Poll of the Day > Animal Crossing DLC is $25

(+) Yeah! (+)

VioletMassacre posted...

All the good stuff is in the free update anyway.

Thankfully. Brewster is a welcome addition. Kappin' I had high hopes for too but he just takes you to another random island instead of acting as a gateway to all those awesome New Leaf minigames New Horizons could really use.

But yeah as I understand it the AC DLC through the subscription is a pay to rent thing. If you were one of those that only wanted to play N64 games and don't care about / own AC then it's super overpriced for what you actually want.

Like I just said elsewhere, it's like a Price is Right showcase with a sports car and a big ugly popcorn cart thrown in.

adjl posted...

The 3DS stored saves internally.

I could be mis-remembering but one of the Etrian Odyssey games I own has one save slot devoted to the card and the rest are on the system itself.

---

>I get Animal Crossing New Leaf.
>I play it for a year.
>One day, my 3DS breaks.
>I get a new one.
>I put my cartridge of ACNL in and continue playing.

>I get Pokemon Shield.
>I play it for a year.
>One day, my Switch breaks.
>I get a new one.
>I put my cartridge of Shield in, but too bad, my data is gone forever.

I really truly don't understand how that's no big deal. Please answer me why it's okay.

It should be -- A:
>I get a game.
>I play it for a year.
>My console breaks.
>I get a new one.
>I just put my cartridge/disc in and I can continue playing.

Or -- B:
>I get a game.
>I play it for a year.
>My console breaks.
>I get a new one.
>I put the SD card or other hardrive from the old system into my new one so that I have all my data and can continue playing.

Is it really REALLY that bad to be irritated by the fact that 100% of my hours of progress is lost forever by unforeseeable damage to my consoles, such as a software malfunction or an accident, or if my consoles are stolen?

And just saying "Well, the Switch isn't the first to function that way" doesn't mean that it still isn't a problem. In fact, I could argue that it's especially a problem in a portable console as those tend to be more fragile.

And-
>I get a game.
>I play it for a year.
>My console breaks.
>I get a new one.
>I backup my data saved onto Cloud to my new system so that I can continue playing.
-Isn't actually bad! In fact, I'm very grateful for it! The problem is that not all Switch games are compatible with Cloud services, meaning that for certain games you're just shit 'outta luck if your console breaks.
I don't see why they couldn't have just made it function like my examples A and B above. It'd have been easier and more reliable, at least in my opinion.

I'm not asking you to agree. But do you at least see my point?

---

adjl posted...

Oh, they absolutely could fix it. The system has an SD card slot and several USB ports. There's no reason they couldn't push out a firmware update that would allow us to save a backup file on that SD card or an attached external hard drive, which could be copied to any computer storage as desired. They choose not to for the sake of making NSO's cloud saves more appealing. That is something worth criticizing them for.

You're right. And that shit really pisses me off.

But the bitch of it is that we keep buying into it all. We won't stop buying consoles and games even if they have these problems because we love gaming and are willing to put up with the bad parts of it so long as we can squeeze even the slightest bit of joy from the experience.
Companies like Nintendo know this, so they take away just enough from our experience to where we're still moderately happy and will keep coming back for more like friggen monkeys while they rack in the dough. Because the fact is that the chances of our frustrations actually impacting them are smaller than an insect's dick -- especially when we give them millions of dollars in profit even for things that disappoint us.

---

papercup posted...

Big updates coming, but man, that's expensive

I remember back in the day when we had expansion packs before dlc.

expansion packs is just dlc.

---

likehelly posted...

expansion packs is just dlc.

yes and?

---

read the post above mine

---

The NSO expansion back is definitely more than I thought it was going to be. Still, in comparison to all other online services, it's way cheaper. I'll get it for the N64 games and AC DLC, but I wish the wireless N64 controller was more affordable.

---

likehelly posted...

expansion packs is just dlc.

This is blatantly false. Expansion packs were always on physical disks that installed on a computer. DLC stands for downloadable content which means it's digital only.
---

likehelly posted...

read the post above mine

yeah I still dont really understand what point you are trying to make

an expansion pack is essentially a large dlc package, I dont think anyone would disagree

---

wwinterj25 posted... Actually yeah in the USA paying more than double the price just to access some N64 and Genesis games is bad. I can only hope they add more to the service like more retro platforms and voice chat. Adding DLC for it's first party games to the subscription is however a interesting idea.

They definitely won't be adding voice chat to the service, since that would require new hardware. The Switch simply doesn't have any microphones built into it. They could conceivably update the system to be compatible with USB or Bluetooth mics (they actually just updated it to work with Bluetooth headphones), but I haven't seen anything to suggest that they aren't satisfied with the model of operating the service through smartphones (since that satisfies the need without requiring most users to buy any additional hardware or making changes to the system's functionality).

I do, however, suspect that more than just AC's expansion will end up included in this. The model of "pay for this premium subscription and get DLC for major games for free" is pretty reasonable if the VC side of things is seen as a bonus on top of that. Whether or not that ends up being compelling, though, remains to be seen. It's not particularly enticing with just AC in there, and the only other significant contemporary DLC I can think of is the Age of Calamity one (which is already out and not a particularly mainstream game). I can't think of anything else upcoming that could benefit from such a program, so I feel like it's still going to be a pretty weak offering. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen.

Revelation34 posted...

Sounds like Nintendo is just incredibly cheap. Valve has free cloud saves and are worth far less than Nintendo.

True, but it's kind of a given that PC online is a better, more valuable service than any console online. I'm not surprised that Nintendo is falling just as short in that regard as every other paid online service.

Flappers posted...

I really truly don't understand how that's no big deal. Please answer me why it's okay.

It's a problem, but that's the unfortunate reality of data storage. I've lost save files to corrupted memory cards (Gamecube 1019 card, just died one day and I lost everything that couldn't be/hadn't been backed up). I've lost save files that were on cartridges for no apparent reason, and the risk of any old cartridge losing my files because their batteries die is ever-present. I've lost save files on computers because hard drives have died. I back stuff up when possible, which helps mitigate the risk, but the fact of the matter is that you're going to end up losing some save data here and there, no matter how it's stored.

That said, complete system failure is pretty rare. I've had the disc drives die in my GC and Wii, and in the latter case, my save data was copied over to the new system when I sent it in for repairs. That's pretty standard for Nintendo. It's not going to help with cases where the system is stolen or has the storage damaged/corrupted (though if that's happening, there's a fair chance that whatever game you're worried about is going with it), but it does the job for any other system failures. That's why I don't consider it a huge deal: It's unlikely enough that it's not a risk that's worth getting worked up over.

Should it be possible to back stuff up? Yes, and to that end, a shift to read-only media is actually better (you can't really back up individual game carts, while it's relatively easy to back up other forms of storage). But that doesn't mean that saving stuff outside of cartridges is a major problem.

Black_Crusher posted...

I could be mis-remembering but one of the Etrian Odyssey games I own has one save slot devoted to the card and the rest are on the system itself.

I think it varies by game, I'm not 100% sure.

Revelation34 posted...

This is blatantly false. Expansion packs were always on physical disks that installed on a computer. DLC stands for downloadable content which means it's digital only.

Expansion packs were DLC before digital distribution was a common thing. They're not literally downloadable, no, but they're conceptually and functionally identical in that they're optional post-purchase content that can be added to the game by people that want to buy them. It's not "blatantly false," it's just looking beyond the strict literal interpretation of the term "DLC" and considering what function that concept actually serves.

---

One thing I think we can all agree on is that expansion packs were usually made way after a completed game was released. You didn't have any of that day one DLC crap where they purposely cut pieces off your finished product intentionally to sell it back to you again right away.

The best expansion pack IMO was Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. Introduced many new gameplay elements, 2 new classes, hell a whole new Act 5! Runner up would be Baldur's Gate 2 Throne of Baal or even the first game's werewolf stuff (Tales of the Sword Coast, I think it was called- it's been a while).

More recently my favorite "DLC done right" would be Dark Souls Artorias of the Abyss and Borderlands 2: Tiny Tina Assault on Dragon Keep. Bloodnborne's DLC is also great it's just it's too hard for me to get through XD

---

Black_Crusher posted...

The best expansion pack IMO was Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction.

Correct opinion

---

i disagree

---

likehelly posted...

i disagree

no shit, youre helly

---

i disagree

---