BioWare's Mass Effect 3 Day-One DLC

Erik Kain is a contributor and blogger for Forbes who specializes on video games, both on the industry and on the culture. The following are two articles written by him on BioWare’s controversial option to provide a Day-One DLC (Downloadable Content). DLC are smaller add-ons to an existing game usually for a few bucks extra. Both articles reflect his views on the controversy yet are written at different times. Kain, before he presents his commentary, tries to present both sides of the issue.

The Problem With BioWare's Mass Effect 3 Day-One DLC And The Importance Of Building Brand Trust

Erik Kain

Mass Effect developer BioWare has been lambasted by fans for releasing day-one DLC (downloadable content) that many gamers think should have been included as part of the game itself.

Casey Hudson, an executive producer on Mass Effect 3, disagrees.

“The DLC, whether it’s day one or not, is always going to be sugar on top, the extra,” he told VentureBeat. “You know, the extra little bits of content that tell side stories.”

He continues: “So even though the character we’re releasing on day one is a Prothean, which is part of a race that’s important to the lore of Mass Effect, his story is still an interesting kind of side thing, and then you get this character that’s good if you want to have him for your first playthrough.

“But it’s always optional. We would never take stuff out of the core game and only have it in DLC.”

Former Mass Effect developer Christina Norman, speaking at a panel at GDC, said that all the fuss over a day-one DLC is nonsense.

“Building good DLC is really hard, and developers are constantly trying to find a way to develop that DLC better, get it out to players, and to reach players,” she told the audience. “There’s no point in releasing DLC a year after your game comes out when most people have already sold it back to Gamestop three times. So, that means getting it out early. That means day one DLC.”

She went on to say that “Players rant, they know nothing about this DLC that’s coming out other than its name and it’s like “the game must be incomplete, the game must be ruined.”

This is probably one of those foot in mouth  moments.

Norman added: “Game developers are not evil… we just want to release awesome stuff. So players, please give us a chance, judge our games based on what they are, judge the DLC based on what it is, and stop thinking you’ra producer and telling us when and where we should be building our content.”

So What’s The Big Deal?

The problem is simple: players disagree.

There have been a number of industrious gamers who have dug into the code on the actual Mass Effect 3 discs and have found evidence that the ‘From Ashes’ DLC may have been coded into the original game and then removed.

The nature of the day-one DLC is also problematic. The extra mission adds a new crew member: a Prothean named Javik. Protheans are an ancient race, and their history and technology play a crucial role in the series. Javik is the only Prothean in the entire trilogy, and excluding him from the game’s release raises serious alarm bells, especially since you probably want the context and the crew member on your first play-through of the game.

BioWare may argue that this is why they released “From Ashes” on the first day – so that fans could play that side mission alongside every other – but that doesn’t make any more sense than simply releasing that story-line as part of the main game itself. Some critics have said that only “fanatics” will really care or be impacted by the day-one DLC.

But doesn’t that just translate into “biggest fans?”

In other words, if only the game’s biggest fans would care about this, then BioWare is effectively punishing them by charging more for content only they would care about. One can quickly begin to see how fans might feel screwed over. Especially the game’s “fanatics.”

Lots of game developers include DLC at some point. Blizzard comes out with expansion packs for its popular massively-multiplayer-online-role-playing-game World of Warcraft from time to time. These expansions include new continents, new races, and hundreds of new quests. In other words, they add more story and more options for players rather than simply a new side-quest that requires playing the game all over again.

Paying More For Less And The Question Of Trust

I think an analogy here would also be useful.

Imagine a band releases a 12-song album for $14.99. On the same exact day the same band offers a downloadable extra that has three songs not included on the album for an additional $4.99. Then the band says that those extra songs are just “sugar on top” and that they’re trying to release “awesome music” so fans should just stop complaining because “they don’t know what it’s like to record music.”

Now imagine that the same band had, in previous years, released 15 song albums for $14.99. It’s not a perfect analogy, I realize, but it does help illustrate how fans are beginning to feel robbed by the booming gaming industry.

If BioWare had released additional quests that extended the story of Mass Effect 3 or added prelude or other context several months after the release of the game itself, I sincerely doubt fans would be so upset. But at $59.99 a game in today’s market doesn’t come cheap. Stack on an additional $10 for the Prothean quest, and you’ve got yourself a $70 game (not including any other DLC.)

Let’s add more context. You can purchase an Xbox 360 new for about $250. That means that with the DLC, Mass Effect 3 costs almost one third of the price of the console. That’s a lot of money to ask your biggest fans to fork over, and it’s little wonder many see it as a slap in the face.

Even if the “From Ashes” expansion wasn’t physically coded alongside the rest of the game, it seems obvious that the Prothean and the side mission that constitute the DLC were thought of during the rest of the game’s development. Somebody decided it would be a tempting enough carrot and chose to exclude the content from the game itself.

I have no doubt that the developers of this game wanted to provide an awesome gaming experience for their fans. But part of the gamer-developer relationship that makes all of this work is trust. Trust is important because it keeps fans coming back to a specific developer. It builds brand loyalty, and creates the sense that the developer cares about its fans. This can lead to not just repeat customers, but less piracy – and better user reviews.

When guys like Casey Hudson say that the content wasn’t developed alongside the rest of the game, and then hackers find the files on the disc itself, well, trust goes rushing toward the window. Other problems have surfaced as well, such as sloppiness with graphics, possible pieces of the plot lifted from other games, and very peculiar uses of photo-shopping for both in-game content as well as advertising for the game.

DLC Can Make Games Better

Meanwhile, developers like Valve are releasing updates incessantly and for free to games like Team Fortress 2. Skyrim developer, Bethesda, releases DLC months after their games hit store shelves. Pretty soon it becomes difficult to countenance or justify charging fans $10 extra for a side mission that plays an integral role in understanding the broader story of a game that sets out to specifically tell a story. This is especially glaring when that mission is released the same day as the rest of the game.

The backlash here is understandable and the lesson is clear: developers need to respect their fans by not assuming that they’re stupid. Ignoring the realities of the internet and social media is a bad idea.

DLC can be a huge addition to any game. Actual expansion packs with new stories and gear can bring new value to any game. But the “From Ashes” DLC appears to add cost rather than value. This is a big problem, and one that BioWare and EA can’t ignore forever.

Short term gain at the expense of your biggest fans and brand trust seems like a huge price to pay even for a subsidiary of the behemoth EA. Maybe some of the hate directed at BioWare is unjustified, but they’re not doing themselves any favors by pouring salt on the wound.

P.S. Full disclosure, I actually liked ME3. I’m basically a latecomer to the series, however, so my perspective is bound to be different. I also want developers like BioWare to succeed! They’ve made some fantastic games, and I don’t want to see them make bad decisions that hurt their brand and chase away loyal customers.

BioWare And EA Respond To DLC Controversy

Erik Kain

Yesterday I posted a video of a Mass Effect 3 fan who hacked the original ME3 disc to unlock a hidden character only available by purchasing the day-one DLC.

EA and BioWare have both claimed previously that the DLC was worked on after the rest of the game was finished. Unlocking the character made this claim ring false.

Associate Producer Michael Gamble responded to the video by writing:

ME3 was a labour of love for the dev team. To finish a game like ME3, it literally takes months of intense bug fixing and certification. At this point, our goal is to polish the game to an extremely high quality – not to add extra content. You hopefully see a lot of that polish in ME3.

During that certification time, we had a small team of developers begin to craft the ‘From Ashes’ content, with the intent to finish production on it long after ME3 was out of our hands as a dev team.

However, because the plot of ME3 is so richly interwoven with the character interactions and moments, you simply cannot use a DLC module to ‘insert’ a new character. As we’ve mentioned before, that character has to be planned and the framework has to be established ahead of time for us to build off of with the DLC module. You may have seen a similar framework developed in ME2 for the Zaeed and Kasumi characters. We wanted Javik to be a fully featured squad member, with deep dialogue throughout the game – and we needed him to be accessible via the character selection GUI (which you cannot simply ‘overwrite’ with DLC). Thus, certain elements of the Javik appearance and some of the VO needed to be included on the disc. That is a fact. But that doesn’t mean the content was created, and then removed. It is a necessity of adding a rich character presence in our game.

That, however, is the extent of it. As mentioned above, the DLC is over 600 mb. The DLC data holds the mission itself, the cinematic flashback moments, the cinematic dialogue interactions with Javik, his weapon, the appearances for squad members… everything that makes the adventure a cohesive experience. ‘From Ashes’ is not Javik’s character model. It is the story of finding the last remaining Prothean, and how his tale interweaves with Commander Shepard’s as he struggles to destroy the Reaper threat.

In a statement to Game Informer, EA added:

“From Ashes is a 600 MB+ download with all new content, including the mission on Eden Prime, new dialogue options and conversations with Javik, new cinematics, the Prothean weapon, and new appearances for all squad members. All of the above content was completed while the main game was in certification and are not available on the disc.

“As stated previously, in order to seamlessly integrate Javik into the core campaign, certain framework elements and character models needed to be put on disc. We did something similar with Zaeed and Kasumi in Mass Effect 2.”

I have no reason to doubt either Gamble or EA. As I said in an update to my post yesterday, there was no indication in the video that anything other than this character was on-disc. I don’t think that BioWare is lying, as many have claimed, and I see it as somewhat beside the point. (You may disagree, but again – I think it’s mostly irrelevant.)

Let’s take a step back and see if we can summarize what’s been going on, what the problem is, and maybe a way forward.

The Story So Far

1. Anger at BioWare has been heating up ever since the EA acquisition. Fans began to see a change in not just the quality of the games being produced, but in the new company culture and attitude toward gamers. This led to an unfortunate episode of anger and vitriol directed at one of BioWare’s writers, Jennifer Hepler, who became something of an avatar of resentment for angry fans.

2. The release of Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2 both disappointed and upset fans. Both games appeared to have strayed from their origins – especially Dragon Age 2. Complaints over the writing and changes in gameplay were myriad. Some of Hepler’s comments about not liking to actually play games made fans worry that BioWare’s games were going to become more like interactive movies rather than complex role-playing games.

3. The release of Star Wars: The Old Republic was seen as a disaster by many fans. The game had performance issues and was widely seen as having too many long cut-scenes, sub-par voice acting and writing, and nothing particularly unique to differentiate it from other MMORPGs. Anger continued to build.

4. With the release of Mass Effect 3 that bubbling anger reached a tipping point. The ending angered fans more than anything, though other numerous complaints also rose to the surface:

The inclusion of day-one DLC which made the game playable in full only at an extra cost; the presence of a “story mode” that stripped out even more gameplay; perceptions that the writing was once again sub-par; the inability to port over Shepard’s face from earlier games; and the belief that fans were being ignored by the gaming media and the developers themselves.

And that’s where we find ourselves today.

Now a few thoughts on the past few days since Mass Effect 3 hit shelves.

Context Is King

As a relative newcomer to the games of BioWare, I didn’t understand the anger at first – at all – and when I saw some homophobic comments left at site’s like Metacritic, I believed that the backlash was a coordinated homophobic attack on the game. Anti-gay groups have done things like this before. This opinion was born out of a lack of context.

As commenters angrily responded to that piece, I did some more digging.

This led me toward a more comprehensive understanding of the issues. And while I still find the quick reaction on Metacritic problematic (it gives off the impression of spamming and lends credence to the claims of homophobia) and the Hepler incident a serious low-point for fans, I now think I understand more completely why so many people are upset. Largely it’s the result of feeling ignored. The ending of the game angered many long time fans more than anything, but the confluence of the unsatisfying ending plus all the other issues made that disappointment fester.

I don’t believe that BioWare was lying about the DLC being included on the disc. I have no reason to not believe Gamble or EA on this question. I take them at their word.

Nevertheless, I think they badly misunderstand how this sort of thing is perceived by fans. Even if they did need to include the Prothean character on disc, and offer the rest via download, what they fail to understand is that charging people for an extra mission that takes place during the main storyline and contains lore that many fans deem essential to the narrative and choices their Shepard needs to make, is going to be seen as a ripoff. This impression will exist whether or not the DLC was on-disc or not.

It’s also hard to believe that this side mission was only thought of after the fact. Whether or not this is true, it’s a very difficult pill to swallow. Truth is important, but when it comes to running a business the perception of what’s true and what’s false is just as important. Sometimes more so.

The Problem With Perception

For one thing, this means that there are now two versions of ME3. One for people who pay more and one for people who pay less. As one commenter put it:

I think the deeper problem is that gaming is partially a social experience. By releasing day one DLC, they’ve critically altered the dynamic: there are two versions now, ME3-60 and ME3-70, with money deciding what experience you have. So an important difference between games and RL is gone, that your experience is determined by experience, not cash.

This feeds into the larger problem with perception and PR.

I’e been accused by some people of “trashing” BioWare. This was never my intent. I have no ill will toward any developer or publisher in the gaming industry whatsoever. I want everyone to be happy. I want gamers to get great games and I want developers and publishers to make tons of and tons of money.

There is, I think, a right way and a wrong way to do DLC.

Developers should avoid day-one DLC if they can because it will always, inevitably give off the impression (right or wrong) that content was left out of the main game so that it could be sold on the side. If a developer absolutelymust include day-one DLC it should either be free or include actual bonuses. Not a side-mission with important lore, in other words. Maybe a new gun or maps package or some other actual extra content. Sugar on top, not meat and bone.

A better strategy for DLC would be to mimic Bethesda or Blizzard, two companies that have made DLC a big part of what they do. By releasing DLC (or expansion packs) after the launch of the game a developer can respond to customer complaints and provide alternative endings; they can expand continents or add new worlds or playable races/characters; they can provide new quests and missions or new weapons and armor. Developers can provide all sorts of things that benefit customers with new gameplay options that extend the life of a game. At the same time they can reach new audiences while creating new revenue streams.

Better still, this avoids the perception that developers are simply attempting to squeeze extra cash out of their customers. We’re back to the question of costvs. value.

The perception problem obviously runs deeper than just the day-one DLC. The ending upset many longtime fans, as did changes in gameplay, and rightly or wrongly many fans feel that their complaints are falling on deaf ears. The line that gamers are just “entitled” to whatever they want is tossed around frequently. For people paying $60 a game, this seems like a very bad misunderstanding of the pejorative use of the term “entitlement.”

Much of this would have blown over quickly had this been BioWare’s only miss at bat. Obviously this is not the case.

Picking Up The Pieces

While I’m sure nobody at BioWare wants to hear my opinion at this point, I think there are ways to fix things. First off, listen to your customers and respond in kind. There’s no reason that games like Mass Effect 3 shouldn’t have included at least one option that felt more like the first game and gave players more of the role-playing elements they wanted while maybe cutting down a bit on the story. Lots of games let you skip through cut-scenes, for instance.

There’s rumors going around the BioWare is planning an “alternative” ending DLC that they will sell to fans, and that the “real” endings included with the main game were actually Shepard’s hallucination. This is a great idea! But not if you make fans pay for it.

Paul Tassi has a better idea:

I believe Bioware should release a free bit of DLC to all its players, one that produces an “alternate ending” for the game. From a programming perspective, it wouldn’t be much work. It would be probably a few minutes of dialogue, and fifteen minutes of cutscenes. Three sets of five minutes would be devoted to fleshing out each of the final decisions made in the game, and would give players a more hearty ending than the cookie cutter, cryptic one they received.

It seems like a win-win to me. Releasing free DLC would show that they’re not greedy tyrants exploiting the concept of bonus content. Updating the ending with more substance would show that they can admit when they’re wrong, and fans would likely breathe a collective sigh of relief as they got some much needed resolution.

I agree with Paul that BioWare owes it to their fans to release something like this – for free – as a sign of good faith.

When it all comes down, it’s that good faith and trust that has been broken. Partly this is a perception issue. Partly this is a tangible problem with the last few titles BioWare has released. At this point, you just can’t keep chalking things up to homophobia even if there’s certainly some of that going around. Nor can you keep ignoring complaints from such a large, vocal community. Just telling people that you respect them while doing nothing concrete to make up for past mistakes won’t work.

It’s not too late for fans and BioWare to kiss and make up. Fans need to stop taking their anger out by attacking the people who work at BioWare, or giving the game such low Metacritic scores minutes after the game is released. The low road gets nobody anywhere and makes it too easy to dismiss it as trolling.

Meanwhile, the people at BioWare and EA need to realize that this is, in fact, a very big deal. They need to take concrete steps to prove to their fans that they have heard their concerns. An olive branch is in order, and there’s no better olive branch at this point than a new ending DLC that is offered for free. (That may not be enough, but it’s a great start.)

As a bit of a coda to all of this, one interesting thing I hear over and over again from angry fans is what a great company BioWare used to be. It’s this fondness that drives the anger more than anything. This sense of being let down. I think that’s important to remember, for everyone involved in this fiasco.

Questions

1. Why does Kain include large blocks of quotes in the second piece?

In this way, he would be able to represent the two contrasting views as accurately as possible to the readers. In addition, he would be able to take the opinions presented and then comment as he sees fit.

2. What side does he take, even with his attempt to be non-biased?

He has a slight lean towards the consumers as he tries to claim that Bio-ware has made a choice that will affect their bottom line.

3. How does his tone in the second essay contract and compare with the one in the first?

The first essay quantifies the cost vs. reward for putting out day-one DLC while the second provides more of a call to action. Both however, try to present both sides as well as they can.