No offence But: Online Pass = Annoying but Necessary

It’s been one of those weeks in gaming when one little piece of news sparks a huge online debate that seemingly transcends all time and space. The news that Batman: Arkham City will require an online pass in order to play the Catwoman sections struck many fans as an unfair, ‘capitalist’ decision on the part of Warner Bros. This, of course, is anything but an isolated event, as gamers worldwide have voiced their anger at the online pass concept. Sure it’s annoying and upsets the resale market, but really, it could just help out our industry.

This is becoming a regular thing; I chuckle about people getting angry, write about it here, then people get angry with me in return. The wonderful circle of ‘No offence But’. I don’t even know why I still call it that because they always seem to offend someone, but then again does anyone ever say that ironic little phrase before saying something non-offensive? Anyways, the online pass is an entity that has slowly ‘plagued’ gaming over the course of 2011. For those who aren’t aware, it essentially means that if you rent or buy a used copy of a game you have to pay money to unlock certain sections of the game. It’s a rather obvious and crude way for developers to make a bit of money out of the used game market, as previously developers couldn't gain much from used sales.

If you want to take a more detailed look at what this all means (as opposed to my semi-ranting) you should check out Adam Hughes’ article on online passes.

Now this is where people start to complain about passes, and in some ways I agree with what they are saying. The simple fact that developers are locking the content of their games from rented/used buyers is very cruel and unfair, the basic argument being that they have no right to control what goes on outside of their sales market. I do wholly agree that this is a very brutal method of making money but when it comes down to it, it just means gamers putting more money in to the gaming industry. Sure, a portion of that money will probably end up going to EA’s chief of executive chief-ing, but at the heart of this system lays the simple fact that developers and publishers will have access to a bit more money. More money means more games and with that hopefully means better games. It’s not complicated and hopefully means less of this...

Or more, that could go either way actually. So all these claims that online passes are scams...maybe they’re true, maybe this can be considered a scam, but then again the passes are wholly optional and it’s made rather clear their purpose and restrictions. I’m not a big ‘used game buyer’ so I’m probably a bit bias when it comes down to a problem such as this as of course this system makes practically no difference to first hand buyers, except perhaps the five minutes it takes to activate the pass. The one element of the pass system that I do question to some degree is that the rental/used industry is a very successful, very useful one that has served gamers well for many years (although frankly, if you’re talking scams then the rental business is a lot more tetchy). Obviously the online pass concept is going to dent their sales a bit as gamers are sure to be sceptical about not having full access to a game. Who’s going to want to rent Battlefield 3 if it costs an extra £8 to play online for a week? Not I. So certainly this is sure to have a bad effect on places such as Blockbuster, but we should perhaps be thankful that it isn’t the entire game that is blocked, though here’s hoping it doesn’t end up going down that route.

For me, the play pass has one rather annoying drawback. It means that I have to pay extra money to get the full content when I borrow a friend’s game. In this specific situation I’d be happy enough to pay £8 to get all the content as I would, in theory, have the game longer than a week or so. So that’s my little gripe with the system, but really it’s not a major one.

Overall then, I’m somewhat 65:35 for the online pass at this point. Although it’s going to increase the overall cost of gaming (an already pricey pastime) and it does threaten the rental/used market, the overall plus is that more money is being injected in to the gaming industry. Which, whether we like the bigger picture or not, is sure to help us all out in the long run. Hopefully, I do like to be right after all.

Now that I’ve got all that out of my system, I need to talk about this column for a minute. I’ve actually, completely by accident, made this a weekly deal for the past three weeks (you can check out editions 1 and 2 if you like). However, there’s only so much moaning one male can provide and so from here on out this will be a monthly thing coming to you the first Sunday of every month. Means I can make it better, wittier and meaner with every edition. So look out for the next ‘No offence but’ column Sunday the 9^th of November. Here’s hoping I won’t be complaining about Battlefield 3. I’ve got a lot riding on that game.

Thanks for reading,

Ryan.

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