Train Sim? Sims? Meh. Meet the new DLC king!

I just couldn't believe my eyed.
The game is called Evolve, it's MMO, just released and it offers a total of 44 different (or "different") DLC.
Fourty four.

I have to admit, to buy all 44 of them all you need is $100, which compared to TS and Sims is dirt cheap.
I'm kinda tempted to buy everything then brag around how I bought all DLC like it's something I should be proud of.

Your thoughts? Is this where the games industry is moving towards or is just a rare pathetic attempt to cash in as much as possible (and then run)?

More on the matter:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/evolve-launches-with-lots-and-lots-of-dlc/1100-6425237/

*Sigh*

Forty-four DLC means forty-four options of content that you can choose from. How is that a bad thing?

Think of it as a bunch of giant Chinese buffet tables for gamers. Pick what you like and enjoy!

You ever been to a chinese buffet where you had to pay separately for every item on the menu? Your problem Fluent, is you seem to like *everything*. Discrimination isn't always a bad word.

The whole DLC thing targets those people who are 'completists' (another word for OCD). A lot of people are just interested in the core game, and they won't have to spend $1 extra, but there is a certain group of people who just has to have it all… missing an extra color option for an optional skin for the optional banner drawing for his armies just fires up some inner substance that eats them from the inside.

I see it in my favorite games, Paradox strategy games. When a new expansion comes out, I buy it almost immediately, as they're usually awesome and add new features for the games. But at the same time, another bunch of DLCs comes out that are purely cosmetic, i.e. they don't affect the game results in any way, but they're there, and they sell a lot (otherwise they wouldn't keep making them): different music to play in the background, different clothing for your armies, different heraldry shields, different 'faces' for the rulers, etc. I've bought only a very selected few of these (and only when they go on sale), but I'm sure some people just buy them all. Maybe they feel their experience is lessened or that they're not playing a complete game unless they have it all.

Sounds to me like going into an supermarket. With 44 things on the shelves to choose from.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Sounds to me like going into an supermarket. With 44 things on the shelves to choose from.

Click to expand...

Thank you for putting it into words better than I, Alrik!

DLC gives us more options. Buy the content you want, when you want. More options is a good thing!

I suppose I just don't like it when a new game is released in a modular purchase fashion - I would prefer to pay a fair price for all the content at launch. When a studio continues working to create addons to add value after launch, I'm perfectly happy to pay for that.

I disagree with Alrik 100%.

This Alrik is what's coming into a store looks and choosing between 44 things:
http://store.bethsoft.com/

DLC are a completely different thing. If were not, we wouldn't see these pics all over internet for ages:

That pic is a bunch of BS. It's a meme, generated by people who overreact and are overly negative. It's 4chan stuff. All the trolls that troll Metacritic and YouTube comments section love that picture.

You're better than that, joxer.

I'm absolutely not better from… What?

First thing first.
I do not know what is 4chan. I do however know that for whatever reason there is a trend of spamming "tho" at the end of each sentence on internet.
The whole thing was addressed in brittish ingenious show Doctor Who, eleventh episode of the third series (2005 reboot) and de facto rediculed it:


Thus, don't expect me to use either chan or tho anywhere.


Second, I was pretty sure everyone did read my posts about modern DLC plague that's turned into one huge scam where for whatever reason, although it's an obvious scam, people still allow to be scammed.
Since it seems you did not read them I'll post a bit again.

Here is an example of a game that did DLC right, fair and not scam, buy now:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/205100/
By buying just a game - you get bugfree game & complete game. Yea, it's Bethesda's game which only proves they can make bugfree games if they care.
There are four DLC:
- You can, if you want, pay for OP items and the DLC description specifies it's pay2win material, not in those words but it doesn't lie about it
- There is a pack of missions nohow connected to the game for those who want additional content with different game rules and maps, practically bonus minigames
- Finally a two part story with a new character on different maps that is a spinoff and doesn't touch the main game in any way

Then let's see a game that's exactly what Mona Lisa graphics up there explains:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/298110/
That game is not bugfree.
It contains the worst legal scam that can be invented - season pass. That thing should be illegal.
DLC CHANGE the main game - some will butcher singleplayer part, some will affect multiplayer.

Just to say, I'm not talking about free DLC and enhanced editions CDpr makes.

Currently on one side it's me and people like me who will refuse to buy DLCridden scamware, or better said avoidware and will rather buy garbage indietitles that are complete games without gamechanging sold separately material. Another side are people who for their own reason SUPPORT scamming by buying season passes.
This "fight" can't last forever. One side will win it in the end. Which one will that be?
Dunno. For the sakes of gaming industly, I would like to think it'll be my side.

Just to add… This whole DLC thing is not nearly as dangerous to the industry as microtransactions ridden false advertised freeware on phones. That scam is another story and seems it'll soon become outlawed at least in EU.

@Alrik, Fluent
Take a closer look to these DLC. That's for the most parts mere "skin" packs for prices like $5. The problem with DLC like this is the horrendeous content to price ratio.

In times before DLC you had a base game with all the content for $50.
Now you get the base game (part of the content) for $25 and the spare content as DLC for $50 in total, which makes the complete game $75. That's not just having a bigger choice in supermarkt shelves. That's a hidden, yet dramatic price increase.

Now I personally don't have a great problem with this as long as this DLC is cosmetic like weapon skins or horse armor. I don't need those. But I fear these DLC becoming meaty content or even content that's important for the main plot (like Leviathan for ME3).
With cosmetic DLC the consumers slowly get used to having the game split up. And I fear noone is going to speak up when we somewhen need to buy story DLC for $100 to completely enjoy a game.

Imagine a Baldur's Gate where you had to buy companion DLCs, different stronghold DLCs, sidequest DLC, classes & races DLC etc. which you would had to buy additionally to the base game.

Again, that's not about having more options in a shelf in the supermarket or to have choices on a chinese buffet.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Sounds to me like going into an supermarket. With 44 things on the shelves to choose from.

Click to expand...

But at a supermarket, you don't have to pay $60.00 just to get in.

I have to agree with joxer here - that's just atrocious.

@joxer: That pic is gold! XD

I'm not a fan of this kind of DLC bonanza but I don't really care.

They have they right to sell their content however they want and I have the right to buy it or not.

Pretty simple really, no scam here, they offer content for a price I decide if it's worth it to me or not. I don't see the scam.

It's not necessarily a scam in the strict sense of the word. It's good old-fashioned exploitation of the audience.

You hook people with as little as you possibly can - and then you exploit them through sales at impulse-level prices.

It's exactly like F2P games - where you advertise free with the word FREE - and then you saturate your audience with microtransactions that are completely optional. It's the same with many Facebook games. You encourage curiousity and maximise the lure of what's possible to buy. Psychological manipulation.

It's kinda like when a hooker comes up to a man in a bar, and she uses all her charms and power of attraction before she reveals her price.

I know a lot of people think that's perfectly ok, and that if people don't have the necessary experience to control their petty cash, they deserve to be taken advantage of - but I think it's a sad state of affairs.

That's not the way I prefer to look at it, DArt.

Yes, there are Facebook games and "free" games that are nothing but microtransactions, but if that's what people want, they have fun playing and they enjoy spending their money on it, then I see no harm in that.

It's like gambling. Not necessarily something I would do a lot of, but if other people enjoy it, hey, more power to them. I think you should be able to spend your money as you want.

I don't really see it as a sad state of affairs, pretty much the opposite. They are giving the customer choices of what they would like to add-on to their game.

Myself, I don't buy DLC that much, unless it's something like the 'expansion'-type stuff that we saw with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, or something I really want. But if people want to buy skins or weapon packs or whatever, hey, have fun doing so.

Fluent said:

That's not the way I prefer to look at it, DArt.

Yes, there are Facebook games and "free" games that are nothing but microtransactions, but if that's what people want, they have fun playing and they enjoy spending their money on it, then I see no harm in that.

It's like gambling. Not necessarily something I would do a lot of, but if other people enjoy it, hey, more power to them. I think you should be able to spend your money as you want.

I don't really see it as a sad state of affairs, pretty much the opposite. They are giving the customer choices of what they would like to add-on to their game.

Myself, I don't buy DLC that much, unless it's something like the 'expansion'-type stuff that we saw with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, or something I really want. But if people want to buy skins or weapon packs or whatever, hey, have fun doing so.

Click to expand...

I know that a lot of people are ok with it, which is what's being exploited

Personally, I would rather have everything a game has to offer at whatever price is deemed reasonable - and not have to worry about spending something extra in case I'm missing out on something.

The problem is that many of the things you can buy in games are things that get integrated into the main game somehow, which means you can't get the "full experience" without paying extra. It doesn't help that the vast majority of these 1-10$ offers are utterly and completely trivial to create. We're talking minutes of development time.

So, what you think is a nice "choice" - I see as something that should simply be offered as part of the main package.

DLC and expansions should be about significant content that's either offered as SEPARATE from the main game, or it should be offered several months later, so people can enjoy the game without feeling compelled to spend money on something that might not be worth it. It's very hard to know what's "worth it" until you really get into a game - and it's not fun playing a game when you're aware that extra content is available that might enhance your experience.

It's 100% exploitation of the audience - and it's really unfortunate that it has become the accepted approach.

The fact that I'm personally fully aware of this, means that I'm able to sidestep the problem. But a lot of casual players, including children and parents, have no idea they're being manipulated. They're spending money on something they don't have experience with - because they don't really know what they'll be getting - or what it'll mean for the game.

But that's just my opinion.

Well, I disagree. But I'm not going to write an essay about it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, though.

Thank you for the same thing