DLC for Dummies

[fundayz]

It's cosmetic items behind a wall of code you have to pay to remove, and it doesn't make me feel that great about the developers who are responsible for that decision.

If you couldn't obtain these items in any way except paying for them then you would have a point, but you can remove that "wall" by just playing the game as well. The DLC just allows you to circumvent the required achievement/trophies to unlock said items.

Every sort of day-one DLC, is stupid. Games are expensive as it is, asking more money just shows that the current state of gaming is unproductive and the publishers are greedy. And yes, Valve is a full-blown publisher, not a small indie developing house like people want to believe.

Damn them companies and their money making right? Who are they to FORCE us to buy their game and FORCE us to buy their DLC?

Oh wait...

Seriously grow up. Game developers don't owe you squat and if they wanna charge you 10 bucks for a digital hat they can. If you feel it's a rip off then act like a regular person and just don't buy their product instead of whining like an entitled 10 year old.

Only company that makes good DLC is Rockstar which fails every one of your 4 bullet points. At least the huge publishers give you something worth your dollars, not just skins that we used to get for free off places like fileplanet or by beating the game.

You do realize that you can unlock the majority of DLC-bought items through gameplay as well right?

 

[tehroc]

You do realize that you can unlock the majority of DLC-bought items through gameplay as well right?

You do realize this thread isn't about Portal 2.

 

[beema]

Yeah the backlash against Portal has to be one of the stupidest things I've EVER seen in the gaming community. Did you happen to check out the Steam forums, Shamus? Within hours of the game's release, there were 30+ PAGES, not threads but pages of threads, of bullshit. Some of the threads were "legit" (people asking stupid questions or being stuck), but many of them were straight up bitching. I feel like Valve fans in general are bitchy little shits more than others for some reason, despite the fact that Valve treats gamers better than any other developer/publisher in the history of time.

About the game-length stuff:

The game amounts to a linear series of room-escape puzzles, with the co-op and single player campaigns both functioning in the exact same way. Because of this, Portal 2 has absolutely zero replay value (since solving the same puzzle twice isn?t much fun).

Sadly, this is a huge detractor from the multiplayer. Generally multiplayer aspects of a game can greatly increase its longevity and have you coming back to play it again and again. But since it is just co-op through several puzzles that never change, if you go through it one time with a friend, there is no incentive to ever play again.

This kind of sucks for anyone who has friends who already played through the co-op, but they themselves have not yet played it, as they will be hard pressed to find a buddy to go through it with. After playing through it once, the magic is gone.

This is especially evident when surveying my Steam friends list for the past week. On the first 2 days of release, everyone on it was playing Portal 2, and all of them blew through the game (both campaigns) in one or two sittings. Now, only a few more days since it released, they have already moved on to other games.

It?s for these reasons that selling it as its own entity and fully priced $60 game feels strange, and perhaps wrong, and my guess as to why people are bitching about it being a ripoff despite the game itself being very good.

nershe Horible

 

[fundayz]

You do realize that you can unlock the majority of DLC-bought items through gameplay as well right?

You do realize this thread isn't about Portal 2.

You do realize you were talking about Portal 2 right?

"At least the huge publishers give you something worth your dollars, not just skins that we used to get for free off places like fileplanet or by beating the game"

Sounds an awful lot like you are referring to Portal 2 and games like it that sell vanity items...

 

[Frozengale]

DLC haters, please oh please oh please start with Bioware. Their DLC is getting on my nerves. Ever since someone like Shale was DLC I've weeped about DLC. DLC is for putting in new stories and new ideas into a game after it's been published. It's for putting in those final touches of a game the the publisher didn't allow you time to do. It's not meant to take holes out of a game and then sell them back to you.

That being said I have no problem with Portal 2 Day one DLC. It's purely aesthetic. I for one LOVE aesthetics. A game where I can customize my character and make them look awesome is something that I can't get enough of. But I mean I know that extra aesthetics don't really have any hold on how good a game is. Portal 2 shouldn't suffer for a few extra aesthetics that you have to buy.

You do realize Shale was free right? So was the Cerberus network fluff like Zaieed and Firewalker for Mass Effect 2. So were the map updates for Bad Company 2. None of which were included on the disc.

Nope Shale expansion is 15 bucks if you didn't have a promotional code. I had to pay for it, my dad had to pay for it, my friend had to pay for it. Instead of just putting it in the game like normal they screw over some of their player base and make us pay 15 bucks for it. And then of course Wardens Keep was 7 bucks. Seriously? That's the only way I can store half the crap that you guys through on me and I'm going to have to pay 7 bucks for it?

 

[Slangeveld]

"Reads article"

Amen!

No seriously, I have seen some of the replies and I couldn't believe it. People are actually complaining about something just so they are, and they don't even realise it. D:

 

[unacomn]

Clap Clap Clap Clap

It still works.

Good read, good point. It also reinforces the age old notion that Metacritic should be set on fire and beaten with a stick.

 

[Dana22]

Blizzard is doing DLC the right way, and even better. A lot of the income they get from the DLC (vanity pets/mounts) go to charity. How awesome is that?

Thats very bad example, since that was a very money-grubbing move. If you do charity, you give 100% of income, like say Riot Games did (League of Legends).

 

[JET1971]

excelent article Shamus, as usual. I myself have an issue with the whole DLC being paid for unsless its like HL2 ep1 and ep2. kinda against what you were saying it should be multplayer only. HL2 episodes were what DLC shouldve been from the start and nothing more. continuation to the story. another part that DLC should be if not continuation is added areas to explore in the game world. one or the other is good for adding new content thats not someting that affects the SP as far as story, or plot goes. HL2 again and imagine "Lambda Locator X2" where theres double the lambda locations and many other new hidden places to explore.thats 2 good uses for DLC and 1 other could be alternative skins, different weapons, vehicles, and mini games added to the whole SP.

things for online play DLC that cause more problems are DLC gametypes, new weapons/tools, new abilities, and new maps. new maps and gametypes go together with the same problem they cause, and thats non DLC players will start getting kicked from servers. servers will get the new maps and gametypes added into the rotation so you join a server with some friends, half the friends have the DLC and half do not. they play a couple of the stock maps and the server rolls to a DLC one. half the friends just got kicked from the server. been there done that myself, i was pissed that i could no longer play with my friends unless i bought DLC i didnt want or flat out couldnt afford.

new weapons/tools, and abilities go together for problems. and the problem is balance. DLC weapons are almost always better than the stock ones or they wouldnt sell. advantage using them. new tools helps you get things done or locate enemies faster. clear advantage. adding new abilities will ofcourse give you another advantage. and we all know how well balanced they make character classes when they ship games... as in not very well. giving advantages to DLC players makes the game unfair to non DLC.

so DLC should be single player only to enhance whats there but not change plot story and expansion packs only for multiplayer such as BFBC2 added the vietnam expansion as DLC.

 

[Johnmw]

Spoiler

Good sir, you missed a critical part of my post:

'...poor attempt at trolling on my part...'

And if the smiley indicates anything further, it's that I was kidding.

Some people don't deserve Valve.

In my opinion, Valve should be very happy with the whole fiasco. The only 'flaw' people are bitching about is not integral to the game itself, so they I guess they pretty much made a flawless game, if you know I mean. ^_-

Good Sir/Madame/anyotherthing, I stand humbled and corrected, not that it's an excuse but, I misread your post.

 

[restoshammyman]

If you're on a crusade against DLC, start with EA. Start with BioWare. Start with Blizzard.

Wait wait. "Start with Blizzard"? The only thing they've offered for any of their games that could be considered DLC is vanity pets and mounts, which fall under the same category as the Portal 2 DLC. What DLC did Blizzard put out that broke one of the rules of what DLC shouldn't do?

Otherwise I agree with your article, 100%. As I stated on the Portal 2 forum though, if people didn't have the purchasable DLC items to cry about, they'd have found something else to throw a fit over. Some people are simply happy only when they're complaining.

You said everything I wanted to say. I totally agree. Blizzard is doing DLC the right way, and even better. A lot of the income they get from the DLC (vanity pets/mounts) go to charity. How awesome is that?

Also, Sgt. Sykes is, as defined in this article, an idiot. Don't listen to him.

most of the pets are not for charity. only the moonkin and the panderan was for charity.

but yea. you dont want it dont buy it. has no effect on the game.

 

[Kimozabi]

I can't agree with this article more. I have completed and loved every aspect of the game and I didn't even know of all this extra DLC, until I saw the ever-useless user reviews-seciton on Metacritic.

The whiners obviousle become offended over day-1 DLC in any form, even as non-essential as in Portal 2. Let them complain and just stick to reviews from professional critics, which is all Metacritic should ever be used for.

 

[sunpop]

This is why I love tripwire too they sell dlc skin packs for killing floor but they overhauled the entire game for free making it look and work better and add new items and maps (some user created) all the time and don't charge anything. The only thing they charge for is new character skins which is perfectly reasonable. Hell I bought one for a dollar because I wanted to be a British palace guard.

 

[d3nni5lor3nz]

a very good comment about the 0 score trolls

im not a fanboy but after being around chapter 8 of portal 2 so far i am wondering where the hell the short playtime or the lazy level design is. as far as i can tell portal 2 has very very good level (and overall) design, which makes me wonder how many little shits there are out there who have an irrational hate for a game that is by no stretch of the word bad in any way.

in one 0 score review it sayd that many of the serious critics were sure to give portal 2 a 100 before it was released, which is ironic, because im almost 100% sure that way more than half the people who gave it 0 scores pirated or not played the game.
i dont know how far this is ture but i will assume that many or at least some were most likely going to give it a high score anyway and now that it is a very good game that made it have so many perfect scores, that, frankly are not undeserved.
my actual objection here is that this is not a review. its just a hater hatin' on a game for the sake of hating.

so i guess the conclusion is that trolls are narrow minded morons.

of course theyd never admit that.


one question as one who isnt really into blizzard games: where did they handle dlc wrong?
the wow expansions? if so, does that even qualify as dlc? or something i dont know about?

seriously i dont really play blizzard games.

oh yeah: i played coop portal 2 on splitscreen first and then startet the singleplayer and did not notice the dlc till i read about it. and i still had (and have) fun.

 

[fundayz]

r maybe you should grow up and stop defending companies that don't care about you.

Seriously, what's the problem of Valve fans? Some people would defend Valve (or some other company of their choice) if they'd shit on their head and charge them for it.

If any of my favorite companies does something like this, not only I will NOT BUY that stuff but I'll also ***** about that behavior as much as I want.

I'm really looking forward other comments from other stupid people who will never ever ever understand that expressing own opinion is as much a human right as is 'not purchasing shit'.

So disagreeing with you is being a Valve fanboy now? If anything I agree with you, Valve IS squeezing money out of their game, I just don't pretend it is a big deal like you do.

The whole purpose of a company, even videogame developing companies, is to make profits so I don't understand how you are surprised when a company tries to do so.

So go ahead and express your opinion as much as you want, it still doesn't change the fact that the impact of Portal 2's DLC on the customer is almost non-existent.

 

[Jagji56]

If you're on a crusade against DLC, start with EA. Start with BioWare. Start with Blizzard.

Wait wait. "Start with Blizzard"? The only thing they've offered for any of their games that could be considered DLC is vanity pets and mounts, which fall under the same category as the Portal 2 DLC. What DLC did Blizzard put out that broke one of the rules of what DLC shouldn't do?

Otherwise I agree with your article, 100%. As I stated on the Portal 2 forum though, if people didn't have the purchasable DLC items to cry about, they'd have found something else to throw a fit over. Some people are simply happy only when they're complaining.

You said everything I wanted to say. I totally agree. Blizzard is doing DLC the right way, and even better. A lot of the income they get from the DLC (vanity pets/mounts) go to charity. How awesome is that?

Also, Sgt. Sykes is, as defined in this article, an idiot. Don't listen to him.

$25USD for a mount is not the right way to do DLC. All it proves is how dumb people can be spending there money.

 

[ParkourMcGhee]

Heh, didn't know they bombed it. But yeah, kinda pathetic. Especially taking ANY DLC in to account from xbox live.

I completed single player in 5ish hours, and an extra 7 maybe for the co-op, and thought it was great . I thoroughly enjoyed the game.

If I could change one thing, it would be to give an extra tiny item or whatever for getting 100% achievements, but that's a small gripe compared to the awesomeness of the game overall.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Valve is the closest that we can get to a "caring company", jet people rage and trash talk more about Valve then EA and Activision who are Satan it self.

So many updates... jet so much hate.

This just shows that humans are imbeciles, fucking selfish imbeciles. If you're good to them, they hate you, if you robe them, they will LOVE you.

Portal 2 is a freaking good game and even if you don't like such games, you will agree that it was released as a finished, polished, well designed game. Not some half done crap like CoD BO. Jet there is more hate for Portal 2 then for CoD BO.

Those DLC's that people hate are those things that give the community free updates even years after the game release.

I would like to include DotA's and Minecraft's community. Few of the worst communities on the internet. IceFrog updates DotA on a regular bases, does his best to balance the game out, does his best to keep the map interesting and adds innovative and creative content, jet on playdota.com people ***** about him and DotA a lot. Why not this, why not that, I won't play anymore, I hate Ice..... At least the mods do their jobs well.

Same goes for Notch. Keeps Minecraft interesting, gave the game almost for free, jet people ***** how update x.xx destroyed minecraft. And so on with every update.

I have a feeling that you have to abuse your player base so that they start loving you when you request 'just' 15$ for few maps. Hey, additional 15$ for few maps is still better then additional 0$ for a full GREAT game, right?

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

I really wish I read this before I decided to post a hate thread on the DLC. Looking back on it now, I feel like a total ass for doing so.

 

[Darkauthor81]

I HATED in the first Dragon Age game how they added a DLC quest giver right in your main camp. Standing there reminding you to buy crap.

That was low.