The Shrine

Did the Xbone fairy visit anyone?

I'm ultra confident about a price drop after next year's E3, and the only game I really want is KI, so I passed for now. >_<

Nope. Pretty jaded on next gen console gaming right now (and no longer interested in the Xbox brand). I might....might pick up a PS4 this Xmas.

Between the DLC, microtransactions (Forza...lol), paywalls, privacy issues, paying for more Ads to be on my TV, etc etc...I just don't want to be a console gamer anymore. I read through the updated XBL terms and conditions the other day (probably similar to PSN)... Has anyone else done that before clicking agree? It actually 'offended' me. lol

kali o. wrote:Nope. Pretty jaded on next gen console gaming right now (and no longer interested in the Xbox brand). I might....might pick up a PS4 this Xmas.

Between the DLC, microtransactions (Forza...lol), paywalls, privacy issues, paying for more Ads to be on my TV, etc etc...I just don't want to be a console gamer anymore. I read through the updated XBL terms and conditions the other day (probably similar to PSN)... Has anyone else done that before clicking agree? It actually 'offended' me. lol

Couldn'thave put it better. I'm playing fewer and fewer games now, and the nickle and diming is the primary reason. The whole concept of buying a console and then paying for the service to actually let me pay online is offensive (I've had an active XBOX live gold account for maybe 1 year total, and used it RARELY). Console makers have been trying to force-feed us a subscription model for a long time (ever since they saw MMO makers pulling it off), and they have finally got to a point where I reference them with the same disdain I have for the large media content providers.

It's not about the games anymore. It's completely about how to shove more marketing in your face, and get a month-to-month revenue stream out of customers. I'm not even going to get into how much DLC pisses me off.

Well fuck you guys, I got one.

And it's awesome.

You got both? You crazy hardcore gamer person.

I work with a guy who has the Xbox One, the PS4, and the WiiU. No kids, no wife, and a very good job. Can't fault him there. haha

Yeah well so do I, but I didn't buy all 3, sheesh. :p

bovine wrote:Well fuck you guys, I got one.

And it's awesome.

I got a Nexus 5 instead. Something I'll actually use

I'm thinking you can replace 'patch' with 'DLC' now for this strip http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1998/12/21 and it wouldn't surprise me.

I totally understand the concept behind DLC and companies have a right to make money, but they're not really delivering a product that's anywhere worth the DLC. Maybe the fact that there are relatively few successful big name titles is that people are aware that when you pay $50 for a game you only get about 1/2 of what it ought to have included and the other half will show up as DLC, and very few games are worth $100 for the whole game.

DLC replaces expansions, rather than patches. Patches are meant to fix bugs and occasionally repair sloppy design. Civ 5 is a good example of a game that has heavily implemented both - and I think they have done so fairly effectively. The early game was incredibly damaged, they released patches for years to fix bugs - then they released two models of paid DLC - micro and macro; the micro would introduce new content whereas the macro would introduce new content and features. Personally I find this a much preferable method of expanding the game than previous models.

DLC may be used for some major expansions, but primarily it is used for a $5 here or $5 there transactions, sometimes exceptionally close to the date the game actually launches (or on launch day itself), which will provide access to another character, mission, area of a game, etc. This is the DLC, primarily the for-pay launch-day/close to launch-day DLC, that makes me want to never buy games again.

At least with physical media, companies generally knew they had to provide quite a bit of content for what they were charging for the expansion on the shelf. The current model is heavily abused, and has resulted in gamers like me purchasing far few games in general, DLC available or not.

DLC needs to come out really quickly in today's market. The data I saw has the percentage of original purchasers buying DLC PLUMMETING on a month-to-month basis. The same correlation can be drawn for expansions. With release cycles being so crowded, people just don't care about a game expanding upon itself a year down the line. DLC sold in the first few months of the release of the main game retain a good healthy chunk of purchasers, which is why you see so much so quickly.

I think this is good for the industry since it probably means they aren't constantly firing quite as many people once the game launches. Launch day DLC is horse shit though and it's tiring watching companies make excuses about it. Just admit you're being dicks so I don't feel like I'm feeding into your dishonesty if the DLC is good and I want to buy it.

The $10-$30 that I spend on launch day DLC a year is barely a blip on my radar in the end... especially coming off the heels of the Affordable Care Act saving me something like $200 a month. (Hey the thread was already derailed :D )

Shrinweck wrote: (Hey the thread was already derailed )

Kali got me going

Back to my yearly playthrough of Earthbound (Talah Rama here I come!)

I totally agree that the little tugs of DLC are usually complete garbage, and are a dumb cash grab. The games that run on a regular $60 model that also throw in microtransactions everywhere are also a huge letdown. I'm sure there was a meeting somewhere where people thought "What if we use the free to play model, but make them pay for it too???!>!" and it seemed like gold.

There are games like Battlefield 3 and 4, and The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us that have roped me in to purchasing their season passes. I find the content being offered to be worth my investment (ESPECIALLY with the TellTale games). It looks like developers and publishers haven't really gotten the hang of DLC. Looking at how Japan deals with DLC is especially egregious. Looking at the eternity of skins and costumes in fighting games and now RPGs really irks me.

I find big chunky story DLC (Dead Space 2&3, Bioshock 2's Minerva's Den, Dishonored's DLC, and the GTA 4 DLC) to be what hooks me the most. I really love being brought back into worlds that I have grown to love and getting to experience more of it in a meaningful way.



HEY XBOX!

This thing feels like it came in pretty hot. There is a lot of functionality that feels underdeveloped (Lack of streaming, snapped video not working always as intended, strange exclusions of optical audio settings, and I've heard some rumblings about other weirdness), and it feels like this won't be fulfilling all of the Microsoft promises right out of the gate. It's a big box and it's got the apparently quite scary Kinect attached. Is anyone actually afraid of this thing destroying their privacy?

Anyways, it's a bit of a mess out of the gate, but holy heck does it ever feel like the future. Talking to it to record, snap windows, search, boot the thing, turn it off, access your home theatre is INCREDIBLE. It makes the old gen systems feel very antiquated when I start them up. The general ease of use of the system has started to shift my opinion of physical media. It blazes from one application to another and multitasks one main window and a snapped window of video or your party or whatever.... And this general speed of the system has made me want to just have my games digitally on the system. When I'm done watching Jeff Green be terrible at Dark Souls and I want to start playing Dead Rising, it is a bummer when I say "Xbox play Dead Rising 3" and it stops to tell me that the disc isn't in the machine. Whaaaaaaat? I have to get up and put this disc in?

I'm just going to let you guys know - getting up, taking a disc out, putting it away, and then placing another on in the slot DOES NOT feel like the future.