Mom's Minute

Coming Sepember 20, 2011!

 Source of News:  Path.com, Jeff Lugar, August 16, 2011

 As you probably know,  DLC stands for Downloadable Content for video games.  The writer of this article entitled "Getting Nickeled and Dimed" is voicing his concern about the ever increasing need to buy additional, should I say, software? when purchasing games.

As a basis for this news article, I went to  Game Stop and inquired about games with online codes.  Apparently, I was not quite clear, because I was asked if I was referring to  Microsoft points?  I explained further, in more detail.  The sales person suggested the Gears of War game at a cost of  $29.99 with  lots of additional DLC already loaded.   Of course the catch for the $29.99 price was that the game was already out of date. The new game is expected out September 20, 2011.  Hence, my picture of the latest Gears of War 3 game for this article.

Now back to the news article.  The author seems to lament about the good old days when all you did was go to maybe an Electronic Boutique, and bought a video game, and that was it.  You took the game home, and maybe checked the forum to see if there were any bugs, problems, etc. with the game.

Current day, of course, just about everything has changed!  Now if there are problems with games, software patches or some other form of electronic notifications are sent to fix the problems. In fact, even if the game is only a few weeks old, you can sometimes expect a patch to come with or shortly follow the purchase of a game.

The DLC is viewed as both a positive and a negative.  Positive --  if the DLC is implemented smartly and makes the game play longer.  Negative -- if the DLC is seen as a "money grab", or a way to get your money, especially if the DLC is almost useless.  The example the author gave was the extra cost for horse armor for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion game, and the $15.00 map packs for Call of Duty:  Modern Warfare 2. Another negative example given was the DLC cases for the L.A. Noire game that did not quite fit the story lines, and gave the impression of being  makeshift.

According to the author, some other money grabs are the  online passes and the requirement for pass codes for online, competitive type games.  Buying these type games may present somewhat of a problem if the game is bought used -- without the pass code.

There may be some discontent regarding these codes, but at the end of the day, noone wants to be "left out in the cold" without the latest map packs for Black Ops, or some other DLC that other video game players have. 

Ms. H's take:  From a revenue generating standpoint, I can see why the DLC and online codes and other money making sources were added by the video game companies, albeit,  at an expense to  the video game player.  However, in my opinion, DLC, is most likely here to stay in one form or another,  and will become just another part of the video game purchasing experience.  Regarding the cost, is lowering the price of DLC an option for the gaming companies?

My minute is up!  Thanks for visiting my website.  I look forward to sharing more video gaming news with you!

Bye now,

Ms. H

"Ms. H=Win!"

.