DLC, A change in opinion?

[Emerald]

Has anyone here ever bought DLC? I haven't, till about a week ago.

Theory: In theory, the idea of DLC makes sense and I support the idea. Months or years later when a game has lost it's luster, you can get some DLC and continue your favorite game for a small fee. I think it's a great idea.

Practice: In practice however, it feels like I am being nickel and dimed. $5 for colors in SF4? I should pay $5 for the entire rosters new colors and a color edit feature. Horse armor for Oblivion was a joke. $10 for Operation: Anchorage in Fallout 3? I think not. My gaming dollar is usually pretty happy for $2 to 1 hour of gameplay and I don't see that in current DLC.

Current Events: I was reading Gamefaqs.com on the Disgaea 3 board and apparently the DLC for new characters was in. So I decided to hook in and get a couple. Each character is $2 (so I got 2 since the min is $5 in my PSN wallet). Each character comes in at lvl 100 (which is low for me) but has unique skills. I Collected a couple and began playing again. Each character wasn't really worth the whole 2 to 1 ratio, but I tried it. I started playing Disgaea again, I finally Beat Baal, i want to the land of carnage, I am starting to get lvl 40 items. Basically, those simple little characters, made me play the game again. Without it, I doubt I'd play it again and I think I have since logged 10 more hours with intent to do more so that I can actually have a god character and make any fantasies of power from any other game vanish into the wind.

But that brings me to my point, is the value of DLC in the actual DLC or the effect it can have? Is $5 for your favorite characters alternate custom in SF4 worth it, if you play for hours longer? I say, maybe.

[Mozgus]

I've never seen any DLC that looked worthwhile. I don't think it will ever be put towards its potential.

[Ziggy]

I got the extra content for Bioshock, since I loved that game. The price to play ratio seemed fair enough. I saw the extra content for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. I liked that game a lot, so I would love to download all the extra stuff for it but the price is way too steep. It doesn't even add game play, just extra characters and skins. Why would I pay more then $5 for that? $60/game isn't enough? I can't even bring myself to pay full price for games any more, let alone pricey DLC.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I've never seen any DLC that looked worthwhile. I don't think it will ever be put towards its potential.

I agree fully with this. As much potential as DLC has, it has been watered down in to that 'nickled and dimed' style of content. I really had hope for it as it is able to bring expansion packs that we see all the time on the PC on to a console, problem is, aside from the Oblivion packs, and Warhawk expansion bundles, I can't think of any game that decided this would be a good idea. I generally hate download services in general (minus Steam) and I play a huge ammount of PC games so I could be biased when it comes to the expansion packs and DLC.

[wilsona26]

Im ashamed to admit that once i get a game for my 360, I cant stand to not get all the dlc for it. Maybe im the kind of person that they make that stuff for. But i hate having a game when i dont have all the stuff added on for it. Now with rock band and the guitar heroes, ill download songs i like for them, but past that i dont. But every other game i get all i can. I even bought the stupid horse armor, and as strange as it sounds; im actually very satisfied i did get it.

[MrPopo]

I've been snagging all the characters for Disgaea 3, mostly because it feels like a game one should be a completionist with. But the only other game that I invest in DLC with is Rock Band. I've spent hundreds of dollars on new songs for that thing. I can't even imagine what it must be like for the people who compulsively buy every song.

[andythebadass]

the only download-able content i have ever been please with are for fps map packs.

[t0yrobo]

I think dlc has been going the wrong direction ever since Bungie started releasing maps for halo 2, announced that they'd be available for free in a few months, and tons of people downloaded them anyways. sadly, the (idiotic) culture of most gamers is what's to blame with the dlc situation.

[HellHammer]

I'd say that it's pretty much up to each specific download. Some games have decent add-ons, some are 'nickel and dime' garbage. And as the OP said, it's about personal taste. For example, I really like the idea of adding ProtoMan to Mega Man 9, so I don't mind the fee. However, I've also been playing Street Fighter competitively in the arcade for several years and I couldn't ever bring myself to pay money for extra costumes in SFIV.

Also, a paranoid fear of losing my content leaves me to only buy DLC when available on a physical disc.

[JDMThoughts]

I agree with a lot of what you guys have been saying. Like buying the outfits in SF is a complete rip off. I must have spent around 75 dollars in songs for Rockband. That game still keeps on giving and I love that, every week there is new songs to download.... sometimes it takes a while for something I like to come out but nevertheless there is always fresh music to play. I bought the map pack for COD4 and loved it, I thought it was very reasonable for 10 dollars you get 4 maps.... 3 of which are used to massive multi-player. I must've played that game another month or so because of those maps.