REBUTTAL TO: Fragaphobia
My hat goes off to RPGamer's very own Michael Cunningham – coining your own term doesn't happen everyday. More importantly, though, I join Michael in his interest and bemusement about publisher Square Enix's aversion to providing online-multiplayer options for those games that seem to be perfectly suited for that arena.
When Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime was ready to set sail on the Nintendo DS, I couldn't repeat my disappointment--to those who would listen--often enough. Here was a truly clever and comical way to get folks to stay interested in a DS game: continuously scour the countryside of Slimenia (the locale in which the game takes place), gathering enemies and items in order to keep powering up your tank. Multiplayer would seem to be the obvious excuse to stay on track with that routine, and multiplayer was, indeed, provided. However, the publisher decided they would make it a requirement that each player would have to have their own copy of the game, yet there would be no online gameplay. So, let's see...Square Enix wants people who have already shelled out $120 for their own DS to each shell out an additional $35 (the original retail price for Rocket Slime) per person just to play multiplayer?
Now, here's a little math quiz for ya': If you can buy a new PS2 for $100 at your local Wallyworld and a copy of your favorite multiplayer game for (we'll be liberal here...) $50, but (and we'll be conservative here) two people must buy their own DSes for $120 each and two copies of Square Enix's latest blockbuster for $35 a piece just to play multiplayer that offers inferior graphics and sound and likely gameplay options (again, we'll be conservative – or liberal, depending on which way you view it), which option is the cheaper, more valued way to go?
Square Enix, when it comes to gaming, does seem to specialize in the RPG genre, and it's certainly not necessary to offer online play or even multiplayer, for that matter, in order for a game to be enjoyable. But when you set up a game around that aspect, it is, at least in the case of gaming on the DS, unreasonable to expect players to purchase their own copy of a game in order to play multiplayer but offer no online gameplay.
It smells like bilking to me, and, personally, I think Square Enix is shooting themselves in the foot with that approach; at least I hope they are. It doesn't matter to me if they decide to stay strictly with single-player games or local-multiplayer games. But don't dangle a carrot while you reach in my pockets, and then snatch away the carrot. Either take the money and give me the goods, or stay the hell out of my pockets.
"But, Tony, you don't have to buy their products, bro." Meh...that's true, but there's more to it than that. Going back to Rocket Slime for the moment, that was a great game in many respects, and it would have been well worth the full price of admission had players been given the option of getting online with it. But the story mode, alone, was way too short to justify the price. That brings us full circle round...
It's not a bait & switch, because we are being told ahead of time what the deal is. But the deal still isn't a good one, in my opinion. That's why, in the case of Rocket Slime, I waited until it ended up in the bargain bin, so to speak--$16 at a local retailer.
To that end, though--speaking strictly of their DS games--I would simply like to see Square Enix offer more value. I've had little problem with their console-game offerings, but on the DS, so far, they could be doing much better. They've got a lot of great ideas, and they just need to follow through with them. Either put everything into making a great single-player experience, or put everything into making a great multiplayer experience that is a viable option for DS owners; or do something wholly different. But give us a product that's actually worth the premium being asked.
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