This is in response to this rant by Jim Sterling
right here. I'm giving my rant it's
own blog entry because, basically, it may have enough content to merit one.
I must admit I used to poo-poo this sort of DLC, considering it an act of fleecing the unskilled rubes, who
cannot be bothered to spend the time to grind to unlock this content themselves.
Then I got Rock Band. I beat the game on guitar Easy, which didn't unlock all the songs. Being that I wanted to
play, say, Enter Sandman, I decided to go through on Normal. I did fine, until I hit Vaseline. I failed
out of the song over, and over, and over again, after trying for a month. I looked for a cheat code and found
one - one that disabled saving and leaderboards, meaning that my scores for all the other songs
wouldn't be sent online, and that I'd have to enter the cheat every time I put in the game.
Fuck. That. Noise.
I'll be honest. I'm now willing to pay $5 to unlock everything on the disk in Rock Band, and still be able to save,
and upload my scores later to the online leaderboards, just so I can get to the songs after Vaseline,
because I suspect that they're actually easier than Vaseline, as my main problem with Vaseline is that god-
fucking-damned alternating two-note riff.
As much as I love all the rest of Rock Band, and I love the DLC options available for the game, and even
though I love Harmonix's games - the note chart for Vaseline, and the fact that I couldn't just enter a
cheat and unlock everything forever, nor did I have the option to spend 5 bucks to unlock the entire track list
made me want run through the halls of Harmonix, on a bloody rampage, with
Stormbringer in hand, or spitting the employees responsible
for the abomination that is Vaseline's note chart on pikes, and setting them ablaze as a warning for
all those future people who make note charts, not only for Rock Band, but for Guitar Hero as well, to avoid
such expensive-controller-smashingly frustrating riffs.
So, I can now forgive pay DLC for content that would ordinarily be unlockable. I do admit that using a cheat
code to unlock that content, one that doesn't disable saving, so that I don't have to enter the code
every time I want to play the game would better. However, considering the lack of such codes in games these
days, and in general the way games are going, that's probably a bit too much to ask.
That, though, is a rant for another time.
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2) Read my reply in the Blazblue news post
3)You'd really pay $5 because of a 10 second cheat code?
You're not looking at the bigger picture. You shouldn't be encouraging Harmonix to put this "pay-per-unlock" in, when the obvious alternative is "just have everything unlocked".
Because of blogs/comments/emails to Harmonix from people with that viewpoint, Rock Band Beatles will ship with 100% of it's songs unlocked. Your blog of "charge us please" serves 0 purpose when they're already implementing on a better solution. Email Harmonix "thank you", and maybe in Rock Band 3, you can use that $5 for a few tracks.
Fuck. That. Noise.
Money for cheat codes?
Fuck.That.Shit.
Also, stuck on Normal?
Are you an Amputee?
Seriously, Gantz, Naim, fuck off, not everyone has the many, MANY hours to play a game that you 2 seem to have.
And like I said in the Blaz Blue thread, who gives a fuck, its your game, its your money, do whatever you want, you wanna pay 10 bucks and have EVERYTHING? Go ahead, nobody is stopping you and I doubt you'll lose any sleep because a bunch of neckbeard shut-ins think less of you.
And who cares if he's stuck on Normal? No shame in it.
There's shame in looking in down on him because he doesn't play at the same difficulty as you. Knobheads.
1 song + 1 month = 0 progress
Overall I really don't care if someone wants to go and waste their own money on essentially a cheat.
But don't you think 0 dollars for an -actual- cheat would be better?
If you're so inclined to cheat, have at it.
Just, why settle for a paid unlock?
They're expressing their opinions. You can say "who the fuck cares" about anything, but it's not like everyone doesn't care.
Seriously, who the fuck cares about you? Why are you a part of this site if you just shit all over the comments section of every blog and front page article you come across, and spew hate everywhere you go. Leave.
@ Nanbu
Many many hours? My 16 year old sister was able to beat Rock Band on Normal having never played any guitar game before. Though I do actually agree with you that we shouldn't be mocking CountZeroOR for his skill level what you were doing in regards to Naim and Gantz was an attack of the same kind only inverted.
I can understand having to enter the cheat everytime being annoying, but they fixed that in RB2 by just making it a menu option. Though perhaps it's debatable if you should get that at this point, you could import the songs over from RB1 to 2 and then have no problems. And there's even a small charge for porting them over, so hooray, there's your payment.
Would I do it? I think it depends really. If there were a lot of songs that I really liked and knew I just would not be able to unlock on my own, then yes, I'd consider it.
I'm usually stuck going beyond normal too, but I know I'm not especially good at these games. I do enjoy them though, which I thought was what mattered.
Kids nowadays don't know you can get things by working for it. Not by throwing money around. Weren't we all playing Super Mario to death when we finally saved the proper amount of money to buy the game? Even though we couldn't finish some games when we were younger we played it a shitload of hours. At least I do, and I know I'm not alone.
I think the console should be youre friend, sit next to you for a day and tell you you suck if it wants to charge to play your games. Otherwise, it can stick its paid unlocks. There's no salvageable fun in that.
Frankly, this won't be a "game" for us... more a form of goofy Saturday afternoon entertainment to torture the neighbors with our singing... if there's not an optional method to play all songs on the disc (or to pay a minimal fee to unlock them) then this won't be a buy.
Like was mentioned, you can unlock all songs with a simple cheat code, you just can't unlock cheevos/trophies if you do, which isn't a big deal in my opinion and I would assume your's as well.
@topic
But what I don't get is, and I'm not judging you for playing at the skill level you're comfortable with, seriously, if you just play on normal, why do you give a shit if you can get on the leaderboards? You couldn't possibly get past a rank of 200,000 at best playing at that skill level anyway as you don't get as many notes which result in fewer points possible. And even if you could, who cares about leaderboards? I was ranked in the top 20 on RB drums on a number of songs for quite a while, yet my penis remained the same size (that size being enormous, if you're curious lol). Paying for cheats is super-fucking retarded, up, up, down,down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start mu'phucker!
My pleasure, and on a related "note", I believe Rockband: Beatles allows for multi-part harmonies! Rap your noggin around that for a while, your neighbors will be ecstatic lol :)
lulz
I apologise for having an opinion that differs from your own.
*hides away in shame*
Then I hope in Burnout Paradise 2, all cars are unlocked for multiplayer play (a lot of games do this). Then we can spend that money on real DLC cars, or Big Surf Island.
The "we don't have 50 hours to play this game" argument just holds as much water as "we're on a budget we don't have $5 to spend on an unlock" contention. Hopefully, more developers will be taking the route of Rock Band Beatles.
Considering that all the DLC for Burnout costs $70, don't expect too many perks for the next Burnout >_>
Err, ok. As for me, if you must have the option, fine, but let me unlock it through gameplay, and not by completing a stupidly hard challenge in under 5 seconds while the moon is both blue AND yellow.
And just so everyone knows, no amount of money can beat my Online Road Rules :P
At the very least music games should have the option of unlocking all songs right away or locking them until you progress enough in the game. There should be a choice. That way everybody is happy.
The BlazBlue shit? There should be codes for that shit. They shouldn't be charging people, they should just give them a damn cheat if they just want to play for fun.
You know, "casual" gamers probably aren't interested in spending more than the 60 bucks it cost to get the game, so in the interest of letting them get more out of it, that shit should be unlocked with a code for people who don't play for the challenge. Again, both sides, "hardcore" and "casual", are happy.
I don't have a problem with pay-to-unlock-or-do-it-yourself DLC, as there's an either-or option there. As long as it's not anything ridiculous like play for 1000 hours to unlock X. Come on. At least this method of DLC rewards people for their hard work, and it doesn't necessarily leave anyone out in the cold, provided they're willing to cough up a few more bucks.
"But DF!" you cry, "I want my satisfaction too! Those bastards get the credit just by throwing more money at the game! :(" Well yeah, but aren't you winning out in the win by unlocking everything with your own sweat, tears, and blood? Not to mention you also win out because you didn't pay as much to get where you are. That's how I'm taking it, at least. *shrugs*
After all, don't we remember those people who would get all the achievements for you in games for like $50 a game? Sure, so-and-so probably could murder your Gamerscore with such tactics, but he'd also be paying out the ass for it. Just wait until word gets out about it! (and please ignore the fact that the people I'm referring to are out of business, as far as I know).
To the person who said that they can understand this because they and others might not have enough time on their hands to play 70 or so hours to unlock all the extra crap. I see the logic, but it's missing the point completely. This is simply paying for a cheat code. If you don't have enough time, then you put the cheat code in and you have all the unlockables. This is how it always has been. Making someone pay extra money for a game that they probably already payed 60 dollars for just to unlock shit? Come the fuck on.
I'm not trying to bring anyone down, but this just blows my mind. So far, people either hate it or people don't mind it because they don't have the time or energy to unlock everything. Does that mean that you should pay for it?
Hell no. The console digital distribution phase has just started and developers/marketers are already trying to take advantage of the people that are new to it. You should never have to pay for anything extra on a game that you just spent 60 dollars on unless it's a fucking expansion pack or a SERIOUS OVERHAUL to the game.
Seriously, what's next? Pay to patch your game?