My Hatred for Story DLC

 

I have developed a massive hatred for paid story DLC. It’s just a practice that seems really shady to me.

Before the Seventh Generation of consoles you would buy a game. That purchase was the entire game. Complete multiplayer, complete story, complete everything. The internet was just not what it is today so the only real way to continue a story was to release expansion packs. Often, those were complete games too that just required the base game to get up and running.

Such is not the case anymore. There are still a few titles that still toy with expansion packs, largely MMOs, but the majority of titles that exists today deal with DLC. Initially I had no issues with DLC but now it has begun to bother me.

Before the Seventh Generation studios made money off the initial purchase of a game. PC Games didn’t have that restriction so much even with the way the internet was but even they released expansions rather than DLC. It worked well for them and the customer. Video games were required to be complete upon release and this would make money. Even the beginning of Generation Seven started that way but as broadband became more widespread it changed.

Now you have a situation where games are released incomplete in one way or another. Final Fantasy XIII-2 was released with much story content restricted to DLC. That DLC was used to explain situations in the main game that were otherwise confusing or seemed to go nowhere. Mass Effect 2 released story DLC that, though wasn’t directly involved the main story, carried on canonical situations that are part of the entire trilogy’s story. DmC did a similar thing with Vergil’s Downfall DLC.

I could continue on but the point I’m making is that there are many games now that release story DLC and are essentially leaving the main purchase unfinished. Then most of these games are charged a full $60 or more for their purchases. So you pay for the game plus the DLC per release. Some offer a Season Pass or something similarly named that allow you to get the DLC as it comes out without paying separately but even this is still a problem for me. If you want a complete game you end up paying around $80 or more. This is even exacerbated in PAL regions where the price of games are already in the hundreds.

I do not believe you should have to pay $60 for a game with an incomplete story only to be told to get the rest of the story as DLC for $5-$20 a pop. The entire game should be finished. If you do mess up as the case was for Fallout 3 and Mass Effect 3 that story fix should be free as it was for those games.

I've no problem with paid DLC for map packs, costumes, items, etc. Call of Duty releases map packs mostly. None of that bugs me although the prices for the Call of Duty maps is a bit much. A lot of fighting games release costume packs and that's fine too. Though there are issues with fighting game DLC as well which usually involve paid DLC characters.

I do not tolerate nickel & diming tactics and that's all Paid Story DLC is. If it's a game I really want that bad I'll seek it used if that's the case. If you can't be bothered to release a complete product then I can't be bothered to hand over my money to the developer/publisher. I do not sympathize with the "Developers need money to keep making games" ideal when they don’t care too about the customer to give them their money’s worth. I do understand that, in many cases, this is also the publishers fault. In that case it’s just collateral damage then. I apologize to the developer but if the publisher wants to swindle me out of story content then I either will buy it used or not buy it at all. Either way the company doesn’t get money from me.

I am more than willing to let a developer or publisher lose money if they can't bother to release quality, fully finished products. This is not counting for bugs of course unless it's like the issue Skyrim had on the PS3 or Assassin's Creed Liberation on the Vita. If the game is released so unplayable that it requires a patch upon release then it should be pushed back for that system to fix the problem. Not released with a Day One patch to fix it, left broken for months, or just deciding to not fix bugs in favor of DLC. (I’m looking at you Warner Bros.)

So, in conclusion, if I'm going to pay $60 for an unfinished story then I do expect the story DLC to be free to complete my purchase. I don’t buy into the attitude of “It’s such a small price to pay” or “If you can’t afford it rethink your priorities.” You know what? I can afford a $3 gallon of milk but I’ll buy the $2.50 one instead. I can afford the more expensive item but there’s need to waste money like that. It’s not about being able to afford anything. It’s about getting what you pay for. Gamers really need to rethink their position and realize that they are consumers and consumers are the ones who make the decisions not companies and game developers and publishers are no exception.