I posted this in the Alpha forums and thought I'd drop it here as well:
Having completed the Alpha survey and answering all the Destiny related questions I have a question persisting in the back of my mind.
Regardless of my personal feelings about the Destiny franchise it is largely agreed that it's been mismanaged since before its release to the market. One of the major concerns for many that fell away from the game was with the always-online persistent world and how that related to those who didn't buy "Expansions". Those who did not purchase the expansions lost the content they had access to, and were eventually locked out of game modes that they had been playing for potentially a year until TTK.
Will The Division follow this practice?
If a player purchases the base game and not the season pass, will The Division be unplayable to them once the Season pass content is released unless they pay? Also, if there is a TTK style DLC/Expansion/Reboot will all previous expansions need to be purchased as well or will just the most recent release?
The reason I ask is this hybrid-subscription model was never really communicated to those interested in investing their money into Destiny. The base game was being sold on sale after the TDB and HoW expansion but all modes were not even available to them unless they purchased the expansions.
I thought this might be a good topic to see how the Alpha community feels on this subject as well. If there is information available already please post the links!
Considering the info they have dropped about the DLC names and the summaries the implications look promising. Unfortunately if you pay attention to the vernacular never is it mentioned that it will but neither is that it won't be the case.
http://www.gamezone.com/news/the-div...olders-3433241
That makes me a bit nervous about the content drops, and accessibility, I'm a season pass holder but for those that aren't it sounds like even buying the DLC's won't get you all the content.
With Destiny I was the only one in my group of buddies that bought the season pass. As happened to many we were all pretty disillusioned by the disparity between the marketing and actual game and so my buddies didn't buy into the "expansions". I ended up surfing LuckyForGame sites for the next year+ and I'm not too excited at the prospect of that happening again.Originally Posted by Selynar Go to original post
I've been tweeting @thedivisiongame hoping for an answer but it's been radio silent.
I hope they didn't call it The Divison because they're creating such a Division between Vanilla owners, Season Passers, and DLCers haha!
I think you are overstating the term "lockout" as it pertains to Destiny DLC. Players who owned vanilla destiny only lost 2 activities which was nightfall and daily missions. Which wasn't 100% of the time. Most of the players who pasted on DLC barley played the game and couldn't tell you what was missing. They still had access to all their story missions, raids and weapons. They didn't need higher rated weapons and gear becuase they were on the orginal level scale.
Also bungie made mistakes but the notion that one of the all time highest grossing games was mismanaged at ever corner is a stretch as well. IMO the biggest mistake bungie made was overreacting to the communities constant gripes.
In generic terms of the developers releasing DLC that locksout old players. Odds are if you aren't purchasing DLC you don't like the game that much anyway. The developers primary objective should be to cater to the players who are commited to the game and enhance their play experience first and foremost.
The big problem I worry about is that with Destiny every release rendered the prior content useless without replacing it with ample amount of new content. I would like to see the divisin scale old content to match new content so there is always something to do.
Fair enough. Our understanding of terms seems to be the misstep more than what I'm actually saying. Syntax is essential to communication and for clarity's sake I'll respond to what you're saying here.Originally Posted by DGHUSTLA305 Go to original post
I understand you think by using the term lock-out I'm exaggerating what really happened. If you look at the context of that sentence (hopefully you read beyond it) I said "even locked out of game modes". It's not an overstatement to say this if it is accurate. You said, "only lost 2 activities" which doesn't acknowledge the strike and PVP playlist options but nonetheless validates that players lost, aka were locked out of, game modes. So it looks like we actually agree once we get past all the feels.
So it seems "mismanaged" is the other word in that same sentence you're contesting the meaning of. So when you say mistakes what mistakes are you talking about? Are you talking about any of these: community management, weapon balancing, the management decisions that ultimately resulted in Joe Staten leaving, the management decisions that resulted in a major lawsuit and loss of said lawsuit with Marty O'Donnell, the management decisions that resulted in having to scrap a story-line in the 11th hour, or management getting caught misleading the community? If you think "highest grossing" is the same as "well-managed" I don't think we'll ever see eye to eye on the issue and that's ok. 100%. If you think that with Destiny every release rendered the prior content usless without replacing it with ample amount of new content is not the decision of the artists and designers but under the direction of management then again we agree.
I do agree that a devs primary objective should be to cater to the players who are committed financially but I'm also in the camp that when you buy a base game that game should at minimum never see changes in the game except patches. I think that the free DLC they're talking about in the Division is EXTREMELY generous on their part, above and beyond.
That aside the point of my post is to ask what the DLC integration model will be for The Division by contrasting it to the various Destiny practices.
Personally I like the Witcher 3 model, set world, DLC expands that universe. I really don't like the Destiny model, replace current content so the universe increase is minimal. What's your preference?
Originally Posted by DGHUSTLA305 Go to original post
So which is it? People who passed on the DLC didn't miss anything?
Or if you didn't buy the DLC all the prior content you purchased was rendered useless?
I think re: Witcher 3's model can't be compared w/the same weight due to the fact it's a single player game...not a fan for the Destiny model only because I played year 1 then stopped before the DLC started coming out due to life, then came back when the TTK came out and it was like HoW & Dark Below were more of a obstacle to get to the TTK content because I felt the need to complete it and did so out of order.
The DLC for the Division all sound like multiplayer game modes reinforced w/promises of exclusive (or alternative ways to get better loot) drops. I got through the beta w/green gear just fine, I'm 100% positive purple and orange gear will be rewards for completing story missions down the road and just found in or out of the DZ...thus I have no worry (even though I bought the Gold edition) my experience playing this game will be lessened by not participating in the DLC.
The monthly exclusives sound like daily events, i.e. "faction" occupying a certain area of NYC for "x" amount of time/days.
Survival and Land Stand sound exactly like that and nothing that really scream pay to win or splitting the community. The Underground exploration of the subway system sounds awesome, if I didn't have Gold I'd definitely pay for that.
I do hope if a player who didn't invest in the season pass and who eventually buys all 3 DLC's can participate mainly because they're likely paying more for buying it individually...but also as a season pass holder I'm glad there's bonus incentive for being a season pass holder and not just a few wpn skins and fancy hats.
bungie trashed all the old gear and weapons twice. also they rendered the old raids useless since the rewards from those raids were outdated and useless. massive hopefully planned to not throw out all existing missions as they expand their game. all they have to do is update the frign loot tables to match current gear. i think bungie are pretty much brain dead.Originally Posted by DaKineTyKai Go to original post
A season pass is usually just a bulk discount, right? You save a few bucks by buying a bunch of items together. You can buy all those items separately but you'll have to pay more. Chances are, that all the items included in the season pass will be purchasable separately, all of them.Originally Posted by Selynar Go to original post