DLC or Downloadable Content is something that has been with us for a while now. When I first heard the idea of DLC back with the PS3 and Xbox 360 were considered new it seemed like a cool idea but over time it has been twisted and exploited by publishers and developers and now I associate most DLC with soulless money grubbing bullshit.
We've always sort of had DLC even way before high speed internet and console that were always online. Back in the day when you had a PC game a company would occasionally release and expansion pack. The expansion pack was like an entire box, disc and manual that you would buy from a physical store and you'd have to go home and install it. I remember pretty vividly buying the conquerors expansion for Age of Empires 2 back in the day which came with a whole bunch of stuff like new campaigns, new civilizations to play as, new tech, new maps, new units, it was brimming with content and it was exciting to take that shit home and spend countless hours with it.
DLC like this still exists to this day, and this is why there's a "mostly" in brackets in the title. The series that springs to mind is Dark Souls as an example of this. The DLC for those games usually comes with entire new areas, bosses, weapons etc. and is usually a decent amount of additional content for the money that you pay. Basically any DLC that is basically the same thing as an old school "expansion pack" is what I would call good DLC. Although even this comes with a level of bullshit because most games will eventually release a "complete edition" which just comes with everything some time after release. So you COULD spend $60 on the game, plus anything between $20 to god knows how much depending on how much extra story or missions or modes or whatever gets put out OR you could just wait, and get a complete edition for like $40 later down the line. Even though old-school style DLC is good, it deters me from buying most new games day 1 because I know I'll get shafted for extras later and just waiting is infinitely more cost efficient.
But then there's the DLC which I class as either cosmetic items or small amounts of content that would have been avaliable in the base game back in the day. Maybe this is a sign of my age but I remember a time when unlockable or hidden content in games, especially fighting games, was common place. Beat certain modes or fufill certain conditions and you'd unlock things like music, concept art, costumes, stages or even new characters. But this has changed, cosmetic touches to a gun or an alternate costume for a character in a fighter are no longer something that you unlock just by playing the game any more, these are things that you have to buy with actual money. One of the most horrible examples I have had some degree of experience with is Guilty Gear: Strive. In Japan, if I was to buy the base game it would cost about $80 and then if I want things like extra stages or extra characters I have to spend an additional $30 to, not even get that content, have that content trickled out to me slowly over time. Then when they decide that the "season 1" content is over, I'll have to spend ANOTHER $30 for the season 2 bullshit. What's even worse is that if you decide you just want 1 extra guy or the extra colours (not even new costumes, just colours for fucks sake) that'll be $10 for the guy an $10 for the palette swaps thank you very much. Considering features like this, not all that long ago, were built into the games and you would get it all for a single $40-60 purchase, this new form of DLC is taking monumental amounts of piss. It wouldn't be so bad if there was a way to unlock it by just playing and people who wanted to speed up the process could pay to get it faster. That's scummy, but I'll accept it. But pay-walling features like PALLETE SWAPS is just pathetic.
But that's not even the worst kind of DLC, there's a tier of DLC that's so disgusting, so vile that just thinking about it makes me unwell and that's Pay to Win "DLC". Usually found it games that have level up or upgrade systems that you earn by playing, a game may give you the option to just give you all that stuff or boost the earn rate for those things for a fee. For example, Shin Megami Tensei 5 comes with a number of DLCs, most of which are for extra quest lines that unlock extra demons to gather and extra bosses to fight. Sort of skirting the fine line between the good DLC and the bad DLC but whatever, fine. But then there are the "mitama" DLCs. Mitama in SMT5 are monsters that look like apostrophes that, when killed give some kind of massive bonus. Demon level ups, stats, money, main character level ups, glory points for upgrades etc. and with that DLC it boosts the spawn rate of those things to an insane degree. Basically if you pay for that DLC you cannot die unless you are unapologetically shit at Megami Tensei. The reason DLC like this pisses me off so hard is that if you are going to pay to just win like that, why the fuck are you even playing video games in the first place? If you want a braindead, easy way to experience a story then go watch a movie or read a book or something. If it really needs to be interactive because you want to at least pretend to enjoy video games, then go play a walking simulator like Layers of Fear or Dear Esther or some bullshit like that, some low-skill garbage that you can beat by holding a single key for two hours. Playing an easy mode is one thing because at least you're still sort of trying but just paying to have a game clear handed to you ON TOP OF the price for the game itself is just pathetic, please fucking stop.
(Just as a side note, the SMT V example is even more annoying because of the way the Nintendo E-Shop is. You either buy everything at once, extra quests + mitama included, or you have to painstakingly buy each non-mitama DLC one by one. When I did it the process to just get Demi-Fiend and the other demons without the beyond Safety Mode dogshit took like 10 minutes. I even know new SMT players that got tricked and thought they were a normal part of the game, fuck Nintendo/ATLUS for real)
So while good DLC does technically exist, its 90% absolute dog-water that you should avoid. Wanting extra stuff for the games that you love makes sense but just remember that 9 times out of 10 you are supporting shitty business practices that are only going to keep getting worse as time goes on.
Don't ever forget that Capcom once made you pay for a games ending
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