|
On the topic of Games,
DLC is developer's abuse of the old term "expansions". Long ago, expansions are justified because they actually add value to the already completed product. Now, some developers found that they can purposely sell incomplete games using the DLC system. with the DLC system, they can also sell expansions little by little as opposed to sell it whole as a new product. Of course, the whole system actually looks good and ideal in this internet age, if they sell them at the appropriate prices. However now I feel the DLC system is only an excuse to sell a game more expensive than they worth. Actually I don't have problem with the DLC system itself, but the fact that they sell the initial incomplete product with full prices.
On the thread topic,
Before the internet, access to foreign musics, movies, whatever is difficult, and tad expensive if there aren't any local company localizing them. Even after the internet and online shopping, buying these foreign items is still rather expensive because of shipment and other fees. Personally 'piracy' is justified in countries that still don't have license to localize a certain material product.
However, if it is possible to buy those products online in the form of data, thus eliminating the need to import them, then I feel piracy is no longer as justified. Musics, movies. manga, anime industry all cry "piracy! piracy!" because these industry have not yet able to shift fully to the internet. Game industry is on the lead in this, look at Steam.
Now here's the thing. Sharing books didn't really got much attention because no matter how many people they share, there is still only one copy of the book. Data sharing on the other hand, will result in as many copies as there are people involved on the sharing, with each potentially open a whole new circle of sharing as large as the original. I understand the need to limit sharing data products because this issue just spell doom to developers.
Thing is, not everyone feels justified in buying their games if they feel unsatisfied. Games are entertainment afterall. The only way I can see to solve this is for the developers to release a free short demo online first. This demo must not suffer any degrade of quality and must have all the features in it demonstrated properly (no disabling any of the ingame features). Satisfying those conditions, it is understandable to make the demo as short as possible.
I don't understand why developers don't do this more often. A free demo can only potentially increase sales for the full products and only a little extra work compared to the whole game.
|