Here's the thing, when it comes to buying a game, either I want it or I don't. I don't speak for anybody but myself but if a game has me excited, I'm going to buy it brand new. I don't give a damn about promotions or dlc or anything like that. I got Enslaved on day one and never got the DLC. I got L.A. Noire on day 1 and never bothered with the DLC. I got WWE Smackdown 2011 on day 1 and never bothered with the DLC. More often than not, I got these games from Wal-Mart where there was no DLC, anyway.
I hardly ever pre-order, either. Out of probably 200 games that I've bought since this gen began, I think I pre-ordered two (Batman AA and Gears 3). So, as a huge buyer of games, the pre-order program has done absolutely nothing to entice me. Nothing. All pre-ordering, online passes, exclusive DLC, etc. have done was shit me out of content for a game I was going to buy anyway or shit people out of content for a game that they never wanted enough to buy new.
Online passes should ONLY be used in cases where a game has an online component. A couple of years ago, on this very site, I described the idea of an online pass almost exactly as it exists in its current form. I thought it was a great idea, too. People that play online pay a small fee for the online portion of a game if they buy it used. The place where my idea differed from the real deal was that the online portion was LOCKED and that lock expired after a year (when all of the important sales were done, anyway). That way, there is no side effect if a collector buys a game years down the line and companies still reap the benefits. I never suspected something like this would/could happen.
What Gamestop is doing is fine with me. The devs are getting their money and the customer is getting their game. It's the best of both worlds. I'm just worried about what happens to me when my console dies out and I can't use the DLC anymore--or what happens when the servers are no longer available and I can't log in as d21lewis anymore. My whole game is gimped. And new copies will be next to impossible to find.
