March 20th, 2009

Earlier this week, Valve announced that their digital distribution platform Steam would now be offering the ability to push “DLC” (Downloadable Content – a marketing term made to refer to microtransactions on consoles) to those who publish their games on Steam. This news has so far been met with reactions ranging from “good for you, PC” to customer outrage on the Steam forums. I am finding myself to be somewhere in between, but I’m leaning towards the belief that “DLC” on the PC is a bad thing for everyone involved. I’ll share with you my reactions as a consumer, as a business student, and also as a person who writes about games.

The Problem With The Maw

With The Maw’s “DLC” (two “bonus” levels), I went from thinking “that’s neat” to realizing the implications. I knew the maps were available and ready by the time the PC version released because they were available for purchase on my Xbox 360 before the game even came out. That means they were held back with the intent to sell them later as “bonus content”. This immediately diminished the value of the product that I had already purchased. I felt like I was not getting the full experience out of The Maw if I didn’t pay $2.50 for these extra levels. But I hadn’t even launched the game yet despite having pre-purchased it, knowing that if it’s good I’d be writing about it here at DoSu as a Cheap Game. But I hadn’t played it yet, so I was not attached to it. I found myself with no desire to play it. So I requested a refund. After jumping through some hoops, I received my refund. I no longer own The Maw — I probably never will again. Since that means I’ll never get to play it, The Maw will not be recommended by me here as a Cheap Game.
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November 13th, 2008

Back in April I wrote a bit about a few of the games that I was looking forward to most this year. That article has remained pretty popular over the months, and since the future which that feature referred to is now, I thought I would do a follow-up. A few gaming trade shows, a major merger of two gaming juggernauts and a development delay or two later, not quite all of the games on my list have been released yet, but I have gotten my hands on several.

Let’s revisit these in order, shall we?
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July 24th, 2008

It’s that time again. To snort lederhosen and call 911, you ask? Nay, it’s time to look into the future of gaming. Outside of the comic we don’t actually write much about current and future games here. This is the specially reserved segment, last posted three months ago, to unleash our lists of anticipated PC titles. (obvious ones excluded) As you see, it’s my turn.

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June 2nd, 2008

Cheap Games Database

This is a list of all of the cheap games we’ve featured in the blog. Every game is under $10 — many are even free! Here they are in order of price (low to high):

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April 30th, 2008

I felt it appropriate to share this here. If you remember back to yestermonth, I recommended that you guys check out Gish in one of my cheap gaming features. There is a sequel on the way, and today we have been blessed with some wireframe mesh physics footage of Gish 2. Enjoy, and check out Gish if you haven’t yet.

[Their audio is a bit loud, you may want to adjust your volume accordingly]

April 7th, 2008

You may be expecting me to be talking about a new cheap game right now. Normally, that’s what I’d be doing. This week, I’m going to talk about some games that I’m looking forward to, and most of them won’t be cheap. These aren’t all of the games that I am looking forward to this year, but these are my most-wanted ones that aren’t the obvious picks. You won’t see Grand Theft Auto IV, Metal Gear Solid 4, Starcraft 2, Spore or Gears of War 2 in this post. Those are obvious; everybody cares about those. You have probably heard about these at some point, but there isn’t much new information floating around about them. In short, this is an awareness post.
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March 11th, 2008

See what I did there? No? Well, you might once you start reading about the game I’m going to be talking about today. It is from a developer called Cryptic Sea and it won awards for Innovation in Game Design as well as the grand prize at IGF in 2005.

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