Online gaming has become a key component for people to consider when deciding what games to purchase.
Gamers don’t buy titles like “Call of Duty,” “Battlefield” or “Halo” for the single-player experience much anymore — it’s all about the online multiplayer.
While gaming online on the PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii doesn’t cost players a cent, Microsoft charges $60 a year to play on Xbox LIVE.
It’s a small fee, considering LIVE is a more stable community when it comes to competition as well as connection, but that’s a different column for a different day.
The fact of the matter is, online gaming is fairly cheap — for now.
A practice becoming more and more popular among game publishers is what’s known as the “Online Pass.”
Each publisher has a different name for it, but they all provide essentially the same thing.
The Online Pass acts as a key, allowing players to unlock the multiplayer aspect of the game they just bought.
Each key comes free in a new copy of the game. However, if you don’t have a key you must pay $10 to play online — and that’s for each game.
The main reason publishers are shifting toward the Online Pass is to combat against used-game sales.
Every person who walks into a store and purchases a pre-owned title gives no money to the publishing company or its developers. All money goes to the store. It makes sense publishers don’t like losing the revenue, so they’re starting to cash in on the new online craze.
Personally, I have no problem with the Online Pass. Sure it’s a nuisance to type in the code every time, but I buy all my games new anyway so I incur no extra charge. However, for people who buy used games — as well as rent games from places like Gamefly or borrow from their friends — I can see where the outrage comes from.
Unfortunately for those gamers, more studios are starting to adopt the Online Pass, and it isn’t going away any time soon.
For those University students who don’t play games, the thought of an Online Pass still affects them more than they know.
Online homework has become a staple for classes all around the University.
Whether it’s through WebAssign, Pearson or any other variant, many students have experienced the annoyance of online homework.
What students may have also noticed is one of two things before being allowed to start broadening their intellectual horizons over the Internet — a key or a charge. Registering for your online homework isn’t any different from wanting to play a multiplayer game online.
You can either buy the book new — which usually includes an access code to register for your course — or you can buy the book used (or not at all) and pay the online homework company directly.
For example, let’s consider my Spanish class.
Buying my Spanish book new from the LSU Bookstore — which includes a 12-month homework key for Pearson’s MySpanishLab — is $160.
The bookstore has the book used for $120, sans the homework key.
However, without the key I would have had to pay $45.10 to Pearson for six months of access.
Of course, with those figures, it makes more financial sense to buy the book new with the key included.
Or, if I was a smart shopper, I could buy the same book brand new on Amazon for around $80. Unfortunately, I would still have to purchase the online key to do the homework — bringing the total back up to $125.
It’s ridiculous that students have to pay an extra fee or be forced to buy a combo package from the bookstore in order to do their homework.
We already pay enough to attend the University — we shouldn’t have to pay something else just to be able to do our homework online. And the same goes for online gaming. Gamers shouldn’t have to purchase content already available on the disc.
So if you want to play your game online or do your mandatory homework, get ready to fork over a little extra cash.
Adam Arinder is a 22-year-old communication studies senior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_aarinder.
 
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Contact Adam Arinder at [email protected].