Tiger Woods '12: Lessons in How to Not Handle DLC

By chaser324 April 3, 2011 27 Comments

Tiger Woods '12: Lessons in How to Not Handle DLC

Recent years have seen a huge boom in the volume of DLC and microtransactions on the market, and by far one of the most active participants in this trend has been EA. Whether it’s through “limited” editions, online passes, pre-order kitsch, or any number of digital downloads, EA has been determined to get consumers to pay $60 and then some for every game purchased.

In general, I haven’t found myself really bothered by the trend because typically none of these digital add-ons and knick-knacks feel like a required component for my enjoyment of the game. In almost all cases, DLC and microstransactions are an “added value” proposition. Maybe they accelerate my pace through the game, make things easier, look cool aesthetically, round out the plot, or just simply increase the amount of gameplay, but as long as they don’t feel like a required missing component, I don’t really care. If I like the game enough, I more than likely will buy this stuff so that I can prolong or increase my enjoyment, but I never want to feel like I’m being penalized for not making the purchase.  

EA has continually blurred the line between DLC and main game content by weaving in offers of digital purchases into gameplay, but again, while it does sometimes feel a bit intrusive and a little too much like aggressive marketing, I’ve been largely unbothered by it. As long as the DLC mission this guy in my camp is trying to sell me is clearly optional and those spiffy plaid golfing slacks or shiny car rims can be obtained through in game means and not just through my wallet, I don’t really care. Hell, I’ve even been able to for the most part overlook the sleaziness of on-disc “downloadable” content.

However, in spite of my relative apathy about the issue, I feel like EA has sort of crossed my line in the digital sand with Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘12: The Masters. All of the equipment can be purchased with MS points, but I don’t really care about that because it can also be unlocked through just playing the game. I also in principle don’t mind the fact that there are 19 downloadable courses available from day one because I feel like the 16 courses on the disc are more than enough content to justify Tiger Woods ‘12 as a $60 purchase.

Where I begin to take issue is in the pricing of these additional courses and the way they have been integrated into the main career progression. In “Road to the Masters”, the main career mode in this year’s game, once you’ve made your way through the amateur ranks and onto the PGA tour (which only takes about 3-4 rounds of golf), you’re presented with a calendar of events for the upcoming PGA tour season. Among these events are some that take place at DLC courses that you are unable to participate in unless you purchase and download that course.

The problem with not being able to participate in these events is that your AI competitors on the tour don’t have the same restriction. So while you might have to skip a week because you don’t have a particular DLC course, your computer-controlled counterparts will be out on the links potentially earning points towards the season’s Fed-Ex Cup and climbing up the world rankings. This is a situation where you are clearly being penalized for not purchasing DLC, and this is definitely not something that I can abide. Now, the majority of events do take place on the 16 courses included in the game, so you probably do have enough of an opportunity to take number one on the world rankings and win the Fed-Ex Cup, but it can’t be denied that it would certainly be easier to do both if you weren’t handicapped by being forced to skip tour events. My ultimate fear is what happens if I’m going for the 281 consecutive weeks at number one achievement, and I end up getting to 280 weeks, have to sit out of an event that I don’t own the DLC for, and drop down to second place. It’s an edge case that probably wouldn’t happen, but it certainly could happen and that alone is enough to make it a major problem in my opinion. 

What really makes this issue even worse is that the 19 available DLC courses are quite overpriced in my opinion. If they were in the neighborhood of one dollar a piece, I might be tempted to buy them. Unfortunately, most of them are priced at $4.00 with a few costing as much as $7.00. You can buy them packaged into a $15.00 five course pack and a $35.00 pack with the remaining fourteen, but together that’s nearly as much as I just paid for the full game. So, what the hell EA? I feel like I’m being cheated a bit by not having this DLC, but you’ve made it so overpriced that I can’t really justify buying it. Even if it were bit more reasonably priced, I probably still wouldn’t buy it just based on principle and the fact that I feel like you’re trying a bit too hard to force me to make the purchase.

So, as it stands now, playing Tiger Woods ‘12 makes me feel like I’ve just signed the papers on a new car and the sleazy car salesman across from me has immediately gone into a pitch where he’s trying to make me pay extra for the muffler. Sure, I might be able to get by without it, but it’s going to be a constant nagging concern every time I go for a drive. 

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