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PvK said:
As for paying for extra bits of content, I agree it _could_ be appropriate, but it looks like it is already being abused to nickle & dime people for silly things.
PvK
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Precisely. There's absolutely nothing wrong with charging for additional content, but this thing costs about 5% of the full price of the game. A few meshes and skins are
not 5% of a game. I realize Bethesda aren't forcing this purchase on anyone, and buying a bland little micromod for more than it's worth is entirely the buyer's fault, but it still smacks of exploitation. Exploitation of overeager spendthrifts with a vestigial sense of finance, at best, but exploitation nonetheless. The fact that this content was complete long before the game was finished only makes Bethesda look that much worse.
I mean, think of how much either of Morrowind's expansions would have cost were they released in absurdly overpriced little packages like this.
Sure, the whole thing looks profitable on paper, and it's not like there's any breach of contract at play. Were there a contract between consumer and games publisher, I doubt it would include a "goodwill clause" which forces publishers to support the fanbase, release patches regularly, and charge reasonable prices(0.00 rupees, for instance) for their minimods. By that same token, there's nothing preventing performance artists from "entertaining" their audience with an hour-long show that consists of nothing more than a framed Polaroid of Phillip Glass duct-taped to an American Federal-era armoire under a blacklight.
Both practices are legitimate, and initially profitable, but both are miserly and petty enough to annoy the fanbase, and discourage them from purchasing any more of the publisher's/artists' products/services. Because they're sickeningly cheap tricks to pull.