Second! Blog Post #2 - Gamer No More? What the Heck is an Online Passes?

Well here we are blog post # 2! To be honest, there was a part of me that didn't think I would make it this far but here I am. Okay onto the post:

One of my passions while growing up was playing video games. I don't even want to know how many hours I have spent playing video games over the years. I'm sure the number would be enormous! Anyways, I always thought that I would always be a gamer. I thought I would still be first person shooting, rpging, platforming, racing, and  fighting my whole life. Unfortunately, or fortunately based on your point of view, I had to reduce the amount of gaming.

"I want to make bank, bro!"

School, family, job hunting, and other concerns that life brings. I also didn't upgrade my computer and didn't buy any new consoles. Though, there is a part of me that does miss it.

Furthermore, I also noticed that my time spent surfing video game websites is almost nonexistent. This used to be my go to websites that would first load anytime I fired up my web browser. A few days I finally went back to read up on the news in the gaming world. One of the topics that I read about was about online passes. Apparently, this has caused some controversy in the gaming world and it is the first time I have heard about it.

For those not informed (like me), an online pass has been created by publishers to levy a fee to those who have bought a used copy of a video game so that they can access online features such as multiplayer. Some publishers have stated that this online pass in order to maintain servers and to give some of that money back to the developers. Also some have noticed that used game stores such as Gamestop make huge profits from used game sales. None of this profit is ever seen by the publishers/developers. Others have said that this acts as a deterrent for certain customers who rather not have to pay extra money for a used copy of a game and will just opt get a new one.

There are many people who hate the online pass. They see it as another way to take money from gamers. They believe that this will set a negative precedent in the future for the video game industry. They feel that some will boycott the products, which may not affect the bottom line of large publishers. Others may not be willing to shell out an extra $10 to buy used games. Furthermore, those who subscribe to a game rental service will have to pay more money to play online. Also it sucks if you paid an extra fee only to see that the server is shut down a month later.

On the flip side, there are those who say that developers should receive some money from the sale of used games and they suggest that everyone should just buy new. Although I am sure that some of these people sell their copies to the used game market once they are done with a game.

In the end it kind of looks like a cash grab for these large developers like EA who I'm sure have the money to maintain servers and to give some profits back to developers. This might have negative consequences to smaller developers who might be hurt in the end if they ever decide to implement online passes.

In the end it looks like that online passes will become more prevalent in the future and only time can really tell if this will have truly negative consequences for the video game industry.