Micro-transactions are ruining the industry.

[Red Exodus]

You can skip the first paragraph to get to the point.

Earlier today I was looking around Steam's forums, reading up on TF2 about the updates and peoples' views on them and then I noticed there was an Orange Box forum for the consoles and it turns out the place was a wasteland. Only one or two threads had been replied to that day and they were all about Valve's lack of support for the console version of TF2. I heard that Microsoft was to blame for the lack of updates so I checked some sources and it turned out it was true, MS wants customers to pay for the update and Valve doesn't so Valve decided to hold the updates until they have enough to warrant a purchase through DLC, how many that is I have no clue but it doesn't look good for console TF2 fans.

After reading about that my view about DLC changed entirely. What companies are doing with DLC is ridiculous, from weapons, to stages, to characters, to horse armor, developers are squeezing every cent out of our pockets with content that they either didn't finish on time, were too lazy to put into the game or finished content that they decided to force customers to pay for to access in the case of that Wii Final Fantasy game [I forget the name, something to do with Life as a King].

I understand that DLC can add length and life to a game but it's being abused and it's getting out of hand. I'll be ****ed if I buy a game for $50-$60 and have to pay extra for trivial things like costumes or trinkets that belong in the game.

I know someone is going to say "then don't buy it" but that is a moot point, in the end I'm paying for an incomplete game and richer or more gullible people end up buying these things and suddenly the developer thinks it's ok. This is as bad a pirating but only this time it's hurting the consumers and the developers are fattening their wallets. What do you think of this Light House?

 

[Sad Panda323]

I agree that DLC is being abused, but I'm not sure it's ruining the industry.

 

[Mic_128]

While I agree it's not good that people are being limited to, or in some cases, outright exploiting DLC, like Battlefield Heroes, where half the guns were originally DLC until it caused a HUGE ruccus and changed to just unlockable, but it's not like this is a recent thing. Expansion packs anyone?

 

[Yaya]

Some things like the Rock Band Weekly DLC Keep Players interested in the game, you can only sing Run to The Hills so many times.

 

[Symphony X]

It's all a matter of whether or not your certain game's developers decide to wh0re out content.

DLC is great in terms of games like Rock Band, where new content comes along to keep the game interesting and great.

But inevitably developers will come along that will take out content to make DLC for yet more money.

I just kinda go with the flow.
:D

 

[Pas]

DLC can certainly be done wrong. Beautiful Katamari's downloadable levels weren't truly downloadable; they were already in the game. You were paying to unlock them.

 

[derek.haines]

DLC is only worthwhile if it's content that's genuinely additional to the game. If you're just downloading a little flag to tell the game that you have something that was already there, it's a load of BS. There's no reason you should have to pay to unlock something that's already in the game you paid for in the first place.

In the case of additional maps, stages, expansion packs, ect., I can see where it's justifiable because it's NEW CONTENT. I've got no problem paying reasonable prices for new content, but I'll be ****ed if I'm spending $10 or more for 2KB flags.

 

[Red Exodus]

I'd go as far as to pay for extra maps, or an expansion pack with new classes/weapons/maps all in one for a decent price [nothing over $10 and only if they were made after the game's release and not held back for DLC].

Pas mentioned another scenario I was thinking of but I couldn't remember the name of the game.

 

[Cashed]

An example of micro-transactions gone terribly wrong.

 

[derek.haines]

An example of micro-transactions gone terribly wrong.

...wow.

I mean--really?

Wow. Just...wow.

I'll be proudly among the Tales of Vesperia players not buying their way through the game.

 

[Pas]

Interesting. So many people constantly whine about how much grinding goes into your average RPG, this kind of makes sense. If the combat in the Tales series' wasn't so darn fun I'd probably be quite interested. I wonder if it'll have a rare candy type effect though; that being that characters with levels but low experience are less strong?

Namco Bandai suck at DLC =/

 

[Ilex]

An example of micro-transactions gone terribly wrong.

WTF. So, the point is that you pay $60 for a game...then pay even more to play it less.

 

[Red Exodus]

I played both Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss and it was never hard to level up, getting money may have been difficult but unless you were trying to buy all the best items and avoided battles while doing so by the time you travel to which ever did or city you'd have enough to buy items for the characters you use.

The only commendable thing in this case of DLC is that it doesn't look like they're selling anything that you can't get from just playing the game.

 

[LP4Life666]

(With respect,) I couldn't disagree more, Exodus. I believe DLC is an asset to gaming for many reasons. Games like Rock Band have benefited greatly from downloadable content, and with Rock Band 2 on the horizon, it barely feels like the Rock Band is now a year old!

There are no games in existence that are completed only by DLC content. It simply adds to your gaming experience via a few add-ons. And in Rock Band's case, increases its' longevity ten-fold.

 

[Red Exodus]

(With respect,) I couldn't disagree more, Exodus. I believe DLC is an asset to gaming for many reasons. Games like Rock Band have benefited greatly from downloadable content, and with Rock Band 2 on the horizon, it barely feels like the Rock Band is now a year old!

There are no games in existence that are completed only by DLC content. It simply adds to your gaming experience via a few add-ons. And in Rock Band's case, increases its' longevity ten-fold.

DLC isn't always used like that, Harmonix may have added those extra songs later because they were out of time or thought that only a certain group of people might like certain songs so it'd be better of as DLC but other devs are abusing it heavily, most of the time the content they abusive devs put up doesn't even add much to the game, it's just there so you can empty your a wallet, like what happened in the link that Cashed posted.

Battlefield Heroes is supposed to make use of a micro-transaction system that will allow you to buy costumes and other items. I heard somewhere that the game is free but if that's not true it'd be a real kick in the teeth to have to pay for the game AND a bunch of costumes, weapons and maps.


I haven't read this article myself yet, but it appears TF2 DLC is coming to the consoles at last. For a price.

http://kotaku.com/5040417/team-fortress-2-updates-coming-to-xbox-360-later-this-year

 

[SuperRacoon]

...

Awe man, the video game industry is heading right back to the hell it was in at the start of the 80s. I wonder what's gonna be so pathetic in the coming years that it needs a whole land fill devoted to it?

 

[Johnthegalactic]

...

Awe man, the video game industry is heading right back to the hell it was in at the start of the 80s. I wonder what's gonna be so pathetic in the coming years that it needs a whole land fill devoted to it?

WiiMusic will have an entire landfill dedicated to it...

 

[Crimson King]

It honestly depends. I will never buy a character template, or stuff that doesn't add gameplay to the game, but people will. What you have to realize - THIS is the market. People LOVE to buy stupid ****, like costumes for their characters. The more people buy it; the more in demand it'll be. DLC/Downloadable games are the future of gaming. PSN and Steam prove this daily by having large, full-length games up for download like Half-Life 2 and Warhawk. The companies like MS and EA that milk DLC, make me rather annoyed because they are tapping into the dark spot that is Downloadable Content. When EA attempted to sell weapons in Battlefield Bad Company, and Nintendo tried to sell RACES in Life as King, there was a lot of flack for this because people argued it's critical to the game. I mean a race will have some attributes that others do not, which will hurt the progress of the game if you didn't buy one. Weapons in an online multiplayer shooter will critically change the landscape of the game. What was joked about, but scared to think about is games being sold as partially complete for a cheaper price then you have to buy the ending and such.

It's scary to think that one day, you could see:
"You have completed this portion of the game. For the next portion: Final Boss and Ending Movie, please head to the PSN/XBL/Wiiware store to purchase."

 

[Red Exodus]

It honestly depends. I will never buy a character template, or stuff that doesn't add gameplay to the game, but people will. What you have to realize - THIS is the market. People LOVE to buy stupid ****, like costumes for their characters. The more people buy it; the more in demand it'll be. DLC/Downloadable games are the future of gaming. PSN and Steam prove this daily by having large, full-length games up for download like Half-Life 2 and Warhawk.

I have no problem with downloadable games, I actually prefer downloadable games since the price of games locally is terrible for me. I'll miss having a CD and a box with box art, all of that stuff to look at and that new game smell but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

The companies like MS and EA that milk DLC, make me rather annoyed because they are tapping into the dark spot that is Downloadable Content. When EA attempted to sell weapons in Battlefield Bad Company, and Nintendo tried to sell RACES in Life as King, there was a lot of flack for this because people argued it's critical to the game. I mean a race will have some attributes that others do not, which will hurt the progress of the game if you didn't buy one. Weapons in an online multiplayer shooter will critically change the landscape of the game. What was joked about, but scared to think about is games being sold as partially complete for a cheaper price then you have to buy the ending and such.

It's scary to think that one day, you could see:
"You have completed this portion of the game. For the next portion: Final Boss and Ending Movie, please head to the PSN/XBL/Wiiware store to purchase."

This is more of what I was complaining about, I was probably too vague in my post. This is one of those things where it can be good but if it is abused it can be terrible and there's a blurred line between good DLC and bad DLC.

 

[Sad Panda323]

WiiMusic will have an entire landfill dedicated to it...

QFT.

Spoiler

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