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Today sees the arrival of some free downloadable content on the Live Marketplace with Monolith's F.E.A.R. 2 'Toy Soldiers' Map Pack now being available to all and sundry. However, unlike some other downloadable content which incurs a charge, the free content on Live is never really talked about.
If you look at the impact the Resident Evil 5 Versus mode had on a number of gamers, you'd think that charged for content was the Devil himself, reincarnated to specifically target poor gamers struggling to afford their gaming habits. Charged for content, seems to be topical and with many agreeing with it and others not, it's interesting to note that free content rarely gets any recognition. With Capcom and Resident Evil 5, a number of individuals expressed great disappointment in the Japanese publishing giant, yet in the case of say Monolith and Warner Bros. will anyone offer welcome praise for the free content offered, will journalists sing their praises and write articles stating how great they are? No. It just doesn't happen.
Perhaps there's a reason for this, maybe free content is expected, and amidst a sea of micro transactions we've been consciously accepting this generation, any free stuff seems to hark back to days gone by and is considered 'normal' practice. But, and as this generation is proving, the norm is fast becoming awash with the exchange of money for additional pieces of content.
So why the lack of appreciation? Are we perhaps too jaded with the whole business of having to pay for extras that when something is offered for free, we snatch it with both hands as if it's owed to us? Perhaps to make up for all the other content that costs extra? It's certainly an unusual relationship we have with downloadable content and how it's distributed. In part, this is perhaps due to a lack of organized structure or uniformity to micro transactions, and how about the fact that on one hand you have a publisher talking about bandwidth costs as a reason for charged content, and then other publishers who can offer downloads (of much larger file sizes) and not present the same reasoning.
It's all rather confusing and certainly fuels the flames when charged for content has to publicly justify itself due to gamer outcries and fervent journalist probing, often resulting in negativity being placed on a product that's actually trying to sell itself. Downloadable content is still perhaps in its early days, with the waters still being tested for those pulling the strings; however in this current climate of what many would view as consumer milking, when the free stuff comes along, the message to gamers should be clear - be pleased, be thankful and give kudos to developers/publishers that offer content in this way. Sure, reading between the lines you could put on the cynical specs and look at the reasons why some content is offered for free (to create more interest in a game that's not so popular), but on the other side of the coin, free content is becoming a rarity these days and therefore should be praised regardless of the motives behind it or what was common practice in the past.
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Date: 2009-04-16 |
| Posted by: Robert Cram |
| Source: |
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