by Jeff Woleslagle on Nov 09, 2009
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Thanks to RockBand and Fallout 3, DLCs are more popular than ever, and premium download-only content may soon be coming to an MMO near you. Turbine went DLC in a big way with Dungeons and Dragons Online and next month's Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood is arguably a DLC expansion. Paying for only the areas you want to play and having instant access may be a welcome approach, but will MMO developers succomb to the intermediary currency (i.e. BioWare points) temptation? Will we have to constantly pay for more points than we'll use? Thoughts on DLCs and pricing in today's Loading... Let's Make a DLC.
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DragonAge: Origins (UP 12 to #7) Global Agenda (UP 6 to #17) Vanguard (down 4 to #12) Recent ReleasesAre DLCs (premium DownLoadable Content, typically only available for purchase and download online) the future of MMO expansions? Since Lord of the Rings Online's December expansion, Siege of Mirkwood, technically qualifies (though we don't want to put the sweeping Volume 2 epilogue on par with "Ghostbusters" for LEGO Rock Band), MMOs and DLCs were one of the themes of today's monster Siege of Mirkwood interview with Lord of the Rings Online Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel.
Mr. Steefel noted that the DLC-esque model for Siege of Mirkwood remains experimental for Turbine, and that it doesn't mean that the next LotRO expansion will be download-only (or retail-centric) for that matter. But that's not to say that the idea is new to MMOs . In 2005, EverQuest 2 was perhaps the first to explore a pay-to-play content area with The Splitpaw Saga. Everyone I talked at the time to enjoyed this "adventure pack" immensely, but perhaps Splitpaw Saga's fatal flaw was that, though it was aimed at mid-level players, SS was released seven long months after launch and at a time when WoW's largesse was already picking off many of the stragglers.
Thanks largely to Fallout 3 and the music games, DLCs are back in a big way. That's why it didn't really surprise me to see that the concept was firmly wedded to DragonAge: Origins - wedded to the point that a camp merchant was trying to talk me into picking up the Warden's Keep DLC. At first I was a little put out that I just dropped $52.39 for a non-subscription game and now this Levi guy was hitting me up for more. Why not wait a week or two before the hard sell? But DragonAge is far from an incomplete game without premium content and I can certainly see the value in introducing players to the concept. Nevertheless, Soldier's Peak can certainly wait for me to save the day elsewhere.
Since BioWare just launched its own social hub and point-buying portal, we're likely to see a similar DLC approach for Mass Effect 2 and perhaps even their first MMO project, the wildly anticipated Star Wars: The Old Republic. That made me wonder just how much real-world money a BioWare point equates to.
In case you were wondering too, one dollar (US) will buy you...
80 BioWare points (DragonAge's "Warden's Keep" new content area costs 560 points or $7, and "The Stone Prisoner" - the recruitable golem party-member Shale - costs 1200 points or $15). You can currently buy BioWare points in denomenations of 400, 560, 800, and 1600. Note that you can buy exactly enough points to cover the two existing DLCs. 80 Microsoft points (used for Xbox 360 and certain PC (Fallout 3, for example) DLCs, Xbox Live Arcade games, and - long a point of contention for Zune owners - licensed music). Buy in denomenations of 500, 1000, 2000, and 5000. 100 Nintendo points (used for Wii Virtual Console games and DLCs). Purchasable in denomenations of 100, 300, 500 or 1000 points (online) or 2000 points (retail). $1 in the PlayStation 3 online store, which is to say that Sony is the only consoleer that shows prices in real world dollars.Interestingly, none of the point packages offer discounts for larger denomenation point buys. 80 points to a dollar is an interesting ratio too, since we typically have the most trouble with the "eights" on a multiplication table. It makes it just a little harder to hash out how much something costs in real dollars, sans calculator. And though I couldn't find a scientific study to validate the claim, international travelers have often observed that when your currency converts to larger numbers (when your $8 turns into 1,000 Icelandic kroner), you tend to spend more carelessly.
I'm not a fan of these intermediary "points" currencies, mostly because I always seem to have too little or too much for the rare occasions when I want to buy something. I realize that this approach helps with regionalization, since you can list one price and only deal with the initial money-to-points conversion rate as currency fluctuates. For the laziest among us, it's nice that you can do one transaction for a few months of virtual transactions, and that you always have the perfect gift for the console gamer in your life. Yet given the obfuscation of true prices, it's always bit of a sucker buy. That grates on me.
What's your take on DLCs and the "points" approach adopted by consoles and now BioWare? Share your opinion in the Loading... forum!
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day
From our PC & Console Games (Non-MMO)
Beerkeg Review: Uncharted 2 multiplayer
Our
PC & Console games forum has become a busy place in a short amount
of time, proving that you're interested in talking about non-MMO games
with Ten Ton Hammer community members. Beerkeg (a person in this case,
not a thing) offered his review of Uncharted 2 about a month ago, and
the replies have been rolling in ever since. Check out this jumpin'
thread, get the lowdown, and add your own opinions on Uncharted 2.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"I have to say without a doubt
that Naughty Dog just floored me with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.
However, they out did themselves with Uncharted 2. This is one of the
best development companies on the planet. This should be game of the
year hands down."
- OneEyeRed
==============================
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