Activision To "Monetize" Call of Duty Online Play

With Call of Duty: World at War set to hit store shelves this November, Activision has been making plans to monetize the online component of the game. "Infinity Ward-developed CoD4 has paid downloadable maps available on digital storefronts, but with CoD5, developed by Activision studio Treyarch, downloadable content will be a considerably bigger priority. Griffith added that Activision 'plans to increase online monetization' with CoD5, offering '3x the amount of content available for download and premium content called Day One Advantage.'" Activision also announced that for Call of Duty 6 they will be going back to Infinity Ward for development, the company who developed the first, second, and fourth offerings in the series. Treyarch made the third and fifth installments.

Comments

Which is more meritocratic -- paying money or time

[patio11]

#1) You can't practice enough to be the Best Fragger The World Has Ever Seen because you can't pay $3 for the map you want to play 4,000 times
#2) You can't practice enough to be the Best Fragger The World Has Ever Seen because you can't donate $3,000 of billable hours to play the map 4,000 times

This is more of a serious question with MMORPGs, particularly those whose grind is not actually fun to play. (WoW was fun, the first time through. I think WAR is really, really fun from what I've seen so far. Every other grind was called a grind for a reason.) If the "real game" costs *four figures* of an employed person's time to unlock, you're ALREADY paying to play. Don't come telling me that putting in a shortcut for $5 kills the meritocracy, because there is none -- its already an aristocracy ruled by the Dukes of Unemployed Single Men.