Plaintiff wrote...
It's not a "scam" or any sort of trick. The people who think that game companies deliberately cut this content just so they can charge extra for it are paranoid consipracy theorists. If DLC did not exist, then these extra things would NOT be bundled into the main game for no extra charge. They simply would never exist.
I disagree with you, and I'm not a conspiracy theorist.
If you take a character like Sebastian, its highly unlikely that he was created from scratch in the period between finalising the retail submission and launch day, given that would have involved recalling all of the voice actors as well as crafting new content areas, revisiting a lot of quest line dialogues, etc.
We now risk an argument about project planning and semantics, but...
If the entire game was actually finished at the retail submission, and the marketing and development teams deliberately excised a portion to be sold as DLC for extra profit, that would be cheeky (albeit good economics). Having worked in QA and seen the chaos that can happen near a release date, I'd predict that this is very unlikely. That seems to be what you're presenting the conspiracy theorists as suggesting.
The reality is less clear cut. Day 1 DLC is planned to exist from the outset. Along the way, when the game is taking clearer shape, exactly what it will be is decided. In the case of the character DLCs, this also really means working on them during the main game development as they need to be certain of integration, ensure cost efficiency with voice acting, etc.
The million dollar question is whether Sebastian would never have been conceived without DLC; "we're only putting in enough time to develop (x) number of characters. Any more would be DLC", or whether Sebastian was a potential character in any event who was marked out for DLC because she could be made non-critical to the overall storyline.
How much time Bioware spent working on Sebastian pre-retail or post-retail isn't actually all that relevant, if we accept the premise that they needed the extra cash from DLC to commit the additional resource. But this would require quite skilled project planning to work out in advance "Exactly this much content, fine. One bit too more? Heck no, that means DLC".
The problem I see about the Day 1 DLC characters is that this is done knowing that Bioware's fans feel very strongly about companions, which is a good recipe for sales. However, its clear that they weren't created from scratch at the 11th hour, or reluctant cut at the last minute from retail, which creates the impression that this was done purely with a view to targeting longer-term fans...and the fact that a lot of the content is on the disc and ready to go generates badwill, as it reinforces the perception of being ripped off.
I think a number of fans are rightly cynical about Day 1 DLC being more about EA's wider efforts to experiment with different pricing models than about being necessary to ensure the developer's vision for the game is realised.
Attempting to charge each person (or group of people) what they are prepared to pay, rather than charging everyone the same price for the same (or practically identical) product, is a well-established marketing model. Just take a look at the oh-so-well-loved DVD region restrictions.
Its a great model if you're an occasional purchaser as you'll get a better price on day 1. Its also a great model if you're the seller, because it should raise both sales and profit. The problem is that it transfers the costs of being able to do this onto your best customers, so that boost for short-term profit actually undermines almost all the established wisdom of how to develop a loyal customer base.
In principle it can work in the long-run, but only if people who are paying over the odds don't know what others are paying, if they genuinely believe the extra they paid led to a value-for-money superior version of the product, or if there are sufficient barriers to getting the cheaper price that they are unwilling to go through them.
DLC price divisions are highly visible, the content is generally rated as lower quality than in the rest of the game, and its actually slightly easier to buy the non-DLC version at launch than the DLC version. Which is not a good sign for the future.
Its also worth noting that the industries which most widely adopt this
model tend to have severe problems with customer relations...
But not all Day 1 DLC is bad. Stone Prisoner didn't get a rough ride (from memory) from core fans because it was used to target the resales market. Nor is all later DLC great (Levi Dryden's in-game advertising was widely criticised).
TL;DR = being rationally cynical about the reality behind why Day 1 DLC is appearing so much doesn't mean you're a conspiracy theorist.
Modifié par Wozearly, 19 août 2012 - 12:20 .
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