I love DLC! (Downloadable Content). There’s nothing else that warms my thumbs more than the thought of some modestly priced additional content extending a game I love for a few more hours.  DLC used to always feel like the developer doing the gamer a solid.  You know, you loved the game so much they decided it was worth their while to extend the life of a game.

It wasn’t every game and even if it was, the announcement of DLC wasn’t promised pre-release. Then came the seasons pass.  Future DLC at a discount. There is now a way to buy content that doesn’t exist yet. Game. Set. Match.   I don’t have a problem with any of this.   The problem comes with the sheer volume of DLC in general.

With mandatory installs, we’re talking upwards and beyond 40 GB of storage space, plus updates, plus whatever DLC you have in mind. Another 10 GB perhaps?  Some game installations may topple 90 in the future and that’s fine too. The problem is, there is a saturation point. Every game having DLC just kills it.  It gets to the point where even if I love the game, getting the DLC is going to pose a problem.

Just create space, dude!

You decide make room on the HDD. By the way, deleting 10 Gigs off of a PS3. No fun. Okay? Anyways. I make room on the hard drive and I’m fine until the next DLC or Dead Rising needs another gig update and I’m screwed again.  Creating space ensures you wont be playing that game again soon and it is almost like saying good-bye to a good friend.  Ever delete your Fallout 3 data? It hurts a little.

When Grand Theft Auto 4, announced it’s DLC with Lost and the Damned, a part of me was kinda sad.  It was because I knew the days of Vice City and San Andreas were now gone.  The next GTA that didn’t carry a number was still a full on game.  I was hoping for GTA Carcer City or something.  Dirty, hard-boiled detective story.  What if you were a dirty cop in GTA or something? Ugh! Anyways, once they announced that, I kinda just sat around until GTA 5 and even though I liked the game, I wish it was San Andreas brought to life.  However, expectations aside, GTA is a game with DLC on the way and it is one of those titles I think doesn’t need it.

And THAT is what gaming still needs.  I understand the financial obligations that developers aim to meet. But for once, couldn’t a juggernaut developer just put out a game and zero DLC/Microtransactions?  OK. Maybe that’s pushing it but Blizzard does a decent job of releasing core games and expansions… as is tradition with them. Gaming still needs games that stand on their own.

It creates hurdles in multiplayer.  This is not always the case, but a lot of multiplayer gamers run into it when friends pick up an expansion pack before they do. Sometimes it is impossible to play together unless you have the DLC. Sometimes I wont buy DLC unless my friends do.  Even in games where you can still play with friends, I can’t give them items or weapons I found in the expansion to help them out.

I’m not saying get rid of DLC, I love it.  I’m just humbly requesting that developers take it easy with it.

I’ve also noticed a decline in epic DLC. Shivering Isles size/content type stuff.  I’d vote Rockstar to do something like that. Give you a playground half the size of GTA 5 and maybe set it in Carcer. Starring Michael Madsen as a gritty cop about to go rogue because too many boys in blue are about the green… and now he’s seeing RED.  Grand Theft Auto: Red Light Hellhole! Coming NEVER!

The Jaded Gamer
@IamFN2K