$60 For Incompleteness

So Mass Effect 3 has run into a little bit of controversy for two reasons. The main one is because of its ending, which for the sake of spoilers I won’t merely discuss. But, there has been letters written to them and major Twitter campaigns to fix up the ending. The second controversy is smaller in complaints, but to me is a much more damning issue and one that is part of a bigger problem in the world of gaming. Day one downloadable content. When I first read it, I didn’t see what the big deal was until I learned that this DLC was already in the game, but locked from the gamers until you throw in some more dough. This is ridiculous, is happening far too much, and has to stop.

Mass Effect 3 is not the first game to rip off gamers by forcing you to pay for crap that was already in the disc---Capcom is notoriously evil and ridiculous for consistently doing these actions with their fighting games (And they've even done it with their latest game). But this does not justify the actions here. What they did is the 90s equivalent of Nintendo selling you Super Mario World, but then force you to buy a second cartridge at a smaller price to actually finish the game. Sounds silly I know, but if gamers are forking over $60 to play your game, why in the hell are you forcing them to pay extra money to get stuff that is already in the disc they just purchased???!?!!? Why didn’t you at least wait about a month to disguise your disgusting actions?

See, this is why gaming while on the upswing quality-wise is threatening constantly for a total breakdown economically. Smaller games like Angry Birds is exploding in popularity and while it doesn’t have the technical advancements and depth of your best games it has the advantage in one major aspect: price. As opposed to paying over $70 to play a game and enjoy all its extra content, you can now charge in the medium pizza price range and get a full video game that’s actually quite long (adding to its lasting appeal that’s nowadays inevitable). Before this wasn’t possible but thanks to IPod applications, smarter phones, emergence of indie gaming companies, and increasing technology, we can get fun and entertainment at much smaller prices.

The economical pundits will argue that Bioware is out to make money, which is the goal of every company. This is indeed true, but ripping off gamers isn’t the solution: good games are. Say what you will about Nintendo, but they will not half-ass a game or sell one incomplete. Hell, Miyamoto is notorious for constantly delaying games so he can put some extra touches and ensure that everyone will finish the game satisfied. Nintendo has reached the online atmosphere but has yet to throw in this DLC nonsense right after the release of a game. While they are way behind in the online component I can bet you any amount of cash that the company wouldn’t dare pull the nonsense that Bioware, Square Enix (Case in point for Square: Final Fantasy XIII-2), and especially Capcom pulls every so often.

For more fun, let’s compare Super Smash Brothers Brawl to Marvel vs. Capcom 3. One of them has a level creator, several extra video games hidden inside, hundreds of songs to choose from, a much bigger roster when compared to the previous installment, and over 50 different ways of fighting. The other game has a smaller roster, DLC from the start, nothing beyond this content-wise, and then flips the switch by releasing an “Ultimate” version of the game about a year later. Care to guess which is the best-selling fighting game of all time and which one barely sold 2 million copies? And before you care to mention that Nintendo has many more characters (and a deeper history) than Capcom or Marvel—Marvel has thousands of comic book characters---literally—and has been around for decades before Nintendo---literally. The moral of the story here is: we prefer complete games. Most skipped out on MvC3 because we all secretly knew there was going to be another version down the road.

I am all for a company making money, that is fine. But if you are releasing a game to the public, the right and noble thing to do is to allow us access to everything within the game we bought, as opposed to shelling out even more money just to see what else is on the game that we JUST purchased. You may think that gamers aren’t going to rebel to this sort of thing, but with Resident Evil, the Capcom fighters, and other franchises selling less than the previous installments even though the gaming industry fanbase has practically doubled in recent years, you may have to think twice before pulling this crap again. Online gaming has pushed the medium to a new plateau of opportunity, but has also opened new doors to new ways to rip us off.

Shame on you Bioware.