Interesting article on Elite subscriptions

ohhhh feck it I realize and acknowledge that I am a dirty elitist who will follow blindly and pay accordingly.
What can I say hmmmmmmmm hows about im a dirty cod crack fiend who will suck a cock just to get the next map pack
(think Menace to society crack fiend)

carlmuir wrote:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/09/call-of-duty-elite-activisions-tests-your-desire-to-pay-to-play.ars

Im sorry but I click that link and my Norton goes nuts and tells me the site is filled with spyware,adware and viruses.

Last weekend the hardest of the hardcore descended upon Los Angeles to take part in Call of Duty XP, a convention celebrating everything Call of Duty. Each attendee paid $150 for their ticket—but it's hard to quibble over the cost of the ticket when 100 percent of the proceeds went to a charity that supports veterans—and the closing concert featured Kanye West. A new Modern Warfare 3-themed Xbox 360 was shown, highlighting Microsoft's dominance in Activision's world.

The full details surrounding the for-pay Call of Duty: Elite were also announced, and it feels like the series has hit its turning point: Activision is beginning to ratchet up how much you'll need to pay to continue to be competitive. If you thought a yearly release was excessive, this may cause you to yearn for the days when you only had to pay $60 for the game each year.
What you get for your money

Everyone will be able to access some of the social features of Call of Duty: Elite, but to take advantage of everything the service has to offer you'll need to pay for a $50 yearly subscription. Or you can buy the Hardened Edition of Modern Warfare 3, which will gave you the game, a year's subscription to the service, and a lifetime "founder" status for your account.

Activision is estimating there will be a jaw-dropping 20 pieces of downloadable content released after the game's launch, and Elite members who pay for the service will get them all. The content will be released monthly for members, instead of the quarterly releases we're used to. There is some audacity here: Activision thinks they can make a selling point out of paying for content first, before the rest of its fan base is allowed to buy it à la carte. Keep in mind this content is being sold to you sight unseen as of publication. You'll see this argument in many stories about the service; since you're paying less for the content if you're subscribing, it's a good deal. That's assuming you're the fan that already knew you were going to buy 20 pieces of content for the game you just paid $60 or more to play.

There will also be celebrity-fueled video content for subscribers, and a number of features for clans that will add more hooks for players who are competitive. This is where things start to fall apart: you may not have to pay for Elite to play Modern Warfare 3, but you're quickly going to become a second-class citizen if you don't.
This is how they'll get you

Since premium subscribers will be getting the maps and other content before the rest of the community is able to buy it, nonsubscribers are going to be walking into content that the hardcore players have been practicing and mastering for days, if not weeks. It's going to be a bloodbath. There will be no moments of learning the new maps and modes along with the rest of the community; you're going to be going up against pros who know all the good hiding spots and tactical positions from your very first session until your last. Unless, of course, you're willing to pay to get the content early.

Clan support will also be beefed up, with premium clan features that allow your clan to level up as well as your character, and to unlock items and features specific to your clan. Your clan could earn its own double-XP weekend, and of course you'll be able to compete against other clans and test your mettle. Both players and clans can take part in competitive matches for real-world prizes, and Activision promises these matches will be refereed by actual people, and open to players of all skill levels.

If you want to be a part of a competitive clan, every member will have to pay, or else you'll be playing against other clans that get a head start on maps you can't access, and have the leveling advantage of XP bonuses you won't be offered. You could fight these advantages by setting up your own matches against other clans that aren't willing to pay for Elite, and that will bifurcate the community. There will be those that pay for the service who have a very real advantage playing online, and everyone else.

Activision has a strong financial incentive to give premium subscribers as many advantages and bonuses as possible, and by increasing the amount of content released after the game's launch and limiting when the regular players are allowed to pay for content, it can create a lower class of gamers that will have to work much harder to compete online. The $15 map packs were a massive success for Activision, but it's clear gamers are willing to pay for more, and Activision is going to take advantage of that.

For serious players, it's going to be hard to not pay for Elite if they'd like to keep up with the online community, and the constant drip of content and tips from the pros that will be included with Elite will make the players paying for the service even more effective at killing those that don't. We complained about $15 map packs, which sold by the millions, and now we have Elite. If Elite proves to be a success, I'm scared about what we'll be asked to pay for next year. Now that the players are going to be split between those who pay for Elite and those that don't, there is no reason to develop new features for non-paying customers. Welcome to the future.

All excellent points and why I detest the idea of elite, yet I have already paid for it. I hope it is all worth it. Like Savvy said in another thread look at how many hours we play and divide it by the amount you pay and the per hour rate for entertainment is quite cheap. (compared to running rails of blow off a hookers ass! )

It's a good deal for those of us who spent an entire month out of a year "in-game".
Just think about that for a minute.


Ok.

Not sure if this part is true:

Article wrote:

If you want to be a part of a competitive clan, every member will have to pay, or else you'll be playing against other clans that get a head start on maps you can't access, and have the leveling advantage of XP bonuses you won't be offered.

So every one who wants to be part of the ELiTE Over30 clan will need to pay for elite services!

The only way to deal with Elite and the 100 max is as someone else suggested, break up the clan into what will be OFFICIAL EC30, WC30, UK30 and CE30 PS3 divisions.

carlmuir wrote:

The only way to deal with Elite and the 100 max is as someone else suggested, break up the clan into what will be OFFICIAL EC30, WC30, UK30 and CE30 PS3 divisions.

I hate this idea, someone brought it up too. I play with guys from all over the country and some UK guys. Maybe we break it up to the first 100 PS3 members and then 101 to whatever number.

Do you really think we will have over 100 PS3 guys paying for ELiTE? How many active members we will have come Nov. that have paid for ELiTE will determine if we need to break up the clan. This is essentially what you are proposing.

Honestly if I can't play with guys from all divisions I won't be part of the clan, and won't be playing MW3.

audiopile wrote:

Do you really think we will have over 100 PS3 guys paying for ELiTE?

Honestly if I can't play with guys from all divisions I won't be part of the clan, and won't be playing MW3.

I highly doubt 100 PS3 guys will pay for elite, well at least I hope not. I know I will be.

Good, so we won't have to break up the clan. LIke I said before, it won't be the 30's fault we had to maintain the clan at 100, it will be Actiblind's.

It's stupid. I'm almost thinking we don't even sign up for their clan services if they are making all of our members subscribe to elite, that was never part of the deal.

I haven't see anywhere that says that someone who doesn't pay for elite won't be able to join matches with elite members. We are all making some big assumptions based on the info available 2 months before release. I for one am not going to get my panties in a bunch until I actually get the game in hand and see for myself what Elite is all about. I have a hard time trusting internet information becuase once or twice I have found it to be wrong.

I was hoping someone would chime in with calming words. I'm getting furious over here

BigDaddyN8 wrote:

I for one am not going to get my panties in a bunch

Don't you mean boxers.......HAHAHA

Glad I could be a source of humor and have a calming effect on Audio. he sounds so mellow onling in the game it is hard to picture him raging over his computer.

BigDaddyN8 wrote:

Glad I could be a source of humor and have a calming effect on Audio. he sounds so mellow onling in the game it is hard to picture him raging over his computer.

You can add sarcasm to that post No way I'm mellow during the game. If that is how I come across I'm not trying hard enough.

sorry, forgot the sarcasm font. Not really, you never sound too mad in a game, just frustrated when it is going poorly. I too have concerns over how elite will affect this clan, but I will wait and see.

There are a lot of members, but there is no way there are 100 guys who are active. I think we may be jumping the gun a little as to some of the worst case scanarios proposed.

I do agree with Audio, I think we should complain to Activision about this issue. Maybe if we are not the only one then there will be changes made on their end.

I play with guys of all divisions all the time. I feel like a team with them even though our divisions are different. Splitting up by divisions needs to be avoided at all costs IMHO.

Winicott1001 wrote:

I play with guys of all divisions all the time. I feel like a team with them even though our divisions are different. Splitting up by divisions needs to be avoided at all costs IMHO.

I could not agree more with that. With that said we will just have to see what happens when we have access to Elite. I am not too worried about it.....I just wanna play MW3 now.....I am so impatient

I second what Wini said. Splitting up the divisions needs to be avoided. I enjoy playing too much across the divisions to tolerate being stuck in the West Coast.

I think one of the main reasons we had divisions was to help organize play times, organize squads, and to minimize the connection issues. (And KoTW). I'd actually prefer to unite us under one 30 umbrella rather than fraction us off even more, and just save the timezone stuff for interclan activities.

BigDaddyN8 wrote:

(compared to running rails of blow off a hookers ass! )

Everyone should start their 12 hour BLOP marathons like this...the only way to roll...

Alright...I guess I pay for the damn thing...

I really don't care about anything else but the dlc maps, and this will make it cheaper in the long run.

I pay no attention to the timezone stuff as whoever is on at the time I get on I play with. I play with whatever squad has room to squeeze me in. The zones do help the new members find people to add at the times they are most likely to play and link up with, and they do give a division for KOTW matches.

I don't think being in the "elite clan" means you can't play with the rest of the clan not on elite.
It just seems to mean that any official tournament games can only be played by elite registered clannies. The big problem comes in the elite members getting earlier access to DLC, wanting to play it and it not being available if you group with x30x members not registered with elite.

I think you may be correct Carl about the DLC access and how not being elite will keep the party from playing those maps etc... I don't give a hoot regarding official tournaments. Probably becuase I suck and would get absolutely handled if I stepped into the bigboy world of professional gamers.