New patch today...and it might just ruin the game

[[AK]The Beast]

A couple of cool enhancements and fixes...plus $10 "booster packs" to unlock all the weapons and mods for a single class or vehicle, all classes, all vehicles, or for $30, just unlock the whole freakin' game. Remember all the work you put in with the support class trying to get the mortar unlocked? Yeah, get ready to get the crap spammed out of you by a bunch of level 1s. I'll still play, until it gets out of control at least, but I'm anticipating bad things in store.

[[AK]Gunny Highway]

Yeah when you told me about that last night first thought was it's the end of a franchise. battlefield has now gone the way of battlefield play4free which is free to play but you can buy upgrades. Only difference is BF3 cost most of $60 or so and now to have people buying it at half the price then come in and for $30 they can do all the things we put in 100+ hours to get is going to pretty much kill battlefield for me. I'll still play but probably won't nearly as much. This falls in the same category as everyone gets a trophy if you are not good enough or dedicated enough to get certain things just buy them so you wont be disappointed.

[[AK]Hylander]

Unfortunately the in game "sales" of items, components, and add-ons is the future model because it's proven to be financially successful on numerous other fronts.

I'd pay $100 to get Half-Life 3

A stop in on occasion to see if anyone is playing but haven't seen anyone on. A couple of times I saw Gunny, but couldn't get in touch with him and when I joined the game he quit. I'll try not to take it personally.

[[AK]Sonic Boom]

Ack. Not a huge fan of paid content. I'm still pissed off at the BFP4F 'Great Screwing' of December 20th. I'll never spend another dime on a game from EAsy Studios and I'm somehow convinced that EA is behind the evil...

Haven't played enough to start getting decent, but will be back on in about a week when I have more time.

Hasta,
Boom (aka Meat-Plug)

[[AK]Squidly]

I don't see a problem. You want it for free, then put in the time to earn it through exp.
You don't mind paying, then pay for it and get it up front.

The problem as I see it is when a game charges a higher fee for early adopters and then drops the intro fee for late arrivals. Freemium works if it's free from the start.

[[AK]Hylander]

BF3 wasn't free at the start, and it's not 'freemium'. You had no choice to purchase all the content until now. That's the recent change they've added. Yeah, you could order early and get a free gun or uniform, etc - but you couldn't just pay and buy all the content and weapons like you can now.

[[AK]The Beast]

I have to say, I might have been wrong about this. And here's why I have hope that I was: people who bought the game early probably aren't going to spend MORE money to level up their kits when, in most cases, they'd only buy a few unlocks. And I just don't see that many new buyers coming in now, when there's Skyrim, and Mass Effect 3, and other hotter new releases out there, certainly not enough to flood the servers with buck privates raining mortars obliviously from the sky.

[[AK]Sonic Boom]

...buck privates raining mortars obliviously from the sky.

That's me!

So far my best score has been manning a Phalanx on the back of an aircraft carrier and hosing the shore...

Finally have some time, so I'll be on this weekend trying to get better. I did buy Karkand so I can at least have some idea of the maps while I'm trying to learn the game.

[[AK]The Beast]

AA guns/LAVs are the best way to recapture the "feel". Assault and medic are by far the easiest classes to get started with.