DLC The Relatively Good, The Bad, And The Unfair

For those not “in the know”, DLC stands for Downloadable Content. DLC has been very prominent in games as of late, and I think people should really understand what this means for them. What types of DLC is available? What can us as consumers expect out of DLC? More importantly, how does DLC affect us with every video game purchase?

The Bad

There are many different types of DLC available in any given game. The most common type of DLC (especially for fighting games or action-adventure games in general) is the “Alternate Skins/Outfits pack”. These packs usually consist of different outfits for your character to wear. They rarely give the player any sort of advantage against players without the skin. It’s mostly just a tool to show-off and say “Hey, look! I just wasted a few dollars on virtual goods that don’t do anything except look flashy!”

Yes, I am in the party of people who see DLC as mostly a negative aspect of the industry so I might project my own feelings in this article, but only as a motivational tool, never as a means to make you, the reader, feel like you need to agree to every point.

The second type of DLC is the map pack. Map packs are relatively easy to “crank out” for developers. They almost always profit off of map packs due to how easy they are to do and how little time it takes to make them. Map packs are generally bundles of multiplayer maps. These are for the online community, to keep them playing.

The Relatively Good

Another type of DLC is less common than the two types above and doesn’t go by any specific name. This type of DLC is usually an extra component of the single-player story. This type of DLC is usually longer than the two above, but is also usually more expensive. Whereas an outfit pack can cost five or six dollars, single player DLC can go as high as fifteen dollars.

The Unfair

Now that you know a general sense of what DLC is, there’s the problem of how DLC is managed and handled. This is the reason why the “Unfair” part of the article title exists. The reason is On-Disk DLC. It is exactly what it sounds like. DLC that has been put on the disk, but cannot be accessed until you purchase an unlock key. It is a very sneaky way of doing business, and until this day I have yet to come across a good reason as to why this type of DLC exists.

While I do not understand it much, Day One DLC has perplexed me to no end. Announcing that you’ll have to pay for content on the first day on top of the sixty dollars a game costs? I don’t see the reasoning behind it.

There’s one thing I purposely left out, a really good, textbook definition of what DLC is. That is because there is none. And because I want to give you my own and see if it applies to any DLC that you are purchasing; see if that DLC is really worth it.Find out if showing off and bragging about a costumes pack to online friends or college buddies is really such a good idea. I have come up with an abstract ideal definition, feel free to use it and change it, and apply it to your DLC purchasing decisions.

DLC: A piece of additional video game content that changes or enhances the experience and has an impact on game play and/or story in a meaningful way.