» Thu Aug 11, 2011 9:43 pm Sadly, this is just another perfect example of the industry telling people what they want instead of listening to what they want and demonstrating how out of touch they are. Don't kid yourself, Timmy, it's going to cost Blizzard more than just a few sales, and it will be an epic failure for Rage if they try it. There is zero upside to always being online for the consumer. It's entirely for the benefit for the producer and their partners. And no, it will never change. Hey you know what? I hated fish as a kid and I still do. Some things never change. Ubisoft has already demonstrated that the vast majority of people do not like it, so screw you Tom, and the horse you rode in on. Oh yeah, and in case you missed it the backlash against Blizzard and this always-on crap was overwhelmingly negative.
And let's not forget that bandwith caps are starting to become the norm - and will be if the major telcos/cables have their way. And whilst they're not bad to start they will get progressively smaller and smaller so they can continue to nickel and dime people.
So to summarize...they want me to buy a game that I may not always be able to play, and even when I can it may end up costing me more because I have to be online for it. I also don't know when they'll pull the plug on said game - but probably sooner than later in order to force me to buy their new game. And they'll be tracking my habits to sell to their marketing partners with targeted advertising ala Minority Report. Ok, and the upside to all this for us the consumer is what again?
We don't need to be online or want to be online all the time. It's one of the worst ideas in the long, sad history of bad ideas. Period.
