DLC

[Teddiursa of the Sky]

Worst DLC... map packs. Problem is if a server is using new maps and you don't have them downloaded, too bad, you can't play on that server. So unless you keep up with the map pack releases, you will find yourself quickly excluded from a lot of servers, which isn't fun.

I agree with you about the issue of splitting the player base. It's a problem that even some of my favorite games have, like Battlefield. But at the same time, I understand why they often have a price tag. All the man-hours spent designing and building a level can't go unpaid, so I don't really have an issue dishing out money for it most of the time.

Cosmetic DLC can go crawl back into the hole it came from, and fester there. I'm looking at you, Oblivion Horse Armour. You started this...

This is another instance in which I see why it is charged -- labor is involved in making that stuff. Plus, I often times support cosmetic DLC since it helps supplement the bills and makes DLC with deeper content cheaper than it otherwise would have been. Grand Theft Auto V is a great example of that as well. They are able to make so much free content because they charge for more insignificant, largely cosmetic things.



Independently, I'd also like to mention some misconceptions about "day one" DLC, which are also quite pervasive in the gaming community. I mean, of course there are occasional instances in which the content was actually carved out and sold separately, but most of the time it is the product of mass production of physical copies. A game typically goes gold months before the actual release date, so cut content or new ideas surface and are worked on in the ensuing months.

Suicune's Fire brought up Mass Effect, so I'll use that as an example (since that's one of my favorite game series of all time). There was a day one DLC called "From the Ashes" for Mass Effect 3. If you were to peruse the vanilla game files, you'd see that some of the content for the addition was already present. Some. Of course gamers were infuriated, but many of them ignored interviews in which it was explained. The character Javik was cut from the original game because of time constraints and issues concerning the actors they wanted to play him. Long story short, all is not what it seems.