Weekend Open Forum: Do you buy DLC for your games?

Jos

Posts: 3,073   +97

Downloadable content has become a big part of the gaming industry. Some give it away for free to promote new game sales over the second hand market and piracy, and some use it as a way to further monetize their franchises.

Although that's all well and good when it brings fully realized new content that extends the life and gameplay hours of the original title, at times it feels like some developers deliberately leave stuff out of the game in order to sell it later. With new games already costing some $40-$60 it can get pretty expensive if you want the "full" experience.

Today we want to know what your take on DLC is: Do you think it's positive in the way that it allows developers to release AAA titles faster and add episodic content later? Do you regularly buy DLC, save it for specific major releases, or generally try to avoid it altogether? If you have purchased DLC lately, tell us about it, and if it was worth the money.

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Bought the first DLC for Black Ops (first time buying DLC), it wasn't worth it at all. 4 maps, 2 of which were pretty damn crap. So $15 for 2 ok maps, that hardly anyone else purchased, and being in Australia meant one or two online servers for the new maps.

Fast forward 2 months, very little players purchased the maps, no servers host the maps in Australia (overseas servers the ping is too high), andif they did the servers would be empty. $15 for DLC, no thanks. Maybe if they decreased it to $5 and more people purchased it, it would work.

Haven't purchased DLC since, seems that then next 3 DLC for Black Ops failed in Australia (first was First strike, then Escalation, Annihalation then the 4th starts with R). So thats $15 *4 = $60 which I could use to buy a brand new game such as Modern Warfare 3, Stronghold 3, Dead Island and still have cash left over. All my friends avoid DLC too unless it is part of the GOTY version. DLC would be good if it was reasonably priced or actually gave you large amounts of content.

Bring us back to the good ol days where mod tools/mapping tools were released with the game and not promised then released one year later where no one gives a crap and everyone has moved on.
 
I usually buy all available DLC for my favorite games. Mass Effect 2 and Borderlands has epic DLC! One or two of the Mass Effect 2 DLC packages was badly made compared to the rest of the game, but I'm not gonna let that ruin it for me. Super Street Fighter IV has some cool DLC as well. And I'd give my left nut for some more Resident Evil 5 content on the PC. This "console exclusive" crap is really, really getting on my nerves.
 
I have been buying DLCs, against my better judgement, for Civ V. Other than that, no, I usually wait for GOTY editions which have all the DLCs included.
 
Well of course, it depends on the game. But if I've finished a game and enjoyed it I'll certainly pick up DLC content when available. For example I have all the Civ 5, Mass Effect and Fallout 3/NV DLC offerings.
 
I did pay for the Bad Company 2 SPECACT kit to get earlier access to some of the weapons, but only when it was marked down 30% to $3.50. I still feel guilty about it.

It's difficult to imagine paying extra for map packs, when i was raised on games that had their own map/level design tools and there was a lot of user-generated content. And I especially disdain DLC that is released immediately after launch - it obviously was ready to go, and probably was pulled from the code just to try to grab a few extra bucks.
 
Guest said:
Bought the first DLC for Black Ops (first time buying DLC), it wasn't worth it at all. 4 maps, 2 of which were pretty damn crap. So $15 for 2 ok maps, that hardly anyone else purchased, and being in Australia meant one or two online servers for the new maps.

Fast forward 2 months, very little players purchased the maps, no servers host the maps in Australia (overseas servers the ping is too high), andif they did the servers would be empty. $15 for DLC, no thanks. Maybe if they decreased it to $5 and more people purchased it, it would work.

Haven't purchased DLC since, seems that then next 3 DLC for Black Ops failed in Australia (first was First strike, then Escalation, Annihalation then the 4th starts with R). So thats $15 *4 = $60 which I could use to buy a brand new game such as Modern Warfare 3, Stronghold 3, Dead Island and still have cash left over. All my friends avoid DLC too unless it is part of the GOTY version. DLC would be good if it was reasonably priced or actually gave you large amounts of content.

Bring us back to the good ol days where mod tools/mapping tools were released with the game and not promised then released one year later where no one gives a crap and everyone has moved on.

Well... you kind of <i>did</i> buy COD: Black Ops...
 
I try to avoid buying games that will/do have paid DLC altogether. Needless to say I don't buy many games anymore. Only I time I will buy a game that has DLC is if I can get the GOTY edition on steam during one of their epic sales.
 
I don't like paying for things that were taken out of the game to nickle and dime me.

See: Mass Effect 2, perfect example as they gave you incomplete armor sets when you purchase the game, then suddenly put 3-5 pieces up as a bundle and lo-and-behold, some of the pieces' styles match perfectly with the missing pieces from the sets.

See: Call of Duty Map Packs, 1/4 of the game price for 1/10 taken from older games and only a few new maps, which end up being mediocre because we all know they don't even try anymore? Why not. Perfect way to sucker people into ending up paying $100~ for a single game that gets a sequel every year.

See: Dragon Age, let's recycle locations and armor and tell our voice actors to say a few lines for 1 hour worth of gameplay! Hey, this works! Let's do the same thing with Dragon Age 2!
 
As much as I dislike DLC myself for the reason that if its exploited its against the consumers. However, if we think about it, developers have been working extra hard this previous generation with teams growing in the hundreds to make one single game. I think DLC helps keep them funded. (Although there's cases like Call of Duty in which they probably have enough money to run a country.)

For example, Naughty Dog, one of my favorite developers, I will gladly fork over $5-10 for DLC to help support them. They keep pumping out great games and they deserve it.

But if it's in cases in which like some have mentioned where parts of the game that was completed and taken out and made into DLC, it's a scam.

So when it's DLC done right, it's right. When it's done wrong, it's wrong. No other way to put it.
 
coming out of the pirate world .. i didn't even know what DLC was until i was introduced to steam!

before that i always knew of "expansions" ... but DLC was not in my vocabulary.
 
Just like any game that strikes the market, i download to play it and then buy it :\

Also... what about those "special" DLC's that some games use like those Dragon Age DLC's that you get from buying other corp related stuff/pre-order/Deluxe editions?
 
Generally I try not to. I'm still waiting for Ubisoft and EA to make DLC game ending's and you don't get an ending if you don't pay for it...Pure Greed..exactly what I expect from them at this point.
 
Not a fooking chance, pay for an incomplete game only to pay 10 to 20% again to get maybe an extra hour of game play (expansions are different they are like another 1/3 of the game).

I just wait for the complete edition to be released.
 
I prefer to wait until all DLCs are made then buy the whole game at once with all the bells and whistles and fixes.
 
I've never bought a DLC before, and I plan on buying as few as possibly can. It's also the reason I try to stick to games like Team Fortress 2 and Starcraft 2.
 
To me, it's not about them milking my wallet. I want more content and I'm willing to pay for that! Hell, I'd kill for more content for some of my games. It's not about the money, it's about the content!
 
Bought borderlands dlc on steam sale. Same with mw2. Didn't buy black ops anyway. Played free weekend and it sucked. Would have liked the spec ops dlc for mw2 if they had ever made it - that's the coop levels btw.

Goty editions otherwise. Bought mass effect 1/2 dlc on Xbox. I hate zero day dlc and the cod map packs are so overpriced to be insulting to anyone brought up with doom and quake and community content. Convinced myself it might be worth it at half price. Got another 3 or 4 hours put of mw2 with both packs for £10. Glad I didn't pay £20.
 
Oh yeah I got the spectat dlc for bc2. Nice having the weapons early and nice have an extra loadout per class. Got it on sale of course.
 
Most of the games I play have DLCs as part of the game patches so it's basically free content. Other DLCs add only multiplayer content which does not really interest me much. I guess if the developers come up with a really nice single player DLC, I'd be willing to pay for it. Price isn't the issue, it's the quality of the content that is important.
 
The worst part about being a gamer today is getting to pay to be a bata tester for most games, buy the game thats usually never finished, and when they fix the problem they add the rest of the maps and charge you more. Bulletstorm was a good example, you never really have any sort of boss fight and only 1 of the crappest online modes available with only a few maps. I was so pissed they wanted me to pay for dlc that should have been free I just uninstalled the damn thing.

Piracy will only get worse as game companies rip us off more and more,
 
Well at first when games started coming out on PSN and Steam with DLC I guess I bought bits. And if a game I already own is great and has DLC out that I think is a must...

But quite frankly as games are not worth their release date prices by any means, I find myself waiting for lower prices and sales. And usually by this time someone somewhere will of released an upcoming GOTY version with all DLC... so why would I pay for seperate DLC when I can wait it out and get not just the game at (for example playstation and xbox) a platinum or classic price, but I can get the game and the entire DLC for that... bargain. And you find that games, aren't as great as the hype 9 times out of 10.

Being a tight **** is win win imho :)
 
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