LCom

I'm actually entirely behind this method. This is what you do when you want everyone who bought the base game to feel like they have a complete product.

The other option is "all you non-DLC players need to have a compatibility pack downloaded to make sure that the people who bought the optional additional content always have access to it." But a compatibility pack is just a mandatory download of the DLC in a form that you can't select for yourself. Since everyone has to get it, it's not actually optional content.

There's something shitty about being told "hey, the game got bigger! Now your $60 only bought 95%, and you need to pay $5 to unlock the last 5% to have the full game again." It doesn't always feel that way, but after enough games that release DLC and then put out a GOLD or GOTY or ULTRA edition that includes it all, it's saying "yes, WITH all the DLC is the full, definitive edition. The original version is a lesser product."

I know you need to pay service to customers who have paid money for something, but everyone in this situation has already paid in the main price. It seem like strange values to say "we know you already paid full price, but it's that last extra $5 is what makes them more important than you."

So to keep it from feeling like the full price you paid suddenly didn't include the full game, that bonus content needs to actually be optional. Stuff that doesn't affect the play experience of non-DLC owners. That's usually just limits it to cosmetic stuff, but if you want to add something mechanical, I think this is the way to do it. When you want to play with people who don't have it, you don't get to have it either. Because it's extra. It's not part of the "full game experience", and you knew that when you bought it, because it was an extra purchase and not included in the original price.

(Or you go the other way, and if anyone has the DLC, then everyone gets to use it as long as they're around. That's what Dota 2 does with skins / announcers. It's like when you have a board game night, and you have the base, but your friend has the expansion. Everyone gets to play the expansion as long as that friend brings it. I would almost expect Nintendo to use a system like this over a compatibility pack solution, because it does have that idea of friendship and sharing an experience.)

Looking at how something like Trials Fusion was done, a "season pass included in full price" seems to make a lot of sense. You buy the full game, and that include whatever full means after it gets bigger from them adding more content. Then you can still have you "base game only" version, but that costs less and the trade off of "you're paying less, and so you're getting less game," is seen up-front. But then we almost get into a question of "Well, aren't we just kind of wrapping back around to a (paid) demo vs. full-game split?" And yeah, I think so. I'm even behind pushing it more towards the KI / LoL system of "You get the minimum amount of game possible, but it's free, and then you buy only as much of the game as you want piecemeal." There's usually only about 4 characters / cars / levels that I like in a game anyway. If the only one I want is going to be behind DLC anyway, let me just buy only that little bit of the game, and pay very little for it.

So I only just now registered for a Club Nintendo account, linked my 3DS, and went through old game cases for codes.

Question is, most of my 3DS games were bought through the eShop, so is there anything I can do to get those past downloads registered to Club Nintendo? Or am I just boned because I didn't have a reason to get registered before now?

(mainly asking because of the bonuses for having both SSB games. Thinking back, I don't even remember clearly if they said it would be tracked by CN or by just the NetworkID. But if it is CN, and I can't register it because I bought the game before I linked to CN, then I'm gonna sit here and be really pissed about it. Or try and get a PIN from someone who bought a cart and didn't care to register.)

@geraltitude: I went to school for game design, but sadly since I was neither programming nor art, I haven't managed to break into the industry. (Concentration on cognitive science, BWT. UI, AI, game-flow analysis, and generally a lot of stuff about understanding why players behave the way they do, and how to make them do what we want.) If you like the analysis, give a listen to the podcast I run. We talk about design stuff like this pretty often!

@gaspower: Thanks for the heads up on the typo! For me the bad social experience wasn't too much of a factor, but more because of that effect of anonymity causing poor experiences in any place on the internet. The reliance you have on your teammates just gives it a very direct mechanical ramification, compared to even a TDM FPS. But it really is more mechanical aspects that are keeping me away from the game. I will play with my friends, but ours isn't a "win at any cost" mindset, which really helps. And honestly, if I had my choice, I'd have us all play something else, but they like it so I come along.

@veektarius: I don't mind a long game.

@sirpsychosexy: I mean, you're right. If killing a player is the best way to get gold, then yes you should get them, the whole thing is a race to get exp and gold faster than the other team. But that's only if you know you're more than reasonably sure you're not going to get killed in doing so, otherwise you just made them better by getting killed. It's harder to make you better than to make them better. If you can kill them, of course do it. But that is denying them time in play, time farming, time to whatever. Gold is free, you get it by staying still, and there is reliable and unreliable gold. You don't lose it in League. To me, gold just seems like a fickle thing, play well and eventually you'll find yourself with enough for an item, which is a real statistical gain. You're not more powerful if you have gold, only once you spend it on an item. You've denied them an item they weren't able to buy yet anyway. You've pushed something in front of them further away from them, but that's a subtle difference from pushing them backwards. (I'm sure a lot of people feel I'm stretching that difference to far. Maybe I am. But that's the way I see it which is why I make the point that way.)

Also I didn't say no impact, it's clearly different. TP lets you jump lanes. League also has a teleport to a similar effect. Of course it's different, you use it differently and you think about it differently and it leads to tactical openings. I was speaking specifically of the system to go from lane to shop to lane (especially if you want to go home to heal), which is something that ultimately happens in both games, in the process of leveling to take towers to get the core. If you pull out far enough, they are to accomplish the same tasks, but yes you have to go really far out before they stop making a difference.

@crysack: Yes, going after towers to push to the core is the goal condition, but going after them constantly is not how to win. This was actually the mental hurdle that I had to cross to actually start being even decent at these games. There is a proper time to go after towers, and it's basically after the point where it takes short enough time that you wouldn't get more XP in the same amount of time by hunting smaller things.

Everything you describe kind of falls under my point. Any form of pushing is either going to be an assured take (that comes from being sufficiently overpowered) towards ending the game, or in a more even match it's trying to put pressure on the enemy team to make them scramble to get off their farming to push us off. Meanwhile, we are getting creep and maybe a tower, or the carry is still farming while the push is happening, so one player is still getting bigger. Even the carry himself has a core idea of become the biggest at all costs. Even if only he gets huge, he can either pressure the enemy team by himself to let the rest of his team farm unhindered, or even just be supported by his team and make assured takes towards the core. In some form, it all supports the race to get your team somehome overpowered through levels and items so that you can control the other team and get yourself bigger so you can take without the other team being able to stop you. Sometimes it just goes back and forth and each team only has that advantage long enough to take one tower or fight.

I will admit that I have played mostly pub games, but always with at least one friend teammate, so maybe that's why I haven't seen rescue ever come, and for that matter don't feel like asking for a rescue would accomplish anything. Same with the idea of heroes being good at different points in the game. One game I had touch of death which was miraculous at the start, but then was something I quickly couldn't rely on That comes down to my failing to study every hero and their abilities. I'm sure that does make a difference, but knowing the nature of every hero and item like that is beyond how good I want to be at these games. And even if a comeback is possible, if there is a notable difference in power by 20 minutes in, I've rarely seen the outcome by the end. The skill to pull off a comeback is incredibly high, and honestly I think it's more reliable to hope the other team makes a mistake that you can take advantage of. These are things for me to reconsider, tho.

@mosdl: Yeah, I honestly have no idea how to find it tho. I never use the forums around here...

Actually I was considering seeing if I could make a Ryan for my SRIV playthrough. Hacking together some sort of voice pack of clips pulled from Bombcasts even.

I was wondering if "The soul of Ryan Davis" would be the better card, but I wouldn't know quite what would be best. But at least I feel better that I wasn't the only one whose mind started on this track.

If you don't have a particular type of game in mind, then let me point out Action Quake 2 (download) and Blacklight: Retribution, Shadow Armada and Flotilla, Wind and Water, Megamek, and Super Mario Brothers X.

I run a podcast dedicated to showcasing cool free games, so if you're looking for more feel free to go check it out!

Huh. I guess I missed it when I glanced at GameFAQs while we were playing the other day. But this seems like a good plan. I'll be on later attacking territories, and then I guess if everyone comes on we'll try again to take something.
 
Also, where is the Territory Custody screen? Also it would be cool to learn that there's a screen that has general activity in the world map.