What an "Online Pass" is used for is to prevent owners of used games from playing online! One of the most notorious culprits is EA. EA has their "Online Pass". Every game comes with ONE online pass for the first buyer. In most scenarios that buyer will use the online pass code is order to play the game to its full extent. Now once that game owner is finished playing the game, he/she might want to sell the game, whether online, in-store, or to a friend.

The 2nd OWNER of the game is then either forced to PAY AN ADDITIONAL FEE TO EA or not be able to play online/other restrictions. Now think about that for a minute. EA wants the SECOND owner to PAY THEM a fee... for buying a used copy of a game. See the problem here?

Here is an example...

Imagine "Adam" bought a new Toyota. Adam owns the car and he drove it around for a year and is tired of the car and would like to buy a different car. So Adam sells his Toyota to his friend "Bob". Now, Bob buys the car from Adam is as he is driving away, he turns on the radio. Instead of music he hears a monotone voice...

"In order to use the radio, please pay Toyota a fee of $500.00".

Bob, then turns on the A/C, again he hears:

"In order to use the A/C, please pay Toyota a fee of $500.00".

Now Bob, is the rightful owner of the car. Why should he have to pay AN ADDITIONAL fee to use the car to its full extent? The same applies to video games, why should a used game owner be forced to pay to full the game they purchased to the full extent?

One of EA's claim for the "EA Online Pass" is to maintain the servers....

Are you KIDDING ME? When someone buys a NEW Game, they are paying for the servers... when they sell the game they are transferring the rights to play on the server along with the game! 

I really believe that EA's Online Pass is nothing but a futile attempt to suck the remaining blood out of the consumers. 

We need to take the following actions in order to get EA to back down.

1. Boycott ALL EA Games that use this feature

2. Contact EA directly via Email or Phone and voice your concerns...

3. Raise awareness of this practice.

EA is not the online company to do this, here is a list of conspirators,a long with their prominent game titles...

EA- Madden Series, Fifa Series, Need for Speed, Battlefield, Mass Effect

Ubisoft- Assassin's Creed Series

WB Games- F.E.A.R

THQ- Saints Row