Ok, so as many of you know, I LOVE games.  I play (and buy) a wide variety (some would say too much), and at the rate I go through them, I am always looking for something new.  Fortunately, my current job gives me both the time, and the disposable income to do this.  One of my Favorite series in recent years has been Mass Effect, it pretty well encompasses everything I want in a game (with the possible exception of gleefully knifing my fellow BKers).  

So one would think that I would be overjoyed that the latest installment (3) has finally come out, and under normal circumstances you would be right.  But EA has decided that because the M.E. series is so popular, they can rip a part of the game out (granted not an integral part; but still a content rich, universe developing part), and charge you an additional $10 (us) ON LAUNCH DAY, for the privilege of playing that additional few hours of content.  

Now, I have no problem with DLC, I think that it is a great way both for a company to continue to make money from a game (so they can then have more money to put to the next game), and so us as gamers can continue to enjoy a game.  But I do find that I have a problem when a company does that same thing, upon release of a game.  It would be like if, when the Empire Strikes Back hit theaters, they decided that if you payed for a regular ticket, they took out the section in the asteroid field.  That part had no major storyline significance (beyond the kiss, but we all knew it was coming) so there's no real harm in missing it.  But, if they then sold another set of tickets to the same movie at the same time where you got that extra scene, wouldn't you feel a bit ripped off?

My concern is this: I have the money to spend to get the full version of the game, with the DLC, no problem.  But if we all give in, and do that this time, what happens when they see that it works, and decide to do similar things for all games, including games that are not as good as I am sure that ME3 will be?  Do I withhold this time, in the hopes that it discourages further forays into abusive business practices in the games industry, or do I say I only care about me, and I want to play a game that I have been looking forward to for a year?

SSG.Braxis*BK*

hey braxis i'm not going to vote but i will say that they already know it works as other companies have done it and continue to do it, and EA have already done it with other titles. i agree its not right to be releasing an DLC on release for full price atleast

Tuff one brother. now all I can do is simply give you my opinion.....nothing more. and that is what it is....MY opinion.
good for you that you are able to spend the money right now!! alot of people are not in those shoes.

If I went to see STAR WARS and did not get to see the asteroid scene (which is relevent to the story. it gave them a means to escape) I would feel confused and cheated. Now if they told me after the movie that if I paid a little bit extra to see that scene, I would feel even more cheated and angry!! why not just put it in there and let everyone see it for the same price??!!
The same holds true for a video game or anything else for that matter.

IF YOU DONT MAKE A STAND AGAINST GREED, WHO WILL?

At the risk of sounding too political,

You live in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and you have the freedom to buy or not to buy, and they have the freedom to cheat or not to cheat. but what is driving them is bottom lining of thier pockets not whehter or not you feel satified with your purchase. If you give in and buy the more expensive one then they win. If you buy the lower priced one......they win.

If it were me, I would flip them the proverbial bird and tell them where they could stick thier game. I dont feel like being a victim today!!!

but that is just my inner punk rock child talking and old habbits die hard!!

I cant tell you what to do and I wouldnt want to anyway, but what I can do is tell you what I would do, and hope it helps! (or at the very least confuses the heck out of you!)

I love the way you worded your survey choices Braxis.  Very light side/dark side of you.  I agree that this trend is disturbing.  It's like Blizzard breaking down Starcraft 2 into three seperate games.  You holding to your principles wont make a lick of difference to to the publisher...just my two cents.

I understand what you are saying Braxis. I was really mad with the first couple of games I bought that did this. The one thing I can say about ME3 and From Ashes is that it seems that this may have been cut from the original game, then was decided to be offered as a DLC. I don't know about other DLC with other games, but since this one made me think that way I am more inclined to give the benefit of the doubt about DLC now (or at least day one DLC).

I will not go into detail about why I thought this as it would give a bit of a spoiler about the part the DLC plays in the game should you decide to get it.

My vote is to go ahead and get this. In my opinion, it is worth it.

@bpmcmanus, yea, well, it really is light/dark, or more selfish/unselfish... as I said, I can afford it, no problem. and so many ppl have gotten the extra DLC, I'm not sure if it makes any difference if I stick to my principles here.  (which is a bit like me voting generally conservative in Connecticut, doesn't change a thing, blue state that this  place is).

@Trygar; this is pretty much my point! if the DLC (day one) has some significance to the game as a whole, why are we forced to pay for that more complete experience?  

really, my big issue is that they are doing it on launch day, if they had waited even 2 weeks to drop the DLC, I wouldnt have had any problem with it, because i want a game developer to take the time to get things finished rather than pushing an unfinished product on consumers.  In ME2, there were a number of things that were very inconsequential to the game, an extra character i never used, a couple fun guns, an armor set... they had thought that these would be in a later DLC, but the coders busted their humps to get them out early, so they had them as FREE DLC's because they were on launch day.  

I still dont know.. think I'm gonna go finish off things with my ME2 character and mull it over...
...argh...

When I said cut, I meant I believed they were going to trash it. I will not go into why I think this as it would give a spoiler for the DLC. I think it was completely removed and then they decided to offer it as DLC (still not a great way to do it at least not without explaining why it was done this way). Again, this is what I thought after playing the DLC and interacting with the new character. It is just my opinion and could be completely off. If you decide to get the game and DLC, after you play it I will explain why I thought this.

BTW, the DLC is not a game changer at all. It does not add anything to the current state of things (game wise). You will get a new character you may or may not use, a new weapon (that I hated) some outfits for your buddies and a little bit of background story. No real significance on what you are trying to do in ME3.

well, the week one sales figures are in for ME3, and it looks like my holding out didn't make a lick of difference, because a wopping 43% of purchasers got the DLC, making it the most successful day-zero-DLC ever...  Welcome to the future  

Well, I fell down the rabbit hole and got ME3, with the DLC.  And I was right, I absolutely loved every second of it.  excellent game, despite the story being a bit of a mess at the end...

Anyways, since playing it, I have been thinking more about the DLC, and the economics surrounding it, and I dont think I can still say that I think its a wholly evil thing (more 30% evil, like Tet).   And then one of my favorite webseries went and put up an vid that solidified my thoughts perfectly.  

EXTRA CREDITS <--- here it is.

SSG.Braxis*BK*