EazyB said:
He never said "idiot" nor did he even really imply it. But let me go out of my way to say that anyone who would hold up beta access as a bullet-point for justifying a $60 purchase is an idiot. Has this console generation really tainted consumers so much they'd willingly and knowingly pay for a beta. Next thing you know you guys will be paying for demos (really close to same thing anyways these days). If a PC dev asked gamers to pay for a beta of their game they'd be laughed outta business, I'm far from a PC elitist but if this is what console gaming has become, I'mma jump ship.
He absolutely
did imply that he thought people would be stupid to pay for access to a beta, just because it has 'Halo' in the title of it. But that's really neither here nor there. There were over a million people who played the Halo 3 Beta for a three-week period - and some of them STILL speak of those three weeks as some of the best gaming they've ever had. When the activation glitch kicked in on opening day (for the Crackdown buyers), I thought the internet was going to melt down, people were so upset that they couldn't get in and play. And that was just a few hours of downtime! It might not be important to you - but you're blind if you think that you're the only kind of gamer out there. It's REALLY important to a LOT of people.
Don't worry about having to jump ship, though. It's not like EVERY developer generates this kind of fervor; I'm not sure how many there are that could get away with this, but damn skippy Bungie's one of 'em.
Is rebuying content you already own not stupid? It is.
I don't consider it 'rebuying content I already own' - for me, the stuff I'm getting with ODST
that's new for me is worth the $60. Yes, I'm getting OTHER stuff I already have - but I don't really feel like I'm paying anything extra for it.
When I buy a new car, I have to make lots of decisions: do I want air conditioning badly enough to pay for the accessory package that it comes bundled with - giving me a rear spoiler I have no desire for, floor mats I'll never use, and a bottle of headlight fluid? Yeah, I want the air conditioning. So I'll buy the package it comes in.
If you can live without the air conditioning, you can wait a few months and spend the $10 they'll probably want for the last Mythic Map pack. (No, I don't actually know they're going to release it separately - but I'd be pretty surprised if they don't. (Pre-post Edit: just saw how urk said he wouldn't bank on it. That would really suck, in the long run - especially if they become required in Matchmaking playlists. That would be a decision I COULD NOT get behind, at all.))
So as a Halo 3 owner he has all the right in the world to bitch about these inclusions being used to defend ODST's $60 pricetag.
But does he have all the right in the world to call people who disagree with his viewpoint 'stupid'?
Yeah, well, I guess it's the internet. Sure he does.
(Pre-post Edit 2: Just saw where Timelike said he was one of the idiots that bought Crackdown for the Halo 3 beta - so maybe he wasn't really calling us stupid for being willing to buy ODST. Bottom line, for me: the stuff I'm getting in the ODST package is worth $60
to me - I don't need to count up the bullet points on the back of the box. I'm sure that others feel the same way, and maybe even have a different bullet point subset they're basing that on. I think it's deplorable that Microsoft held back the 6 Mythic maps in order to make this work - but I'm not interested in standing on principle and not purchasing, just to show them I think they're assholes. And that's that.)
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