Modern Warfare 2 Map Pack out soon and...

[Unstoppable Florence]

http://www.totalvideogames.com/Modern-Warfare-2/news/First-MW2-Map-Pack-To-Cost-1200-Microsoft-Points-15057.html

By way of apology for skullfucking the PC community, IW have decided to offer everyone on the globe (since after all, everyone on the globe now has this game) the fantastic opportunity to buy 5 maps for MW2. This sounds delightful! Let's see what they've put together for everyone then:

Three totally new maps and two from the original game which are, according to the dude at IW:"...slightly reworked, but we didn't want to make any major geo changes. These are maps that we love, but we didn't want to go messing with that formula. I mean we brought them back because they're maps that we love, so we didn't redo them at all."

Ah good good, two maps that haven't been changed at all so as not to spoil them and were probably just omitted from the release version for technical reasons or... something. Definitely not because they couldn't be bothered, oh no.

Oh and the price is most reasonable too! You remember when Valve released the Orange Box and it was like Christmas in Novemeber? Well this is even better, because its just a whisker under half the price Orange Box was! Thanks so much IW. : )

[Zipfinator]

You did notice that the article you've just found was from March 15th, right? You're a bit late on this one.

[Unstoppable Florence]

Only just cropped up on Steam and there's no thread here about it.

[SotaPoika]

Did the first post have sarcasm in the end? Because I'm not willing to pay money for 3 new maps. Epecially not when we talk about PC version.

[Jman]

I'm saddened that people are dumb enough to buy this.

[Unstoppable Florence]

Did the first post have sarcasm in the end? Because I'm not willing to pay money for 3 new maps. Epecially not when we talk about PC version.

Yup, I tried not to make it too obvious because I'd just feel lame. If I still cared about CoD I'd be comiting my own liver. Since I lost that feeling when they did afforementioned face-raep of the PC, Im just drooling a small amount of blood, so it's all good.

Honesly I don't understand why people are willing to pay for new maps at all. We are (mostly) all mappers here, we know how much work it takes a team of pros to put a few maps together (ie: really not that much). It obviously isn't too much of a drain on finiancial resources for Valve, so why can't other companies avoid milking their fanbase for all that they've got?

[jgoodroad]

all I know is that it fucked up my xbox, and I didn't even buy the pack!

[Unstoppable Florence]

all I know is that it fucked up my xbox, and I didn't even buy the pack!

What, MW2 did that? I gave up completely with the 360 after I took it out from storage to find it RRoD'd. It was in a cupboard with no wires attatched for 3 months. What were the insides of my 360 held together with? A hope and a promise?

[nub]

Paid DLCs just separate the community in my opinion. You have people who refuse to pay $15 for a small map pack, and others who just can't because of financial reasons, then you have the majority who did buy it to be up to date, so now you've got a chunk of the community that can't play with the bulk until the pack either goes free or the people manage to buy it. The map packs for Halo 2 and 3 at least went free after a month or so of being out. Maybe the same will happen in this case.

It is Activision, though.

It was in a cupboard with no wires attatched for 3 months. What were the insides of my 360 held together with? A hope and a promise?

Dust is a mean mother fucker.

[Penney]

Yeah we are all mappers, and we know how easy it is to decompile your maps for your previous title, change the lighting and atmoshphere to make it at night instead of day, and then sell it for something like 10 or 15 bucks to a series of people who most likely already own the previous title and have already paid for the day versions of these maps when they bought the first title...

To be frank, IW actually turned me completely off when they announced they would be charging for a map pack, then it really pissed me off to find out what maps they were, then it really pissed me off that it seemed that this map pack was directly competing with EA and BFBC2, a brand new title that published a map pack for free for all those who had bought the Limited Edition (which im thinking was just the first set of copies made, as I havent actually seen a not limited edition copy anywhere)

The difference in the two map packs is DICE actually put more work in and basically gave it away for free only something like a month after its release, while IW rethemes some old layouts from an old game and puts a price tag on it that isnt just a few pennies for an indie game. The other bonus DICE throws in for people who own Limited Editon BC2 is that you can download the original Bad Company for free, thats right, FREE! I lost my disk, but its great because its a free game.

Way to try and compete IW, you guys should probably rethink your strategy next time you directly compete with other titles.

EDIT: When I mean IW, I mean they're publishers, activision in this case, forgot that they werent there own publisher and basically same thing goes towards DICE

[Penney]

...
Honesly I don't understand why people are willing to pay for new maps at all. We are (mostly) all mappers here, we know how much work it takes a team of pros to put a few maps together (ie: really not that much). It obviously isn't too much of a drain on finiancial resources for Valve, so why can't other companies avoid milking their fanbase for all that they've got?

I really disagree with your suggestion that the maps are somewhat made very quickly and easily. With a game like Battlefield where its almost always a bit of terrain raising and lowering and detailing them, but even then i know these maps are planned for, theres probably a series of layouts on paper, types of themes that need to be looked at very carefully by a director making the decisions, picking on a whim which maps will be more successful then others, what kind of models and themes are going to need to be applied and how. In a game company I imagine that it must get hectic and even scary to think the map your putting down on paper is going to be thrown out by your boss, or even worse, it may be accepted and turn out to be the most unpopular map that the game release.

As for IW and their BSP based maps, WE know how hard it can be to put maps togther, sometimes its easy but if your actually planning on the map being finished, easily time becomes a factor, and at the same time you have your hands busy with other maps at the same time, your bosses commin down on you still need to test, retest, take out bugs, etc etc. Buuuut I'm thinking this is how these map packs came to be...

EA: Yo Dice, how much would it cost us to have you guys make some more maps?
DICE: Well, not that much, we dont need A LOT of time and its fairly quick to put them together, how about $$$$?
EA: Hmmmm, well seeing as the game was just released and were seeing a huge chunk of revenue come in from BC2, and we will get even more, prolly more then like, were gonna make anyways... yeah do it up...

as for IW and Activision...

Activision: Yo dawg wassup wassup? You wanna make some more maps for that old game you put out last november?
IW:... well its gonna take us a lot of time and effort, were kinda on other shit right now and our map editing processes are much more time consuming then other games, how about this much $$$$?
Activision: Hmmm well we have a chance to resserect a dead game and bring people back from that new competing title, and get some more profit from the community, Alright we'll pay you and pass the buck!

basically, it comes down to the publisher, and how much money the title has brought in and what potential gain the company can get.

[Unstoppable Florence]

I really disagree with your suggestion that the maps are somewhat made very quickly and easily.

They aren't quick and easy. The point is that for a development studio, the expense of having 4-5 guys work on some maps for a few months is absolutely miniscule compared to the development costs of the original game. My beef isn't with the guys doing the actual work at IW, it's with the greedy buggers who hold the reins.

[Penney]

well I'm not against the studios either, it all comes down to money obviously. They werent charging money for the map pack 'just because' obviously it really was to compete with BC2 as both map packs were released almost the same time, they even titled it 'stimulus' pack, to be frank, thats the most obvious cry for attention again i've ever heard. But I don't disagree with them charging for it, because like I said, Activision obviously saw more potential gain out of charging people money for a few more maps. Think of it this way, if they didn't charge for those maps, they would have never been made, the pack would have never been put together, and the compition would never have been and I still wouldn't be playing MW2- And it has nothing to do with new maps or principal, but the game actually gets boring after you've prestige once. snoooooooore

[Surfa]

Wait since when was copy and paste hard? Two of the maps are just old maps right. Also saying bf maps are just terrain is really ignorant.

[Penney]

agreed BF is kinda uhgly, but I dont care about that, its way more enjoyable then MW2 for me anyways, i enjoy the fact its more team oriented then MW2