DLC: The Bane of Gamers

[Bateluer]

http://www.multiplayergames.com/2010/08/06/ea-adds-93-create-a-player-paid-boosts-for-nhl-11

Seriously, EA? You're going to sell stat upgrades for individual player positions in an unreleased sports game? Someone needs to make an open source football/hockey/soccer/baseball/basketball engine and release it. The major sports organizations don't own the rules of the games, I don't see how they could have much of a case when they sued to stop it. Provided the programmers left it very basic, and left team/player artwork to the community anyway.

On the topic of DLC, I sincerely hope no one is gullible enough to buy this crap, thus ensuring it will continue. So many people complain about various things in modern gaming, but most of them just run out and buy the product anyway. Recall the CoD:MW2 scenario where the game was released without a dedicated server mode and other important PC features, people made a huge fuss and a Steam Community group was formed to boycott it . . .who then all bought MW2 and were busted all playing it. Same crap will continue so long as people keep buying it.

I've only bought two DLCs before and been disappointed each time, wasn't worth the money. The current trend of BS like EA's stat modifiers and withholding 'features' and plot from the game to release it as DLC later is appalling and needs to stop. People, stop supporting this crap with your dollar.

Update: EA has updated the Marketplace, and there are now 156 items to download.

Browsing the Xbox Live Marketplace today brought with it an interesting discovery. The area of new game add-ons was full of items with no box art, taking up nearly the entire section. All of them were for the same game, NHL 11. The game doesn’t come out until September 7th, yet the DLC is live. What are these 93 items?

Stat boosts such as Skater speed +3, ranging from 80 MS Points to 160 MS Points.

Not only are these listed separately in the Marketplace menu pushing other pieces of actual content off the new release section (more of an issue with Microsoft’s Markeplace design), they are the latest means of EA to further see how far gamers are willing to go. They are no providing actual content. These are not jerseys. These are no stadiums. These are small pieces of code already in the game to boost the player up a notch because they are too lazy to do it themselves.

EA has done this before, but to be clear, these are for specific positions. If you want to update the speed of your wing man, you need to purchase separate DLC for your goalie. They only work for a single position.

Supporting this garbage, this completely asinine junk, only gives the company the perspective that it works. Those of us who won’t pay for it will end up suffering because of those who do. Slowly, leveling up a player will become more difficult, pushing more people into buying stat boosts simply to stay on a level playing field.

Between in-game advertisements, DLC such as this, and other add-on content, why are we still paying $60 for a video game, especially in the case of yearly updated sports games? Can this price be justified? No, it can’t, so when EA sees their sales slipping, maybe it’s because we’re tired of being taken advantage of, like putting up bogus DLC a month before the game it even released.

Edit - On a side note, the day where I run solely linux may be closer than I thought.

 

[WildW]

I think I half agree... it comes down to the scale of any DLC and the game effect.

I don't have a problem with the traditional "expansion pack" . . .those have been around since forever, and can add some good extra playing time for those games you like and you just want some more of the same. The trouble comes when games are written with the add-on in mind from the beginning. The balance between game and DLC is down to the player to judge I guess.

I dislike the idea of little add-ons to give you the edge in online multiplayer. This stat-fiddling for cash scheme seems particularly low. I'm all for freedom of choice, but I doubt there'll be enough flexibility in the game to balance it out. i.e. It'd be fine if you could set up your online game to specify no add-ons, for people who didn't want rich kids with all the bonuses to spoil the game.

I don't buy into the arguments about games being too expensive. Games are a price that the market will bear, or they won't sell at that price. For consoles you have pre-owned, for the PC there's budget releases and Steam. You only pay full price for something you deem to be worth it.

 

[Firsttime]

I have zero problem with DLC if it adds to a complete game. I enjoyed the DLC for Borderlands, the game was complete to begin with the DLC allowed me to enjoy the game for a longer period of time. If they release more I'll probably buy it.

That release day DLC though, or withholding content from the game just to DLC it in a week is a pretty lame money grab.