Why paying to play unlocked characters is BS

In Hyperdimension Neptunia, Nisa and another character Gust, are not hidden characters and they do show up on the back of the games box. They both do absolutely nothing until you pay for their activation pack at $1.99 a piece (news story here: http://n4g.com/news/714181/... ). While $3.98 may not be a lot of money, the practice of charging players to play a character is just plain BS. If I were to pay a dollar for every character I unlocked in a RPG, especially a game like Siukoden, I would’ve blindly lost $100 in addition to the $50 I paid for the game.

[Vherostar]

I agree DLC is going too far now..

[Warprincess116]

OMG it only $2.Also how do you know it an activation code. Probably the character wasn't finish before the game release date. Im tired of people complaining about DLC. It not expensive and no-one forcing you to buy it.

[frjoethesecond]

The characters are around 70MB each so I don't think it's an activation code. I don't mind it either way.

It's not like using these characters is essential to the plot unlike games (Assassins Creed) which have story content as DLC.

[Iroquois_Pliskin]

Fine example of what's wrong with todays' gen...

[ThanatosDMC]

Just because it's $2 doesnt mean we should pay for something that should be in the disk. Also, that type of thinking make developers take out more content from the disk and just sell them later on (e.g. COD maps, Capcom's alternate character costumes, Capcom VS mode).

[Jdoki]

Unfortunate sign of the times. And while idiot consumers agree to pay... this practice will continue and increase.

Stuff like this is exactly the reason Activision is rumoured to be looking to make CoD multiplayer a subscription model - and will make money from it.

[kasasensei]

I don't buy DLC 99% of the time & if the devs or editors say "our next game is going to be released with DLC" i gently write its name in the "to buy only in a goty edition 1 year after release with all the dlc packed" column.
A dlc exclusivity, whatever it is for a skin, a map, a quest, a sidekick, is always something terribly pathetic in my mind. It was never and never will be a good point for any of my purchase.
Games are already enough expensive.

[Lirky]

In the 90's and early 2000's games included unlockables instead of dlc packs the stuff that were extracted so that the devs figured it would be optional.

[Neckbear]

I seriously agree with this, honestly, at least Gust and Nisa should have been in the game.

It's an annoying practice, sadly, but hey- not like they're unlock keys, at least.

[Darkseeker]

I'd rather pay 1.99$ for a character then pay 14.99$ in Call of duty for map packs that you shouldn't even have to pay for.

Good thing I am sane and don't play Call of Duty.

[PooEgg]

I won't buy this game now that I know this, and I am glad that I learned this before picking the game up, because it always pisses me off when I discover this type of stuff after the fact. I don't hate DLC, and I can certainly afford a few dollars to buy the missing characters, but I feel gamers need to take a stand and I intend on practicing what I preach.

DLC is getting out of hand. We need to say no to the game companies that release unfinished games and expect gamers to pay for the missing pieces. There is a very fine line between acceptable and unacceptable DLC. Gamers know the difference, and so do game companies, but that doesn't stop them from trying to see how far they can push us.

As long as gamers continue to support unacceptable DLC, gaming companies will continue to look for ways to take advantage of us.

To those of you who say 'ah, but it's only a few dollars, not a big deal', I say 'wake up, because you are part of the problem'.

And while waiting for the GOTY addition to buy the game is one way to send a message, it really isn't enough. It just means that they can still count on our support, so after they are finished milking all the suckers that bought the incomplete version, they can still count on the holdouts buying the GOTY.

We need to avoid these types of games altogether. We need to stand together as gamers and say no to greed, and maybe companies will start working harder to create DLC that actually enhances the game instead of simply completing it.

[Three_Sisters]

the only ones who won't complain are the rich ones....

[Skynetone]

my friends kids went on a dlc buying rampage, and wiped out his account,

[Enigma_2099]

This is the new method of maximizing profits from game sales. Sucks, but that's the way it is. This is also why I tell game companies to go to hell when they claim that used game sales are destroying the industry.

[radphil]

Did anyone question that Suikoden was spelled incorrectly in the article statement?

That kind of example is very outrageous to state the Suikoden series game "charging per character". If the industry got to that point, i doubt very many of us would still be using it as a way of entertainment.

People have their limits.