Fellow Halo players, there has been a problem with DLC ever since Halo Reach. When a new map pack comes out, there will be a specific playlist for it, and then it will get taken down eventually as the population drops. The only way to play the new maps after this is to load up a custom game with friends, or hope you get matched up in matchmaking with other players who have the DLC. And then you have to hope that it gets voted for. You’ll rarely end up playing the maps when you want to.
Personally, I loved the Halo 3 system. There were a few playlists that anybody could play, like team slayer. But for most of the playlists, it was required that you purchase the DLC. This needs to be the system again! Everyone who reads this, if you don’t already have the map packs, buy them. Players need to realize that they need to have all of the maps in order to play online multiplayer. It is the best for the health of the game since nobody likes playing the same haven/adrift or exile/ragnarok over and over again.
Now, some people might think that this is unfair to people who bought the game, but you need Xbox live to play online anyway. A lot of people only play the campaign, which is what you’re really paying for. Online multiplayer is a privilege. And it is unfair to people that actually bought the DLC and supported the game that some people feel so greedy and entitled that they think they don’t have to buy the map packs. As Halo fans, we owe it to our franchise to support them in any way we can. We’re lucky the DLC is so cheap in the first place. $25 for 3 DLC packs that have insane replay value? You’d be lucky to get that from a game like Skyrim that charges $20 per DLC. And we’re all gamers here. I’m sure we all spend WAY more money per year on games than just $25 (for starters, $60 for Halo 4 and $60 for Xbox live, but I’m sure Halo isn’t the only game you play). If you can’t afford it, you shouldn’t be playing video games in the first place. Pretty much everything in gaming is more expensive than Halo DLC. So quit whining about not wanting to spend the money and suck it up. Without fan support, Halo is dead.
343i, if you read this, please go back to the old system. Stop empowering greedy players with a false sense of entitlement and do what is best for the franchise. I actually want to be able to play ALL of the maps, and I’m sure I am not alone on that. Maybe even give a free weekend trial for the map packs, and eventually release all the map packs on a bonus disk for Halo 2 anniversary like with ODST. I genuinely love Halo and I want it to succeed. The current system just isn’t working.
I don’t support the business model of DLC, and so have never purchased it.
I will not buy half a game at full price and then be forced to pay the price equivalent of a whole new title for extra content.
If the developer wishes to keep populations healthy they should release DLC for free.
DLC will only cause a reduction in quality of initial releases. It is a rip off, and a scam.
I pay for the game and xbox live - MM is not a privilege, it is a purchase.
Acting like a fanboy wont get you anywhere either. Throw money at 343 and MS all you want, i am sure the Members of the board, business Directors and the Chairmen could all do with another sports car anyway.
> I don’t support the business model of DLC, and so have never purchased it.
>
> I will not buy half a game at full price and then be forced to pay the price equivalent of a whole new title for extra content.
>
> If the developer wishes to keep populations healthy they should release DLC for free.
>
> DLC will only cause a reduction in quality of initial releases. It is a rip off, and a scam.
>
> I pay for the game and xbox live - MM is not a privilege, it is a purchase.
Unfortunately, almost all game developers do this so…you’re pretty much out of luck. D:
> > I don’t support the business model of DLC, and so have never purchased it.
> >
> > I will not buy half a game at full price and then be forced to pay the price equivalent of a whole new title for extra content.
> >
> > If the developer wishes to keep populations healthy they should release DLC for free.
> >
> > DLC will only cause a reduction in quality of initial releases. It is a rip off, and a scam.
> >
> > I pay for the game and xbox live - MM is not a privilege, it is a purchase.
>
> Unfortunately, almost all game developers do this so…you’re pretty much out of luck. D:
Yes, this is true - but only because people are stupid enough to fall for it in the first place.
> I don’t support the business model of DLC, and so have never purchased it.
>
> I will not buy half a game at full price and then be forced to pay the price equivalent of a whole new title for extra content.
>
> If the developer wishes to keep populations healthy they should release DLC for free.
>
> DLC will only cause a reduction in quality of initial releases. It is a rip off, and a scam.
>
> I pay for the game and xbox live - MM is not a privilege, it is a purchase.
>
> Acting like a fanboy wont get you anywhere either. Throw money at 343 and MS all you want, i am sure the Members of the board, business Directors and the Chairmen could all do with another sports car anyway.
Oh look, another greedy person who feels entitled. Yeah, just release everything for free! It’s not like developing new maps takes time and resources… Get over it. DLC has been around for as long as online gaming has. It’s not going away, and by not supporting it, you’re just making the game worse.
> > > I don’t support the business model of DLC, and so have never purchased it.
> > >
> > > I will not buy half a game at full price and then be forced to pay the price equivalent of a whole new title for extra content.
> > >
> > > If the developer wishes to keep populations healthy they should release DLC for free.
> > >
> > > DLC will only cause a reduction in quality of initial releases. It is a rip off, and a scam.
> > >
> > > I pay for the game and xbox live - MM is not a privilege, it is a purchase.
> >
> > Unfortunately, almost all game developers do this so…you’re pretty much out of luck. D:
>
> Yes, this is true - but only because people are stupid enough to fall for it in the first place.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. No need to insult someone’s intelligence just because they decided to purchase DLC content. Businesses need to make their cash and what better way to do it then add extra “stuff” for players in exchange for $$$. If I enjoy the game, I shall buy the DLC and if I don’t, I avoid it like the plague. Despite these seemingly irrational decisions I’ve made, I assure you I can still think clearly and function just as well as any other normal human being.
> > Don’t use Reach or any previous Halo game as an example in this situation. Unlike Reach, I see the maps come up in other playlists quite often.
>
> ^^^This^^^
>
> The Crimson maps come up frequently in normal playlists unlike Reach. I see them come up all the time in BTB.
Unfortunately, the Crimson map pack was pretty dreadful. Shatter is the only decent one, Wreckage is the worst map in any Halo game, and Harvest isn’t even in BTB. It’s in team slayer, which it has no business in. And everybody votes for Exile or Ragnarok in BTB, so even when you do get lucky and see Shatter come up, it rarely gets voted for.
The Majestic map pack is the best map pack in years though, so hopefully there will be more success with that one.
> Oh look, another greedy person who feels entitled. Yeah, just release everything for free! It’s not like developing new maps takes time and resources… Get over it. DLC has been around for as long as online gaming has. It’s not going away, and by not supporting it, you’re just making the game worse.
I don’t feel entitled to anything for free, £50 for a game is enough. It has always been enough to ensure future investment and releases previously, so what has changed now? Also I am pretty sure all the DLC is already contained on the initial disc, so all you are paying for is the ability to unlock content on the disc you have already purchased. I dont buy the DLC and so I dont expect to play it. I work hard for my money, and i decide what i should spend it on.
Halo 4 seems to have severely limited maps with the same maps getting played over and over again and again. Should we be forced to pay extra to remedy deficiencies in a product we paid good money for? I believe we shouldn’t.
Also all majestic maps are 4v4 - why should someone who plays mostly BTB be forced to buy DLC to play MM?
> Whoa, whoa, whoa. No need to insult someone’s intelligence just because they decided to purchase DLC content. Businesses need to make their cash and what better way to do it then add extra “stuff” for players in exchange for $$$. If I enjoy the game, I shall buy the DLC and if I don’t, I avoid it like the plague. Despite these seemingly irrational decisions I’ve made, I assure you I can still think clearly and function just as well as any other normal human being.
did not mean to insult anyone’s intelligence - I apologise!
> > I don’t support the business model of DLC, and so have never purchased it.
> >
> > I will not buy half a game at full price and then be forced to pay the price equivalent of a whole new title for extra content.
> >
> > If the developer wishes to keep populations healthy they should release DLC for free.
> >
> > DLC will only cause a reduction in quality of initial releases. It is a rip off, and a scam.
> >
> > I pay for the game and xbox live - MM is not a privilege, it is a purchase.
> >
> > Acting like a fanboy wont get you anywhere either. Throw money at 343 and MS all you want, i am sure the Members of the board, business Directors and the Chairmen could all do with another sports car anyway.
>
> Oh look, another greedy person who feels entitled. Yeah, just release everything for free! It’s not like developing new maps takes time and resources… Get over it. DLC has been around for as long as online gaming has. It’s not going away, and by not supporting it, you’re just making the game worse.
Oh look another idiot who would gladly take an -Yoink- pounding and not bat a eyelash at it. How by not supporting DLC is making the game worse? Don’t even make the whole “we need to support the devs” claim. we need to support them but not just buy any bull they throw at us. that’s the reason why the industry do what they do today, cause they know they can get away with it. Under your notion, it makes the -Yoink- Capcom been doing with DLC a–Yoinking!–okay. Yeah even though they ripped us off and continue to have bad business practices we should still support them by taking even more poundings. While we’re at it lets support stuff like The WarZ!
> > Oh look, another greedy person who feels entitled. Yeah, just release everything for free! It’s not like developing new maps takes time and resources… Get over it. DLC has been around for as long as online gaming has. It’s not going away, and by not supporting it, you’re just making the game worse.
>
> I don’t feel entitled to anything for free, £50 for a game is enough. It has always been enough to ensure future investment and releases previously, so what has changed now? Also I am pretty sure all the DLC is already contained on the initial disc, so all you are paying for is the ability to unlock content on the disc you have already purchased. I dont buy the DLC and so I dont expect to play it. I work hard for my money, and i decide what i should spend it on.
>
> Halo 4 seems to have severely limited maps with the same maps getting played over and over again and again. Should we be forced to pay extra to remedy deficiencies in a product we paid good money for? I believe we shouldn’t.
>
> Also all majestic maps are 4v4 - why should someone who plays mostly BTB be forced to buy DLC to play MM?
You’re not making any sense. First you say that the DLC should be included in the game, and now you’re saying you don’t feel entitled to anything for free? Second, there has always been DLC for Halo. They use the money to develop more content and give us our precious title updates. This has always been the case, and even more so in today’s world where there are more expectations from developers. Third, the DLC isn’t on the disk. You have to download it. That’s why it’s called downloadable content, genius.
True, it is your money and you decide what to spend it on. But players need to go into buying the initial game knowing that the majority of playlists will not be available to them if they choose not to purchase the DLC. If you don’t want to spend the money, then you’re the one who should suffer, not me, as a loyal customer and fan.
Your last question kind of further proves my point. The Crimson DLC should be required to play BTB, while the Majestic DLC should be required for the objective and competitive playlists.
> I don’t support the business model of DLC, and so have never purchased it.
>
> I will not buy half a game at full price and then be forced to pay the price equivalent of a whole new title for extra content.
>
> If the developer wishes to keep populations healthy they should release DLC for free.
>
> DLC will only cause a reduction in quality of initial releases. It is a rip off, and a scam.
>
> I pay for the game and xbox live - MM is not a privilege, it is a purchase.
>
> Acting like a fanboy wont get you anywhere either. Throw money at 343 and MS all you want, i am sure the Members of the board, business Directors and the Chairmen could all do with another sports car anyway.
DLC is not a bad thing in concept, it’s just developers have been getting greedier and greedier as time’s gone by.
DLC is meant to extend the longevity of the game and provide a refreshing new experience in a game going stale. Back when DLC was a new thing there was a lot of scope for new ideas and was fairly easy to make a new set of good quality maps.
Now that DLC has been around for a good few years now there’s been so many maps created that it’s made it hard to come up with anything fresh and so developers have either been getting lazy and creating sub par maps being oversold at the same price or more than the good quality maps or they try too hard, overdesign the maps and end up creating the same thing as the lazy developers.
While I agree that the current state of most DLC’s is deplorable I don’t think the idea should be scrapped, nor should it be free as it takes time to create the maps.
I support that the DLC’s are slowly intergrated into 60-70% of the MM experience because as time goes on more and more people buy the game at discounted or pre-owned prices nowadays which usually means you could pay the equivalent or less than the price of a retail game for well over twice the multiplayer content.
> I don’t feel entitled to anything for free, £50 for a game is enough. It has always been enough to ensure future investment and releases previously, so what has changed now? <mark>Also I am pretty sure all the DLC is already contained on the initial disc,</mark> so all you are paying for is the ability to unlock content on the disc you have already purchased. I dont buy the DLC and so I dont expect to play it. I work hard for my money, and i decide what i should spend it on.
>
> Halo 4 seems to have severely limited maps with the same maps getting played over and over again and again. Should we be forced to pay extra to remedy deficiencies in a product we paid good money for? I believe we shouldn’t.
>
> Also all majestic maps are 4v4 - why should someone who plays mostly BTB be forced to buy DLC to play MM?
And you would be wrong in this case as evidenced by the file size of each of the map packs. These are ADDITIONAL items that add to the longevity of the game. But I do agree that it seems like there were not enough maps included in the game at launch as the same ones show up regularly, but this is also due to the split between large and small maps which is going to limit your options as they are split between the game modes. But imagine how much worse it would have been if there was a Firefight mode in this game, we would have further separation of maps due to the additional mode requiring specific maps.
There is nothing inherently wrong or evil in making additional content available for a game for the people that want it, whether it is paid or not. In the past they were called expansion packs costing $30-$40 and requiring the original game, now they have the DLC model that adds content in smaller chunks in shorter intervals. Free is always better, but I have no issues paying for additional content on a game I enjoy and am tiring of the maps already out for it.
Now if you were talking about Capcom or some of the other companies that have had the OTHER DLC (Disc Locked Content), then I agree that there should not have been any charge for it as it is physically on the disc that we paid for, locked behind a pay-wall. This is a despicable practice and has no excuse for it - if you could actually put it on the disc then you should not have to pay extra for it. At least give us the illusion that you worked on it after the game went gold by releasing it as a downloadable file (not an unlock key) and not take us for fools.
> > > Don’t use Reach or any previous Halo game as an example in this situation. Unlike Reach, I see the maps come up in other playlists quite often.
> >
> > ^^^This^^^
> >
> > The Crimson maps come up frequently in normal playlists unlike Reach. I see them come up all the time in BTB.
>
> Unfortunately, the Crimson map pack was pretty dreadful. Shatter is the only decent one, Wreckage is the worst map in any Halo game, and Harvest isn’t even in BTB. It’s in team slayer, which it has no business in. And everybody votes for Exile or Ragnarok in BTB, so even when you do get lucky and see Shatter come up, it rarely gets voted for.
>
> The Majestic map pack is the best map pack in years though, so hopefully there will be more success with that one.
That’s not the fault of the implementation of the maps into regular playlists. That’s mostly an issue with the voting system except for Harvest being only in CTF and Infinity Slayer. It’s a little large for that and should be in BTB with the others.
I don’t buy DLC because I see no point in paying for things that really won’t make me any happier. $25 for 9 maps? No thanks. That’s seriously stupid in my opinion. And I see no replay value in multiplayer maps unless I were to play them online, but even then I would feel obligated to vote for the DLC maps to get my money’s worth. No thanks.
Halo 3’s implementation of DLC required playlists angered me to no end. Had it not been for ODST and its all DLC disc, I would have stopped playing Halo 3 altogether.
With Halo 4, the population is way too low to make playlists DLC-required.
Why should I buy a small map pack that I can’t do anything fun on?
I can play Matchmaking on them, but the absence of 4 or more ounces of lead in my amygdala prevents me from enjoying that for very long.
The flaw with DLC map packs is the people that buy them rarely get to play them and in effect end up the same as those who don’t buy them - just playing all the maps that came standard with the game.
343’s handling of DLC maps has been a complete farce - look at reach, you can still buy the map packs at 800msp same as when they launched but you will NEVER get to play them because 343 pulled the play lists.
The same will happen with H4, the crimson playlist is already gone and as players who had the LE get bord and cycle out new players who do happen to buy the DLC will simply not get matched into a game with the DLC maps.
> So I’m greedy for NOT buying the DLC? Really?
>
> I don’t buy DLC because I see no point in paying for things that really won’t make me any happier. $25 for 9 maps? No thanks. That’s seriously stupid in my opinion. And I see no replay value in multiplayer maps unless I were to play them online, but even then I would feel obligated to vote for the DLC maps to get my money’s worth. No thanks.
>
> Halo 3’s implementation of DLC required playlists angered me to no end. Had it not been for ODST and its all DLC disc, I would have stopped playing Halo 3 altogether.
>
> With Halo 4, the population is way too low to make playlists DLC-required.
So $60 for 10 maps is ok, but $25 for an additional 9 maps is out of the question? Yeah, makes sense. Why wouldn’t anyone want more maps to play on? They do nothing but enhance the game experience. And why wouldn’t you play them online? That’s the whole point! And you wouldn’t vote for the maps anyway? Why not? The Majestic maps are the best maps in years! I swear, you people are impossible to please. Or maybe you’re just one of those casual idiots who only plays the game for the campaign. This thread isn’t directed at you. This thread is directed at people who play online.
> The flaw with DLC map packs is the people that buy them rarely get to play them and in effect end up the same as those who don’t buy them - just playing all the maps that came standard with the game.
>
> 343’s handling of DLC maps has been a complete farce - look at reach, you can still buy the map packs at 800msp same as when they launched but you will NEVER get to play them because 343 pulled the play lists.
>
> The same will happen with H4, the crimson playlist is already gone and as players who had the LE get bord and cycle out new players who do happen to buy the DLC will simply not get matched into a game with the DLC maps.
That true and to some people and including myself would be a waste of money if that keeps happening. I haven’t bought any of the DLC maps so I can’t know how would people feel seeing the maps they paid for gone like that. Let alone the strange problems with the season pass for the dlc that players been having. Also I do agree with you.