...I believe this issue of consumer confidence ethics was started by Mass Effect 3...

http://kotaku.com/5887626/mass-effect-3-dlc-triggers-fan-outrage-bioware-response

I believe downloadable content (or dlc for short) is great for video games. It is something that fixes game issues, adds extra hours of play to an original game and it doesn't cost the earth in packaging. It gets zipped to you through the internet.

I also believe that software companies are taking advantage of this facility to squeeze extra money out of people who paid full price for the original game. Those feelings are even stronger when software companies are releasing downloadable content the day of the games original release, indicating this was a premeditated move and not one based on time restraints for getting that software into the original game.

What do you guys and gals think? Do you think dlc as it stands is great? Do you believe it needs improving on? Do you think it will start another 1983 Atari type games industry crash? Let me know. :)

I like DLC, but so much comes out for games now, that when a new game comes out, I will hesitate buying it because I know that either the special edition or Game of the Year edition will come out eventually with all the DLC included.

Very seldom do I buy DLC that costs, but the odd time I do.  I purchased tons of songs for Rock Band/Guitar Hero, all the extra packs for Everybody Dance (or DanceStar Party, as it's called for you folks in Europe), all the bonus wrestlers for WWE All-Stars and almost all the costumes for Dead or Alive 5

I personally hate DLC.  There are so many companies taking advantage of DLC to the point that features that would have normally been included with the game (like extra characters or costumes in a fighting game) are now sold as DLC instead.

I like DLC, but so much comes out for games now, that when a new game comes out, I will hesitate buying it because I know that either the special edition or Game of the Year edition will come out eventually with all the DLC included.

Very seldom do I buy DLC that costs, but the odd time I do.  I purchased tons of songs for Rock Band/Guitar Hero, all the extra packs for Everybody Dance (or DanceStar Party, as it's called for you folks in Europe), all the bonus wrestlers for WWE All-Stars and almost all the costumes for Dead or Alive 5


You have mentioned another point that seems to make the dlc situation murky. The special edition/game of the year editions feature most if not all of the dlc's in one (usually cheaper) package shortly after (about 6 months to a year roughly?) the game's original release. This means those people who bought the original at £43, bought those 5 * dlc packs at about £5 a pop have paid almost £70 for a game that people will eventually get for less than half the price with the whole lot.

I understand some people will use the 'you pay for getting it all now' argument but these games will be given to you in full a short time later (usually when the sales of dlc go down). The same for both WWE 12 and 13 when they came out, you got downloadable wrestlers the day they got released. In fact, the wrestlers were incentives to preorder the game. This chicanery still hasn't stopped THQ from declaring itself bankrupt.


I personally hate DLC.  There are so many companies taking advantage of DLC to the point that features that would have normally been included with the game (like extra characters or costumes in a fighting game) are now sold as DLC instead.

EA seems to be the worst culprit at the moment from what I understand. I'm surprised you don't have to buy Manchester Utd as downloadable content to play the team on Fifa 13.

The thing that bothers me is already software companies have found ways to abuse this potentially positive system. I have a nightmare scenario that in a year or two's time, we have to download and pay for each level/part of a game as downloadable content after paying £43 just to say you own the game to able to download it, lol.

Another issue is online play. You are not granted instant access to an online game once you have bought it. You normally have to type in a code that is specific to your console. This is an attempt to reduce second-hand game buying so that people don't wait for a while after a game is released and gain everything on the cheap. It smacks of corporate greed and cynicism. You are not guaranteed how long those servers stay online for. You can pay for a full-price game with online multiplayer and then find you can't use it because that company decided the game wasn't good enough to continue the server!

I think these are strange times for gamers.

I personally hate DLC.  There are so many companies taking advantage of DLC to the point that features that would have normally been included with the game (like extra characters or costumes in a fighting game) are now sold as DLC instead.


That's basically how I feel about downloadable content as well. I like the idea of DLC, and I think it's an important step forward for the industry in the internet age, but there are several aspects of it's current implementation that leave alot to be desired. On the bright side though, the "everybody truly having the ability to experience online gaming" era didn't really get started until this current generation of consoles launched, so there's still plenty of time for improvement.

But, to add to what you are saying, I do believe that DLC is killing off video game secrets and easter eggs (such as hidden characters, cheat codes, etc.) as a whole. After all, why hide secrets in the game when you can just make consumers pay for them? But then again, I guess you could argue that the internet as a whole has played a role in this too. I remember spending several years trying to figure out how to get to Soda Lake on Super Mario World back in the day, but now I could go online and look it up in a few minutes. Kind of takes the fun out of it.


What do you guys and gals think? Do you think dlc as it stands is great? Do you believe it needs improving on? Do you think it will start another 1983 Atari type games industry crash? Let me know. :)


I think another crash is unlikely, as the video game industry is so much bigger and more stable now than it was back in the early 80's. If there were ever a time when a second crash could have occurred, it would have been in the mid 90's when you had a market saturated with consoles, many of which were flops (Virtual Boy, Sega Saturn, 3DO, Neo Geo, Sega CD, Phillips CDi, and Atari Jaguar just to name a few), but luckly, the industry had matured enough by that point to avoid a similar situation.

That's basically how I feel about downloadable content as well. I like the idea of DLC, and I think it's an important step forward for the industry in the internet age, but there are several aspects of it's current implementation that leave alot to be desired. On the bright side though, the "everybody truly having the ability to experience online gaming" era didn't really get started until this current generation of consoles launched, so there's still plenty of time for improvement.


I believe you are right. This is the first console generation to take advantage of internet gaming/downloading content so therefore it's almost at a feral stage at the moment. Maybe it will get to a point where legislation will be created to make sure consumers are not paying all their money for half a product. The difficult part would probably be convincing the courts you only received half a product from a gaming company.

But, to add to what you are saying, I do believe that DLC is killing off video game secrets and easter eggs (such as hidden characters, cheat codes, etc.) as a whole. After all, why hide secrets in the game when you can just make consumers pay for them? But then again, I guess you could argue that the internet as a whole has played a role in this too. I remember spending several years trying to figure out how to get to Soda Lake on Super Mario World back in the day, but now I could go online and look it up in a few minutes. Kind of takes the fun out of it.

As for how we play computer games, I don't see the difference between looking up the solution on the internet now to looking up the solution in a computer/video game magazine over 20 years ago. The idea of looking for a quick solution is still the same, what is different is how readily accessible that information is now. One trip to Google will tell you where to look to solve your gaming problem. Back in the 'old days' (*wheeze*) you only had access to what the computer magazines gave you. If the cheat code/solution wasn't in the current edition of a magazine, you had to hope it was in the next edition a month later.

Now, you can go to Youtube and look for walkthroughs on games now and watch people complete them. You don't even have to play the thing!  ;D

It's the same for achievements on the Xbox360 (I presume it's the same set-up for trophies on the PS3). If I have trouble getting an achievement, I can look for the Xbox achievements site on the internet and it will tell me how to get it. Instant gratification.

I think another crash is unlikely, as the video game industry is so much bigger and more stable now than it was back in the early 80's. If there were ever a time when a second crash could have occurred, it would have been in the mid 90's when you had a market saturated with consoles, many of which were flops (Virtual Boy, Sega Saturn, 3DO, Neo Geo, Sega CD, Phillips CDi, and Atari Jaguar just to name a few), but luckly, the industry had matured enough by that point to avoid a similar situation.

Actually, there is something similar to that happening now. The birth of the smartphone means mobile phone games of varying quality are being produced by all and sundry on the cheap if you are not getting it for free. This was what was happening before 1983 - everybody and his dog had the potential to create games. How many people got Angry Birds in the last couple of years? People are getting their gaming fix on the cheap these days and on the go! Software companies are struggling to keep up with this as they are having to use overblown budgets to make sure their games retain that cinematic feel.

Do I believe a console crash is imminent? It doesn't have to go that way but I wouldn't be so naive to rule it out. 

I buy downloadable content for my PS3 and I can be able to play video games for free or I use this http://webassetsj.scea.com/pscomauth/groups/public/documents/webasset/ps_ps3psp_2007_ps3_card_20.png to charge to my Playstation account and it goes to my bill later.

I buy downloadable content for my PS3 and I can be able to play video games for free or I use this http://webassetsj.scea.com/pscomauth/groups/public/documents/webasset/ps_ps3psp_2007_ps3_card_20.png to charge to my Playstation account and it goes to my bill later.


Well...If it charges to your Playstation account it's not free, Howard.

You do raise a good point about downloading computer games though. I notice the trend with PCs now where people are buying downloadable games for either Origin or Steam. That's another can of worms itself.

Well...If it charges to your Playstation account it's not free, Howard.

You do raise a good point about downloading computer games though. I notice the trend with PCs now where people are buying downloadable games for either Origin or Steam. That's another can of worms itself.


I can also purchase wrestling characters like Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash,Vader,Goldust and a few others.

Well...If it charges to your Playstation account it's not free, Howard.

You do raise a good point about downloading computer games though. I notice the trend with PCs now where people are buying downloadable games for either Origin or Steam. That's another can of worms itself.


o pre paid

Why buy the game on release date?

DLC is an excuse to cut the QA process short.  The optimal game-buying strategy is to avoid buying games on their release date, but to wait a few months for all the bugs will be worked out.  Eventually, you'll get a bundle that offers you the complete game - the one with all the DLC - for the same price as the original game would have cost you, and you won't have to put up with all the bugs that go out with shipping products these days.

When games were released on expensive $1.00 discs in $2.00 boxes with $3.00 manuals, (or $10.00 cartridges in $2.00 boxes with $3.00 manuals), they had to work on Day 1.

Then came downloadable patches.  It didn't have to work on Day 1, it could be patched after release, so why not just release whatever you had and let the customers do QA for you?

Then came DLC.  It didn't even have to be done by Day 1.  Your customers would not only pay to do your QA for you, you could release 2/3 of the game and enough people would pay extra for the right to download the stuff you didn't finish by the release date that people stopped trying to finish anything.

I'd rather pay $60/game than $50 for half a game.  That's no longer an option - so I'll pay $30 for the whole game, six months later, or $10 for the whole game and all the DLC, 12 months later.

sometimes there are passwords in which you can download wrestlers like The Rock for WWE 12, all you need to do is to enter the free password on the screen and you get to play as The Rock in Universe Mode.

http://wfiles.brothersoft.com/w/wwe12-the-rock_87533-1600x1200.jpg

Why buy the game on release date?

DLC is an excuse to cut the QA process short.  The optimal game-buying strategy is to avoid buying games on their release date, but to wait a few months for all the bugs will be worked out.  Eventually, you'll get a bundle that offers you the complete game - the one with all the DLC - for the same price as the original game would have cost you, and you won't have to put up with all the bugs that go out with shipping products these days.

When games were released on expensive $1.00 discs in $2.00 boxes with $3.00 manuals, (or $10.00 cartridges in $2.00 boxes with $3.00 manuals), they had to work on Day 1.

Then came downloadable patches.  It didn't have to work on Day 1, it could be patched after release, so why not just release whatever you had and let the customers do QA for you?

Then came DLC.  It didn't even have to be done by Day 1.  Your customers would not only pay to do your QA for you, you could release 2/3 of the game and enough people would pay extra for the right to download the stuff you didn't finish by the release date that people stopped trying to finish anything.

I'd rather pay $60/game than $50 for half a game.  That's no longer an option - so I'll pay $30 for the whole game, six months later, or $10 for the whole game and all the DLC, 12 months later.


Great points there, Foo Bar. :)

I think a lot of gamers have twigged now. People are paying for the opportunity to play the game asap and getting caught out when all they had to do was hold their wad for a few months (DragonAge Origins is an example - Original game cost about £35-40 on Xbox/PS3 then I think you would be charged roughly £5 for each dlc (I think there were 5 dlcs in total) which comes to roughly £60 the lot. I waited about 6 months to a year for it and I got everything, game and downloads in the 'game of the year edition' for £20 - a third of the price. You even had to type in a code given to you when you buy the game new to play an important character called Shale. This stops people gaining the character from the second-hand market). It's now a case of 'Fool me once, shame on you...'. If consumers vote with their wallets, software companies may think twice about pulling these dlc stunts).


sometimes there are passwords in which you can download wrestlers like The Rock for WWE 12, all you need to do is to enter the free password on the screen and you get to play as The Rock in Universe Mode.

http://wfiles.brothersoft.com/w/wwe12-the-rock_87533-1600x1200.jpg


Those passwords are the same as immediate dlc, Howard. The only slight difference is how you access the additional content. If I remember, The Rock from WWE 12 was an already completed character prior to release and, showing THQ's nerve, used the character as an incentive to pre-order the game. If you didn't pre-order the game you had to buy The Rock as a downloadable character.

THQ and EA can go and suck something. In fact, THQ will probably need to go and suck something in desperation after it goes down the toilet this year. There are already software companies waiting in line to poach it's licences (Saint's Row I think is one of them).

http://The Rock from WWE 12 was an already completed character prior to release and, showing THQ's nerve, used the character as an incentive to pre-order the game.

and this is The Rock from a year ago, not The Rock of now.

http://The Rock from WWE 12 was an already completed character prior to release and, showing THQ's nerve, used the character as an incentive to pre-order the game.

and this is The Rock from a year ago, not The Rock of now.


the beard?

the beard?


The Rock in WWE 12:
http://cdn2.gamefront.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/wwe-12-the-rock.jpg?cda6c1

The Rock WWE 13:
http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/e5/d5/e5d56b775ad72a9c258474a9303fec8c.jpg?itok=wXYaluTr

SimCity in 1993 vs SimCity in 2013:

http://i.imgur.com/gyjersM.png

I remember in the original Sim City for PC, you dould type the word FUND over and over and get an endless amount of cash.  Of course in doing that, the roads would deteriorate much quicker