» Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:48 pm
Lets say, for argument's sake, that it takes approximately 10 hours of play to unlock everything, assuming you're competent with FPS games, but not highly-skilled or super-competitive.
Some players are going to take 3 weeks to a month to get everything unlocked, and will get frustrated. Some may plateau, unable to complete certain challenges, and will be prevented from unlocking certain items. And some players will breeze through all the unlocks in a single weekend. Which means that by the second or third day, there will already be players who have unlocked EVERYTHING the "hard way."
If that's the case, day 1 DLC to unlock everything isn't such a big deal. The dedicated, skilled gamers who want to unlock everything, but aren't willing to fork out, will only have to wait about a day to catch up.
Now lets say, more realistically, that it's going to take about 30 - 40 hours to unlock EVERYTHING. Keep in mind, this includes leveling to 20, and completing EVERY challenge with a weapon/attachment unlock. In this case, even a lot of dedicated players will take maybe a couple of weeks to get to near-full completion.
The competitive, but time-limited players, on the other hand, could potentially be grinding for a couple of months to complete this level of unlocks. And less-skilled gamers would take even longer.
In that case, I'd say at least a 1 month hold before any "unlock all" DLC is available isn't too much to ask. Basically, If it's going to require any significant investment in time for players who DO have the time to unlock things, I think those players deserve a chance to see things first. If you're just going to throw money at the grind to make it go away, you don't deserve to be first to get to the top.