GiN Lounge

Taming Those DLC Monsters

Lots of games have downloaded content, mostly called DLC for short, and some of it is amazing. Games like Skyrim come out with DLC packs that serve up new worlds, new characters and new adventure that most people think is worth the cost. Other DLC is freely given as a reward for pre-ordering a game, or for buying it at a certain retailer or store. Those normally don’t radically change the game, but might give players a new weapon, skin or armor. Its not great, but its free, so why not?

But DLC isn’t always that great. These days some developers are doing things with DLC that certain gamers might consider abusive. This can be something like a new skin or minor item that isn’t worth the money but it can also be something like in-game content that is sitting on the $60 disk that you just bought, but which needs to be unlocked as a dreaded “day one DLC.” We’re looking at you on that one Evolve.

So what makes up a “good” DLC? And what is a gamer to do in order to make sure they don’t get DLC-screwed?

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John Breeden II

As a journalist John has covered everything from rural town meetings to the U.S. Congress and even done time as a crime reporter and photographer.|His first venture into writing about the game industry came in the form of a computer column called "On the Chip Side," which grew to have over 1 million circulation and was published in newspapers in several states. From there he did several "ask the computer guy" columns in magazines such as Up Front! in New Mexico and Who Cares? in Washington D.C. When the Internet started to become popular, he began writing guided Web tours for the newly launched Washington Post online section as well as reviews for the weekend section of the paper, something he still does from time to time. His experience in trade publications came as a writer and reviewer for Government Computer News. As the editor of GiN, he demands strict editorial standards from all the writers and reviewers. Breeden feels the industry needs a weekly, reliable trade publication covering the games industry and works tirelessly to accomplish that goal.