well stone prisoner was free to everyone that bought the game new. And its only $15 for people that buy the game pre-owned. It adds a good hour or so of gameplay and a new character and storyline. Wardens keep is $7 and also adds another hour or so, some more history on the grey wardens and some epic items. so $21 for 3 hours of new content, new characters and new items? Considering that if you bought the game it's only $7 extra. The new DLC is priced at $5. I don't know where you got the 20 pound figure from. And the expansion Awakening is a whole new campaign with new areas and party members and story line. I personally dont mind the DLC concept these days, even bethesda got their act together with the DLC for fallout 3 offering new items and areas and so on, tho they did tend to charge quite a bit.
Yeah it's not just a new character, but not only the way that character reacts to the entire game like the other characters do in their own way but also other NPCs in the game have added dialogue and stuff. There's a massive amount there
warden's keep - 5.99 pounds and i cant find prices for the rest in euro's, and nothing is stopping you buying bioware points in dollars. I don't get where people are getting this 20 pound price from. Also if someone is buying the game second hand they often save a lot of money, even tho selling pre-owned games is against the EULA, its pretty much piracy, the seller makes money and the the devs don't. So the DLC is a way to try and get some of that pre-used money back.
that is not a DLC but a full fledged retail expansion: new campaign, new characters, new story, new locations, new monsters, etc... level cap is now 30, seeing as you start at level 17, that will involve a fair amount of playing to get there, minimum 15+ hours. MW2 was a 6 hour campaign. This isn't some 2 hour DLC, but pretty much an entirely new game. How much do game expansions usually cost? So can they justify 20 pounds on that, I think so.
by that logic every single game on steam is DLC. Cause its content that you can download... DLC in my opinion is something that adds an area or two, adds in some items and is around 1~2 hours in length... A 15+ hour expansion pack doesnt really qualify.
I'd pay for it if it was worth it. MW2 will have some coming up, they can kiss my lolly if they think im paying for that.
While I understand your points, sometimes developers can leave gamers with the impression that a game recently released suddenly gets DLC some 6-12 months later. In worse case scenerio's its stuff that should have been put in the game to begin with. I personally go back and forth on DLC, with badly produced games making me angry and great games getting my money without question. The bad games, I feel they should have spent more time developing, testing and fleshing out the original game to begin with. Great games deserve every penny. The DLC question leads into the current craze of developers throwing in addtional units, weapons and armor for pre-orders. I have the same mix of feelings over that as well.
I'm mixed with my DLC. GTA IV, Dragon Age, Halo 3 and Fallout 3 got my money very fast. Whereas I've never paid for DLC on the Guitar Hero games, Call of Duty or Oblivion. It really just depends how much I enjoy the original. For example, I spent 80+ hours on Dragon Age, will I buy another DLC or Expansion Pack? Absolutely. I didn't even complete Oblivion as I got so bored and never bought any add-ons to that. Similarly for FPS, I played a lot of Halo 2 but could never enjoy the CoD multiplayer the same so never bought add-ons for that. I like buying DLC that gives characters more options though, for example new classes and races in the Neverwinter games as well as a new campaign. Personally I don't see any problem with DLC, its my choice to buy or not and I've very rarely been disappointed with any I have bought. When you think about it a game is great value. Even the shortest games can give you around 10 hours or gameply with 30 hours probably being more average. Your favourite games can take upwards of 100hours of your life. I spend on average £30 per game and £10 on a DVD. I certainly get more than 3 times the enjoyment and time from a game than I do a film.
Bought the first DLC pack on sunday and really enjoyed it: fun story, plenty of humour in the quests (especially the story Marcus is telling at the start). Bought the 2nd last night (Underdome) which is more like the Horde mode in GOW2 - choice of 3 maps, take out 5 waves in each round complete 5 rounds to win the map. This is a lot harder than the normal game (enemies are mostly at the same level as my level 50 Hunter). This turns it into more of a multiplayer game than either the Zombie Island DLC or the main Borderlands game (both of which are perfectly playable in single player)
i dont know, if publishers ensured their dlc was of a higher quality than the original game and required registration of the cd key to download it off their servers/steam then i am all for it. when its **** like dr zeds ass hospital i dont think so tim.
Good points from both sides. However I'm from the olden days of PC gaming and being older and wiser I'm under the impression free extra content extends the life of a game. It also helps increase fanbase so more gamers buy it. Seriously, how many times have you seen gamers lose thier mind in forums when a developer releases free maps or weapons for a game. That excitment has spurred others to run out and buy the game especially if its a good one. I usually don't see people running for paid DLC. They first consider if they have the money to even buy it and also if its worth it. DLC IMHO does nothing more than kill a game quicker. Especially if it main drive is multiplayer. Paid for DLC divides the games community. Some buy it, some don't, some don't have the time to even find out about new DLC since they have real lives. They want to fire up the game and play in their spare time not research it online. So just give me free extra maps/content or give me a good ol expansion pack. An expansion pack makes it much easier to keep everyone on the same page.
I agree, back in the day when DLC wasn't so widespread, everytime a new map pack was released or even some content adding patches, the community would just love the developer.. It's sad to see how many developers don't grasp this, apparently the temporary cost doesn't outweight the long term gains to them. Anyone remember Warcraft 3 patches? New patches would add so many new units.
I try not pay for DLC unless I have to. I usually wait for DLC to be bundled with the game. Like Dragon age, There is the collectors version that is sold and it included Stone Prisoner, Soldier's Peak and a bunch of other goodies for $10 more than the regular version. Purchasing only Stone Prisoner and Soldier's Peak is $22. That decision was a no brainer. If you're lucky retailer offers sweeten the deal like steam offering 25% off making the DLC practically free. I'm not expecting but also wouldn't be surprised if Ostagar was bundled with DA:Awakening. @Draxin Then please explain RE5 DLC, personally that one cut deep since is the DL was measured in the kb, and I believe the number was 5 if my memory serves me right, meaning most likely Capcom went back and restricted a part of the game to sell as DLC, and what players were really paying for was an unlock.
