Like all great things in life, MMORPGs often come with “special” counterparts that usually cost a bit extra, but promise special items or skills in return. Take Tabula Rasa, for example, the game released early last month (officially) and offered it’s game up in two different flavors: original, and extra crispy Limited Collector’s Edition. If you opted for the premium upgrade you were blessed with the following:
- Special Character Emote
- Exclusive Dye Recipes
- Unique Pet
- Briefing from Richard Garriot’s altar-ego in game
- Classified maps
- Allied Free Sentients Field Guide
- TR “dog tags”
- AFS challenge coin
- Special Edition poster
Seems like a lot right? You get all this for only $20 more than the original price of the game ($70). Sounds like an awesome deal, right? RIGHT?! Well, lets break down exactly what these items mean for you, the player/consumer.
Special character emote. What does this mean? So your avatar in game gets to have a special laugh or a clap or maybe even a dance. It sounds neat and awesome, but really what are you going to do with it? You’ll use it a couple times and then probably forget about it. Verdict: LEAVE.
Exclusive Dye recipes. This one could actually be worth something depending on how much you value appearances. A lot of people go through a lot of trouble to get their character’s appearances just the way they want em. Verdict: MAYBE.
Unique Pet. Pets are, more than likely, a worthy addition to your avatar. There are few external things that truly make your character look unique and having a pet is one of them. Verdict: TAKE.
Special Briefing from Garriot. This one is a toss-up. On one hand, this is a special event and one that will probably be a part of the history of the game. However, on the other hand, if you missed the event or don’t care about it at all then it is worthless to you. Verdict: MAYBE.
Classified Maps. These mean nothing. They are probably a poster paper that is packaged with the box that you’ll glance at once and never look at again. Verdict: LEAVE.
Allied Free Sentients Field Guide. Again, this is something you probably won’t find much stock in. It gives you no tangible bonus and therefor is worthless. Verdict: LEAVE.
TR Dog Tags. How much do you like jewelry? The value of this largely depends on what it is made of. If it is made out of plastic then its a total pass. Verdict: Maybe.
AFS Challenge Coin. Like knik-naks? Neither do we. Verdict: LEAVE.
Special Edition Poster. Poster’s are awesome, and if you are anything like me. You’ll have em plastered all over your dorm/room/apartment. What makes this even better is that it is a special edition one, which means not to many others will have the same one. Verdict: TAKE.
So, overall, we have 2 TAKEs, 3 MAYBEs, and 4 LEAVEs. This means that, in our eyes, the Tabula Rasa Collector’s Edition is not worth the extra $20 you’ll spend on it. This largely applies to most MMORPG CEs, in our opinion. Typically, and TR was one of the best mind you, games don’t come with that great of extras to justify the cost. It’s usually just a sham for publishers to score a bit of extra money. Oh and word for the wise: if a publisher is promising an “art book” with their CE edition, ignore it. Chances are you can find every last one of those pictures online for free.
Sometimes there is hardly a reason not to get the Special Edition. For a while at Amazon both the “regular” and “special edition” of Lord of the Rings Online were $19.99. Now I see the “regular” has been dropped to $14.99. “Special edition” features “FREE subscription, 128-page manual, cloth map of Middle-Earth, digital art book, exclusive figurine, exclusive in-game items: “Cloak of the Peace Keeper” +2 Peace Morale Regen.” *shrug* I’ll pitch in the $5.
Then you have Halo 3 . . . that helmet looks cool, and you could hardly blame a fan for wanting the SE for that game.
On the other hand I have a hard time with people spending $$ on super-special Guitar Hero guitars. You’re not even looking at the guitar while you’re playing not just a toy guitar, but a toy guitar that is more or less the equivalent of a specialized game controller.
If I could have found a non-collector’s edition of WoW at launch, I would have bought it. Instead, I got this really expensive, pretty box with a cloth map I’ve never used, a pet I never summoned, and a DvD I could have simply watched over the Internet.
Woot? :P