DLC Mania

The DLC screen from Dishonored.

Downloadable content has become a staple in gaming.  You buy a game, play it for awhile, and then get some new content to keep things fresh.  Some DLC adds in new content or characters to flesh out a game.  Other DLC might add in fun items like new skins or cosmetic effects.  But is this DLC excessive?  I know that some game series are guilty of releasing a glut of DLC (Borderlands or The Sims are two that immediately come to mind).  Do you buy it? Or angrily ignore it?  Is DLC just another way for developers to make more money?  Are gamers getting ripped off?

I would call myself a cautious consumer of DLC.  I don't immediately slap down cash on all the DLC from a specific game.  I want to know that what I am buying is going to be worth the money I spend.  For the most part I will invest in DLC that adds content to a game (like Lair of the Shadow Broker from Mass Effect 2) but will probably avoid the more cosmetically angled content packs.  I don't really care that I can spend five extra dollars to make my character look cooler.  I already spent forty or fifty dollars, why can't they just put all that cosmetic stuff in the game?  I can't help but feel that features like that are nothing but a way to make consumers spend more money.  In my World of Warcraft days I was always shocked at the number of people who purchased all the special flying mounts--bought with real cash.  I would much rather spend the time to grind out a cool mount rather than just spending some cash for one.

The Sims series is notorious for releasing extra content packs.  The Sims 3 featured eleven expansion packs, nine "stuff" packs, and ten purchaseable cities.  But why buy all this extra stuff when there is an extensive community of extremely creative Sims geniuses cranking out cool stuff for free?  I have to greatly admire the modding community that creates content for free as a labor of love for a game.

Whether you are a DLC junkie or a cautious consumer, keep on gaming the way you game.  Thanks to the modding community for making fantastic free additions to make the games we love even better.