"Announcing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Expansion Pass"

[kane_magus]

The actual game isn't even out yet and they're already pre-selling the expansion packs via a seasonexpansion pass. Huh. And here I was thinking that CD Projekt Red was supposedly a cool company that didn't do this kind of bullshit, or at least that's what I'd heard from practically everyone on the Internet up to now anyway. *eye roll*

Well, it's not like this really matters to me all that much. I never finished The Witcher 1 and, though I did buy it, I still haven't even played The Witcher 2 at all yet. As such, I have no clue when, if ever, I'll get around to buying The Witcher 3, with or without these already-announced-and-being-sold-before-the-damn-game-itself-is-even-out-yet expansion packs here and all that other shit from before. What I do know is that it certainly won't be at launch, that's for sure, or even at launch of the individual expansion packs. Right now, the "complete" version of The Witcher 3 is going to cost about $85, and that is way, way more than I'm willing to spend on a video game at this point in my life, even a good one. Then again, it's not like I was going to buy the base-level TW3 game at the current $60 either, even without the announcement of this new DLC.

At least it's not going to be released Day 1, I'll give it that much, though the fact that they are and have been clearly working on these expansions even before the main game was out still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

(EDIT) Here is a link to owsf2000's post on the same subject, since the conversation from below continues over there as well. (/EDIT)

Comments

[owsf2000.livejournal.com]

The fun thing about this DLC slippery slope is taking a look back and seeing how it unfolded. At times it makes me want to line up all the people that argued and defended the earliest forms of the crap saying 'it'll never get as bad as your thinking!' and just bitchslap the lot of them in a single fluid motion. >_>

I've got the second Witcher's game (Twice apparently, accidentally - at 20 dollars each) but even after a year or more I've still not gotten around to playing it. I don't think I have the first one unless it was a freebie with Games with Gold on the 360 in the earlier days back when I had gold membership - but I doubt that.

Naturally I won't be picking up the third game, particularly if they're already releasing their stupid season passes (expansion pass is no different, unless it's renamed particularly to shrink the eligible free DLC to nothing but pure expansion passes) I had far more than my fill with the project diva's "clubs". (To which I admittedly bought a few modules anyway, but certainly not nearly all, and certainly not nearly as expensive as their 70 dollar "costume club")

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

As I was reading through the thread under the announcement, people were talking about how the "expansion pass" was 17th most popular selling thing on the site, then 4th, and at that point I stopped to check what it is right now. Right now, as of the writing of this comment, it is the number 1 most popular selling thing on the goddamn site.

The voices decrying this bullshit are but faint whispers against the roaring deluge of bullshit flowing down the sewer pipe into the eagerly waiting mouths of the apathetic and/or the idiotic.

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I like (read: facepalm at) all the idiots who are trying to defend this by saying "IT'S NOT DLC IT'S EXPANSION PACKS THAT IS TOTALLY A DIFFERENT THING HARGLE BARGLE HERPITY DERP!"

The distinction they should be making is between microtransactions and expansion packs, both of which are DLC. The only way these TW3 expansions would not be DLC is if they release boxed versions at some point, which I see no indication of them doing, and even if they did, the versions available for download would still be, yes, downloadable contect aka DLC.

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

In any case, my problem isn't with the existence of these things. My problem isn't with how much or how little content they may or may not end up having.

No, my sticking point is entirely with the fact that they have announced and are actively selling additional content for a game that itself has not been released yet, regardless of whether or not said content is actually available yet. Then again, I generally loathe the concept of "pre-orders" anyway, even if I may have foolishly bought into it on occasion in the past. Nowadays, I only do "post-orders," i.e. orders for games that are placed for the completed, bundled versions of the game well after release, for a severely discounted price.

[owsf2000.livejournal.com]

Eh. The only difference between Expansion Pack and DLC is how it's applied. They both mean the same thing - things cut out of the game to sell later (Or SOONER as it's more commonly becoming, with this bullshit being sold even before the game is released)

And what's more, when the DLC is announced prior to the game being released, it's pretty much admitting that they've decided to cut content out of the main game. It's them telling you that they're not going to wait until the entire game is finished before releasing it so they can start milking you of the 60+ dollars for the "game".

I'm more willing to accept an "expansion pack" as being an expansion if the work on it isn't even BEGUN for at least a year after the game was released. And even that would depend on whether or not they set the main game up to expect it (Ending on a cliffhanger, for instance, like I believe FF13-2 did) And when it comes to this, it will still depend on how they do it, and what they put into it that would make me think it was truly an expansion or just cut material finally being added.

In the end, expansion pack is nothing more than a new name given to a practice to throw people off guard, or to manufacture arguments that it's something totally different from what was going on before. Like how media companies tried to tell people they stopped putting that hated DRM on their media because customers hated it so much, so instead were using DCE technologies instead! ("Digital Consumer Enablement")

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

"In the end, expansion pack is nothing more than a new name given to a practice to throw people off guard"

Or rather it's a misappropriation of an old name that used to be given to things that actually were the traditional expansion packs of yore. Yeah, the bullshit that people call "expansion packs" today, which is scheduled for release less than a full year after a game and which was already planned for and being actively worked on well before the release of said game, are only "expansion packs" in name only, at least by the traditional meaning of the term. They are indeed exactly the same as what people think of as "DLC" today (as well as actually being DLC by the literal meaning of the term) and are not what (sensible) people think of when they think of what "expansion packs" used to be. So, in that sense, to say that "this isn't DLC, it's an expansion pack, which is totally different" is disingenuous or, at best, extremely naive.

Also, apologists say shit like "well, this stuff wasn't 'cut out' from the original game, because it was never planned to be part of the original game to begin with." And they say it with a straight face, thinking that they are speaking sanely, as though that's actually a fucking good thing. Really. How is that somehow better than if the shit actually were just genuinely, straight up cut out of the original game to be sold later? I honestly think it's worse that they now actually plan to make this shit well in advance of the main game's release to be released and charged for separately for extra money, which lets them use the "this isn't stuff we cut from the main game" bullshit rationalization that so many gullible idiots suck down like it's candy. The "it wasn't ready yet, so now we're releasing it separately for more money" bullshit excuse is bad enough when it's actually true. But when they're straight up saying that they're making (or have already made) shit before the game is released that they're going to sell separately and charge extra for is real horseshit. Seriously, it boggles my mind that people not only apathetically let companies get away with this shit, but that more and more are actively, militantly defending it. They're okay with shit being made at the same time as the main game, even though it won't be "released" until a few months after the main game (or, worse, when it actually is released the same day as the main game), for which half the price of the main game or more is being charged again. This is a big part of why I so very rarely buy modern video games anymore, even when I see them on sale for 75% off on Steam or whatever (unless that 75% off is off of an already marked down to $29.99 price from the original $59.99 or something, and even then I often still take a pass on them, because I just can't bring myself to give enough of a shit anymore).

Truly, I sorely miss the days when you bought a video game... and that was fucking it. You bought the game, and what you got was the full fucking game, no more, no less. No DLC, no microtransactions, or even no expansion packs (traditional or otherwise). If you wanted more of the same later, or something better, well, that's what fucking sequels were for, or at least used to be. Those days, sadly, are long gone, though.

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

And yeah, I know I'm pretty much just preaching to the choir with my rants and such. It's not like anyone else is bothering to read my shit here, after all. >_>; Still, if nothing else, it's cathartic, I guess, so there is that at least. At this point, though, it feels less like I'm genuinely pissed off by it, and more just that I'm running on auto-pilot these days, saying the same old shit over and over and over. With every day that passes and more and more bullshit like this spews out of the sewer pipe, I find myself growing ever more apathetic. Not to say that I'll ever accept this shit, just that railing against it feels ever more useless, even in the cathartic sense. Maybe I really do need to just give up video games altogether finally, and perhaps find another, more productive hobby to spend time on.

[owsf2000.livejournal.com]

"At this point, though, it feels less like I'm genuinely pissed off by it, and more just that I'm running on auto-pilot these days, saying the same old shit over and over and over."

Yep, that's how I've felt for quite a while myself so I end up not bothering to rant at all unless it's something just mindboggling stupid or the usual expected stupid being attempted even faster than I figured they'd dare try. I've predicted pretty much everything they've done and are doing since the start, and the only thing that's ever surprised me over the last decade was how much faster they tried to jump down the slope.

There's not a heck of a lot left for them to try at this point beyond turning the physical media into nothing more than locked trials that require a code to unlock the full game - but wait, that's pretty close to what Microsoft had planned originally for the Xbone (And I'm sure it was in Sony's plans as well before they did their silent 180 after the lashing Microsoft got from it's fanbase even with the PR machine going full throttle)

I wouldn't blame anyone for giving up on modern gaming - hell it's taking more and more effort myself to give a shit about it myself, but then I do have my classical retro gaming that I still fully enjoy before all this bullshit started. If you do axe out most of the playing of games, I would recommend and encourage attempting to make some games instead. There are plenty of game maker type programs out there that are either free or "free" (there's a difference!) to use, and plenty of people do make money on the indy game scene.