phungus420
Deity
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2003
- Messages
- 6,296
Having thought about this a bit more I have come to the conclusion that the zero day DLC, as announced, amounts to disrespect and contempt by the company toward Civ fans. Having zero day DLC that provides a special gun or an armor or something is pretty normal, and well accepted, but this is not what Firaxis is doing here with Babylon. Typical zero day DLC is designed and marketed toward hard core fans and usually provides some type of minor cheating or aesthetic consideration (like the collector gun, and dragon armor in Mass Effect), it makes no effect on the actual gameplay, storyline, or core game. It always looks like something as an afterthought, something that can be tacked onto the base game, after the fact; and is not something a typical user will miss. Something like a nice shiny box, a cool manual; that's totally understandable, and helps satiate the demands of some of the more rabid fans. This is not what we are seeing done here though.
What Firaxis is doing with Babylon is investing the time and energy to create a full new civ, and then intentionally removing it from the base game, merely as a way to bilk customers that already intend on purchasing the main product. This is just downright disrespectful. The Firaxis devs have created this content, but are turning around and intentionally removing it in order to get fans of the series to pay more; doesn't this strike anyone else as being inappropriate? Creating extra content at a later time is understandable, but intentionally removing content is another thing altogether. I also wonder what is next? If they are content to do this, it is likely bug fixes and later essential patches will be released as pay only DLC; afterall if they feel it is good and sound business to remove core content, and demand extra cash for it, bug fixes are not much different.
The whole Steam thing, I can understand, I don't personally like it, but it's sound business. DRM has to be implemented and Steam is known for being unobtrusive, and is quite popular among most gamers. What I do not understand or agree with on any level is intentionally removing core game content in an effort to squeeze loyal fans for more dollars; as I said it's juts plain disrespectful and shallow.
So Firaxis I wag my finger at thee
What Firaxis is doing with Babylon is investing the time and energy to create a full new civ, and then intentionally removing it from the base game, merely as a way to bilk customers that already intend on purchasing the main product. This is just downright disrespectful. The Firaxis devs have created this content, but are turning around and intentionally removing it in order to get fans of the series to pay more; doesn't this strike anyone else as being inappropriate? Creating extra content at a later time is understandable, but intentionally removing content is another thing altogether. I also wonder what is next? If they are content to do this, it is likely bug fixes and later essential patches will be released as pay only DLC; afterall if they feel it is good and sound business to remove core content, and demand extra cash for it, bug fixes are not much different.
The whole Steam thing, I can understand, I don't personally like it, but it's sound business. DRM has to be implemented and Steam is known for being unobtrusive, and is quite popular among most gamers. What I do not understand or agree with on any level is intentionally removing core game content in an effort to squeeze loyal fans for more dollars; as I said it's juts plain disrespectful and shallow.
So Firaxis I wag my finger at thee