Is Battlefield 2142 Worth The Hassle of Buying?
The highly anticipated Battlefield 2142, from Electronic Arts, is quickly coming under fire all over the Internet. What was once a must have for many gamers is turning into a fiasco where thousands of gamers are demanding their pre-order money back and vows of never buying another EA game. At the heart of the matter are the mandatory ads included in the game.
The representatives of DICE, who developed the game, have stated that data will only be gathered from in game. Web browsing and other profiling data is not being gathered. Even if the ads do not technically act like spyware, there is a fundamental feeling of distaste from gamers who find EA’s behavior reprehensible.
When a game is bought, everyone who helped to create it is being paid in the price of the game. There shouldn’t be a need for ads. This would be different, and understandable, if BF2142 were free or significantly cheaper. But it isn’t. There is no option for an ad-free version of BF2142.
Gamers are now angry. They want to simply play games. They don’t want video game companies shoving advertisements at them every time they want to play. Gamers, who now feel insulted and annoyed by the ads, are going to take their money and invest it in a game that they can actually play without feeling like they are constantly watching a commercial.
However, there are still several questions that EA needs to answer. Can the viewing of ads be turned off and, if so, will you have a complete game or are certain features turned off? Can I uninstall the ads? How often is it running? Is EA going to state this information on the box or in the box? If it’s in the box, is EA going to issue refunds for anyone who opens it, reads the EULA, and then decides that they don’t want to install the game? Most retailers refuse to take games back once they are opened. I see many gamers waiting for a pirated version of BF2142.
The third-party market for the information EA is going to collect on gamers is a gold mine. For data miners, it’s an opportunity to put gamers and their non-gaming habits together for better targeted advertising. Realistically, it doesn’t matter if the data harvesting is done in game or not. It’s still data mining and it’s downright dirty for EA to use its customers to collect another shady dollar for their coffers.
