AlanC9 wrote...
Now, is it morally wrong for the company to charge me for the same product twice? Maybe, but that isn't what's happening. When I bought ME2, I didn't buy Kasumi. Even if she is on the disc, I didn't expect to get her for no additional charge, I had no right to expect her for no additional charge, and Bioware was under no obligation to provide her to me for no additional charge. Where the information that makes up Kasumi is physically located is morally irrelevant.
Edit: I'm not quite sure how it would be possible to actually charage twice for the same product. The closest thing I can think of is the sketch from A Day at the Races, but in that case the additional codebooks and so forth aren't supposed to provide additional functionality, they're necessary to get any value at all from the stuff already purchased.
Hmmm...
Let's talk Dead Space 2 for a moment? In DS2, there are a number of doors in the game that are locked by default, they contain armor that gives significant benefits and many other goodies. They're in the game on the release discs. The only way to access them is to purchase the pre-launch DLC game, which unlocks them in the full game.
Is this morally wrong? It is obviously finished because it's in the game on day 1, fully functional, unlocked by having purchased a DLC game prior to buying DS2. Making it mandatory for you to fork over more money to access everything you paid for on the disc.
IMO, where the information is located is quite key, because it shows that the stuff was finished, included in the game, and locked in order to force you to pay extra money to get the whole game. This is a *very* slippery slope, because condoning that eventually gets you to the point where you pay for each companion, pay to have each weapon, pay for each mission outside of the main ones. EA would do that in a heartbeat if they thought they could get away with it.
It's also really pushing the edges of being legal, because the "Fair Use" laws express that you own everything on a disc you purchase, and the studio's assertion that they're "Leasing" you software hasn't been tested yet to my knowledge. I suspect it would be a tight battle, and it's very possible the ruling would come down on the side of "Fair Use".
Edit:
God I'm sleepy, on the DS2 topic...
In the PC version those same doors are locked, but there's no DLC, and no way to open them. So the items are there, finished, present in the release version of the game, but it's impossible for the PC players to access everything on the disc they paid for in any way. So they sell you an intentionally incomplete game, that you cannot return for a refund, and the *only* way for a PC player to get everything they already paid for is to repurchase a console version, purchase the mandatory DLC, and then they can get the full game after having paid more than twice it's sticker price.
Is this morally ok?
Modifié par Gatt9, 19 juin 2011 - 07:34 .