[bf1942] How could DICE agree to this??

[Flight 800]

A real powerplay by EA to clamp down on server rental profits.  I remember
speaking to an EA marketing executive over a year ago when I worked for a
large GSP.  They called and asked a bunch of questions about the industry in
general, I remember thinking there was a real dark cloud behind their
inquiry.  I'm sure this will happen, regardless of whether it ruins the game
or not, it's an experiment they can't resist...

-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Wolberg [mailto:jon at ecgnetwork.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 10:44 AM
To: bf1942 at icculus.org
Subject: [bf1942] How could DICE agree to this??


Did anyone else see this interview?  A former customer of mine showed it to
me.
 
http://www.realityfriends.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=573
 
 All this sounds great, but a few more details have come out that are of
concern: 
1. Higher ranks get access to exclusive 'unlock' weapons 
2. Higher ranks are the default choice for 'commander' 
3. Only EA servers (offical and those rented from EA) will be 'ranking'
servers (eg: players can only earn rank when playing on EA servers) 
4. Ranks will still be visible on unranked servers and therefore ranked
players can get access to the unlocked weapons on unranked servers (and
potentially a factor in determining who is commander) 
5. Unranked servers can 'turn off' unlockable weapons, but cant universally
unlock them for all players 

As you can imagine this creates a series of issues: 
1. Inbalance between players with access to unlocked weapons and those
without (especially for casual gamers or those late to the game) 
- plus will regular players on unranked (nonEA) servers get have to hand
over 'commander mode' to anyone who has a rank (which he carried over from
the EA servers) 

2. Inbalance between EA servers and private servers (such as the ECGN public
servers or those rented from ECGN) 
- Are the 'unranked' servers going to become 'ghost towns'? 


Personally I think giving ranks anything more than bragging rights is a
mistake (eg: special weapons). And I think only providing them on EA servers
and EA rented servers is blackmail.  They did this with Americas Army and it
didnt work out that well.

thoughts? 
 
Jon

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