As the year winds down and I look at my games collection, I see...

... a mountain of unacquired dlc...

... and a million variations on editions (enhanced, deluxe, complete, ultimate).

And in what world does "complete" not actually mean everything, c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e?

How many season passes are there!?!?!?

(and don't even get me started on the half-finished EA games that threaten the release price will be much higher than the current -- taken on rainbows, hope, and promises of a future completion -- price!!!!!!! Isn't there something illegal-sounding to that?)

It actually makes me angry to see these content gaps... and that games I thought were "complete" have decided to keep generating dlc or enhance games (paid) not even half a decade old.

I don't play games as a service... and... this dlc fiasco is starting to drive me from many larger titles as well. I enjoyed being seen as a fan.. but I'm just not enjoying being seen as an endless money pit and treated as an addict; for as much as I love video games, I can always turn off the spigot and read a book.

Let me guess: Kalypso and Paradox ?

DLC, i see much like with the original Morrowind (Tribunal and Bloodmoon), where it adds a ton of content.

But most DLC i often see anymore is outfits and other cosmetic BS. The more DLC something has, the less likely i'm going to get it. I'd be more likely to get GOTY or whatever is the closest to 'complete' but i'm not paying more than a few dollars more, so those better be wroth it.

If it's not part of the core game (or needed to make the came actually a complete game) i wouldn't consider it. It's BS, and marketing that is utterly pointless.

All Gamers really need to just stop all gaming FULL STOP (well i mean you can play offline games you already have as that won't change anything; But no online-only games or purchasing of new games/DLC/lootbox/microtransactions, etc) for a year. THAT WOULD GET THEIR ATTENTION!; And then questionnaires of what we want, we should reply we want games that work on launch, have a physical disc (option for some i guess), that we don't want loot boxes or other monetizations; We don't want DRM, nor always-online games, nor endless DLC's for individual outfits perks and other BS. We don't want carved out portions of the game to be sold to us as DLC. We don't want Woke shit, and we don't need ultra 8k textures, nor a 'full priced game' that's 230Gb and a broken 4 hour experience.

We want to go back to the golden age of games being made, target the 360 (or PS2/Gamecube) for level of size, quality, scope, and controls; Once again get full games to fit on a DVD once more, and likely have a second DVD for higher textures/models for those that really want it (and with better hardware today, loading screens can be removed by pre-loading the next sector/sections that you're likely to go to in the background). Give us good storytelling and games, and not everything has to have particle effects and super realistic ray tracing effects, not everything has to be open world and collect-a-thon with 1000 items on the mini-map.

Also stop recycling/rebooting franchises. You can only extend Modern Warfare, Halo, Call of Duty or the like so far. Make something new; sure it can share aspects of other games but after a while every shooter/looter feels the same.

In short... Just give us good games. Don't give us a promise of a game, while it's a method of monetization to take money from us while packaged and presented as a game but is broken at the legs (but the shop works).

All the above... and more!

This morning I was looking at finally purchasing...

Sniper Elite 5

On PS4 the base game was $29... the deluxe edition is $45...

... the deluxe edition contains Season Pass One...

... not...

... Season Pass Two!

Then There's Mordheim...

... the base game (on GOG) is only around $2... but...

... the 2 major dlc are almost $6 each (characters no less!)!

Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous... ugh!

How many season passes? And Galaxy won't even update this game (even after a clean install)!!

The dlc list goes on-and-on... *sigh*

Yeah I skipped buying this one yesterday or was it today as I couldn't quite figure out what exactly is included in the "Mystic Edition", apparently not all DLCs as one more was just released? It lists three DLCs but doesn't seem to give names for them ("DLC #1, #2, #3..."), so I have to guess which three of the listed DLCs are included in the Mystic Edition...

Then I saw people talk about "Season Pass 2" for the game, but I don't see such season pass being sold anywhere?

Meh, maybe I buy it later when it gets the "Intriguing Edition" that supposedly includes all the DLCs, or at least most of them.

https://www.gog.com/en/game/pathfinder_wrath_of_the_righteous_mythic_edition

How did you guess?!? :O

Genuine question (for anybody reading this post):
How many games have you bought and played through this year?

If the answer is something like you played through far less than you acquired... well... you do games as a service. Sorry!

...and no - no amount of "But I don't view it like that!" balances the books.

I'll pipe in with my own mantra. I don't even look at a game until it's at least a year old. Or five. Or more. I don't need to play the bestest, newest, shiniest game just released 0.3 seconds ago. I don't get irritated by in-my-face marketing. I don't get bruises from all the delays before release. I'm not crushed by all the promised content that doesn't appear. I don't have to bite my nails wondering how long game parts will trickle out ofthe company until it's "really" done.

I can look at an inactive game, and consider it for what it is, not what it was promised, or advertised, or hyped to be. I can see what's been patched, and what's broken. I can see what mods are available. I can consider an all done, all patched, all released, mods available game, and decide if I want to get it or not. I have such a backlog that I don't NEED to have that super shiny sparkle game. It will still be around in a decade, and if the final product is garbage, then I didn't suffer a single drop of stress over it.

For me, it's a MUCH happier place to be.

Hard for me to reply as I have no idea what you or that other guy mean by "games as a service".

I thought it means a game which you had to pay e.g. a monthly fee to keep playing it, and it can be pulled from you any time (even if you were willing to keep paying for it in order to play it). Like streaming games, or I think MS Game Pass has a similar idea that you get to play games for a fixed monthly fee (and MS may pull games out of everyone's library even if you haven't finished the game yet?).

If that is your definition as well, I have no idea what it has to do with "buying more games than you finish". Care to explain, maybe, perhapski?