Game Balancing For DLC

[owsf2000]

I've mentioned this several times in the past, including very recently. But I forgot about the bullshit with Mortal Kombat X when it came out over the summer and it's own microtransactions - until I rewatched Joe's (Yeah, I've been watching a lot of Joe's old videos lately. Can you tell?) review of the game.

And that's when this caught my attention. This shows they either tried to get undeserved praise from the early reviewers by pumping up the coins, or they dropped the coinage afterwards to help boost DLC purchases. (IE: they felt it was too easy to get the coins, and that'd hurt business!)

Granted, they probably boosted the coin output for the reviewers, if you shine their actions in the most positive possible light, because they wouldn't be able to purchase the coins before release. In my opinion, that's still no excuse since the reviewers are suppose to be reviewing the game as it's going to be. And to flick soot on that positive light, it's obvious that they didn't tell reviewers that they boosted the coins for them - as Joe's quite angry about seeing the coinage drop in the actual release. If they were doing it to help the reviewers, you (or at least I) would expect them to let the reviewers know. You know, full disclosure and all that.

Either way, this is pretty much solid proof that companies DO balance their "oh it's all optional since you can buy it with in-game credit" schemes to make you open your wallet.

Comments

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

"This shows they either tried to get undeserved praise from the early reviewers by pumping up the coins, or they dropped the coinage afterwards to help boost DLC purchases."

Oh, it's almost assuredly both of those things. This is the modern video game industry, after all.

Anyway, Mortal Kombat X is the newest one, right? The one that I haven't bought and probably won't ever buy precisely because of that stupid <insert animal of your choice here>shit with the limited "Easy fatality" (http://kane-magus.livejournal.com/766488.html) DLC packs (http://owsf2000.livejournal.com/110344.html)? I'm just trying to be clear here, because their naming scheme has been complete shit, lately. The game before that was just "Mortal Kombat," with no X's or numbers or anything, though most people just call it Mortal Kombat 9. That one I do have. I bought it for the... *checks Backloggery* ...PS3, when it first came out, thankfully never bought any of the DLC for it, then sold that shit with everything else, then rebought it again on Steam when the "Komplete Edition" was $5 back in April, though I've only played it for a total of 63 minutes since then, according to Steam.

I think I might need to go back and start watching more of Angry Joe's stuff myself, to be honest. I sort of fear to do so, though, because I'd probably start ranting an order of magnitude greater than I do now, and I'm not sure I have the heart for it anymore... >_>;

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

Oh, and another thing Joe's video there points out is that Goro, the big DLC character they kept touting, was actually already fully on the disc. But that's just old hat by now, so who cares about that shit, amirite? *eye roll + weary sigh*