This is a good lesson for people to realize how much this stuff costs. Seriously I think some people think DLC just falls out of the sky.
This definitely accounts for some of the frustration you see from developers working on downloadable content for a game that's released after the game's initial launch. I'm not defending the practice of why such DLC (like, say, Asura's Wrath's ending) exists in the first place, but to say it doesn't cost a substantial amount is to definitely miss the point. There's some miscommunication on both ends.
I think in general there's just this general ignorance towards talking about budgets because developers refuse to talk about them and what goes into them. Before Lab Zero did it, the only person I ever saw do it was the exec producer of Sumo Digital, Steve Lycett, show some numbers on how much it costs to do a character in both Sonic & All-Stars Racing games. Developers and publishers really don't like to talk about it as evidenced by this article by Matt Leone from last year.
And it's an understandable fear in a way. So many people want to jump down Ninja Theory and Capcom's throat over DmC lately that showing how budget was used in that game would just lead to more catcalls of "FLOP!" nor do publishers want shareholders panicking over hearing $30 million or so going down the toilet being discussed in public. So showing it isn't exactly ideal. But at the same time, educating the audience on what goes into a videogame and why it is so expensive to make a modern one would be beneficial to the industry in educating the consumer on why things do cost a lot of money and why DLC doesn't grown on trees. There has to be a way to do it or else there's just going to be more suspicion and doubt cast on videogame costs and DLC.
There's a couple of smug feel good charity streams and campaigns, for sure.
If you would, please highlight examples of 'smug feel good charity campaigns.'
So you don't think the likes of "Hey guys were gonna run through all the Zelda games on stream for Charidee!" are smug, selfish and self-congratulatory?
The essence of working for charity is to do something selfless, sacrificial and sometimes even painful to raise awareness. Sitting on a couch and playing videogames isn't unless its Desert Bus For Hope (And even then they do things like forefits depending on how much gets donated to keep on message as well as playing Desert Bus). Even raising money for charity is treated as selfish in the culture with few exceptions.
But then, this is the sort of thing you don't want to hear in the hobby. That you are selfish and that you are ignorant and leads to spasms of rage like this. So I look forward to the gnashing of teeth telling me I'm wrong and histories greatest monster because I think even the way the culture treats charity is selfish and in general, how the culture is incredibly selfish and ignorant when it comes to dealing with sensitive topics.
@Brodehouse: You are a white male. You are privileged. You might be fucking blind to that privilege, but that's because you've lived your entire life with it. Acknowledge that you have it.
I don't think it's privalege in this case. In the video game culture, there's an inherent selfishness around it and a lot of the attitude comes down to "Everything must revolve around me". General reaction to DLC has been "Why isn't it free. Why aren't you catering to me?" despite the fact that development costs and resources have gone up and it's explained many times. Developer makes videogame so that everyone has a chance to enjoy it? "Why are the developers making a game not for me? They should be making it for me". Developer makes a business decision to make some mobile games to stay profitable? "Why are you making it on mobile? They should be making it for me". Publisher or Developer announces job losses? "Who cares. They should have been making games for me and deserve to go out of business" (Just with a few more curse words and the implication of homosexual activity perpetrated by those who don't agree occasionally).
It's a selfishness inherent that's crept up and is really starting to take control of the discourse. This is just another manifestation of it. Pointing out that this industry should be better in involving women is yet another element of selfishness because those same people are now worried that better knowledge and understanding of issues will lead to more games "not for them". So they attack it, because they think it's going to change things and games "won't be for them". You get the occasional MRA gobshite wandering in from reddit. But generally its a reaction made of fear and the "outside" may be invading a hobby and it must be attacked lest it be changed.
We never acknowledge how selfish the gaming culture actually is. There's a couple of smug feel good charity streams and campaigns, for sure. But we never step back and say "Wait, why are we demanding so much yet giving back so little. Why aren't we helping those getting into our culture and instead trying to shame them out? Why are we so vociferous against analysis of videogames and our culture while film and TV can create a whole language and discourse?". It's out of selfishness. There's a fear of the hobby being "exposed" if videogames or the hobby and business at large get analysed for their content. And this brings out selfishness that leads to this sort of reaction. Especially how discomforting it can be for people to talk about it to the point where they try shut down all discussion of it by claiming "First World Problems" or "Starving Children In Africa" or "This isn't an important problem and should be ignored". A small problem and a big problem are still problems and deserve to be discussed.
Selfishness in our hobby is a big problem and it's bigger than privilege since it affects everyone.
All I know from this is that nerds want some sort of video game Fox News that tells them everything is fine, nothing is wrong and icky females need to stay away from videogames.
Sooooooo, anyone interested in a kickstarter? Lots of money to be made from these chumps, y'know.
@SexVicar: What an important news story that needed immediate attention, this largely irrelevant Twitter 'movement.' I want to know where the news story was for #TeamBrad and #FuckRyanDavis.
Because everyone knows Ryan Davis is a narc and a horrible person anyway and #TeamBrad was an emotion felt around the globe that touched us all in the heart. They didn't need news stories. Unlike this which is asking gamers to remove their head from their ass and encountering a lot of resistance from people who prefer their heads firmly stuck in their own echo chamber of their anus because icky females can't talk to them there.
@Spooty: Well, you want Journalism. Patrick did exactly what you do on a breaking news story by sourcing a cross section of twitter accounts and publishing quotes from then to highlight what the issue is. Slightly editorialised with his comment at the end, but by the end of it, I know the issue, know the backlash and know where the story could go from here. Meanwhile Patrick can use the time this story is in the public domain and being discussed to brainstorm more articles on the subject, contact people in the industry to see if they can spare some time for an interview and use his resources to follow up on it.
News articles are never a "one and done" feature. Everything changes, even in a matter of hours. And you have to get on top of that quickly. That is journalism. If you don't like it, then go to Kotaku where you can get all the salacious scandal and little news of actual worth that you want.
Sonic and All-Stars Transformed is also on all 3 consoles at the minute so it could go multi-set up as well. Could do half and half with that and PS All-Stars.
It can be a Smash Mouth week, y'all (Patrick eat the eggs)
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