Hello there ladies and gentlemen and other.
This is just a random thought I had about DLC. To be more specific, I am referring to the random bits of cosmetic DLC that seems to appear more and more often in recent(ish) games. Examples I can think of would be unlocking hairstyles in Dragon's Dogma, the skin packs in the recent Transformers game, and the non-mission DLC from Saint's Row 3. Personally, a majority of the time I usually find it annoying that such small aspects of that seem as though they could have easily been put in at launch or added in an update of sorts are instead being sold for DLC.
The thought I had was that in order to sort of engender good will while having these DLC would be to offer the opportunity to acquire these cosmetic items by doing challenges in-game. The challenges would probably be fairly difficult and/or time-consuming in order to encourage simply buying the DLC content, but the option would be there nonetheless for those would rather spend more time with the game than pay more money. I suppose the idea is based on the basis of a good free-to-play business model.
So that was my random thought. How do you feel about it? Do you think that this could be a viable option for companies, or would they laugh at the very idea of offering what could be paid content for free? Are there any examples of this already being implemented in games? Can you think of another alternative method of acquiring this type of DLC?
After some thought one of problems I found with the thought would be the possibility technical issues regarding implementing such a system, assuming that the DLC really is brand new content made post-launch.
Just a random thought I had.
P.S I also just thought about the idea of what Bioware/EA did with Dragon Age 2 and that Facebook game they made. You could get ?DLC? equipment for Dragon Age 2 by playing the Facebook game. I feel like if they did this, but rather than offer DLC exclusive for that game they could offer it as an alternative to buying some of the smaller cosmetic DLC mentioned above.
I don?t know. I?m just thinking about possible alternative methods to getting DLC.
This is just a random thought I had about DLC. To be more specific, I am referring to the random bits of cosmetic DLC that seems to appear more and more often in recent(ish) games. Examples I can think of would be unlocking hairstyles in Dragon's Dogma, the skin packs in the recent Transformers game, and the non-mission DLC from Saint's Row 3. Personally, a majority of the time I usually find it annoying that such small aspects of that seem as though they could have easily been put in at launch or added in an update of sorts are instead being sold for DLC.
The thought I had was that in order to sort of engender good will while having these DLC would be to offer the opportunity to acquire these cosmetic items by doing challenges in-game. The challenges would probably be fairly difficult and/or time-consuming in order to encourage simply buying the DLC content, but the option would be there nonetheless for those would rather spend more time with the game than pay more money. I suppose the idea is based on the basis of a good free-to-play business model.
So that was my random thought. How do you feel about it? Do you think that this could be a viable option for companies, or would they laugh at the very idea of offering what could be paid content for free? Are there any examples of this already being implemented in games? Can you think of another alternative method of acquiring this type of DLC?
After some thought one of problems I found with the thought would be the possibility technical issues regarding implementing such a system, assuming that the DLC really is brand new content made post-launch.
Just a random thought I had.
P.S I also just thought about the idea of what Bioware/EA did with Dragon Age 2 and that Facebook game they made. You could get ?DLC? equipment for Dragon Age 2 by playing the Facebook game. I feel like if they did this, but rather than offer DLC exclusive for that game they could offer it as an alternative to buying some of the smaller cosmetic DLC mentioned above.
I don?t know. I?m just thinking about possible alternative methods to getting DLC.
