Mass Effect 2 - Free Content Coming

For some reason i'm unable to log-in the Cerberus Network, so no free contents for me. :-/
 
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It's probably the vehicles. I was looking forward to trying out those vehicles or any vehicle for that matter. In the game, I kept thinking that maybe they are released farther into the story because I couldn't find them at the social website or Bioware's homepage.

Truthfully, I didn't understand the new way they are downloading content. I had some probelms with the Cerberus network, but managed to get it running so I thought I had the vehicles as well. Wrong, they're not out yet. Why not just keep it the same way as last time? That's easier than that social network which is glitchy at best. It still only shows Dragon Age as my only registered game and a few other mistakes as well.

Oh well, I've passed it so I won't get around to playing this again for at least a few months. They can keep their vehicles since I still enjoyed the game from middle to finish(I was too shocked about the nerfed skills to enjoy the start:)) One thing I pray they do is make those maps a lot bigger next time. I finished some quests in less than 10 minutes.
 
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Hey, free is a nice thing to do based on the issues with Cerberus ...
 
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You won't hear any complaints about free content from me. The base game feels complete to me (although I'm only 20 hours in). I'm really loving this game, faults and all. It's a really character driven experience.
 
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Bioware has, for the most part, seemed more willing to release free extra content than have some other developers. It does give a little more credence to the argument that horse armor should have been free. Free extra content, particularly some that wasn't ready at launch, is an interesting way of encouraging purchasing-new and registering your game. As long as the content additions are things that are really extras that would not have been budgeted in otherwise- particularly things that clearly weren't done at launch- I'll be happy with it.
 
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It's probably the replacement vehicle of the Mako. But didn't they promise to include that in the original release of the game?
 
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The only thing I've ever read about it, is that it would be out as a DLC "not long after release".
 
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But didn't they promise to include that in the original release of the game?

I beleive that very early on they had stated that they intended to replace the mako with something much less of a pain and that might actually be fun to use. For a while now though it had been stated that it would not be able to be polished by launch and would be released as DLC shortly after. Perhaps they felt as you did though- that it should have been included in the original game- and that is why it is a free DLC.
 
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:end:
You guys REALLY need to let that go!

Eh I was never mad about that- I just didn't buy it. I'm starting to think that making small things like that free for registered users may have been a good way to avoid piracy though. It could be argued that they could have made more money that way than off directly selling it.
 
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I think i'll wait for that then, before i do another playthrough in a more dificult setting.

Already ended at normal dificulty and i thought it was a little too easy.
 
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The SIMs showed that people are willing to pay real money, a LOT of it for many people, for trivial things. Essentially it's bling. So I guess real life shows us that too. There's no sense in railing against it. No one is forcing you to buy it after all.

And I think the companies are still experimenting with DLC to see what people will pay for and how much they will pay for it.
 
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So how far can it go? Are people willing to buy the ending to Mass Effect 3 as a DLC exclusive?
 
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Hahah, yeah I'm not railing against anything. I just like that the value of potentially trivial DLC as an anti-piracy incentive over a direct source of revenue is being examined. I thought that the anger and vitriole over the horse armor was pretty silly- and I still do. As you said, nobody forced anyone to buy those DLCs. Also, their absence didn't really detract fro the game so it wasn't like you could argue they were important game components withheld to extort extra money from games- as some did try to argue.

It's just funny to think that the good PR and anti-piracy incentive of giving it, and maybe some of the other smaller DLCs from oblivion, away for free to registered game owners might have made more money indirectly than selling it did directly. I see it in a similar vein as when some companies have experimented with DRM free products because they find that increased sales of a low-hassle product outweigh potential piracy concerns. "Itunes +" music and Stardock come to mind.

The SIMS sold so well that even margianally accepted high-margain additional content would make millions. Additionally, something about the psychology of the game or those who played it seemed to make even trivial addon content extremely attractive to many game owners. The game mechanics also made easy to create and inexpensive to distribute add on content a simple matter. Adding a furniture pack or the like was not too much harder than adding a prefab package to AutoCAD. For a game like the Sims it's pretty hard to make a business argument against the direct sales opportunity these realitvely simple content packages present to the company.

For RPGs, even lite RPGs, I think the complexity involved in creating meaningful content add ons and the capriciousness of fans makes the trade offs and the arguments a little more nuanced. Well at least they're more nuanced in theory, the arguments on message boards do, as you pointed out, often devolve into fits of rage about extortion and other exaggerations.
 
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The SIMs showed that people are willing to pay real money, a LOT of it for many people, for trivial things. Essentially it's bling. So I guess real life shows us that too. There's no sense in railing against it. No one is forcing you to buy it after all.

And I think the companies are still experimenting with DLC to see what people will pay for and how much they will pay for it.

The whole 'horse armor' thing is just a proxy for charging for obviously removed content. It is like one year selling a diamond & sapphire necklace for $1000 and the next year selling a diamond & sapphire necklace for $1000 where you only get half the sapphires ...

Personally, as I've said, I don't have an issue with most of the DLC in the Bioware and Fallout 3 games.
 
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The Good: Putting some hooks in the game for new content then working on it in earnest when game development is in the final stages so the content can come out later.

The Bad: Picking out optional content from the game and locking it off, then demanding more money to access those parts.

The Ugly: Picking out not-so-optional content from the game and locking it off, then demanding more money so you can actually play the game as intended. (I haven't seen this yet but a lot of people are really worried about it.)

It's easy to see when The Ugly happens but it's not so easy to distinguish the Good from the Bad. (Though, with free content, it's all good!)
 
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