How can Steam allow the DLC scam to continue?

[Riccardo]

This is utterly ridiculous. Companies are marketing content worth less than 1% of their original product for 20% or more of the price of the product itself. Steam can permit whatever deal they want on their platform and if they do it it's because they agree with this disingenuous behaviour by gaming companies as long as it's the population who is going to pay the cost.There are a lot of other issues which i would like to discuss regarding their practices but, here, the focus will be on this issue.

[Albcatmastercat]

Are you referencing the EA things (AKA the Train Simulator DLCs)?

[Riccardo]

Originally posted by Albcatmastercat:

Are you referencing the EA things (AKA the Train Simulator DLCs)?

All of it. Many other companies followed those who lead it and that's to be expected from the market. If one company does it, all the others will do, it's a pathology of the market system, and that's not the issue here. The issue is Steam allowing this to happen on their platform, which they are not obligated to by law, therefore they are responsible for it.

[Albcatmastercat]

Originally posted by Riccardo:

Originally posted by Albcatmastercat:

Are you referencing the EA things (AKA the Train Simulator DLCs)?

All of it. Many other companies followed those who lead it and that's to be expected from the market. If one company does it, all the others will do, it's a pathology of the market system, and that's not the issue here. The issue is Steam allowing this to happen on their platform, which they are not obligated to by law, therefore they are responsible for it.

Oh well, that's the gaming industry for you, nowadays...

Semi-related: Did you notice that games are getting easier and with less base content as well?

[Starwhite]

They aren't required by the law to sell FPS games either and I don't like those. They're only about frames and more ads for high-end GPUs than actual games. So they should stop the FPS scam right away and focus more on games I like.

[Riccardo]

Originally posted by Albcatmastercat:

Originally posted by Riccardo:

All of it. Many other companies followed those who lead it and that's to be expected from the market. If one company does it, all the others will do, it's a pathology of the market system, and that's not the issue here. The issue is Steam allowing this to happen on their platform, which they are not obligated to by law, therefore they are responsible for it.

Oh well, that's the gaming industry for you, nowadays...

Semi-related: Did you notice that games are getting easier and with less base content as well?

Of course, you can see discussions on these practices all over the internet, on Youtube, Facebook, etcetera, and it's to be expected. This is the way the system works, and if we want a different outcome we should change the system, not a manager or a CEO. You can have the most decent and honest CEO who supports a reasonable gaming industry for both the developers and the gamers, but if he is to perform his institutional function within the system he will commit the practices that you've mentioned and that will only increase, unless people do something about it. But the structure is there, and is being imposed by conscious social policy. It has nothing to do with laws of nature, or the market and it's infinite wisdom, or various things to which this is attributed. It is perfectly deliberate social policy and there's no reason why we should tolerate it.

[Albcatmastercat]

Originally posted by Riccardo:

-Snip for convenience-

Check some games, such as Geometry Dash and Super Meat Boy; they are a lot harder than the average game, and thus receive some very disappointing reviews such as:
"It too hard "
They then need "Help", and barrel through a given game, to which they state:
"Game too short "...

[Riccardo]

Originally posted by Starwhite:

They aren't required by the law to sell FPS games either and I don't like those. They're only about frames and more ads for high-end GPUs than actual games. So they should stop the FPS scam right away and focus more on games I like.

Having a particular genre is perfectly legitimate. This is not a scam. I've described the action which it's pretty straightforward in the description of the question.

[Albcatmastercat]

Originally posted by Riccardo:

Originally posted by Starwhite:

They aren't required by the law to sell FPS games either and I don't like those. They're only about frames and more ads for high-end GPUs than actual games. So they should stop the FPS scam right away and focus more on games I like.

Having a particular genre is perfectly legitimate. This is not a scam. I've described the action which it's pretty straightforward in the description of the question.

I have to say, though, that certain genres are overruning the market (It works, so they stay on the genre). Ended up with several God of War-ish games, and the novelty weared off...

[Riccardo]

Originally posted by Albcatmastercat:

Originally posted by Riccardo:

Having a particular genre is perfectly legitimate. This is not a scam. I've described the action which it's pretty straightforward in the description of the question.

I have to say, though, that certain genres are overruning the market (It works, so they stay on the genre). Ended up with several God of War-ish games, and the novelty weared off...

But that again has nothing to do with genres. It's another practice to ignore genres and usual formats in order to present the most profitable model for these companies regardless of the quality of content, much less so the opinion of the consumers. They like to forget, or to say it better, ignore, that if it weren't for the consumers they wouldn't have a business at all, no jobs, no massive profits for the CEO's, no market share, nothing.

[Albcatmastercat]

Originally posted by Riccardo:

Originally posted by Albcatmastercat:

I have to say, though, that certain genres are overruning the market (It works, so they stay on the genre). Ended up with several God of War-ish games, and the novelty weared off...

But that again has nothing to do with genres. It's another practice to ignore genres and usual formats in order to present the most profitable model for these companies regardless of the quality of content, much less so the opinion of the consumers. They like to forget, or to say it better, ignore, that if it weren't for the consumers they wouldn't have a business at all, no jobs, no massive profits for the CEO's, no market share, nothing.

It's sad, In My Opinion...
For instance, I hate Soccer games, but, alas, several of those made into PSN's Classics, whereas some games, such as Rogue Squadron, were lost in time now...

[kaboomboom]

Companies and STEAM do things like this because they know consumers will buy it.

EASY solution, STOP BUYING THIS KIND OF KRAP!

WAIT AND SEE!

READ SOME REVIEWS.

Don't buy a game if it does not include enough content to justify the price.

Nothing wrong with a DLC that adds lots of additional content so it is worth the price. However, some DLC's are cash grab crap! Wait! Read trusted reviews, and make sure the DLC is worth it.

Game developers are busness people, they are greedy and want money. They will use any means necessary to seperate you from your money.

As consumers, it is our job to train the business people, and make them understand that the only way they will get our money is if they give us a good value in exchange.

If you are one of those fools that over pays for lame DLC's, they you are hurting all of us by teaching the devs that they can get away with it!

[Albcatmastercat]

Originally posted by kaboomboom:

-Snip- to keep it non-wall of text.

Agreed. Check out Super Mario Bros. U; they released a DLC claiming to double the game, but, alas, turned it all into time attack levels...

[Aahzmandias]

The only people, who can do something about it are WE, the customers. Don't buy this crap, and the practice stops.

I only buy GotY editions, complete games. I don't bother any longer with incomplete, fresh released games.

If we would do this all together, things will change. Otherwise, it gets only worse. Like Squeenix is selling games in lttle pieces now, with no guarantee they will be finished at all. Look at the Hitman crap they sell now.

Nobody is even able to review this ♥♥♥♥, because it is more incomplete than an early access game! Can you believe that? Whoever buys this, must be a braindead idiot.

[Doomerang]

Originally posted by Albcatmastercat:

Originally posted by Riccardo:

All of it. Many other companies followed those who lead it and that's to be expected from the market. If one company does it, all the others will do, it's a pathology of the market system, and that's not the issue here. The issue is Steam allowing this to happen on their platform, which they are not obligated to by law, therefore they are responsible for it.

Oh well, that's the gaming industry for you, nowadays...

Semi-related: Did you notice that games are getting easier and with less base content as well?

No. Rpg's back then on the snes / nes would take roughly 25-30 hours, action games 1-2. I'm playing Assassin's creed black flag right now, and it's looking it will clock me in at nearly 100 hours to 100%.

I remember playing Xenogears on psx, and was absolutely floored it took me 60 hours to finish because I could not believe a game could even be so long. I've been gaming since nearly the beginning and do not agree with you at all, sorry.

[iCeDrAgOn]

Let's face it... DLC is the fault of the Console's... before consoles actually got internet access they were very much like PC's in the sense that a game was shipped complete with all content presnet if it wasn't in the original game, then it wasn't shipped OR it was later included in an EXPANSION to the game that added signifigent amounts of game play to the base game.

Once consoles started getting internet access then that's when the microtransactions form hell started with the DLC craze. Developers started getting lazy by not completing their ideas, they would ge their games to an "ahh it's good enough" state then ship it knowing that they could add on extra content later though the new DLC system found in the XBox, PS2 and PS3. It even got to the point where games out of the box for these consoles were requiering patches that had to be downloaded before they could even be played.

And eventually that translated to the PC when we started getting console ports, they never combined all the DLC in to one package, they just left it "AS IS" and shipped all the parts together and us PC gamers wanting the complete experience for the game would go and get all the DLC and all the companies started thinking "Hey the PC guys are just as dumb as the ones on console so let's keep on pumping out the DLC"

As for the price of these things. well again it is us the consumer's fault for paying $7.99 or god only knows what just to play on different maps. As so many have said, if you want to stop this practice, you need to stop buying the DLC.