This is a highly debatable topic. My original post about this subject was very… well, you know me when I feel something is really stupid and/or pointless. I let whoever does it, have it with vulgar words!
The debate over PC Game Trainers being paid for, I’ve always been against it. In my opinion, trainers should be free! It is the game you pay for, and that’s it. But that was back in the turn of the century. Wherever this is purely corporate greed or not of programmers asking for a lot of money to make these trainers, remains a mystery to me.
Some will say “well they should be. They have to go through hell to break the game’s code so you can have your God Mode or Unlimited Ammo!” And I say, that’s fine… as long as it’s a donation and NOT a forced monthly fee. And this is why I went with their Unlimited option. Pay one time, and I’m done. No more money goes to them. I spent nearly $80 when I did it.
All the sudden, I get this email about this “Unlimited PLUS” option. How it came to be, they state how they’ve been pretty nice in not asking another penny from Unlimited members. Then they state “but games have evolved, and we had to hire more programmers over the years.”
In other words, they’re stating they can’t keep doing this Unlimited option as the programmers are having to put more hours into making these trainers. I hardly use the site, so why should I care?
Why can’t they just go with a donation system, instead of a monthly fee? Let people pay these programmers. Because not everyone’s generous (including myself). This is why they have to force these payments.
Either that or they’re too stupid to think that was an option when they created the website. Or they did, but they damn well knew it wouldn’t work. Personally, I go for the former “too stupid to think of that idea”. Because it wasn’t even stated as one of their options in the email.
So they claim “many current lifetime members have asked over the years” to help them. Personally, why in the fuck couldn’t these “many current lifetime members” fall back to their monthly option? Perhaps, no one wants to. Yet why are they wanting to give them more money? Such stupidity makes my blood boil.
Whatever, I don’t care. Well, at least I wish I wasn’t FORCED to… because they state this near the end of the email (the good part is in bold);
We want to continue offering our lifetime membership to new users but if the gaming landscape continues to evolve and we have to keep adding more and more programmers to keep up then ultimately it will have to go away in favor of more costly monthly and yearly options. We hope that by offering Lifetime PLUS that we will receive enough support so that we can keep prices where they are and continue producing the level of content that everyone is accustomed to.
“it will have to go away in favor of more costly monthly and yearly options”. Now I must remember, this is just a warning. A warning that is probably very likely to come true.
But also note the second part of the paragraph, where they say how they hope this Lifetime PLUS option helps to not make this a reality. But we all know, it will in a year or two. There’s going to be more games, and with that will require more programmers to work longer hours to allow us to cheat in them.
And guess what? I’m going to be forced to pay it. Because it’s the only reliable source of trainers. As much as I bitch and moan about it, this is the reality. This isn’t the 2000’s anymore. Nothing can be forever free(as much as I wish them to remain forever free).
I don’t know who to blame. Steam for allowing devs to release Alpha and Beta builds of their game? The programmers for not putting their foot down and saying “we’ll only do trainers for released games”? … People for not FUCKING using their monthly service?!
Blargh.. whoever’s fault it is, the damage has been done. No one can reverse it.