The Growing Pains of the Online Pass

I tend to stay out of polarized discussions.  This is because by its very nature the polarized discussion is one that cannot be resolved.  Most discussions are made up of people with various viewpoints and information who are edifying the others in the discussion so that the whole group is better informed and more knowledgable.  Polarized discussions, however, are made up of two sides only who are so entrenched in their belief that facts are irrelevant and no amount of reasonable discussion will change anyone’s mind.

That being said, I do feel the need to put in place some facts surrounding the “Online Pass” and the discussion surrounding used games.  As many of you know, many publishers have started adopting the Online Pass as a way of: “recouping losses from used games”.  Their stance is that they do not receive any portion of a sale of a used game like they do with a new game.  So they are “losing money” on that sale.  The Online Pass is their way of recouping these losses.  Basically, if you go into Gamestop and purchase a used game you have to pay a $10.00 fee in order to play it online, whereas if you purchase the game new, it comes with the code in the box to enable online play.

I would like to go ahead and call this for what it is – a bean counter at a company who saw a revenue stream that they weren’t tapping into.  That’s it.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Let’s take the arguments for the Online Pass one at a time:

Publishers don’t receive a cut of any used game sales

Response:  So what?  They received their payment when the game sold new.  Musicians don’t receive a cut of any of those old Vinyl records you purchase from a used record store.  Publishing houses don’t receive a cut of the used DVD you purchase from Blockbuster.  There is an accepted understanding of the economy that once you package and sell something you’ve created, the purchaser can do what they want with it.  Obviously there are protections against the purchaser being able to make money from re-distributing the property or trying to sell it as their own.  But there is nothing that would prevent the purchaser from re-selling that item a single time to a 3rd party without consulting with the original creator.  This is why we can resell our used items in garage sales, to thrift stores, etc.

This brings up another interesting point – inconsistency with this concept of Online Passes and other used goods.  In cases where I purchase other used goods, the originator of that good also does not get a piece of the sale, but there are no other cases where the originator is trying to change that.  If I buy a used car, I don’t have to pay a fee to Ford or GM in order to drive the car on the highway.  If I buy a used movie, it doesn’t lock any of the content unless I pay a fee to the movie company.  So why would I need to do so to the original game company?

Used games are taking money away from the publishing company and the developers (through a domino of the money trail) because that’s one less new game being sold and so less money going to the publisher

This is probably the biggest argument that is being put forward – a need to cover the cost of creating the game.  But on inspection it makes no sense and is an accounting trick to change the perceptions of the consumer.  The idea falls a little into the “penny saved is a penny earned” adage where they are trying to get us to believe that a lack of a new purchase is lost money.  How can money that the company has never had be “lost” money?  The only scenario I could see being a valid “lost sales” argument would be a case where somehow a bunch of the disks or access codes to a game  were lost in shipping and sold on the black market.  Pirated games are definitely lost sales and should be pursued legally.  But a used game is not the same thing.  In a used game situation, there was an original purchaser who paid for the new game.  This means that the publishing house has already recouped their money (if they priced the game correctly) from that original sale.  Once the game has been resold, the original purchaser is no longer a consumer of the product, but that’s not a lost sale because someone else is stepping into their shoes.  As far as the publisher is concerned the number of purchases hasn’t changed.

I equate this to what recently happened in Michigan with the tax break that was put in place for the movie industry.  The tax break spurred a great upswing in the number of movies being made in the state.  This led to new jobs in the movie industry as well as within all the supporting industries (food services, hotel, car rentals, etc.).  When Snyder came into office as the new governor one of the first things he did was remove the tax breaks for the movie industry.  He insisted that the tax incentives were costing the state money.  Yet in no way did he show how exactly that was.  On closer inspection you see that it was in how he looked at the balance sheets.  Let’s say that normally the movie industry generated $100 Million that the state taxed 10% to make a movie in the state and under the plan we lowered it to 3% (numbers are made up for this example).  Snyder’s reasoning was that the state was thus losing 7% of revenue or $7 Million.  This is flawed because the only reason we got the business in the first place is BECAUSE of the tax incentive.  And guess what?  As soon as he cut the tax break the movie business dried up and went elsewhere.

Think Snyder can figure out what 10% of $0 is?

The Online Pass is really to offset the cost of having to maintain servers for the online portion of the game (multiplayer) and any used game is cutting into those because the new user gets to play for free

This is probably the biggest wool-over-the-eyes that the publishers have pulled on the consumer and ties into the other responses I’ve put forward here.  Their argument is basically that they have to maintain servers for their user base to be able to access the multiplayer component of their game.  This is definitely true and I agree they need to make enough money to make it worthwhile.  However, their argument that used games are cutting into the money they receive to maintain the servers is complete fabrication.  The math simply doesn’t work!

Here’s an example:  Say we have a game that sells 1 million units new.  That means that the publishing house has to maintain server to handle 1 million online players (potentially – some people never play online, but let’s assume they plan for the best case scenario).  Let’s say that 50% of the original purchasers decide they don’t like the game and sell it to Gamestop and that resold game is then picked up by another gamer.  How many users do the publishing houses have to account for and maintain the servers for?  1 million.  How many did they receive money for to cover the costs?  1 million.

They already received the money for maintaining the servers from the original sale.  When a gamer sells a game back to Gamestop, they aren’t playing that game anymore.  So the publishing house is trading one gamer for one gamer.  The fact that the replaced gamer never paid the original fee is irrelevant.  In essence, the original purchaser of the game is paying for any future person who buys that particular copy of the game to play on the server.  So where is the extra need for money coming from?

Final Thoughts:

The bottom line of all this is that we are in a transitional state when it comes to games.  Games are big business – every year we hear about how they make more than the movie industry. Additionally, the way we enjoy games and the very nature of the games are changing.  Whereas we used to purchase a cartridge that contained the entirety of the experience and enjoyed that solely in our basement, we now have games that have expanded beyond the physical media.  With the number of games you can get through Steam and Origin as well as Microsoft considering the idea of their next system not even having a disk drive, it is ever more evident that we are on the verge of the truly digital age.  All games in the future could really exist solely out in the web space.  So what is the product that we are buying at that point?

Product and service are merging.  The Online Pass is one of the growing pains that comes with evolving to the next stage.  As a gamer and consumer I do understand this, but I also think there is responsibility on the part of the publishing house to take responsibility for what they are actually doing.  If all you’re trying to do is expand your revenue and make it easier for games to be made and make it so you don’t have to increase the cost of new games, great!  Tell me that and I’ll happily continue to purchase new games.  But as soon as a company starts telling me things that don’t make sense it takes away all credibility and makes them appear to be nothing more than a money-grubbing organization who doesn’t really care about me as a consumer but is more interested in trying to squeeze every last dime from me they can.

Skyrim and the Limited Time Gamer

Skyrim. The name evokes a sense of wonder and expanse. Like all Bethesda games, Skyrim is one that really focuses on creating an immersive world and allowing the player to simply wander and do whatever they’d like within the game. With that expanse, however, comes an overwhelming sense of indecision. Unlike most games that lead you from point A to point B (MMOs especially are great at this – leading you into new areas just as you get done with quests in the previous area), Skyrim instead leaves it up to you to decide what you’d like to do next. Want to pursue the main story line? Have at it. Want to join one of the local guilds (Companions, Mages, Dark Brotherhood)? Go for it. Want to just wander the country side looking for ingredients for your Alchemy experience? More power to you.

Being such an expansive game, it can be a little overwhelming for someone who has limited time available.  Whereas my game life prior to having a wife and a life involved weekend long game sessions, I now have time for only bite-sized game time.  A couple hours here, a couple there.  It can make it challenging to get your hands around a game like Skyrim.  Fortunately, I have an awesome wife who loves to let me enjoy the things that I enjoy, including gaming.  So most weekends she can enjoy her couch time and I go into my man-cave to take my level 20 Nord through more quests.

The key to bite-size gaming and Skyrim (or any game really) is to have a goal in mind when you start.  Prioritize your gaming.  Typically what I will do upon starting up the game is to look at my quests and make the following determination:

1. How much time do I have to play?  If it’s a few hours I can try tackling a few of the larger quest lines.  If It’s just an hour or so I can focus on the many many side-quests that tend to take less time
2. Are there multiple quests in the same area?  If so I can try tackling more than one at a time.  Considering how large and diverse the game board is, it can be nice to spend time immersing yourself in one particular area and trying to clear all the quests you can.  It can also help to make the overall world story seem more cohesive and less disjointed
3. What are you in the mood for?  I must admit that there are many times when I start up a game that I really don’t feel like being productive.  I just want to wander and experience the world that was created for me.  Skyrim can be perfect for this.  I can wander for as much as I want, exploring any cave or castle that I come across without touching a single quest

The last item brings up a wonderful aspect of Skyrim – the intelligent questing system.  The folks at Bethesda were definitely keeping the player in mind when they designed the game.  They recognized that the urge to just explore this incredible world would be too great for many players.  So what do you do when a player explores a cave before a quest sends them there?  Why, you organically include that into the game.

If you have explored an area and attained an artifact that is needed for a quest you don’t have, many times the system will give you that quest as soon as you pick up the artifact.  In one cave I came across a jewel that led me to talk to an appraiser in Riften (one of the towns to the south ).  This appraiser also happened to be the first person to talk to in order to join the Thieves Guild.  Had I gone to Riften first, the system would have given me the quest to find the jewel.  But since I found the jewel first, the game sent me to Riften instead.  It adapted.

This style of gaming lends itself very nicely to the limited time gamer.  While Skyrim may seem daunting and overwhelming, as you look more closely at what Bethesda has done you realize that Skyrim is perfect for ANY gamer.  Players who have the time and ability to delve deeply into the story for hours and days on end will find a wealth of experiences.  Players who are limited to just a few hours a week will find an equal amount of enjoyment – just in smaller doses.

Either way, Skyrim is a game to be experienced.  I hope to have further blogs on my experiences with Skyrim including some specific quest lines that strike me as particularly interesting and enjoyable.

Until then, have fun killing dragons!!