I don't mind paying for content if it's released a good amount of time after the initial release of the game, and I know that it has been developed during that time. I point to the same example Prof S. pointed to : I think the extra content for Fable 2 has been really good, and very reasonably priced. And it has been released in stages as they finished it.
I completely agree that with this rant though...purposefully making a game not as good as it could be by withholding features already available just to sell them separately is ridiculous. I feel the same way towards exclusive content that is released on one system and not another, or bonus content only available to people who buy a "special" version of the game, such as the extra costumes and such that were in the Soul Caliber game that cost $10 more.
However, I wouldn't say this completely hurts the customer, since I will just refuse to buy such a game.
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Originally Posted by Angrist
Remember the day of patches? You would download a patch which included new stuff. For free.
Now they charge €4 for a new custome in Final Fantasy: My Life as a King.
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Team Fortress 2. So far we have received 21 new weapons, a ton of new maps, several new game modes, a slew of hats to customize your character with, and tons upon tons of balance fixes and bug fixes. I have never payed anything beyond the initial $20 price tag of the game.
Now, this won't be true for the Xbox version whenever those updates finally come out, but that isn't really Valve's fault. They want to provide the content for free, but Microsoft said no.
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Online console gaming has improved a bit, but even back when Xbox Live first came out I was really perplexed that people were willing to pay for content (well...and a service like Xbox Live...which is like AOL for console gaming).
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I don't really get everything you're saying here. I think Xbox Live is a fantastic system, first of all, and I'm not sure how you can compare it to AOL. Live gives you a very easy way to keep up with friends and interact with them, as well as access to tons of demo's, a central hub for playing games online with other people (instead of having an incoherent server list for every multi-player pc game you have), access to the arcade, and netflix streaming among other things.
And yes, you do have to pay for some of this content, like the arcade games for example. But these games are being developed by separate groups who deserve to earn money for their product, I'm not sure why you think the content should be given away for free (and some of it actually is).