The new Season Pass is basically against Valve's rules

[Ygdrad]

As per Valve's own recently changed/released rules on season passes:
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/seasonpass
"A Season Pass must include at least one released DLC when it is made available for purchase"

Giving us a single portrait is barely a technicality and does not, in my opinion, follow the spirit of the rules put in place by Valve to protect us, the consumers. Paradox is willfully trying to circumvent the new rules. I would encourage everyone to be vocal about this as if nothing gets done, these rules might as well not exist.

With that out of the way, I'm not a hater. I've gotten more or less every other DLC from Paradox and want to save money so I got this one. I expect that, as usual, the DLC's will probably release in various kinds of broken states with questionable balance and exploits that will get worked out in the following months but will expand gameplay and roleplay options in interesting ways.

And before anyone posts the following I'll already answer.

Q: If you don't support this, then why buy it?
A: Thing is I love Stellaris and want to keep supporting its development. Like I said, I'm not a hater. This is just a practice worth calling out given the rules because it's the laziest attempt at ignoring the rule possible and that can't be allowed to be the norm.

Q: The portrait is technically a DLC/cosmetic DLC's exist/they've done this before/ect... so you're wrong.
A: Compare the rest of the season pass to a single portrait. It's the most obvious attempt at gaming the rule on a technicality possible. If you let publishers ignore rules meant to protect consumers using the laziest of technicalities imaginable, the rules might as well not exist. If this is acceptable then any publisher can avoid the rules by giving people a PNG and calling it a DLC. The rule was meant to stop season passes being sold with no real game content at launch. Unless you want to try to argue that a single portrait constitutes a reasonable amount of game content, this season pass launched with basically no real game content, the very thing the rule was meant to protect us from

[Slayer577]

Yeah I literally just uninstalled the game after seeing this. Disappointing in the direction the updates are going in terms of price, quality, and gameplay.

Moves like this are a total step backwards from keeping the game fun and engaging. There is just no way given the state of things that I would ever pay for a season pass. Even if I enjoyed the game now as much as I did a couple years ago (which was a lot) - I would still consider this a slap in the face.

[The Sylvan Learning Center]

Boys get your CCS out and enter the CC info.


Give them your money. You're gonna do it, just get it over with.

[Gareque]

Why do you think they released one that's nothing more than a picture and called it one of the 4 DLC?

They found a loop hole of sorts.

[RCMidas]

Report it to Valve then. Don't sit on your laurels. Go and do something about it. Actually do something. Steam support, full complaint about TOS violation, the works. This thread means nothing if you don't actually get off your backside and do something.

[Doug Dimmadong]

Yeah, pretty true. I'm sure the portrait saves them by technicality. However, buying season passes/pre-ordering content has always been a dumb thing. You should never buy things that don't exist yet, seems common sense to me.

[Ygdrad]

Originally posted by RCMidas:

Report it to Valve then. Don't sit on your laurels. Go and do something about it. Actually do something. Steam support, full complaint about TOS violation, the works. This thread means nothing if you don't actually get off your backside and do something.

I did, and if more people realise and do it too, then Valve might actually do something. Why do you think I made this post? I invite you to reach out to support and report it too.

[Ygdrad]

Originally posted by Doug Dimmadong:

Yeah, pretty true. I'm sure the portrait saves them by technicality. However, buying season passes/pre-ordering content has always been a dumb thing. You should never buy things that don't exist yet, seems common sense to me.

The problem is I understand how the industry works. Do you want to know why they released it now rather than later? the first financial quarter ends March 31st. The suits just wanted bigger numbers for the shareholders so they sell us nothing for the moment. If the shareholders don't see good numbers when they expect them, usually at launch of a product they will ask the CEO to change priorities/focus on something else or even abandon the game. Launch sale numbers of games and DLC's are extremely important for their continued development. Like I said, I want to support the continued development of Stellaris.

[Doug Dimmadong]

I don't know, this is pretty weird to me. Yes, you want to support the game, cool but you're also complaining about and even going as far as reporting it to Valve...while also directly enabling it, by just immediately buying it. That's like some 5 dimensional mind games going on. I don't understand.

[Ygdrad]

Originally posted by Doug Dimmadong:

I don't know, this is pretty weird to me. Yes, you want to support the game, cool but you're also complaining about and even going as far as reporting it to Valve...while also directly enabling it, by just immediately buying it. That's like some 5 dimensional mind games going on. I don't understand.

It's simple.
1. I love Stellaris and want to support its continued development
2. I want to do what I can, outside of voting with my wallet since I DON'T want to hurt Stellaris, to bring attention to this so either Valve will do something about this, which is unlikely, or they will reword their rule or add extra wording that closes the loophole of being able to call anything, including the written recipe for a cake, a DLC.

Those two things aren't mutually exclusive. I can want Stellaris to succeed and play my part in that while also wanting less anti-consumer sale practices.

[Doug Dimmadong]

You can support the game by just buying the DLCs as they come out. Reporting to Valve won't do anything, they know what they're doing hence why they have the portrait as a technicality. That is unless Valve decides to make the rules even stricter but that is a hail Mary play. So really all you're doing is telling Paradox that doing this is a good idea because it gets them your money immediately now instead of later. You are, in part, responsible for the thing you hate existing. It's like a weed but you're watering it. I guess we're just on different wavelengths.

[Lost Latios]

You want them to stop? Don't buy it.

Valve either cares or they don't and in the case that they don't care, money talks, and you just rewarded them.

I'm not buying a season pass so they can bundle up their poorer outsourced DLCs and sell them to me when I'd otherwise skip them. I'll wait for the inevitable discount, thanks.

[MrBagHead]

am i going crazy or is the new season pass even more expensive then 8?
and the first "DLC" is a portrait
personally i think ill just wait until its about time they release the last "DLC" in this season and decide if its worth my money which im sure i will buy it at that point but id rather see the reviews before i spend $45 on a season pass which is $15 away from being a AAA game title price, i really wish stellaris had a competitor, another space game very similar with better ideals then paradox because they ruin everything they ever make with an endless stream of DLC

[Antearz]

Well. Its Technically Obeying the Rules.
So wether its Cheesy or not does not Matter.

Question People need to Ask themselves.
Are the DLCs Promised in the Package Worth the Spending.
If the Answer is Yes. You Believe that to be the Case. Then it really does not matter if the First DLC is just a Cosmetic Portrait.
Because You dont get the Season Pass for the Portrait. You get it because You get a Discount for the other DLCs You Expect to be Worth the Money.
If You dont believe that to be the Case. Then the Portrait is certainly not gonna Convince You to Buy it. So at least they are not giving You any False Incentives :P

[Elitewrecker PT]

Originally posted by MrBagHead:

am i going crazy or is the new season pass even more expensive then 8?
and the first "DLC" is a portrait
personally i think ill just wait until its about time they release the last "DLC" in this season and decide if its worth my money which im sure i will buy it at that point but id rather see the reviews before i spend $45 on a season pass which is $15 away from being a AAA game title price, i really wish stellaris had a competitor, another space game very similar with better ideals then paradox because they ruin everything they ever make with an endless stream of DLC

Yes, but that s dependent on the prices of the dlcs that are part of it.

[Them8]

The problem with this resoning is they did this last year aswell, at a time when they did not have to. I think the structure worked for them last time so they just did it again.