DLC Done Right

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Gamasutra has a solid write-up that covers building good DLC for your game and how the guys behind Dying Light hit it out of the park. One of the big takeaways from this was this one statement.

Admit to your mistakes, if you made any, as that reinforces trust and goodwill towards your product.

I would say there are more than few publishers and game developers that do not understand that at all. Hmmm, EA comes to mind.

However, if you are a Dying Light owner, The Following DLC changes up gameplay greatly and turns it almost into a full new game.

At first, we thought that creating a Fast & Furious slash Death Proof slash Mad Max type of story would work really well--after all, it's a game about driving over zombies. But we went back to the drawing board and asked ourselves a question: Is this what fans actually want?
 
I sort of feel that DLC was the gateway drug for microtransactions.

DLC > Season Passes > Microtransations
 
I sort of feel that DLC was the gateway drug for microtransactions.

DLC > Season Passes > Microtransations

Well, yeah. Publishers will always push things further to see what they can get away with. Some studios still do a pretty dang good job with DLC though.
 
DLC lies somewhere in-between traditional expansion packs and microtransactions. So yeah, it was a progression downward to where we currently are today.

I honestly don't have anything against microtransactions...in F2P games. Once you start talking about $60 titles with them, you can fuck off.
 
In before the "quit your bitching" and "you don't like it, vote with your wallet" crowd gets here.
 
In before the "quit your bitching" and "you don't like it, vote with your wallet" crowd gets here.

Now you've become the person bitching about other people bitching. You're all the same.
 
I sort of feel that DLC was the gateway drug for microtransactions.

DLC > Season Passes > Microtransations

I mean I have zero objections to Expansion packs (Former MMO player), or DLC, season passes to just pre pay for said DLC or even micro transactions done correctly. I am all for ongoing support of a game and being able to throw more support at developers if they are providing a good value for my money. I however absolutely draw the line and call bullshit when it turns into a P2W type scenario. That isn't acceptable to me on any level. For clarification, Anything that gives a player an advantage in a game no matter how situational makes it P2W and that to me in an instant No Buy. Cosmetics however I have no objections to at all. Even though I find some cosmetics absolutely stupid, I don't care how someone else spends their money provided it doesn't detrimentally affect my in game experience.
 
I stopped pre ordering and buying doc.

I wait for reviews and sales and season pass sales.

Burned too many times
 
Even as a MMO player... I felt like expansion packs should've came free. I say that because we've invest a lot of months between expansion packs. I do realize though, the cost of maintaining servers, bug fixes, and the extra doesn't come free. But I also don't know the expenses and the cost of keeping a game live and keeping it up with regular stuff.

But from a consumer point of view that doesn't see behind the scenes and only sees $$$ coming out of my wallet every month. An expansion pack could be free without little problem.


DLC was a welcome thing for me. I liked the idea of my games having new content. The thought of my old games having new content was awesome. I let my mind go wild with the thoughts of Harvest Moon for the SNES with new content (I ran that game into the ground).

After a while DLC seemed like it the original game was chopped into pieces so that you never really got the game until you bought the extra pieces. For example the SIMS. And then it became a problem where I was never really sure if the game was completed when I bought it or people in suits said, "Let's milk these fuckers dry."


Season Passes just seemed like they already knew what was coming. They had the stuff ready. But they still want to charge you for more content that probably would've been in the game at launch.


Microtransactions. We know how that's going for us right now.
 
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I mean I have zero objections to Expansion packs (Former MMO player), or DLC, season passes to just pre pay for said DLC or even micro transactions done correctly. I am all for ongoing support of a game and being able to throw more support at developers if they are providing a good value for my money. I however absolutely draw the line and call bullshit when it turns into a P2W type scenario. That isn't acceptable to me on any level. For clarification, Anything that gives a player an advantage in a game no matter how situational makes it P2W and that to me in an instant No Buy. Cosmetics however I have no objections to at all. Even though I find some cosmetics absolutely stupid, I don't care how someone else spends their money provided it doesn't detrimentally affect my in game experience.
I personally take it a scrap further.... I miss the days of cosmetics being rewards for hard challenges in game, rather than pay $5 to look badass. I understand why companies sell those now, and agree with you overall.
 
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Witcher 3 did It right. I mean they released two DLC for Witcher 3 and those were basically a whole separate story line. Each 30 hours +
 
Witcher 3 did It right. I mean they released two DLC for Witcher 3 and those were basically a whole separate story line. Each 30 hours +

You bring up another good point that bears mentioning that I simply cannot understand why this newer generation of gamers find ok. Playable time is an important buying point of a game for me. If a game only has 5-10 hours of actual game play, then you sure as shit don't need to be charging top dollar for it. This was my biggest beef with Destiny (A game I loved) when TTK came out. That was just a straight up bullshit amount of content for what they charged and as a result I never bought TTK or anything past it and just watched Youtube. It was really a damn shame as up until that point I was playing Destiny every single day and enjoying it highly. I spent years playing actual MMO's where spending $30-$40 on an expansion was nothing to me, but I knew I was going to get a huge amount of content and a great value for my money. DLC like TTK where you are getting a few token raids (and frankly calling anything doable on Day 1 by a PUG a raid is bunk) and really at most about 6 hours of actual content and charging nearly a full brand new game price for it..Bull fucking shit. Same thing applies to these jackass developers who have the gall to release a game with 5-10 hours of actual content and a crap ton of fluff and try to charge $60 for that shit. Quite frankly, fuck off and fuck the people who support that kind of crap. I mean don't get me wrong, I used to love pre-ordering games, doing midnight launches and all the fun that went with things like that. Unfortunately greedy devs and publishers have just utterly ruined that aspect of gaming where you have to be exceptionally foolish to pre-order anything now. It is just a shame that I don't get to share that joy with my kids because you cannot trust any of the major publishers to not fuck you over.
 
were all this shit lands is another 80's style crash if they keep the current course of action. there is one game that i have played that was worth every penny Ive paid for it and that is Wolfenstein II The New Colossus yes it has dlc but the sp is seriously engaging and that is what all games need a return to seriously engaging sp campaigns!
 
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That isn't acceptable to me on any level.
I'd have ot add another one, although not as dire on the ethical front, it can be quite important for a game's longevity and player experience and value. That being things that split the player base up. For example.. the paid-for level packs in Call of Duty. on one hand i don't mind paying for MORE levels if they are professionally done and on the cheap but when a massive amount of other players never buy the levels it splits the muliitplayer player count up and this is bad. They should not do that, they should be free so ALL players have hte ability to play for a longer period of time as the numbers decline.
 
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