Throughout my life I have played video games. I started playing games on the computer with Warcraft: Humans vs. Orcs, I didn't have a clue what I was doing to be honest, but that game lasted me for a very long time. Now that I am older though, I have immersed myself in so many different titles that it's becoming too much to handle, not only on my time, but my wallet. It seems that most games these days are relying heavily on a base game to sell, but the downloadable content (DLC) to make the big bucks. Whether this is gaming companies intentions, some pump out DLC so often, it makes me wonder whether I originally paid for a full game or an investment.

Now DLC is bonus content that companies add to their game after it has been released to spice up the game even more or add more story for the player to explore. For the sake of this article, expansion packs and DLC will not be in the same category. An expansion pack like World of Warcraft: Legion acts as it's own game and adds a plethora of content to expand the universe. A DLC example would be like Call of Duty Black Ops 3: Eclipse where it would only be adding four multiplayer maps and an additional zombies map.

Since that's out of the way it is time to tackle the real problem. I find myself seeing constant DLCs for games that just seem like a scam. Most of them seem like a money grab for companies and they expect the player to purchase everything before the game even comes out. What's sad is that most DLCs for a game are advertised before a game even comes out, so it makes me think whether or not the game I purchased is a full game. Most of these DLCs if I were to calculate all of them for a single game normally run me about $50 ONLY IF I get the season pass. If I didn't get that then it would cost me around $60. Now that's just the map packs. Let's add a pre-order bonus (which would run into the original game price) but for those who didn't pre-order it, if they want to progress in the campaign or get all the missions, will eventually have to purchase it. So if we look at it, all the games coming out in the fall of 2016 will have all of their DLCs laid out before their release and if I want to have the full experience for each and every game, I better get a few summer jobs now. (The picture at the top pretty much sums this all up.)

To me it seems like an excuse to cut back on what's in the original game and then charge gamers later for content that they would've originally wanted. Sadly, we all succumb to buying it because we are partially forced to. Many DLCs will expand a level cap or add new maps that restrict gameplay with anyone who doesn't own it. So if you are big into and of the Call of Duty games and you were reluctant to get the map pack and all of your friends got it, well you guys won't have much fun together.

Despite my negative thoughts on how DLCs have been used, I don't think they are all that bad. Some DLCs are completely worth the money I spend on them and I wish they could've added more to it. It is just that some companies rely on a model that will have a game come out and four specific DLCs come out. Call of Duty is very notorious for this, though their map packs are generally good, you can always expect them to have four map packs with four maps and a bonus content item. What some games recently, like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Destiny, have done are charged players for DLC, but at the same time give a large amount of free bonus content. They added extra missions or items at no extra cost to the player and under this model, giving free content to players, while also having paid content is a good balance. Call of Duty Black Ops 3 has started adding random weapons consistently that anyone is able to get at no additional cost ,though it is through random supply drops which can be bought through microtransactions (which is a rant for a later day), you still get that random content though that changes the game in some way.

Depending on the genre of the game makes difficulty of how the DLC should work. A role-playing game (RPG) DLC is going to be much different from a first person shooter (FPS). I think what companies should focus on for future DLCs to make it seem worth the countless dollars that we spend is to have these DLCs how they normally do, but to also add free content for players. I think giving players free content on top of paid content will have a better impact on the gaming community because it will make players who can't afford to purchase over 9,000 DLCs for one game some incentive to keep playing a game rather than putting it down and going to another one.