Paid DLC to fracture community will destroy BRINK.

(Xirvus.rei) #1

Who makes the decisions at game companies, I really do wonder some times.

Why oh why would you decide to release paid DLC that will fragment the community, when it has dwindled to such low numbers already.

Making paid DLC that will fracture the playerbase between those who have DLC, and those who don’t, will be akin to gutting an already severely haemorrhaged creature.

It doesn’t take anyone with a degree in rocket science to realise that by releasing one DLC pack, so soon, to a game that already arguably lacks enough content to warrant a full $50 USD game, is an extremely bad (business) decision. It’s like giving someone an unflavoured lollypop, and then charging them again if they want more flavour.

It seriously, seriously boggles the mind as to why you would even attempt to generate more, (most likely pitiful) sales from a game that is already suffering as it is.

What boggles me even further, is that you decide to completely ignore the rampant success of games, and game models employed by games such as TF2, which feature free, constant updates that reward current owners of the game, AND which continue to make serious income through their OPTIONAL cosmetic item shops.

Need I remind you, Splash Damage, that BRINK is ABOUND in customization. See the connection?

Instead, by releasing paid DLC, you’re punishing players of the game. Why?

[ul]
[li]Current users who obtain have access to DLC will be unable to play with others.[/li][li]Future users who don’t have access to DLC will be unable to play with us. Unless they buy the DLC. What if they don’t? Well, everyone loses. [/li][/ul]
Guess what? Now, with the low population numbers, they’re going to be even lower. Hooray, THANKS BETHESDA, SPLASH DAMAGE.

Really, it boggles the mind. Amongst all the numerous flawed design choices, this has got to be the latest one that almost tops all the others combined in terms of utter absurdity. It’s almost like you want to send your game to the grave before it’s ready.

You know, I really wanted to like BRINK. And I really do. But you guys at Splash Damage / Bethesda are seriously, seriously making it harder and harder for me to continue liking it.

Yes I appreciate that the first DLC is free, and it’s all generous and fine and dandy. But realistically, by deciding to charge future users for this DLC, it’s going to hurt the game. The end.

And don’t tell me: Stop complaining; the DLC is free. Yes, I know it’s free, for me. But try telling that to every single BRINK user who’s going to buy the game, after the DLC becomes paid-only. Bad luck to them; they bought a brand new game, are locked out from the latest content, and are unable to play with all of us, unless the spend even more money. Good luck convincing them to do that.

(Jamieson) #2

Agree 100%, I have been trying to get people on here to understand that all day but it does not seem to be working. Its all lets just wait and see and hope for the best but it will be to damn bloody late by then wont it…

(riptide) #3

Need more of these threads… perhaps by Monday morning we have the whole front page from top to bottom filled with them. That way the devs can have a wonderful cup of espresso to start out the day. Then they open their forums and feel frustrated beyond belief.

I started off this post joking… but I really think it would probably make me feel better. I don’t know.

(burawura) #4

I think the paid DLC would be a terrible thing for Splash Damage to do at this point. With the troubles getting people playing the game on PC and the recent move of TF2 to F2P, SD should release the DLC completely free and all other DLCs as well, and reduce the cost of the game to new players to at least $40 US. This could put Brink back on the map numbers-wise in the shooter scene.

(Shinigami) #5

[I]3 months from now @video game store:

random dude: “yeah man, ive grown tired of the usual FPS this days. i was really disappointed when brink flopped so bad. i had really high hopes for it, then release day…uber fail. i traded it in.”
retailer: " i know, but didnt you hear that they came out with an awesome patch that fixed a lot of things from gun balance to game bugs?!"
random: " what? really? that sounds awesome. if they really fixed the game that much i might consider picking it up again!"
retailer: " yeah, man. and they even release the DLC for free!!! two maps, 5 skills, new outfits!!"
random: " W…H…A…T…?? for free!!! ah hell yeah, ill actually take a used copy right now!!"
retailer: “Oh yeah ummmm…it WAS free…for two weeks. You missed it…”
random: * -_- * (to self: F*** u, SD)
[/I]

(TwwIX) #6

It’s pointless, man. You will make more sense to a brick wall than to the mental midgets on these forums.
Logic is an unknown concept to them.

(thesuzukimethod) #7

i just realized. y’all think that posting here - including hypothetical scenarios complete with scripted dialogue - is also part of the game.

i’ll grant you, it (the forum game you’re playing) is a game (of sorts). kinda like minesweeper. fun (to a point), takes a lot of time, and ultimately pointless. I just gone done with a riotous 8v8 brink session (the actual VG, not the forum game). super fun. had a great time. i was not alone. good peeps - mostly met through here…but yeah, the community is dead. 8-|

(riptide) #8

[QUOTE=thesuzukimethod;345798]i just realized. y’all think that posting here - including hypothetical scenarios complete with scripted dialogue - is also part of the game.

i’ll grant you, it (the forum game you’re playing) is a game (of sorts). kinda like minesweeper. fun (to a point), takes a lot of time, and ultimately pointless. I just gone done with a riotous 8v8 brink session (the actual VG, not the forum game). super fun. had a great time. i was not alone. good peeps - mostly met through here…but yeah, the community is dead. 8-|[/QUOTE]

371 917 BRINK

6 servers with more than 10 people
2 with a ping under 100 and I’m in Ohio so anything but a crappy Cali server (good ones are fine) is under 100 in NA.

But yes I spend more time reading and posting here than I do playing Brink because the gun play sucks and there is hardly anyone to play with that isn’t a short bus kid.

(TwwIX) #9

If you’re going to insult me, do it out on the open. You spineless dweeb.

(tangoliber) #10

I think this will hurt on consoles, where we don’t have a server browser, and so the main way of getting games is through joining friends or organizing matches in chatrooms.

I would imagine that the server list makes it a little easier to deal with on PC.

(Kendle) #11

Will the DLC split the community? Not necessarily, because I suspect the only people who’ll have the DLC in the end are those who are already here (and will download it for free). I don’t see NEW players coming into this game, indeed I suspect new sales are probably drying up already, so the community post DLC will be the same as the community pre DLC, except they’ll all have the DLC of course.

I don’t expect SD / Bethesda to change course however, I’m as sure as I can be that the DLC content existed even before the game was released and it was always the plan to sell the game with 8 maps and then release more some time later, in fact I’d bet money there are 4 or 6 new maps already finished and they’ll release another DLC with another 2 maps in a few more months.

To not do so now, to change strategy completely, would be an admission of failure. I think Bethesda’s game plan is, and always will be, to ignore the evidence of dramatically dwindling player numbers and proceed as planned, proceed as if the game was a roaring success and stagger the release of new content (and presumably future DLCs will not be free).

I think this is the wrong strategy. I know anyone who brings up player numbers around here is a nay-sayer / troll / doom-monger but the numbers don’t lie, Brink is on the brink (excuse the pun) of abject failure RIGHT NOW, and something dramatic and un-planned needs to be done about it, right now, IMO.

I’m an oldskool RTCW / ET player, I wanted Wolfenstein 2009 to succeed, it didn’t, I desparately want Brink to succeed, I want to be playing objective games again after a few years in the non-objective wilderness, my last hopes were with Brink, it promised so much and delivered so little, I seriously and genuinely want this game to succeed, but it needs a new strategy and new thinking on the part of SD / Bethesda, and they can start with asking themselves why less than 2 months after release more people are playing Plants -vs- Zombies than Brink.

(thesuzukimethod) #12

something about this, all the other threads about DLC, and the general tone of these boards reminds me of one of my favorite blogs (well at least the title) - Hyperbole and a Half

a favorite.

(rumblepit) #13

it comes down to who is developing the game,and for what reason.i fell like people that have created games to make money fail 90% of the time. because they focus on one thing and thats how to get more money. gamers that create and play the games, they seem to be doing very well in the industry.they are able to relate to their community, and they are gamers so they no what the masses want.

im getting the feeling there is not one gamer that works for Splash Damage:( this worries me alot!
i understand that people are set in their ways, and some people just do things the way they want.
just because you can wash dishes with and apple dose not mean it works. point being, when you release a fps in this day and age and it dosnt have a lobby, or a TDM mode , or its not finished, you know that there is a some clueless smuck,who has never played a online fps in his life sitting behind a desk at splash damage, calling the shots.

as for our stubborn community…
WE ONLY WANT TEAM OBJECTIVE GAMEPLAY. NOOOOOO DEATH MATCH!!! well TMD is the most popular fps game style there is.i love team objective gameplay,dont get me wrong.thats why i bought this game,but you have to market this game for everyone, or its gonna die.

ill continue to rep this game on the forums and do my best to get gaming communities involved,but you have to give us something to work with.at this point in time im ashamed to tell anyone about this game.i just hope the devs take advantage of the feedback we have given them, and turn this game arround. its not to late.

(Kendle) #14

That would be convenient if it were true, but it’s not, the CEO of SD is not only a gamer he’s an ex clan player (Quake2 and / or Team Fortress I believe).

(Metal-Geo) #15

Besides, it’s more than likely Bethesda who’s ‘calling the shots’. I wouldn’t be surprised if SD objected against this decision at first.

In your original post, OP, sounds like you’re talking about the DLC package as a whole. In which I disagree. The only paid DLC that would end up fragmenting the community would be maps. Cosmetics? Not so much.

(BiigDaddyDellta) #16

Lol, yeah this will be the only game in history with paid DLC Splash Damage what are you thinking!? Sorry OP but you just sound like an idiot. if you can’t afford a $10 DLC for a game you really enjoy then you need a better job. The only reason games like Block cocks is giving free DLC is either because this game is, or because it’s going to be the very last one. so sorry :cool:

(suho) #17

[QUOTE=Metal-Geo;345825]Besides, it’s more than likely Bethesda who’s ‘calling the shots’. I wouldn’t be surprised if SD objected against this decision at first.

In your original post, OP, sounds like you’re talking about the DLC package as a whole. In which I disagree. The only paid DLC that would end up fragmenting the community would be maps. Cosmetics? Not so much.[/QUOTE]

If people don’t have certain maps because they did not pay for em it is a problem but I myself see a bigger problem with level cap raise and the new abilities. Will there be lvl 24 players on the same server with lvl 20 players who do not have the DLC, playing the old maps? Or is it just impossible for DLC players to play with non-DLC players who do not have access to the new abilites.

(Metal-Geo) #18

Perhaps. But it’s working perfectly fine for TF2, where people are fighting against each other without having the same weapon loadouts. VALVe just released a huge new update containing a buttload of new weapons. I don’t have any of 'em. And still, I’m playing with/against people who do. And to be fair, it’s working perfectly fine.

I know it’s not exactly the same scale as BRINK’s situation, here. But it is what keeps me from getting worried about levels and abilities.

(suho) #19

[QUOTE=Metal-Geo;345836]Perhaps. But it’s working perfectly fine for TF2, where people are fighting against each other without having the same weapon loadouts. VALVe just released a huge new update containing a buttload of new weapons. I don’t have any of 'em. And still, I’m playing with/against people who do. And to be fair, it’s working perfectly fine.

I know it’s not exactly the same scale as BRINK’s situation, here. But it is what keeps me from getting worried about levels and abilities.[/QUOTE]

Hmmm, but doesnt that mean some players would have a paid advantage? In Brink it certainly will because of the new abilities.

(Metal-Geo) #20

Technically, yes. But VALVe balanced the items perfectly, which I applaud them for. Unfortunately, we can’t predict the same for BRINK yet.

Honestly, I agree with you. But TF2 showed me it is possible to have people using different items and/or loadouts. Making my primary concern the maps. :slight_smile: