Battlefield Dev's Respond to MW2 'Mapathy' Event With Free Maps

[VA1N]

File this story under FPS warfare...

Earlier this week, Infinity Ward, creators of the wildly popular Modern Warfare 2, started an ad campaign pertaining to 'mapathy.' The image is shown above, but basically it's a spoof advertisement that describes their new map pack that is coming out on March 30th. This map pack that is being released by IW is getting a lot of criticism since in the past they have just unlocked maps that were previously available on the disc and charged for it. Not sure if that's what happening this time though.

For those of you who have played the Battlefield Bad Company 2 game, you know that it takes a few swipes at the FPS powerhouse during the single player of the game. Well, get ready for another swipe, this time in multiplayer. Battlefield Bad Company devs, DICE, just released a new marketing campaign of their own which is very similar to Modern Warfare 2's. Their slogan? "How to avoid mapathy without paying." The full details of their event are listed below:

VIP members will be able to expand on the deep and ever changing sandbox experience, which in itself provides near endless hours of entertainment, by having new content to keep things fresh. It also plays a vital part in making sure you, the players get proper value for the money you've invested in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. This is why these map packs are available at no extra cost, contradicting the industry standard and what our direct competitors are doing. Of course, it also helps avoid segmenting the community, making sure everyone can play together having the same maps available. There will be future paid downloadable content as well but these packs will focus on expanding other parts of the game experience rather than the selection of maps available for the basic game modes. We're dedicated to taking care of this product for a long time – helping you avoid "mapathy" without getting nickel-and-dimed.

I'm pretty sure that the DLC they are talking about is already on the disc and it's just being opened up, but it is funny to see two major companies fighting back and forth (in good fun) about DLC. Hopefully the MW2 download is actually new maps and not just old ones retooled or hidden maps on the disc suddenly being unlocked. We'll see soon enough though. I should be getting my copy of Bad Company 2 in the mail tomorrow that I bought from Gamefly.

[danimoose]

As far as MW2 is concerned, I have seen them being played they are on the disc and people have "Hacked" them and played private games, also theres a new game type Thermo-nucleur war. Yes half of them are old maps from COD4 and others are new ones.

[VA1N]

So they really are on the disc already and IW are going to charge to unlock something you already bought? That's messed up if that's the case...

[danimoose]

Yeah that should piss alot of people off. It does me I pay full price for a disc and have to pay again for some of it to be activated.

[VA1N]

I think that's one of the worst forms of DLC. It's really not DLC because you're not downloading anything, you're unlocking something. All you download is the unlock code. I loathe companies that do that because why shouldn't it be part of the full price you paid? If it's complete when the game ships, is on the disc, you buy the disc....then it should already be yours!?!?! They are charging you for something you already bought from them.

[danimoose]

I understand if you are going to make it free why you would unlock it at a later date. To keep the game fun and interesting. As you said and many others have also said if its on the disc doesn't that mean its yours when you buy it.

[VA1N]

Right, that's my main gripe with this. Check out the article I just posted about BioShock 2. It looks like they found another company who did it.