DLC survey

[PangaeaACDC]

Surprisingly little cover and discussion about this (unless I missed it somewhere?), but I hope people fill it out and offer them a torrent of wishes of proper expansions, like White March, instead of 200 bitsized cashgrabs.

 

You can check out the news item and fill out the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/OEIDLCSurvey1

[Enoch]

Several threads in the Obsidian General subforum.

[rjshae]

I expect the polling trend to be: more bang for fewer bucks.

[Lephys]

Heh. Honestly, the general trend of "we've got to pump out add-on content at very regular intervals" has been a terrible one for game content. The old games used to have full-blown (sometimes standalone) expansions that released at like 30 or 40 bucks as compared to 50 or 60 for the base game. Sometimes it would take them a year or so to get these out. Sometimes they took a bit less time and were a bit smaller, etc. It was very organic. So, it felt a lot more like the process was "Come up with idea > production plan it > produce accordingly." Now it's just "Production plan regular content > try to hurriedly come up with content that's not SUPER extensive, but isn't so piddly people will get mad, so that it's just kind of "meh" in scope/quality > make it really, really fast, because the arbitrary deadline's more important than the quality of the idea or its execution."

 

It reminds me of a burger place saying "We'll get your meal out in 5 minutes or it's free!". Then, maybe 1 in 10 people gets an actually-cooked burger, but at least everyone's getting food constantly, right? *eye roll*

[Valmy]

Yeah those kinds of expansions are really what I want. DLC seemed like a good idea at the time but it pretty much sucks now. Now if you want to go buy an old game from seven or eight years ago instead of getting it all for cheap you often find yourself having to buy the DLC at full price to get the complete game. F that.

[Wormerine]

Whenever DLC is an expansion or a smaller add on what I want from it is to be worth owning. I prefer more meaty expansions even if they were to double the cost of the “full experience”.

 

I am mostly frustrated with bad DLC. Things which you don’t really want in your game as either they ruin balance or are just boring. I remember being upset at Dragon Age for starting a quest and than telling you you have to buy it (like the guy at your camp standing with exclamation point over his head). But you know what’s worse? That this content was completely not worth getting or playing through. After many years I got complete edition on steam and gosh, all the side DLCs are garbage. You loose if you don’t have it, you loose if you do. Finally forcing myself to playthrough the bigger expansion, Awakening, and so far having ok time. Well, except one of my companions having invisible outfit... bugs, bugs, bugs.

[AndreaColombo]

I too voted for meaty expansions. Give me Tales of the Sword Coast any time of day and night.

[Sedrefilos]

Patches to fix stuff and (preferably) post-end game expansion. Everything else is a pass for me.

Edited October 10, 2017 by Sedrefilos

[oddrheia]

I found about that survey from Larian`s twitter >D Good devs stick for each other, I suppose .

 

Also voted for meaty expansions, btw. I'll take an order of White March sized one, thanks!

[ShadySands]

I'll play the tenth dentist and disagree with everyone because I like all kinds. Big or small as long it's well done (who likes bad DLC?) I'll open my wallet. Like I mentioned in those other threads about the same thing, I don't play many games new games each year so I'd prefer to get as much as I can out of the few games that I do like.

[TheisEjsing]

Small expansions are harder to make fairly priced in my experience. I voted for meaty expansion, thou I don't mind more than one. I think The Witcher 3 is the golden standard for DLC content. Some might say that the free DLC program were just a gimmick to keep people interested, since all of that could have been in the original game, but nonetheless, it might just have needed polish (hehe), before the content were on par. And as for the two big DLCs, they were more than faily priced.

I don't mind paying more money if I can feel that the content is labour of love.

[JerekKruger]

I voted for meaty expansions, preferably after the end of the game. To be clear, I thought the two White March expansions were of a good size and quality, and my only complaint was the impact they had on the difficulty curve of the game by having them happen mid game rather than after the main plot finished.

[Climhazzard]

Eventually I'll play PoE 2 to death and really crave some more content, at that time I'll welcome a DLC expansion whole heartedly.  I'd rather it didn't mess up the game progression like the PoE expansions did though.  I'd welcome new classes, systems, etc, whatever they want to put in it as long as there's a healthy chunk of new content.

 

The modern practice to nickle and dime customers through DLC purchases is literally one of the worst things to happen to gaming.  It's not always nickles and dimes either, just check out the prices on DoA 5 costume sets....  lol. It generally puts any company doing it on my **** list, though it doesn't necessarily stop me from playing their games.  "Free" to play games are the same except worse, and I refuse to play those anymore period.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Climhazzard

[TheisEjsing]

Eventually I'll play PoE 2 to death and really crave some more content, at that time I'll welcome a DLC expansion whole heartedly.  I'd rather it didn't mess up the game progression like the PoE expansions did though.  I'd welcome new classes, systems, etc, whatever they want to put in it as long as there's a healthy chunk of new content.

 

The modern practice to nickle and dime customers through DLC purchases is literally one of the worst things to happen to gaming.  It's not always nickles and dimes either, just check out the prices on DoA 5 costume sets....  lol. It generally puts any company doing it on my **** list, though it doesn't necessarily stop me from playing their games.  "Free" to play games are the same except worse, and I refuse to play those anymore period.

Free games are often terrible moneysinks. But hey, they're free, no strings attached. The new trend is that you pay 60 dollars for a tripple A title, and then it starts with the microtransactions right away for things that resemble core gameplay. That has to stop. 

 

I like DLCS better that feels like it adds something to the game, that wasn't supposed to be in the core game. Like a big, oldschool expansion or cosmetic stuff. Most times cosmetic DLC stuff, and alike tends to cost alot compared to the value for the average consumer Thou. But I get it. It takes time to create. There are alot of steps, and consideration to immersion, lore, etc if it's gonna be any good. Still, from a consumers view, it often feels like a cash grab. 

 

I have, along with most others I think, full confidence that Obsidian is aware of the damage such malpractice can cause. I don't think it's likely that we'll see the "Maia Rua, bald eagle" DLC only 4.99$. Buy it today and get the exclusive Serafen dual golden Magnum 44 skin free!

Edited October 11, 2017 by TheisEjsing

[Wormerine]

I just hope they add lootboxes to Deadfire. When leveling up instead of skills&buffs you get a small amount of ingame currency for which you can buy lootboxes. Lootboxes contain items and skills and cosmetics like idle animations, with which you later equip your characters with. High level loot (like Soulbound weapons) are only available through lootboxes. Of course there is no level cap. In all areas enemies get respawned and you will be able to fight bosses multiple times in order to farm XP. Of course, to be consumer friendly you will be given a choice to purchase lootboxes, if you don't have time and want to see the game through.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Wormerine

[Katarack21]

I just hope they add lootboxes to Deadfire. When leveling up instead of skills&buffs you get a small amount of ingame currency for which you can buy lootboxes. Lootboxes contain items and skills and cosmetics like idle animations, with which you later equip your characters with. High level loot (like Soulbound weapons) are only available through lootboxes. Of course there is no level cap. In all areas enemies get respawned and you will be able to fight bosses multiple times in order to farm XP. Of course, to be consumer friendly you will be given a choice to purchase lootboxes, if you don't have time and want to see the game through.

[the_dog_days]

I just hope they add lootboxes to Deadfire. When leveling up instead of skills&buffs you get a small amount of ingame currency for which you can buy lootboxes. Lootboxes contain items and skills and cosmetics like idle animations, with which you later equip your characters with. High level loot (like Soulbound weapons) are only available through lootboxes. Of course there is no level cap. In all areas enemies get respawned and you will be able to fight bosses multiple times in order to farm XP. Of course, to be consumer friendly you will be given a choice to purchase lootboxes, if you don't have time and want to see the game through.

Is this sarcasm?

[Messier-31]

 

I just hope they add lootboxes to Deadfire. When leveling up instead of skills&buffs you get a small amount of ingame currency for which you can buy lootboxes. Lootboxes contain items and skills and cosmetics like idle animations, with which you later equip your characters with. High level loot (like Soulbound weapons) are only available through lootboxes. Of course there is no level cap. In all areas enemies get respawned and you will be able to fight bosses multiple times in order to farm XP. Of course, to be consumer friendly you will be given a choice to purchase lootboxes, if you don't have time and want to see the game through.

Is this sarcasm?

 

 

I HOPE NOT.

[Wormerine]

 

I just hope they add lootboxes to Deadfire. When leveling up instead of skills&buffs you get a small amount of ingame currency for which you can buy lootboxes. Lootboxes contain items and skills and cosmetics like idle animations, with which you later equip your characters with. High level loot (like Soulbound weapons) are only available through lootboxes. Of course there is no level cap. In all areas enemies get respawned and you will be able to fight bosses multiple times in order to farm XP. Of course, to be consumer friendly you will be given a choice to purchase lootboxes, if you don't have time and want to see the game through.

Is this sarcasm?

Not at all. I am simply a gambling addict, who gets bored with every game, which doesn’t remind of a pachinko machine.

 

Think how exciting levelling would become. You never know what you get and if you get it. It would vary the builds up as you could reliably cheese with preplanned strategies. If done right the process of gathering loot required to,progress might expand length of the game drastically. Whenever you invest your time or money The value of each item is so much higher! It would be especially cool if weapons would degrade so even if you roll a a good item you would need to use it sporadically or hunt for another copy.

 

And yes it is sarcasm, don’t loose all the faith in the humanity in spite of Blade Runner 2049 poor box office performance.

[JerekKruger]

I just hope they add lootboxes to Deadfire. When leveling up instead of skills&buffs you get a small amount of ingame currency for which you can buy lootboxes. Lootboxes contain items and skills and cosmetics like idle animations, with which you later equip your characters with. High level loot (like Soulbound weapons) are only available through lootboxes. Of course there is no level cap. In all areas enemies get respawned and you will be able to fight bosses multiple times in order to farm XP. Of course, to be consumer friendly you will be given a choice to purchase lootboxes, if you don't have time and want to see the game through.

 

Fan of Jim Sterling by any chance?

[Wormerine]

 

I just hope they add lootboxes to Deadfire. When leveling up instead of skills&buffs you get a small amount of ingame currency for which you can buy lootboxes. Lootboxes contain items and skills and cosmetics like idle animations, with which you later equip your characters with. High level loot (like Soulbound weapons) are only available through lootboxes. Of course there is no level cap. In all areas enemies get respawned and you will be able to fight bosses multiple times in order to farm XP. Of course, to be consumer friendly you will be given a choice to purchase lootboxes, if you don't have time and want to see the game through.

 

 

Fan of Jim Sterling by any chance?

Fan is a bit much. I dislike his persona, but he makes compelling arguments. While I found his stance on DLC and loot boxes a little bit too extreme I came to realisation that he just knows industry better than I do. I was fine with Overwatch but seeing Deus Ex, Shadow of War and Battlefront 2 really makes me dislike the system. And after a year of events, skins and loot boxes in Overwatch I am really getting tired of it all. And I am a person who isn’t really interested in cosmetics and doesn’t feel a pull to buy those things or grind. Of course, seeing promising games killed by Pay2Win (damn you Dice/EA. Battlefront2 looked just good enough to consider buying) is much worse.

[Sedrefilos]

You either make games for normal people who enjoy playing games or you make games for (those who are self-defined as) gamers.

[PangaeaACDC]

A picture the developers may recognise. It is quite fitting here too.

 

 

 

I agree with the others that mentioned it, that although I loved White March, having it in the middle of the base game meant balance went out the window, especially in the later stages of the game.

 

Hopefully Obsidian make proper, full expansion(s) like that for POE2 as well, though perhaps it's a better approach to have events in them occur after the main game ends.

 

 

As for random loot boxes, of course it was sarcasm above, but this was a seriously annoying part of Wasteland 2. You find a crate, protected by locks, explosives and an alarm (and each one has a chance to blow up, no matter your skill levels). Finally you get through it all. Inside you find 3 bullets and a used condom. WOOOOOOOH!!!

 

(And being a typical RPG player of COLLECT IT ALL, it was hard to walk past these damn crates).

Edited October 11, 2017 by PangaeaACDC

[Wormerine]

As for random loot boxes, of course it was sarcasm above, but this was a seriously annoying part of Wasteland 2. You find a crate, protected by locks, explosives and an alarm (and each one has a chance to blow up, no matter your skill levels). Finally you get through it all. Inside you find 3 bullets and a used condom. WOOOOOOOH!!!

 

Hey, I doubt they produce new condoms and children are difficult to raise after WW3. You use what you find.

[Archaven]

I choose meaty expansion. Not a big fan of small DLCs.