Why DLC sucks

Now I know the title of this is going to immediately ruffle some feathers. I am also aware that most of those feathers will be of NEW gamers. When I say new I mean any gamer who started his/her career with the PS3 and Xbox 360. You see Downloadable Content didn’t rear its ugly head regularly until the aforementioned gaming machine made their debuts. Downloadable Content (DLC) was in theory an extra add on to an existing game to expand the life and enjoyment of that game. Initial thought of as an aftermarket tool to breathe life into aging games. It was also thought of to extend the enjoyment of a particular game, or improve those games dynamic. If you think about things that way DLC should be a God send to the gaming community. Instead the industry has used this outlet to turn things into a money making scrape goat. Don’t believe me? Just watch.

DLC made its debut in later PS2 and Xbox games. When a game was thought to be used up developers came up with a great idea to extend the life of their product and it worked well at first. Roster updates for Madden, extra stages and features in Socom, and the like were brilliant in their endeavors. The real beauty of it was no one was being charged for these add-ons. As time when on it became clear that things were not always going to be this way. Let’s turn back the clock and examine things for a minute or two. DLC is a more complex version of what gamers use to call: Easter eggs, hidden content, and cheat codes. Think about it long and hard for a second. If you’ve been gaming since the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) days then it’s quite clear to you. When you needed help in Contra you typed in the now infamous Konami code and “BAM!” 30 lives were at your disposal to help you. Secret levels and devices have always adorned Final Fantasy games. There were tons of codes and secrets for Grand Theft Auto 3 that would change how the populace of the game acted. There were codes that gave you new and rare cars. There were also codes that helped you with health and other power ups. We won’t even go into PC MODS which gave you numerous manipulations of your games. So with this in place the idea of DLC was great because you could go above and beyond what was already being offered to improve a game vastly. Who wouldn’t want extra characters, different weapon sets, or stages that you previously didn’t have access to?

Well when the Xbox 360 and PS3 hit their prime the idea of using DLC as a financial weapon for financial gain began to launch. Extra skins for characters, multiplayer stages, and add on content were used first as a testing ground to see if you the gamer would purchase them. The next step was to use the previously mentioned material to have you RESERVE games in advance. This was an effort to make the game in question more desirable to you. “Hey if you reserve Call of Duty you can get this exclusive MAP pack earlier!” For a while this worked like gang busters and to the delight of publishers raked in big bucks. Now DLC is planned out way ahead of time and presented to you in the form of a SEASON PASS (which I will discuss in a later BLOG). You see publishers have now conditioned gamers to believe they have to have this material and if you have to have it….why not get it at a discount rate? This is the beauty of the season pass. Who wants to buy one map for $7.99 when they can get all 10 for $19.99? Heck of a deal am I right? You see that is the fallacy of this theory. Truth is you already have spent you’re hard earned cash on the game which retails normally at $59.99. Now you can either buy separate levels or gears (which are already in game) for $7.99 which if you buy the 10 amount to roughly $80.00. The publishers aren’t fools though which is why they sale you a season pass for a seemingly discounted rate or $19.99. This makes it appear to be an irresistible deal that you can’t pass up when in actuality they had already bet on you buying the $20 set and not the separate levels. It’s a brilliant marketing and sales tactics if you are the publisher, but you are not them. So to sum it up the gamer has now spent $80.00 (assuming you didn’t buy everything separate) for one game. The story of re-packaged Game of the Year Editions (GOTY) is REALLY a slap in the face as companies not only show you it was all inclusive from the start, but now they discount the whole thing after the fact.

DLC these days are pre planned (quite obviously) and packaged to gamers as a “FAVOR” instead of what it really is. A money making scheme by the publisher. What is really happening is that the gamer is purchasing a deliberately unfinished product. Once you buy DLC (code to unlock) the already in game features you will now have the finished vision of what the company really planned. So are you starting to see why “DLC is sucks?” Down loadable content these days is a money making plot. A device by which to suck up you the consumers hard earned dollars. This isn’t to say there aren’t any worthwhile DLC out there. Games such as Tekken Tag Tournament 2 gave you extra time released characters at no cost. Little Big Planet had tons of shared content from online creators. For the most part DLC has become the evil King Koopa and your money is princess Peach. Now you will have to play Mario in order to rescue your beloved Princess (USD) back from the evil clutches of Bowser (played by EA or Activision take your pick) in order to live happily ever after. In short you can wise up and make informed decisions or you can just keep watching your princess get kidnapped. Either way I hope you see now “Why DLC suck!”. Until next time if you can’t be GOOD be GOOD at it. PEACE!