Comments on: (Audio Post) Round Table: DLC I think there is a perception that if you buy something you get "something" and a hefty download is now considered "getting something" in this digital world. So if it just turns on a bit, you feel like - hey I should have been able to do that myself without paying you. We've shipped with DLC on the disk before. It was designed into the schedule for day one - game ships with N levels, and level X will be available for download X days after release. It seemed "convenient" to just put the DLC on the disk since there was plenty of space for it. I don't think we would have been more "ethical" for removing from the disk and forcing a download, but the perception of value-for-money would have increased... I think also what makes it "feel" wrong to some people is that the project was designed with a 2 cash points - get money for the game and then try and get some more money for the download, and as mentioned on the audio blog, this is not disclosed up front... That is capitalism and it is purely meant to maximise profits - it doesn't care about ethics, except when exposing them would negatively impact on sales. I think idealists think all games are made with the sole intent of making the best possible user experience, but a lot of them just start with IP + Game + Monetization = Profit formulae and go from there... Thankfully this is not all companies... some do seem to take player satisfaction as No.1 with the hope that that will lead to great games which leads to great sales and loyal followers... Some of those companies seem to be well represented on AltDevBlogADay :) I think there is a perception that if you buy something you get “something” and a hefty download is now considered “getting something” in this digital world. So if it just turns on a bit, you feel like – hey I should have been able to do that myself without paying you.

We’ve shipped with DLC on the disk before. It was designed into the schedule for day one – game ships with N levels, and level X will be available for download X days after release. It seemed “convenient” to just put the DLC on the disk since there was plenty of space for it. I don’t think we would have been more “ethical” for removing from the disk and forcing a download, but the perception of value-for-money would have increased…

I think also what makes it “feel” wrong to some people is that the project was designed with a 2 cash points – get money for the game and then try and get some more money for the download, and as mentioned on the audio blog, this is not disclosed up front… That is capitalism and it is purely meant to maximise profits – it doesn’t care about ethics, except when exposing them would negatively impact on sales. I think idealists think all games are made with the sole intent of making the best possible user experience, but a lot of them just start with IP + Game + Monetization = Profit formulae and go from there…

Thankfully this is not all companies… some do seem to take player satisfaction as No.1 with the hope that that will lead to great games which leads to great sales and loyal followers… Some of those companies seem to be well represented on AltDevBlogADay :)

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By: Mike Acton/2011/03/12/audio-post-round-table-dlc/#comment-1542 Mike Acton Sun, 13 Mar 2011 06:10:24 +0000