Games!

Let's get ready to rumble fight.

anyone know sales numbers for the first expansion so far?

it seems that the more expansions they release, the lower the pickup will be on the next pack.