Escapists, weigh in on this.

[Cyrus Hanley]

Okay, here's a hypothetical situation. You buy a game and find out that it has locked content on it which can only be accessed by...

a) Pre-ordering a special/limited/collector's/whatever-you-want-to-call-it edition for X more money.
or b) Waiting a certain amount of time (Y weeks after release), after which the content is unlocked and becomes publicly available.

What is your reaction? Are you happy? Sad? Frustrated? Amused? Apathetic? Okay, hold that emotion.

Now, how would you feel if I said that said unlocked content was publicised as "free DLC"? Describe it.

Next, click on this link [http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5271091065/m/9551087168/p/1] and read the comments left by consumers.

How could this get any worse? Some (read: ALL) USB drives shipped with the collector's edition of Splinter Cell: Conviction were unreadable and thus the content on them (the crux of it being "collector's edition") couldn't be accessed. [http://www.geek.com/articles/games/faulty-usb-drives-means-splinter-cell-conviction-ce-now-only-69-99-20100412/] The solution? Knock a few bucks off the retail price and sell it with the faulty USB as a pseudo-raffle!

 

[Cyrus Hanley]

If it was publicized as free DLC i'd definitely be pissed.

I can't find any official sources from Ubisoft itself advertising it as free DLC but numerous gaming journalism web sites propagated it as such.

 

[Avaholic03]

Well, I've stopped buying games from Ubisoft after getting screwed with the PC version of From Dust, so I can't say I'd have that problem. Fool me once...

 

[Mr Thin]

I don't see how you could be pissed off about that USB thing. There was a fault with the drives, and instead of hanging customers out to dry, Ubisoft lowered the price, and promised to get them the content some other way. It was an honest mistake, and as the article says, simply results in the game being $10 cheaper.

And you can't say "what if the people don't have an internet connection to download the content that was supposed to be on the USB?" because when Conviction was released, it had an always-on DRM system. So anybody getting the Collectors Edition on release was guaranteed to have internet. I believe that's been removed since, I'm not sure.

 

[Blunderboy]

How about... Well, I just don't give a damn? Its a product, you buy it, you are not entitled to any of it, they can charge you however much they like.

This entire "DLC OMFG HATE HATE HATE" Craze is getting old.

And as for the content on the disk not being accessible to you... Your point? Actually read the EULA and you will realise that you are not buying the content, merely using it for an exchange of money. Christ, people quite literally sold their souls for games a while back (Joke like in an EULA just to sorta prove that people were not reading them).

So can we just drop the whole debate and talk about something that matters? Like kittens?

Well spoken sir. Your mind thievery has saved me taking the time to sum up my feelings.

 

[Cyrus Hanley]

How about... Well, I just don't give a damn? Its a product, you buy it, you are not entitled to any of it, they can charge you however much they like.

This entire "DLC OMFG HATE HATE HATE" Craze is getting old.

And as for the content on the disk not being accessible to you... Your point? Actually read the EULA and you will realise that you are not buying the content, merely using it for an exchange of money. Christ, people quite literally sold their souls for games a while back (Joke like in an EULA just to sorta prove that people were not reading them).

So can we just drop the whole debate and talk about something that matters? Like kittens?

Wow, you didn't read a damn thing, did you?

It's unlockable (or, rather, locked) content that's under scrutiny.

Content can't be used if it can't be accessed and EULAs are so flimsy that are enforced and dismissed in courts of law.

Why are you bringing up EULAs anyway?

If you want to talk about kittens, go search for topics about kittens instead of derailing topics about locked content.

 

[dfphetteplace]

How about... Well, I just don't give a damn? Its a product, you buy it, you are not entitled to any of it, they can charge you however much they like.

This entire "DLC OMFG HATE HATE HATE" Craze is getting old.

Wait, if I bought it, how am I not entitled to the product? Screwing the customer over is ok then?

 

[Whateveralot]

If you actually care for what the game content is, you know what you're paying for.

DLC / ULC (it doesn't matter how you call it, it's the same principle; you pay extra for more content) is the same thing, you either buy it or you don't, based on the actual content.

The fact that there's a difference between ULC or DLC doesn't matter for the context of this discusson. There's no point in making this an argument against DLC / ULC as a whole.

TL;DR:
Stop whining and making yourself look so stupid.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

I only buy old games so that i don't have to deal with BS like that

 

[Sectan]

DLC extras are ok. You're rewarding someone for preordering and such. When you get the codes that essentially lock a used game player out of something essential, that's when it's wrong.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

If I've done my research on the game, then it really shouldn't come as a shock. If I haven't done my research on the game, buy it, and then I find out that some of the content is locked until a certain date, well then it's my own damn fault.

However if I have done my research, and the company actually lied or "neglected to mention" that some of the content advertised as "free" would be locked until a later date, damn straight I would be pissed. Maybe even pissed enough to return the game.