Seasons passes are getting even more stupid.

I avoid the season pass/DLC problem by waiting two or three years and then buying the gold edition with all the DLC's included for less than the original price of the season pass.

I agree, however, that it's all about trying to squeeze money out of the consumer. Shouldn't the proper response be to withhold your money?

These season passes usualy state every bit of DLC included in the pass. You get what you paid for. If you don't like it, don't buy it.

Here's how it goes. Games devs, as companies, are not saints. This means their public face is that of your best friend, so you keep buying. Behind closed doors, they do nothing but despise you and only want to maximise the amount of content they can take from your wallet while minimising cost to themselves. Note: I am discussing the businesses here, not the individuals. Note also: I mentioned how they have to show the public face as that of your best friend...Not EA - they just moon you with an unwiped backside, and idiots still buy from them...

On to my second point. I have been listening to, and joining in these debates about DLC/expansions/microtransactions etc. for a long time and the arguments generally go thus;

"When I pay what is, to many people, a lot of money for a game, I expect it to be complete and finished. This is not an unreasonable request. I'm sick and tired of all this DLC crap!"

"I enjoy immersing myself in game worlds and have reasonable means to pay to do so, but still expect value for money. I don't mind it as long as it's well done, like Fallout 3 or Borderlands (the original, not 2 - evidently)"

"Either I, or more likely my parents, have more money than sense. I love DLC. I get all the COD map packs when they come out and once spent $4000 on Farmville and made it into the local newspaper for being stupid."

"I've completely missed the point that in order for this to have been further developed as a business model it has to have been profitable, and if all these people don't like it, then who is paying for it!? I forgot the fact that marketing and product appeal are designed to create an artificial need in those with more money than sense and therefore think that if we ignore the problem it will go away. Pfft...Don't like it, don't buy it."

Me, I've tried having these arguments before and it seems for some people supporting developers/franchises by buying DLC is like some religious experience. That if we don't buy their shit, they won't sell us their gold. But I don't want shit, and I don't need gold. There are plenty of fine games out there, old and new, that I haven't played. In time those money-grubbing bastards who stripped others of their cash full price for this stuff, then shovel out a complete edition that you can buy preowned from some independent retailer for a quarter what other people paid in total.

Oh what's that!? Games industry trying to discourage second-hand games trading by including 'online passes'? Some men just want to watch the world burn

tl;dr - Play other games instead and keep complaining/not buying in the hope people listen.

hluP1

I like how season passes are being released when the game isn't even out. If some bullshit happens like it was with Activision killing off Prototype, you might never get any further DLC and lose out on another $20 with a half-assed game.

Shouldn't they be DLCs? So they should be extra content for the game they thought of/created after the full game is released. Releasing both DLCs and the actual game at the same time is just showing us that they want our money.

Rockstar invented the season pass and it seems they're the only ones still doing it right.

You've got to be shitting me........

My god how hard is it to stick to longer wait times and release a well published and content relevant expansion? Hell i don't give a shit if the average 15yr old attention spam is 3hrs for a Black Ops campaign, that doesn't mean you have to accomodate for that audience...

I know economy is fucked up no matter where we live but that does not justify milking the credit card of that 14yr old kid's father, has the demographic for the recent games changed that much? or are we just that stupid in general?

this dlc is the fault of the consumers/morons who buy into it...next time your friend pre-orders anything you should slap them and take their wallet...they are ruining the games industry for the rest of us

publishers are going crazy, base game + season pass costs you a double price for a game. and now games are always overpriced.

"Why must publishers keep doing this..."

Because people buy it anyway...

Except its not a scam? Its your choice at the end of the day.

So stop supporting them.

I enjoyed the first borderlands and it's DLC so I thought it would be nice to buy the Season Pass. So I bought it, seems like I'll never do that again and rather wait for the GOTY/Gold edition so I have everything at once...

Yeh that's prime example for major customer fuckery.
I was about to buy BL2 season pass, i'm glad i didn't.

Same with the so called "pre-order bonus".
Like OMG if i don't pre-order it now i will miss the game content forever. Take all my monies.
Half year later.... *zing* a new DLC pops up (with the very same content as pre-order bonus).
What the actual fuck...

I blame all you sheep for actually buying season passes and DLC. We all could make big differences but apparently you'd rather throw your money down the toilet!

The person who bought it in the first place is even more stupid IMO.

Like mentioned before.

It doesn't matter, most people will just trow their money away for every little thing they can get on a game. We have the power to change the industry, yes, by not going and buying super extra marketed games, and the same thing goes with preorders.

Example: Aliens Colonial Marines.
That game was a piece of shit, but everyone ran to pre order it because the demo was cool, and it was just that, a piece of market propaganda that looked nice to get people to buy the game.
Take another example on the recent fiasco of Sim City, some people on the internet never stopped talking about the Always Online DRM, but hundreds of sheeps when and preorder it anyway, now is on it's way to be the worst rated product ever on Amazon.com.

The point is, if we think stuff like this is BS we should not buy it, but don't get our hopes up, because some other idiots are going to buy it blindly.

Welcome to capitalism. Get used to it because it's not going anywhere any time soon. If you don't like it, don't buy it. If enough people abstain from buying, they will be forced to alter their methods if they want to continue making money. If people continue to buy it, they won't. That's the beauty of a free market. The consumer has the final say. Apparently most consumers are okay with it, seeing as developers continue to employ these DLC practices.

season pass is just a DLC bundle, it doesn't mean you get everything released during a certain period. it's just a dumb term people came out with

lmfao it's because of people paying for them isn't it? pay for it --> they see there is a demand --> they continue doing bullshit

From the Borderlands 2 Season Pass store page:
Can’t get enough Borderlands 2? Grab the Borderlands 2 Season Pass and get access to four downloadable content packs for Borderlands 2 at one discounted price:

• Includes access to four brand new individual add-on content campaigns for Borderlands 2 as they become available.
• Add-on content packs are scheduled to be released following the game’s launch through June 2013.
• Each campaign will feature several hours of gameplay and introduce new adventures, allies, enemies and environments.

So it seems to me that this product was never advertised as including all the DLC. It was a package for the four significant gameplay DLCs (mini-expansions). Thus far everything they have released outside of that (not counting the Creature Dome and Mechromancer, both of which were included at no cost for preorders) has been purely cosmetic and was never advertised as being in this. I could understand being upset if they exclude something that actually affects gameplay, and at that point I will happily join you in complaining. Until then I am more than happy to let people who want cosmetic stuff pay for that and let the company get more profit to put back into the franchise.

It's interesting how willingly people are to give companies interest-free loans.

Protip: Don't buy them.