ffs if one more person comes in and shares their sophomoric ideas of how a game company needs to make money, and therefore its okay to dumb things down or charge for extra content, I'm gonna be sick.
In fact, here are some excerpts of an article about TF2 with Valve -
"So, for us, for free is the way to go. The gamers play the game, they want to keep playing the game, so we've collected their fifty bucks at the start, and once they're in the park, they can ride any ride they want in the park. So, for us that's been the philosophy."
"For us, we see it as an investment on our next product," he said. "Gamers won't hesitate when they see a game coming out from Valve. They'll think 'I've heard of this but will it be worth my money?' We want to take that off the table."
Your L4D example is a perfect one... see how people reacted to being charged for basically extra content on the same game? That whole fiasco is actually a breath of fresh air for me. But then again, I have self-control and I expect more from companies I give my hard earned money to.
We dont need game companies becoming General Motors who designed their cars to break after 'x' amount of years as part of their business model to rake more money from a cash strapped consumer. As consumers of games, we should hold the game companies to creating memorable experiences not soon forgotten from the start, for one price. You shouldnt be encouraging them to reach into your pocket for little pieces of what should have been included in the first place, or added down the line as part of the original game.
You seem to be sorely confused.
If you actually read about Valve beyond what supports your argument, you'll find out that TF2 is the exception for them. The content they produce for TF2 is essentially part of a marketing ploy. Every time theres a content update, theres lots of hype about it, they even do funny little videos to go with it.
Considering that most updates only involve 3 new weapons (half of which are just special versions of current weapons), and possibly a new map, and only come out once every 3-9 months, its not a great cost considering the extra customers they get.
The idea that if a games company decides to charge for extra content means they must be trying to rip people off is ridiculous.
Yes there are some bad offenders (mainly on consoles) who charge too much for not enough.
L4D 1 got support and updates just like any other game. L4D got an extra game mode, and a bunch of gameplay and graphics tweaks, and its going to get another update before the release of L4D2.
L4D 2 is going to contain around 50-100 new character and weapon models (of which 20 are new weapons), 3 new special infected (all which require new code, modelling, animation and sound), a new melee weapon system, improved AI direction system, new voice acting, and do 25 new maps (5 campaigns, 5 maps per campaign), not to mention all the new art for those maps, a new game mode not to mention all the balancing required for such a change.
You seriously think all that could have just been free updates on L4D1?
TF2 has not received 1/10th of that amount of content since it was released3 years ago
.
TF2 is a fairly empty deathmatch affair. L4D is pretty much a large single player game with multiplayer co-op. I for one am glad Valve are offering so much new content, and if I don't like the demo, I won't buy the game.
You think a small company like Tripwire can do as much as Valve can for free?
You're thinking short when you ought to be thinking long.
If Tripwire
only do free updates (which they should), the most we'll ever get is probably a few new maps, and a new vehicle, a couple of new weapons.
If they decide to do episodic content, or an add on
ASWELL as free updates, you could see a massive extension in the life and size of the RO2 community.
I'm not asking "please tripwire, charge me money for something I would expect for free", its "please offer me a large expansion for a reasonable price that you otherwise wouldn't have made".
