Dahbomb said:
Many reasons.
For one, not everyone plays online or has their systems linked online. Some people because of certain circumstances can't even do so or can't pay through the online structure so even if they want to buy DLC characters they can't.
Yeah, this is a legitimate issue, but DLC won't be stopped just because some countries may not be able to support this distribution method yet. Ten years ago Eastern Europe might have been a wasteland for DLC, but now it's an emerging marketplace and talent pool for videogames.
Capcom is also much greedier than the fans are because it's necessary for their survival. DLC characters is going to become a standard whether or not most of us want it. I don't want to sound condescending, but it's only a matter of time before something like DLC becomes commonplace even in developing countries.
Capcom won't wait around so I may as well join the chorus in the hopes that I can get some of my own requested characters...
Dahbomb said:
This is especially prevalent where I live. People have legit PS3s and legit games but no one plays online because they can't and no one can really use credit cards through PSN to buy stuff (hell many people here don't have credit cards and such). So if I am one of those persons and one of my favorite characters get released as DLC I am boned. I HAVE to wait until the next major release like UMVC3 to play my character.
It is a problem, but it's something that was a big part of the less than legal markets in other countries. It is just a matter of time and it sucks, but this is just a part of living in a different country. Hell, here in the US we are missing out on quite a few Nintendo games and the Wii is a desert. Fans got so desperate that they started operation rainfall which was a pretty big deal.
Shoot... I'd love to get my hands on games like the Vampire collection for the PS2 which is the arcade perfect port with all the games for the PS2, but it's JP only. These kinds of problems are something that everyone has to deal with to one degree or another.
Dahbomb said:
Secondly, I generally have a problem with DLCs as they are. They are fostering a general lazyness among developers where they will plan entire games based around DLC models. It should be the other way around, you should come up with an entire game 100% and THEN think about adding DLCs (nowadays devs plan to release 80% of a game and then complete the game via DLC). Like with MVC3, the team had already planned that Shuma/Jill will be DLCs so they made an active decision to take them out purposely in order to make a quick buck off of them. I am pretty sure they are doing this with UVC3 too, like they have their 12 characters and they strategically kept back a few characters for DLC. The pricing itself is way too harsh, it's bad enough that people are paying such a high price for the game and then having to pay such high price for DLC characters. It's not even a vanity thing which I don't have a problem with (like costumes/hats etc)... a single character is a major component of a fighting game that is being locked out to many users.
There is a lot of truth here and I agree with it. I think DLC is way too expensive for what it usually offers and Capcom doesn't get away with it either. If I were Capcom I'd be selling characters in DLC packs. A MvC game is supposed to be centered around the "versus" mentality. I'd have two character packs(think GenexEmma) for $5 and I'd take advantage of the holidays whenever they roll around.
Dahbomb said:
Thirdly, DLC characters are terribly incompatible with the tournament scene. Say what you want about UMVC3 but it's very much a necessity that Capcom keeps putting out major updates for their fighting games. A DLC character gets released but an upcoming tournament is coming up. Do you ban that character or do you allow it? If you allow it then you have to have that character on all systems and a tournament has many systems there so that's essentially a lot of DLCs you NEED to purchase just to run a tournament.
This is something that is so easy to fix too. If I were Capcom I'd go out of my way to offer at least a few dozen tournament systems every year for tournaments like EVO, Revelations and the rest of the major ones. I think it'd be a nice way to foster excitement and it wouldn't cost them that much when you factor in the revenue from hundreds of thousands of $5 buys.
I remember the argument that people made when the bickering about UMvC3 began. People actually tried to argue that UMvC3 was a steal because those twelve characters would actually be worth $60 just because they were $5 each as DLC. I wonder how much the whole MvC3 game is actually worth then lol. These characters take weeks to make, but they can sell for months and years to come. If they only made two bucks off both characters in a pack they'd still make an easy 300k if 100K people bought them, but I think they are more concerned with their profits than the penetration of their products.
It's a problem for Capcom to sort out, but I think marketing for these characters would be a cinch and it wouldn't cost them much more than 10k a year for DLC ready tournament systems...
Dahbomb said:
The next issue is the actual exploration of the character which gets stunted because it was released late. Jill is legitimately a good (but hard character) that only now are we seeing the potential of. People ignored her because they figured not many people were going to play as her so there wasn't much point. A DLC character tend to get ignored like a "side" character. The fact that tournaments ban some DLC characters really turns off some people from even trying them (well to most just having a premium attached to them is enough).
Yeah, I already mentioned the stuff about better prices, character packs(which should be a prerequisite for a versus game), holiday sales and DLC ready tournament systems.
Capcom has the pockets that Arcsys doesn't have, but which game actually has DLC characters making it to the top 8? It ain't Capcom...
Dahbomb said:
Then sometimes the reverse happens and a DLC character is OBVIOUSLY TOO powerful. Imagine if Yun was DLC only. Now as a competitive player there is no way you were gonna skimp out on not getting Yun because that is match up experience and training experience you are giving up. The person with the extra money is going to have the edge now because they will get the Yun DLC day 1 and practice with it. Others will not have that luxury and would either have to just get their match ups from playing other DLC bought Yuns or buy it themselves. It's underhanded no matter how you look at it. We didn't run into this problem with MVC3 because Jill/Shuma aren't top tier but just think of the salt that would've been produced if Phoenix was DLC only.
This problem is really something that manifests itself differently depending on the team and producer. Niitsuma obviously isn't crazy about powerful DLC characters if MvC3 is any indication, but Ono went full retard on Yun and Yang. I'd say it's something that fans have to be vocal about so that we can avoid Yunverine antics in the future.
These are problems, but problems can only come about if there is also a positive side to it. DLC can offer good and bad things. It's up to fans and the creators to cooperate if we want to avoid the pitfalls of DLC.
Dahbomb said:
The final issue is simply that this is an issue that is growing each year. A few years ago people thought it would be sacrilegious to have DLC characters in fighting games. Now it is such an accepted practice that consumers WANT DLC characters within a week or so of a game's release. So now that the apparent demand is there... developers start pushing the envelope even more. What's stopping the number of DLC characters to actually EXCEED the number of characters on retail? Why not just lock the game to one stage and you have to pay for all remaining stages? Hell character DLCs have become common practice... what about SPECIAL MOVE DLCs? Pay $1 to unlock new Liberation charges on Dormammu. That sounds absurd now but guess what.. to me character DLCs sounded absurd a few years ago too.
I think this is getting a chicken little now. I didn't like it either, but it's here to stay. Stuff like special moves and such are also something that I can't see happening in a fighter, but the consumer can really amaze you with what they buy...
If it worries you then don't buy it. I know a lot of these answers may seem really snobby or condescending(I'm sorry if I come off that way), but the answers really are that simple. I had to come to terms with it eventually too...