The Video Game Critic

I agree 100 percent.   Never buy horse armor for 2 dollars or new clothes for Tiger Woods for 1.50.   You are enabling them.  Never ever do that, stuff like that should be free, expecially connsidering Xbox live costs money and the prices of games went up to 60.  But I don't want to rule out online purchases all together.  If they want to create expansion packs that are downloadable that are as good as PC expansion packs for a reasonable price, then that would be awesome (As long as DRM doesn't show its ugly foot if you need to redownload it or transfer it to another Xbox).   But these micro tranactions have got to go.

Its all about 'disposable' income. Look how much money people throw away on supeficial garbage for their cellphones. The money must pour in when people text votes on reality shows, or vote on the 'greatest college football moment' or some other meaningless poll on sports.

Additional content that comes out later for a 'complete' game is one thing, but no doubt this little trend will get more and more out of hand, until the consumer finally says, "Enough!"

I spose we will also see more adds in games, and I am instinctively negative on that, although Pikmin 2 for GC really did it in a clever, unoffensive way. The Dole sticker on the bannanas in Monkeyball wasn't so bad either. Of coures, the additional income these games presumeably raked in through these adds did not lower their purchase price. Its like commercials in movie theaters, just how much can you take?

I'm all for micro-transactions... if the publishers sell the original game way below MSRP or free!  A barebones "FIFA '08" for $9.99 + extra modes + player uniforms + special teams = about $49.99 in the end.

[QUOTE=Atarifever]I think it makes sense in some cases.  Not everyone would want a Sevendust song for Guitar Hero, but if a pack of them were offered to download for the game (after I had already bought the actual Guitar Hero game with a good selection of songs) then for $10 or something, I'd be all over it.  It would improve the experience in games like Guitar Hero, DDR, Dneky Kongas, etc.  However, once th transactions are accepted, it is impossible that they will not get out of hand and destroy all that is good in gaming.  Eventually a game will cost $100+ to be worth "owning" and even then, half your game will likely be on temporary lease to you from the publisher.  This is not just a prediction, you can put that one down as prophecy.[/QUOTE]

I agree with the first part of what you said but not the second.  I think that pay-per-download content is a good idea in general, and I personally believe that the example you described is right on the money.  We're all willing to buy Guitar Hero II for what amounts to just a different song-list at full MSRP.  What about just downloading those songs in a pack to add to our original game?  Seems great in the abstract.  Personally, I prefer having hard media on disc or cart, so it isn't quite as appealing to me, but most gamers I know don't hold onto their old games anyway.  For them, downloadable content is perfect.

Same goes with other beefier examples.  I wouldn't mind playing new dungeons for Twilight Princess at this point.  That was hinted at in the past.  And I don't think it's out of the question for someone to download a new adventure package with new areas to explore, quests to fulfill, enemies to fight, etc., for Oblivion.  Again though, I would hope that there is an option to buy those bigger items on disc.  I prefer the idea of hard media.

The part I don't agree with is that this trend has to ruin gaming.  Right now it's a bit young, and we see mostly useless content available for download (outside of the game itself) -- silly things like costumes, etc.  I think personally that we should avoid buying things like that, and buy only those things that truly expand the game, and weren't reasonable to add to the game's initial release.  In such a situation, it would be more heavily encouraged for gaming companies to release truly great and worthwhile content and leave the minor stuff to the game's original package.