With services like Call of Duty: Elite and Battlefield 3's new Premium service, the two biggest online battlegrounds have their population split into separate communities. Those with the extras and those without. I thought I'd take a look into Battlefield's community and see just how this is playing out as reports of 800,000 Premium purchases have being made since the launch of the service. So to outline the Premium service for £39.99 you get: 5 map packs with various additions, early access to those packs, specialised video's aimed to give you the upper hand, strategy guides to give you the upper hand and event bonuses like elongated double XP events. I think there may even be more thrown into the mix as well but I'm not trying to sell it to you, I'm just trying to give an idea of the 'bang for buck' conversion rate. With all that for a one off payment of forty quid that doesn't seem all to bad though. Especially when individually bought the packs on their own cost more without the other content even entering the equation. So for those who want all the packs anyway you can't help but think it's a bit of a bargain. However it would seem from the official forums that what you save in money it costs you in respect from your fellow players. Whether this is warranted or not is up for debate and if you have an opinion by the end of this article feel free to let us know. Now, below are the cases for, and against the Premium service. I'll not reveal whether I'm a premium member or not but I'd love to see if you can figure it out. It may be blindingly obvious but I hope to create an even argument for both sides of the coin regardless.
For:
Premium services are a gamble in some senses, those who have it have put down a considerable sum of money on good faith that Dice will supply sufficient high quality content in return for a slightly cheaper cost. So why shouldn't that faith be rewarded with some bonuses? I honestly see no harm in that and it would seem that anyone willing to put down their hard earned money has not only got themselves a potentially great deal but also benefited short term too so then they aren't simply paying now for something later. Companies get their money like all businesses need to survive and players get goodies in return, ok so it's some now some later but surely that's still a win-win situation isn't it? There is really not much else to be explained here, it sounds like the quintessential deal for the dedicated Battlefield player.
Against:
Well not everyone can shell out £39.99 on demand to benefit from all the Premium special treatment. The prioritised server queues, the Premium only servers, the early access, the special events. It seems like anyone who can throw some cash at a company gets the first class ride whilst everyone else flies economy. It's like they want to create a class system within the community and giving those who can put the money on the table overwhelming benefits and far too much special treatment is certainly the way to go about doing so. Loyal fans of the Battlefield series who have been there from the beginning supporting the game may not be in a position to go premium and they are seemingly suffering as a consequence. Yet players new to the game can just buy there way to early access and better guns as well as easier and quicker access to higher tier weaponry. It's just a ploy to punish anyone not prepared to cough up and therefore just shows the greed of the modern day games industry. So with two brief yet massively contrasting opinions both with their own valid points. Which one do you think is me? And which option are you? Let us know in the comments below.