The Rise and Fall of Expansions & DLC

I tend to think of it as something other than greed, because we're all greedy. It's human nature to want and desire - and we can't avoid it. In that way, it's useless to talk about - because we all have it and we can't change it.

Instead, I think of it as ignorance - and a lack of understanding. Essentially, a misguided greed - if you will. People focus on money because they think it will bring them something that matches or exceeds the effort to acquire it and they don't really consider other people that much when they're not facing them and their troubles.

The thing about money is that it's not actual value - but a symbol of value. That makes money intangible and it's a very unfortunate barrier between the reality of value and the perception of value. We carry within us an instinct to survive - and it's hard to resist money when you can't get a firm idea of how much you'll potentially need.

It doesn't help that we've made the acquisition of mostly superfluous items into something that's worth working for. For whatever reason, we've managed to convince ourselves that we're worth more as human beings if we own more - or if we have more money than other people.

That's another side of the same coin. Another kind of ignorance.

Unfortunately, it's a misconception of value that's shared by endless millions, making it very hard to combat.

The only solution I can come up with is doing away with money and the uneven distribution of resources, which I've so often talked about.

Something so unrealistic and implausible that it won't happen for hundreds or thousands of years. But, unless we manage to eliminate ourselves before then, it WILL happen eventually. Just like it will eventually happen that we stop using multiple languages and other destructively stupid notions.

DArtagnan said:

The thing about money is that it's not actual value - but a symbol of value.

Click to expand...

If you exchange the word "value" with "power" then I can agree to you.

Money = Power To Do Anything You Want, Even Kill People (if you can find someone who accepts money as pay<ment).

I think that Money has become an überstrong symbol of power. With enough money, you can literally buy ANYTHING. So Money = Power.

And power-hungry people might want to amass even more power,
and if mony = power, then the easiest way to amass power is = to amass money.

I have read in an article about an Scientific article which touches anotherthis problem from another angle : "Overearning", to be found in "Psychological Science 24/6, 2013, 852-859", University Of Chicago.

This is an scientific proof that Greed is able to make people amass things - money, too.
And that even if that sheer mass doesn't have any "value" anymore. One just cannot east as many bread-and-butter-meals with 10 Millions earned a year. For 10 Millions bought bread-and-butter-meals just cannot be eaten by a single person, which means that these 10 Millions of Dollars (currency example) just don't have any real-life-value anymore. ( I call this the "bread-and-butter - Index".)

Being able to kill anyone you want doesn't take much money at all. Heck, you can do that free of charge with enough of an imagination

But that kind of power doesn't bring you joy or happiness - which is at the core of the kind of ignorance I'm talking about.

If we agree that being happy in this world and having your needs satisfied is what makes life worth living - then the acquisition of superfluous wealth is an essentially worthless enterprise in a civilised country.

But, obviously, you have to understand and agree that love is the most powerful motivator for living - and that admiration, fear or respect that's based on a fantasy is not going to make you happy in the long run. Meaning that perceived fame, "power" or wealth can never give you anything real in that way. Real respect and real admiration is about something else. You can get fear or power - but that won't make you happy.

So many people don't understand these excessively simple truths about life - so it's really no wonder that they're pursuing so many things that won't make their lives any better in the long run.

The difference seems fairly obvious to me: An expansion expands the game, hence the term "expansion". DownLoadable Content (DLC) includes such expansions, if they're downloadable, but also includes other content such as items etc.

I generally don't mind getting expansions as DLCs, such as the ones for Skyrim and Mass Effect 3. I dislike the infamous horse armor and similar though.