» Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:05 am
For me, If I can unlock something by playing the game, I'm not willing to pay for it.
it may be something AWESOME, it may be something I'm honestly NOT skilled enough to unlock.
But I'm CHEAP - If there's a way to get something free, I refuse to pay for it.
In the context of a game with a level-up system, I don't normally mind someone paying for something which does this, though. For some people, starting with all the unlocks is basically an equaliser to level the playing field - particularly in online games.
Imagine a game with a level system like Brink has. Now imagine that the reward for reaching level 15 is a super-gun that's basically a rapid-fire rocket launcher that can 3-shot-kill the most damage-resistant enemies in the game without upgrades. Now imagine, also, that at level 20, you unlock a special universal ability that you can activate at any time to gain 30 seconds of invulnerability. And finally, this game wouldn't have the rank-based matchmaking of Brink, so your level 20 invulnerable rocket-wielding madman could be playing against a first-time player with NO upgrades.
In that type of situation (which is only slightly exaggerated from the reality of some online games), I think it's fair to give players some way to dull the edge of that.
Of course, I also disagree with Endwar taking the opposite approach of releasing totally game-breaking DLC and requiring people to pay for it - The basic rule is, Gunships ALWAYS beat Tanks. So they release a DLC that mounts AA guns onto one faction's tanks. Suddenly that faction becomes all-powerful, and the developers are sitting there WONDERING WHY... It's not hard to figure out that when you DIRECTLY AND OBVIOUSLY BREAK YOUR GAME, it turns out broken... One of many reasons why I stopped playing Endwar...