In the more modern era of gaming, DLC's(Downloadable Content)have been becoming more and more normal. Some companies even seem to rely on this model for games; rather than releasing a game at once, they release portions of the game, and the player has to buy each portion separately.
Some consider this a way to make more money by making customers pay multiple times for one game, as opposed to releasing a game in its entirety and charging one price, as has been the norm since the beginning of gaming; others consider a DLC a way to get a part of a game earlier, and instead of having to wait, they get to play that portion and then wait till the next part comes out, so instead of having to wait a year or more, they get to play the game a lot sooner, just in pieces.
The Great DLC Controversy is a good article which explains some of what has been going on in the gaming world as far as DLC's are concerned. It goes through and names arguments by gamers, such as, "if it is available on release day, then it should be in the game." It also talks about one disc DLC, which is when a company releases a game on a disc, but the gamer has to purchase "content codes" to unlock content already on the disc. It even addresses Microtransactions, which could be talked about in another post almost; this practice is when there is a game(think of facebook games), and players can either play and upgrade their characters in a game, or they can purchase upgrades. What this does, is make it so that people who have been playing a game for even a year or so, can be outmatched by someone who's only been playing for a week, just because that other person bought a bunch of upgrades with real world money.
I've had this happen before. I played Marvel: Avengers Alliance on Facebook, and had my account for about a year or year and a half. I built up my characters without buying anything with real world money. I worked hard and upgraded, but no matter how much I would do that, or even if I were on a higher level, I could have a level 63 character, and go up against someone who had a level 12 character, and they'd easily beat me if they were just buying upgrades with real world money. What this does, is it takes away the integrity of playing the game, so that it's no longer about playing, but buying. It essentially ruins a game for anyone who wants to actually play it have real competition, but I digress.
The point with all this, is that the gaming industry, while it has always revolved around making money, is now very exclusively revolving around making a profit at the expense of customers and the games. It's why we don't have larger games coming out as often, or games that are outside of the norm quite as often; they're too risky, and are not worth it financially to the companies who put them out. That's why most first person shooters feel so similar, and why so many games coming out feel like they're another version of Halo, Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, or something we're all familiar with. Familiarity means safety, and safety guarantees a profit. Can a DLC have a place that is good and helpful for gamers? Yes. If a company wants to test out a new game and gauge its audience, that's when a DLC is perfect, for when they haven't developed the full game, but would like to see what their customers think. It opens them up for constructive criticism so that they can improve their game, and in the long run make more money. It lets them take a risk as well. That is not how most DLC's are used though, and they probably won't be used that way for the most part, not anytime soon.
Until people actually have enough and stop buying(which probably won't ever happen), companies like EA have no reason to improve and will just continue to ignore complaints because they'll be rolling in the money of those who are complaining.
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