The problems with DLC
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posted06/14/2010 04:27 PM (UTC)by
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Garlador
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02/23/2003 03:56 AM (UTC)
All throughout MK vs DC's development, people talked about DLC characters and extra fighters, and I've noticed people are doing it again.

Now, I feel I should explain a few things and temper some expectations. DLC characters in fighting games are extremely difficult to implement. Why? Because in an online battle, both parties involved need to share the same resources for the match to work correctly.

There has never been a fighting game with true DLC characters for that very reason. Soul Calibur IV had "DLC" characters, but it was found that the characters were there on the disc; you just had to pay to unlock them. Street Fighter IV didn't have DLC characters, but instead retooled the game for a separate update with the new characters. They even had to include all their costumes packs on the disc to ensure all the geometry, textures, and physics would function online without hindering their player base. Dead or Alive, Tekken, and Virtua Fighter all have an absence of DLC characters for that same reason.

Now, there are a couple of ways to get by this. Street Fighter IV did this with the Tournament Pack (to a degree) where they launched the DLC and it created a whole separate section within the game, much like Halo or Call of Duty maps, that ensured that those that didn't have the content could play certain modes, but only those with the extra content could have access to these new additions. Another is a mandatory update for every owner of the game that involuntarily patches the game and installs these characters onto the harddrive to make all copies compatible, which would be fine if said characters and file sizes were not too extreme.

But on the whole, DLC with fighting games is not very practical, and even the MK team admits they designed MK vs DC with the idea of adding Quan Chi and Harley Quinn into the mix, only to discover they didn't have the technology or time to smoothly integrate them into the experience.

So, honestly, I hope the game is DLC-less. The roster is the final roster, for good or ill. Otherwise, I'll be rather upset to pay a fee to unlock content buried on the disc. But I'll wait and see.
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Nephrite
06/12/2010 05:15 PM (UTC)
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I'm not a fan of DLC. Take extra time to make the game and then just finish it up and move on to the next project. With DLC you end up spending too much money on one game. And the game itself is usually a bit too expensive, at least here where I live. FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer, two very popular franchises, usually cost around 90$. I think MKvsDC was around 80$.
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Barakaz_cuz
06/12/2010 05:19 PM (UTC)
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I've always found DLC a bit cheap. Kind of like console-exclusive characters. You can't please everyone, so instead you bend them over a table and hope for the best. (There are a few exceptions, such as FPS maps and such. But I am mainly referring to the aforementioned. I'm still reeling over not being able to play as Spawn in SC2. Instead I got some old coot who didn't really care for.)

Don't release a half-assed game, screwing me out of 60 or more of my dollars, and later release the other half expecting me to pay more for it.

I was excited to see the release date extended to 2011. It gave me a small glimmer of hope, a teeny tiny speck of hope, that this game is not a rushed, half-assed mess but instead a complete game. Worth my time, money, and affection.
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jpetrunak
06/12/2010 06:00 PM (UTC)
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I agree 100%. There is a difference between Download able Content, and Download able Access. And its going to catch up with the publishers.

What I think would be perfect for MK however, would be to utilize firmware updates to the game, in the same way they used to update the Arcade boards.

Just imagine you buy the game, and 2 weeks later , you sign on and the game wants you to update. Now your playing and out of now where a ninja pops with some sort of cryptic clue on how to find him. You figure out that you have to beat X character, on Y stage, with Z rules , and upon completing the task you unlock that character.

Then a month later you get another game update, and randomly 2 weeks later you start getting more random secret character clues. Then a couple of people figure out what to do and it points to another real world date.

That date comes along and you get more hints and more secret characters , fatalities , stages, ect.

One of the greatest aspects of Mortal Kombat is finding out the secrets, but most of those secrets are all found within a few weeks.

If the MK team basically locks out access to find the secrets, and slowly unlocks the access , character by character or secret by secret, they could make the secrets last months to figure out, which would keep people playing.

The content would already be on the disc, you would just get those little updates, which boon could tweet about saying " Next update improves online code ..... and more ? " ......... shit like that.
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tgrant
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06/12/2010 06:01 PM (UTC)
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I too hope the game is free of downloaded content. If anything should be downloaded for the game, it should just be patches to fix glitches and these should be free of charge. I would prefer the characters, arenas etc are all there on the game from the offset and we unlock them accordingly as usual. If they go with downloadable access, then that's fine as long as it's free. Having to pay for extra characters and arenas when you've already forked out a substantial amount on the game already is a bit much, imo.
Also, if having to add extra characters and the rest via downloadable content is going to take up too much time and be possibly problematic, then it does make sense not to have it. It's just a waste of time and effort which they can spend on the production of the game, thus adding everything from the beginning and making the game as good as possible or working on a new project.
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QueenSindel(TheBitch)
06/12/2010 06:09 PM (UTC)
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I'm also against DLC, but not for this game. I've always found the classic characters more exciting than the rest. So with DLC, there's a chance most of them can make it.

If this was some other franchise, I probably wouldn't care, but since MK has so many great characters it'll be worth it.
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KenshiMaster16
06/12/2010 07:56 PM (UTC)
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There's 2 types of DLC in my mind. The worth-while and the not worth-while. Paying 15 bucks for some maps on MW2 some of which you already played in COD4, not so worth-while. But then there's stuff like Fallout 3 that carries on the story that is worth-while if you're into that sort of thing, especially when they go on sale.

For MK, if they do go the DLC route and its already on the disc and blah-blah, two things better occur. One; it has decent stuff in it (such as fan-favorite characters or arenas that didn't make the cut but will be available at a later date to keep interest in the game flowing on xboxlive and psn) and two; it better not be some outrageous price.
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RazorsEdge701
06/12/2010 08:04 PM (UTC)
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You know the worst kind of DLC?

"Pre-order the game from Gamestop to get ______!"

Especially if the SAME GAME does it with multiple stores.

Like Transformers: War For Cybertron has it so if you get the game from Gamestop, you can unlock the character Shockwave, but if you get it from Best Buy, you can unlock Jazz instead. Which means you have to CHOOSE which one you want and you can't have both.

Sometimes they wait a few months and release that preorder DLC as regular DLC so everybody can have it...and sometimes they don't. I'll NEVER get my Tenacious D-themed guitar in Brutal Legend because I didn't fucking preorder...and that guitar is ON THE DISK, it's not a download, you just need a special code to unlock it that only the store can give you. That's completely fucking unfair.

That's bullshit. If they ever try to pull that shit with an MK game, I'm gonna be so mad. Unless it was a joke character like Chameleon/Khameleon or Meat. Then I'd not care.
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SubMan799
06/12/2010 08:44 PM (UTC)
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DLC and digital distribution are going to eventually kill the gaming industry. Really hope MK doesn't have characters and stages as DLC. Patches on the other hand are completely necessary.
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Tekunin_General
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06/12/2010 08:55 PM (UTC)
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Simple to fix.

Have a code in the DLC written to check if the other player has the characters, if not, block them out so you cannot select them. PSN and XBL are good enough to prevent cheat devices modded to allow this.

OR

2 different online lobbies, or an icon on your name indicating DLC with a message "you will not be able to use dlc characters if fighting this user, continue? "Yes" or "No"

id recommend both. That way even if you have DLC, it doesnt limit your ability to play with the majority of the community online just because they may not have it.
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leverpeber
06/12/2010 09:56 PM (UTC)
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I say, release the damn game for PC and let's be rid of those infernal consoles.
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Iguana666
06/14/2010 02:38 AM (UTC)
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DLC is another bullshit trend in gaming that came with the arrival of the PS3. It's no different to what's zynga is doing with farmville, selling virtual cash so you could buy a virtual pagoda or villa. I'd prefer unlocking any hidden characters or stages through sheer merit, not through MasterCard or Visa
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ThePredator151
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06/14/2010 06:51 AM (UTC)
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Garlador Wrote:


Learned something new...

I mean I wasn't completely ignorant but...so thanks.
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Detox
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You work with what you got...not what you hope for.

06/14/2010 08:04 AM (UTC)
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Iguana666 Wrote:
DLC is another bullshit trend in gaming that came with the arrival of the PS3.



Huh? DLC's been around a lot longer than the ps3. P.C. gamers have had DLC/patches for a long time. If you're referring strictly to consoles, than the Dreamcast comes to mind.
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Veryll
06/14/2010 09:57 AM (UTC)
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What alof of people seem to forget (besides the fact that DLC has been around alot longer than the PS3 and Xbox360 :) ) Is the fact that DLC opens the possibility to get more characters/stages and so on in the game, that would otherwise have to be cut due to development costs and schedules.

If companies price the DLC correctly and it is of sufficient quality i don't mind paying for some extras that otherwise would never have seen the light of day.

What i do min is, if the content is allready inlcuded on the disc, and just needs to be unlocked, that os just plain wrong.
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assasSINister
06/14/2010 11:49 AM (UTC)
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Why not have games install on the hard drive and DLC could be done just like it is on computers?

Common data (stages, music, non DLC stuff, blah blah blah) can be read off the disk, but the rest from the hard drive and put into the cache/RAM.

??? confused

For those who have DLC, they should be able to enter DLC Specific game lobbies. The rest are stuck with the normal lobbies. That way people who have DLC, can always go back and fight those who don't have DLC.



If MK9's DLC is equal to what UMK3 brought to MK3, I'd definitely be all for it!!!! grin
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Spike81
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06/14/2010 03:23 PM (UTC)
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If they take the time to finish this game correctly there is no need for DLC.

But if they later on decide to add some contend (or maybe the MK4 era) there may be a way to do this without interfering with online play. What if they release the content with a free update of the game so that everyone who plays online must have it. But then must be activated through the PSN store to use it yourself.

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Chilly-McFreeze
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06/14/2010 04:14 PM (UTC)
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The problem isn't that everyone needs to get the DLC.

They have updates and free downloads which allow people to view and play against the DLC, they did this with Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.
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oracle
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06/14/2010 04:27 PM (UTC)
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No DLC. Or at least nothing significant. Maybe Alts or stages but definitely not characters.
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