14 DAY TRIAL // After the end of the E3 2011 conference and the flood of news that appeared from the expo, gamers found a new reason to get angry this week, as Electronic Arts and DICE decided to offer a special Physical Warfare pack to those who pre-order Battlefield 3, besides the already-known Back to Karkand downloadable map pack.
Gamers rallied up against Battlefield 3, and the whole idea of pre-order bonuses as a whole, because they felt the weapons and attachments that are part of the pack offer an unfair advantage to those that pay early for the game over the people who buy it when it is actually released.
While I personally don't really like pre-order bonuses, especially retailer-specific ones, which force players to choose a store depending on what things they want to have in the actual game, the whole scandal concerning Battlefield 3 is a bit unfair.
First off, EA has made a habit of rewarding pre-orders with various kinds of incentives or by offering Limited Editions of its games, which don't cost anything extra.
With Battlefield 3, the company is not only offering free access to the Back to Karkand DLC, which is set to appear after the release of the game, but also the Physical Warfare pack, which offers some special weapons and attachments, so the incentive to pre-order the game and motivate EA to invest more money into other such projects is even bigger.
Secondly, gamers shouldn’t forget that this is DICE, a studio that made a name for itself by listening to the community, and knows not to upset it by offering unfair things, and clarified that the items in the pack were carefully picked out in order to not unbalance the game, but still make those who pre-purchased it happy about their decision.
Thirdly, many fans who complained about the bonuses were saying that they wanted to get Battlefield 3 on its release date, so I'm a bit puzzled as to why don't they just pre-order the game, pay a certain amount of money and then have the possibility of canceling it, if they're not convinced of the game's quality or about the pre-order bonuses.
Money may be an issue with the third point, but, usually, a pre-order just costs $5, so it's not that big of a sacrifice.
DICE also clarified the situation of these pre-order bonuses, saying that Back to Karkand could be purchased with real money when it was released, while the Physical Warfare pack would be offered for free after a certain time, being just a timed exclusive for those who pre-ordered the game.
Such bonus strategies won't be going away, however, so gamers should just settle down and vote with their wallets, instead of threatening to boycott every game that doesn't match their specific criteria.