Last week was the launch of Wii-Ware which allows Wii owners to download new Wii exclusives to their system. One of these games Final Fantasy: My life as a king is the first to have downloadable content available for purchase on the Wii, which is late to the party thanks to Xbox live and its Microsoft points. Thinking about getting this game and the content it has , has got me thinking about downloadable content and the future of possible mini expansions to titles.
Yet another issue that I’m torn with, as I am an old school gamer. Back then buying a game was it, you got everything associated with it and knew that you never had to spend any more money on content for it. It has taken this long for me to finally accept buying downloadable content for my consoles thanks to Rez HD yet I still think that we’re entering the danger zone. My issue is that game prices are still high, and asking me to spend additional money plus the $50 or more for the game doesn’t sit right with me. And we have lovely EA who is now charging for content already on the disc, which honestly didn’t surprise me that they would be the first to pull that.
Also on the 360 we have games that charge you for actual new content, RockBand lets you download new songs for $2 a pop or abit more for a pak of songs. I would be quick to use up some points if I didn’t just spend $160 for the game, and there is the fact that I still can’t sing or drum to save my life.
To add further injury to my weakened wallet, there are games that charge you money for stuff that has no new gameplay content, such as new clothing for characters, and the infamous “horse armor” from Oblivion that I can’t really talk about without going into a huge rant about Oblivion. This I believe is a sign of the Apocalypse , now these examples have been shown on Microsoft’s side and the pc, we still have yet to see what Nintendo is going to do.
So then what kind of downloadable content will make this gaming vet happy? First no more $50+ games that will have downloadable content (I’m looking at you GTA 4), checking out the content on the Final Fantasy game, and the game is priced at $15 with at most you would spend on it for now would take it up to about $30. The part I like is that while some of this content is purely cosmetic the rest greatly changes and adds onto the gameplay which is what I want to see. Give me a game at a lower price then retail and let me pick and choose what I want to buy. I also think that this a great way to sorta demo a game, let me have the basic version for a low price and I’ll add what looks interesting to me. The other factor is that there has to be a game already available, I don’t want to spend money on something that will only give me about 2 hours of content and the rest I have to buy thru downloads. Give me a full game at a low price and then add in further things for me to do. Moving away from the consoles it’s time to talk about a platform that is no stranger to expansions and downloadable content.
That’s right the computer, chances are we all at one point have bought an expansion for a game we own. Creating an expansion is always tricky business, just adding in new artwork and a few missions will get your fans in an uproar. Completely change the game and you’ll have fans accusing you of destroying your game. One thing that I’m not happy with are companies charging $40 for an expansion *cough Relic *cough Gas Powered games, excuse me. I’m sorry but I don’t care how much you put into an expansion, charging retail price for an expansion does not work for me. Which raises up the argument for what is being called “mini expansions”.
Mini expansions are technically parts of an expansion title you can buy at a lower cost. Lets take a role playing game for example, instead of the developers putting all their energy into a brand new expansion they could instead release paks of new quests at $10. Or a strategy title could introduce just a new side to play with and release that at a discounted price. I can already tell that many people are probably either for or against content like that. First how do we distinguish between 5,10,20 dollar content? Second what will be the overall quality of this “new content? Issues like these are the reasons why alot of pc gamers aren’t happy about mini expansions. Yet reading a post by Brad Wardell has me thinking about the future.
Over at the Sins of the Solar Empire forums, Brad made a post about the future of the game. One of the common complaints about pc games is the post game support provided by alot of companies. Basically there are many games that still have bugs in them that companies no longer supports which leaves the consumer SOL. One reason for this is that companies do not have the money or man power needed to support games permanently , and in all seriousness who can blame them? What Brad purposes is that thru mini expansions a game company can keep a game supported for a far greater lifespan then other companies, being compensated for new content and fixes can keep things going. Also it will allow developers to make money without having to spend alot of money on a new engine or technology.
The idea is admirable but I still see certain flaws in the use of mini expansions. With constant updates it would be hard to create a bug free game as with most patches there is always a chance a new bug will slink on in. For single player games new content is always a good thing, but when it comes to multiplayer , balance is a huge factor. Creating new units and sides is great, but if they don’t mesh well with the previous content it can lead to imbalanced matches which can destroy balance even further. One option is to split the community between the haves and the have not, but if a company puts out multiple expansions I can see that causing problems with the community split so much. While I have a feeling if any development house can do it, Stardock can I’m still worried when some of the less reputable companies get their hands on this idea.
While reading a post online regarding Rock Band someone said that it was built not as a game, but as it’s own platform, and that notion has stuck with me. Perhaps it’s time to stop treating bigger games as just games and treat them like their own entity. If Rockstar can do that with GTA 4 and create new cities , new mission styles and support GTA 4 for years that could be the start of something big. Instead of having multiple installments of a video game, we could have just one version that is constantly being updated and growing and that is something I’m in support of.
