Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 publisher Paradox have said they're "making adjustments ahead of launch" in response to criticism of day-one DLC clans.
I remember talking about how greedy Paradox is on Reddit a couple years ago (before Spez went full mask-off), and you’d think I personally slapped every one of those basement-dweller’s moms. I have never in my life seen a general gaming community go so hard to bat in defense of $1000 of DLC comprised largely of character packs, and I hope to never see it again
There was a time I was okay with their DLC policy. It kept their games fresh for years for very reasonable prices, assuming you bought them as they came out or waited for deep discounted sales.
But then they got greedy. They raised prices, the quality fell through the floor and games got worse instead of better, and they kept trying to sell less and less for more while clearly cutting corners that should never be cut. It’s disappointing how far they’ve fallen. I hope someday they can recover their old magic, but I don’t expect that. Enshittification comes for everything under capitalism eventually.
The only time where extra characters as DLC could be considered okay is fighting gameS imo. Even then though, it shouldn’t be locking OP characters behind pay walls; they should all more or less be equal in power but play differently.
I think it’s fine in any type of game…as long as they’re actually not developed in time to be included in the original release. The closest thing in games that I play is civs in RTS games. A civ in an RTS is basically a “character” in a fighting game. New characters in a MOBA would probably be the same. And turn-based strategy civs.
These all require extra dev time to implement new mechanical features. Extra balance work to make sure they’re well-balanced (both on release, and later with future balance patches). Extra design work to make sure they look good and unique. It’s completely reasonable to charge for them. Just not if they’re there, ready to go, day one.
I remember talking about how greedy Paradox is on Reddit a couple years ago (before Spez went full mask-off), and you’d think I personally slapped every one of those basement-dweller’s moms. I have never in my life seen a general gaming community go so hard to bat in defense of $1000 of DLC comprised largely of character packs, and I hope to never see it again
There was a time I was okay with their DLC policy. It kept their games fresh for years for very reasonable prices, assuming you bought them as they came out or waited for deep discounted sales.
But then they got greedy. They raised prices, the quality fell through the floor and games got worse instead of better, and they kept trying to sell less and less for more while clearly cutting corners that should never be cut. It’s disappointing how far they’ve fallen. I hope someday they can recover their old magic, but I don’t expect that. Enshittification comes for everything under capitalism eventually.
The only time where extra characters as DLC could be considered okay is fighting gameS imo. Even then though, it shouldn’t be locking OP characters behind pay walls; they should all more or less be equal in power but play differently.
I think it’s fine in any type of game…as long as they’re actually not developed in time to be included in the original release. The closest thing in games that I play is civs in RTS games. A civ in an RTS is basically a “character” in a fighting game. New characters in a MOBA would probably be the same. And turn-based strategy civs.
These all require extra dev time to implement new mechanical features. Extra balance work to make sure they’re well-balanced (both on release, and later with future balance patches). Extra design work to make sure they look good and unique. It’s completely reasonable to charge for them. Just not if they’re there, ready to go, day one.