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There's a war on, and it's in our video game retail stores. Would you rather have the exclusive DLC skin or Bakugan pillow case? Gold handgun skin or mage belt with +3 cunning? These are the choices we consumers make as stores vie for our dollars with pre-order gifts and bonuses. Most pre-order bonuses rank as innocuous, and some as cheap and cheesy. As the battle for the gaming dollar continues, it seems that pre-order gifts might breach a level of unfair advantage or access to exclusive content, and it seems the scales have already begun to tip.
Upon its release, Uncharted 2 sported a variety of pre-order bonuses. Amazon offered the worst one—a virtually worthless map of the in-game treasures. Game Crazy offered a somewhat more valuable multiplayer currency booster that gave you more money per medal and per round for the first ten levels of online multiplayer. This might be considered by some gamers to be mildly unfair, but anyone who's leveled up that far knows the purchasable boosters at that point don't deliver much advantage over other players. Game Stop's pre-order bonus as usual, took the cake. Their gift? The Revenge attribute unlocked at the beginning of multiplayer which works like a similar attribute in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare; when your character dies, you automatically drop a grenade. Rarely does a pre-order bonus give a player an outright advantage like this one, and for that it seems reasonable to cry (or at least mumble) "foul!"
Maybe it's not a big deal. At what point though, are online multiplayer games going to become nothing but retail markets for in-game goodies, like so many Facebook flash games? Not only that, but the Revenge booster is unlocked at a point when many players are hopping on for the first time and getting acclimated. It goes without saying that the online shooter world is harsh enough as it is without some players being put at an automatic disadvantage. And while Game Stop is well within their rights to promote as they please, when pre-order bonus items unbalance the game, it's not entirely fair. And, lest this argument be perceived as merely “defense of the newbies”, I would guess there's at least a few seasoned players who are a little higher on the leader boards than they otherwise would be, thanks to obtaining the Revenge attribute earlier than everyone else.
Speaking of leader boards, the most competitive of gamers out there, take note: if you're looking to set a record at, say, Twin Galaxies, you'll need to use standard settings for any game. "As a general guideline we use default settings for games, so any type of powerup that gives a player an unfair advantage would not be allowed for a record attempt," says Nik Meeks, division manager at Twin Galaxies. So anyone with Game Stop pre-order bonuses, be warned; if you use them, you won't be setting any legitimate world records and in fact, may be pre-emptively disqualified. This doesn't apply solely to online multiplayer, either. It's not just leader boards that are affected by the pre-order advantage.
Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time launched a scant two weeks after Uncharted 2 and, in similar fashion, sported pre-order bonuses that varied based on place of purchase. Most of the pre-orders were again, skins for weapons or vehicles and a few extra bolts. However, Game Stop stepped in again with a pre-order that, while maybe isn't unfair, certainly is to be coveted by those without easy Game Stop access. "The Discovery Package", as it was called, included some extras in the form of "the Insomniac Moon, a special planet laid out to resemble the Insomniac offices, chock-full of extra content that didn't make it into the game." While it's fine if some folks get this for free with pre-order, the problem is that now it's unavailable through any other source, not even a special collector's edition. Game Stop has the money to license such content, but it hardly seems fair that everyone who didn't pre-order the game there gets absolutely no access to this content, not even customers who purchase the game at Game Stop now.
Whether we're saving money or getting more for our gaming dollar, retailer competition benefits the gamer, right? Though no clear foul lines have been breached at this point, these recent pre-order bonuses leave us wondering how much farther things will go.
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