Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[RAM]

Only if I get pickles from someone else. I mean, sure, I could try to figure out how to make my own pickles, but that would be difficult, and cheese, eww, I don't even want to know...

[Rolan7]

I think finding a rotting pickle is worse than a DVD having slightly less wasted space on it
Though that only applies to on-DISC DLC.  For digital distribution stuff, when they make you download and store all the pickles, that's more understandable.

And the second paragraph just seems like a criticism up people discussing things they like, and that maybe encouraging people to buy said things.  Infinitely superior to advertisements, in my opinion.  As for feeling like DLC content should be in the base game, I think it's hard to gauge that fairly in most cases.  It's not like games are priced precisely, they mostly lock to $60 (for AAA games) regardless of how expensive they were to make.

I sure do love pickles

Only if I get pickles from someone else. I mean, sure, I could try to figure out how to make my own pickles, but that would be difficult, and cheese, eww, I don't even want to know...

This really is the winning strategy, though.  I mostly play open-source games, where the pickles are free if you pick them yourself   And you can... share your pickles...  and maybe even get complimented on your large and tasty pickles?  okay i'm done

[Aklyon]

It feels like the thread has gone backwards in time. Back to when there was long confusing arguments over bits of news because there weren't any gameplay videos yet.

[Egan_BW]

Now we have too much gameplay and have regressed.

[RAM]

I think finding a rotting pickle is worse than a DVD having slightly less wasted space on it

Nope, sorry, metaphors are never wrong. Xcom2 is, in truth, literally a sandwich. Put the disk in the microwave for 20 seconds and poof, tasty new sandwich through the power of programming. If you pay extra there will even be at least one pickle in it!

P.S.
 Never, Ever, Under Any Circumstances, Should Anyone, Ever, Take Any Advice, At All, From the internet, As To What They Should Put Into A Microwave...

[Trapezohedron]

Sonlirain's pickle explanation is actually quite apt.

Suppose McDonalds offers you a cheeseburger you once knew to have had a horrible pickle in the middle. Every burger comes with that pickle. But, you don't get to keep the pickle without paying an additional .25$, even if said pickle should come woth the burger as advertised, where the cost of the pickle is already considered in the product.

The scummy use of DLC allows game developers to avoid the dreaded 60$, which understandably is pretty damned low for AAA devs who factor in that there's a lot of employees in the company to pay for, with humongous marketing costs in order to saturate the market with information about their product.

But in no way is the above a morally sound justification for the recent practices concerning Day 1 In-CD Content.

[puke]

Gawddamm youse firaxis, get yer pickles outta my snektits!

(okay, I'm done)

[ndkid]

I so don't understand the idea that there's a moral wrong involved in creating multiple price points for a product that I want to ask someone to rephrase/sum up the argument, but I fear that doing so will be construed as trolling.

[Rolan7]

I so don't understand the idea that there's a moral wrong involved in creating multiple price points for a product

Jeez this sums up my position so concisely.

As best I understand it though, people feel that it's wrong for a company to intentionally "gimp" their product and then sell you the missing pieces.  Because the "real" price becomes $60+DLC, yet they misleadingly market the game as still being $60.

Personally I don't see that as morally wrong.  Maybe misleading to uninformed consumers, but it allows greater choice.  Potentially exceeding a $60 price point isn't morally wrong.  Something to consider when making a purchasing decision, though?  Absolutely!!

There's also a particular stigma against paid content being included on the disc itself which completely baffles me, unfortunately.  No amount of juicy pickles has helped me understand the objection.

[puke]

Jeez this sums up my position so concisely.

I think there are two things at play:

one, people who used to buy games on floppies and CD remember before DLC was a thing.  Suddenly every game publisher jumped on this band wagon, and it ballooned into what was perceived as a cash grab -- especially with the rapid evolution of things like "day-one-DLC".  And rightly so, it *is* a cash grab.  but... is there anything wrong with that?   maybe not.

two, people of less means are going to resent not being able to have something they want.  Somehow, this zero-day-P2W-whatever is failing to provide emotional support for them.  If it was a subsequently released expansion, they could feel like they bought and played the base game and were happy.  But, since firaxis is rubbing its pickle in their face on day-one, they are feeling like they cant afford the "full" game.

I think the lesson to take back to one's marketing team is to be careful how planned expansions are advertised.  On the one hand, you want to generate hype and faith that the product is going to be further supported and enhanced.  On the other hand, you don't want to alienate people.  It's a tricky balancing act.

I, for one (for three?), fully support whatever crazy marketing scams and pay structures people can cook up.  Good on 'em.

I do, however, find this game's art direction to be re-pickle-ulous.

[Rolan7]

Yeah that's true, perceptions are important when selling.  Even if it's fair, it needs to feel fair.
Though is there actual day 1 p2w dlc in XCOM2?  I thought the new class was but that's wrong, right, it's getting developed later?  (Which I guess feels better to people)

[Aklyon]

Theres a cosmetic thingie.

[MarcAFK]

Uh, well really when you think about it there's always been that kind of DLC, you know, old games where you only bought the first levels and either had to be mailed the rest after paying or maybe you were just given a password to unlock levels that were already on the disk.
Shareware it was called, though generally that stuff was distributed free and the 'DLC' was essentially paying for the game.

[Graknorke]

Shareware is just a demo/taster. It doesn't pretend to be a full game.

[Teneb]

There's also a particular stigma against paid content being included on the disc itself which completely baffles me, unfortunately.  No amount of juicy pickles has helped me understand the objection.

To clarify on the on-disc DLC, people don't like it because it is literally ready before release. Now, for cosmetic stuff it doesn't really matter (art teams tend to be idle during the later stages of development, so might as well put them to work), but for actual gameplay content there is no excuse. Sometimes, it is even worse like in pre-DA:I bioware games, specifically Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3, that had full companions and storylines relevant to the overall plot of the game done before release yet locked behind an additional fee.

To use a less pickly analogy, games with (not cosmetic) day 1 DLC is like you buying a painting... except you can't see a section of it unless you pay extra or bought it before it was even ready (and when you barely knew what it'd look like).

The painting is of snektits, of course, since we have to remain relevant to the overall topic of XCOM2.

FAKEEDIT: shareware stuff also used to have said demo/teaser levels be free.