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[PATV] Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - Extra Credits Season 4, Ep. 6: Mass Effect 3 DLC
Geth
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
Extra Credits Season 4, Ep. 6: Mass Effect 3 DLC
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/mass-effect-3-dlc
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/mass-effect-3-dlc
This week, Mass Effect 3 gives us a chance to talk some more about DLC.
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I hope the guest artists pops into these forums so he might see that I think he hit it out of the park. That was very entertaining!
I too think the on disc DLC for mass effect 3 is a major problem. As you can see here
The DLC is not a side-load package on the disc used to reduce bandwidth needs, it is fully integrated into the game and is disabled by two variables. This evidence tells us that at the very least an interesting plot device was locked for monetization.
Edit - Curse you Spellcheck
I mean, suggesting they are making you download a 700mb file just have the appearance of it not being on the disc is a little crazy
Then I lost my pre-order thanks to that debacle, so I ordered from Origin instead. Couldn't see the point in spending something like £20 for the deluxe version in order to unlock a couple of outfits and the single DLC there and no physical goodies to play with. So played the game without Javik.
After completing the game, I found on Youtube exactly how integral he was to the story and that a lot of his statements about AI/EDI/Legion tie into the ending. Meaning that the terrible ending to the game is even worse without him.
Then that the DLC was on the disk, meaning that their justification for the extra cost and it being released as additional content (which could only be a fraction of the cost of the entire game) was a complete lie, this was just a grab for extra money by EA.
I think my internet empowered rage could only be expressed in a single word.
AAAAAAAAAARGRRHRHRHRBLAAAAAAAAAAARGLEENYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGFTAAAAAAANG.
If this community believes that hating someone based soley upon their gender is acceptable and understandable, I have no interest in being a part of it.
Indeed. In fact, it actually goes AGAINST the whole "certification" argument, since in order to be on the final disc, it had to be there before at least most of the aforementioned lull.
The other thing that annoys me here is we are presented with a false dichotomy that either we get day 1 DLC or we don't get DLC, and that's simply untrue. Again, from their own example, Kingdoms of Amalur. Oh, and Army of Two. Oh, and the sequel to Army of Two. Oh, and Mass Effect 2. And that's four games just using examples THEY gave. 95% of the time? No, a sizable chunk of games get DLC without it being day 1. This is an example of proposing two alternatives that are not reflected in the real world.
Oh, and with Mass Effect 2 and several other games, they tied some DLC to soft drinks.
I can't help but feel EC was asleep at the wheel on this one.
I'm actually not against Day 1 DLC, either. but on-disc DLC isn't really DLC. And I'm against withholding story content. Apparently, the DLC character is fairly important. Also, I'm not against special edition DLC that others can buy at a premium, which is what this was supposed to be, provided it doesn't violate the first two. But bringing up the certification argument? Setting up fake alternatives? Bringing in a slippery slope about the future when the problems of the present aren't properly addressed? Was anyone paying attention?
Also, cross promotions aren't really bad, and it's worth noting all you miss out on by not playing the demos is some optional items themed for the other game. And if that breaks "immersion," there's a much bigger problem going on.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
Aaaas for me3, well, i cant say much since i don't really buy much dlc for single player games anyway.
... My, what a boring Signature.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
...What part of that didn't make sense?
They incurred extra expense paying people for the DLC content after the game was "done", so they charge a bit extra for it to recoup those costs, and maybe even make a small profit on it. If they had instead moved everyone on to another project and/or layed them off for a while and then created the DLC as a seperate download a month later, they KNOW that less people would pay for it, even if it's the same quality as the on-disk DLC. And their costs are the same either way (or maybe slightly higher a month later, because it's tough to get the same team back together once they've gone their seperate ways, so you have to train some new people).
This was a very insightful episode, overall :^:
1/ It's ON the DISK! I OWN the DISK! It's MINE!
2/ It PROVES that this content was cynically taken out as a cash grab.
I don't find either one compelling, (1) is just childish, while (2) would still be a huge leap even if more than the very bare bones of the character was on the disk.
Kasumi and Zaeed weren't really as well integrated into the story as Javik. A lot of the things they did made them feel 'tacked on' in the main story because they hadn't written for them, other characters don't say anything in their missions because their voice actors weren't available. Their missions are completely involved though. Javik is completely integrated and in fact does a lot more than some of the other characters in your group.
He checks out the Citadel, he has long arguments with Liara, chats with other squad members, has something to say about the Prothean artefacts he deals with, has special interaction with some minor NPCs you have contact with.
This means that he wasn't some separate piece, he was deeply entwined within regular development. Pretty much every story in the game has him included. He's not an additional piece added in after the fact he's already there. The only thing that the DLC adds is the mission to pick him up.
The whole thing reeks more of a day one content patch that you have to pay for.
If this community believes that hating someone based soley upon their gender is acceptable and understandable, I have no interest in being a part of it.
All the characters had more dialog in this game. For ME2, Kasumi had no more or less squad dialog than anyone else. For ME3, the DLC squaddie (are we still spoiling what he is?) had no more or less squad dialog than anyone else.
He wasn't "deeply entwined" with the story, he just had some interesting flavor text. As a matter of fact, on my first playthrough I didn't even bring him very many places, because I was nostaligic and brought all my old bros with me everywhere instead. The dialog he has is fun, but so is the dialog between Garrus and Liara, or Garrus and Tali. (or Garrus and anyone really. Garrus is the broest of bros)
Someone I trust at Bioware said that the DLC wasn't developed until the game had been certified. In fact, what he said was that the content was to be scrapped entirely, until some people fought for it to be included somewhere, so they developed it for DLC instead, after the game went gold. As much as you want to make this a horrible crime against humanity, the reality is that it's Bioware giving you more content, and you complaining about getting that content.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
IIRC, Mass Effect previously offered exclusive DLC redeemable by codes from Dr. Pepper and/or Mountain bottles and cans. The Uncharted Series had a download promotion at Subway. And I'm pretty sure Halo had something like that with 7-11.
A marketing promotion that VALVe pulls a lot is to offer exclusive items that you can get if you purchase a Steam copy of a certain game. A lot of times these are only available for a limited amount of time for brand new games, so with the heavy blustering market in TF2, gamers are pressured to buy brand new games at full price that they sometimes won't even play just to receive items.
YOU CAN CHANGE TWO VARIABLES IN A TEXT EDITOR, AND THE DLC WORKS.
SAME FOR THE COLLECTORS EDITION.
THE SHIT
IS
ON
THE
DISC
IT IS THERE
Now STOP defending a company that fucking CONNED us.
Except that this DLC did have to have a 700mb+ download. The bare assets of the DLC character were there, apparently, but not the entirety of the character. Not this "entwined" business, where all his scenes are on the disk; they aren't. So people screaming like babies that it is a con are... well, screaming like babies.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
Fuck you.
Now before you get up in arms about cracking: I legally bought the game, but Origins is spyware.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
Skips right after changing a few variables to a 5 second demo in a mission
Never mind about the squad dialogue or mission to acquire him
The only people who should be speaking matter-of-factly about this are people who are in, or have been in, the development side of video games for companies as large as Bioware / EA. Because video games are a fucking business and businesses have multiple departments and schedules and funding and all sorts of shit going on that I can't even pretend to label with any accuracy. All I know is, as a blue-collar worker, corporations are big mechanical things. So too are video game corporations.
I wonder what that means.
So maybe it means you're cheap?
You literally do not miss out on any of the plot without having him.
And just because the character model and abilities are on the disc, making him useable in combat with a hack, doesn't mean that the entire bulk of the DLC is. With the way he is integrated into the game it is obvious they had him in mind during development of the core game, which would mean they would have a chunk of content ready to put on the disc. Might as well do so, I'd rather have the 600 Meg download we got instead of a gig or more that we could have got.
It makes sense to try and get your first DLC pack out ASAP. The longer you wait, the bigger the chances are that many players will have finished with the game and moved on. Personally, I didn't play any of the ME2 DLC up until a few weeks ago because of this. I'm usually not playing the same game one month later, let alone three, six, twelve, etc.
Because DLC integration doesn't always work the way we think it does:
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/gcijat
I come from an era when DLC was called expansion packs so all this is a little foreign. I personally feel that a purchase is only worthwhile if I can get a great deal of enjoyment from it in a REASONABLE amount of time. But what is reasonable?
Computer, freeze program! COMPUTER!!
I don't have a problem with this DLC. I see it as being no different than the expansion packs I bought for some of the games I have played.
Is there any DLC that's good/important/worthwhile in the first two games, or should I just play through the main games?