Some gamers question paying for downloadable content

By Cathryn Buecker

Staff Writer

SPRINGFIELD ―  Every person who plays games, whether that be on PC or console, will tell you that gaming is an expensive hobby.

There’s the cost of the console or computer. There’s the controllers. The cords. Subscriptions to online gaming. And all of this is before they even buy the game they wish to play.

As if that wasn’t enough, many gamers feel as if game developers are now selling incomplete games. If one wants to play the whole game, they have to pay extra.

Jahiah Gordon, who has been playing console and PC games much of her life, dislikes this idea of these “unfinished” games being sold.

“There’s nothing fun about paying for content you should have already gotten when you bought the whole game,” Gordon said.

In the last decade, game companies have been offering extra content for their games. This downloadable content, called DLCs, is typically either a special item you can put in your game or additional game play that either adds to or continues the story of the original game.

While some of these DLCs, like the item-oriented ones, are simply fun bonuses to game play, others hold crucial parts of the game’s story. This wouldn’t present a problem if the purchase of the DLCs was not entirely separate from the purchase of the game. DLCs are bought independently, most costing near $20.

This unfortunately means that nowadays, when gamers buy a game, they are not getting the full game most of the time. “Dragon Age: Inquisition,” a role-playing game from Bioware, released just last month its final expansion titled “Trespasser,” which turned out to be the “true ending” of the game. “Trespasser” wrapped up a few lingering questions about the original game’s plot and alluded to the continuation of the story for any future “Dragon Age” games.

“I absolutely hate it,” gamer Kaitlin Atterbury said. “Put it in the game with everything else and charge us a fair price for it.”

Not all players mind the price, however. Dalton Henderson, a Lincoln Land student, believes their worth the extra price. Recently, the popular first-person shooter “Destiny” developed by Bungie released its third DLC, The Taken King provided both new missions to play and new gear for players. Henderson bought this new expansion, and believes it was worth the extra money.

“It might have been a little too pricey but I think it was worth it,” Henderson said. “I think it’s fair because the original is just the bare bones of the game, and everything else is `1extra.”

Sam Schuh, another LLCC student, purchased this same DLC and agrees that The Taken King was worth the price.

“As long as companies provide what they promise with it, then I don’t mind it,” said Schuh.

This trend of game companies charging for extra, and sometimes necessary, content, has mixed opinions among the gaming community. Luckily or unluckily, this idea of separate content does not seem like it will ever stop. All gamers can do is try to spend their money wisely.
Cathryn Buecker can be reached at [email protected].