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Ex-BioWare Dev Defends Day One DLC
There has been a lot of controversy over EA and BioWare's day one DLC for Mass Effect, the highly questionable From Ashes downloadable content. While some consumers are feeling burned, an ex-BioWare developer defended the practice at the Game Developers Conference.
ShackNews reports that Christina Norman -- formerly a designer at BioWare, now with Riot Games -- gave a one-minute rant at GDC on the topic of downloadable content hitting the first day of a game's release. Here is the text as provided by ShackNews:
"There's no point in releasing DLC a year after your game has come out when most people have already sold your game back to GameStop three times. That means getting it out early; that means even day-one DLC. That is a terrible thing to some players. Players rant -- they know nothing about this DLC that's coming out except its name. But then it's, 'Oh this game must be incomplete, the game must be ruined.' Game developers are not evil. Some are evil. But most are not evil.
"We just want to release awesome stuff. Players, please give us a chance. Judge our games based on what they are. Judge the DLC based on what it is. Stop thinking you're a producer and telling us when and where we should be building our content."
I think that Norman presents a strong opinion here, although speaking of the Mass Effect 3 DLC in particular, I think judging it on what it is still produces some problems. What are your thoughts on the topic of day one DLC? Are you against it in all cases or do you think sometimes it can be okay?
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