Possible solution to "AO", Free Blood Sausage DLC

[uber]

I posted in my other thread about a happy medium for those desiring Buckets of Blood Sausage. I searched the board and evidently, I am not the first to have the idea. Virus_ST did in this post.

I absolutely hate the DLC model that most gaming companies use. In this instance, I would view it like a company supported mod to get around ratings and make buckets of money. I'd be okay with that.

This could be all the stuff that would land WL2 in AO waters, not just gore.

Does anyone else know if this would work? Release a M rated game, offer free DLC to AO?

[Gumpo]

That sounds like a great idea to me. I know of at least one game doing it before, The Saboteur had a free DLC that simply reduced the amount of clothing certain NPCs wore. The patch was made because the publisher was afraid of an AO rating, since the game already had some other adult themes. Seems to me something similar would work well - a small DLC that allows me to kill children makes sense so that the core game wont be a hard sell. Though, with today's online distribution, it almost makes me wonder if the devs should even be worried about the rating.

[Ak_]

How is Adults Only a problem in the first place?

I figure most people who actually have a clue who Brian Fargo or anyone else in the dev team is are about 30, anyway. I wouldn't worry too much about rating here.

Is it even relevant? It's not like we're afraid Walmart won't sell the game, are we?

[Brother None]

Getting my terminology a bit mixed up. If you cut out the "gore" setting and then add it back in a download, that's a patch, not DLC

Anyway, it's not a terrible solution. It has some disadvantages, mostly in it being a little cumbersome to having to keep downloading the patch every time you want to reinstall (something I always hated doing with the kiddie patches, so better to just leave Fallout installed ), but as solutions go, it's not a bad one.

[wulf3n]

That's pretty much what happened with the Witcher 2, at least in Australia.

Some of the sex content had to be removed to get classification, but on the day of release you could download the "missing" content as dlc.

[Drool]

It's not like we're afraid Walmart won't sell the game, are we?

I'd love it if Walmart sold the game. More sales means more money for inXile means better chance of Wasteland 3. Or Bard's Tale 4.

[homeslice82]

How is Adults Only a problem in the first place?

I figure most people who actually have a clue who Brian Fargo or anyone else in the dev team is are about 30, anyway.

You'd be very, very far off the mark, there.

[uber]

It's not like we're afraid Walmart won't sell the game, are we?

I'd love it if Walmart sold the game. More sales means more money for inXile means better chance of Wasteland 3. Or Bard's Tale 4.

^This

To me, it's sort of like the theatrical release of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. After viewing the "directors" extended cut. I can't go back to the theatrical release. I loved the theatrical release as a fan for the franchise and the books. But it wouldn't have made NEARLY the same amount of money if that would have been the release. I'm glad that LOTR made mega tons of cash. Gave them the real green light to finish out the other two. Did Jackson sell out by trimming out some great footage? I don't think so. I think he was realistic that a 178 min movie was really pushing audiences. Then released the 208 minute extended release "for the fans" (and to make some more money LOL). inExile doesn't have to choose. They can make buckets of cash AND buckets of blood sausage

[Gennadios]

Getting my terminology a bit mixed up. If you cut out the "gore" setting and then add it back in a download, that's a patch, not DLC

Well, if the developers were to simply not work on a "Gore" setting pre-release, but leave it planned as a post-release feature...

There is some precedent for it. Shogun 2: Total War released a gore and dismemberment DLC some months ago. Not entirely worth the money in hindsight but gave me a reason to keep from ending battles early and spend the few extra minutes watching my Cavalry brutalize fleeing enemies.

[Oerwinde]

How is Adults Only a problem in the first place?

I figure most people who actually have a clue who Brian Fargo or anyone else in the dev team is are about 30, anyway.

You'd be very, very far off the mark, there.

Yeah, the average age of gamers is 37, thats nearly 40.

[Shaggy]

Here is a filter system, you can use this in real life too....

If you dont like blood and gore dont kill someone, if you dont like sex dont have it, if you dont like other bad stuff simply dont do it.

All you guys that hated the gore in F02 brought it on yourselves, you dont have to fight a single thing in that game to beat it so i dont get why you were ever exposed to gore unless you wanted it.....


Now as it goes i do like the idea of it being DLC if it cant be put in the normal game, look at what the witcher did with nipples and a couple dialog lines....

[uber]

All you guys that hated the gore in F02 brought it on yourselves, you dont have to fight a single thing in that game to beat it so i dont get why you were ever exposed to gore unless you wanted it.....

I'll post my same reply from the other thread edited for length:

Excellent point Shaggy, this is why I don't care if they do or do not include invincible children/prostitutes/drugs or even invincible child prostitute drug lords. I'm not interested in my character interacting with those characters in a way that I feel is morally wrong. That's how I play my RPGs. (side note, I don't want to see the game banned at retail though)

Ironically, you also made a great counter-point to your own argument. Don't you think the developers had to take time to make sure every encounter could be "talked" out of? Would I be shunned as a puritan if I wanted to "talk" my way through the game? I think adding the option to talk your way through the game would use FAR more developer resources (the main logical argument against filters/DLC) than adding an additional switch to animations to art already exists.

I don't think they should remove gore/language from the game. Plain and simple. I think it would increase their profit (and hence, bigger better sequels) by including filters/DLC to get appropriate ratings, increase sales and STILL please those wanting gore/language/prostitution etc. (and I'm not against other people playing a game that way)

[Drool]

All you guys that hated the gore in F02 brought it on yourselves, you dont have to fight a single thing in that game to beat it so i dont get why you were ever exposed to gore unless you wanted it.....

So how'd you handle Frank Donovan?

[Shaggy]

All you guys that hated the gore in F02 brought it on yourselves, you dont have to fight a single thing in that game to beat it so i dont get why you were ever exposed to gore unless you wanted it.....

So how'd you handle Frank Donovan?

horrigan you mean, and i believe it had to do with showing him you mutated 6th toe....

[raelwind]

Actually, I think that's a terrible idea. I am extremely uncomfortable with the game trying to pass for something it is not, even if it's for the sake of pleasing rating boards, which is why I draw a clear line between having an adult/not-adult option in the setting and having adult content added as a dlc just to fool some board of censor. "- Hey, I'm kid-friendly ... Gotcha, I'm actually a gore filled drugfest with child-killing and so on."
I think that this would expose the game to outrage from people who don't like the game to have adult content (say it's for their children), bought it because they trusted the rating, and then find out the rating was not accurate because on-line content added all those things. And even though I don't want anyone telling me that I cannot play a game that has this or that in it, I still think people should have final say in what they want to expose their children to and should not be tricked on such issues even if I don't agree with the choices they make. And I don't think that "it's a dlc, you don't have to get it if you don't want it" is an acceptable response because, especially as a free dlc, it would be much easier for a kid to get without parental approval than to buy a full game.
And beyond my personal opinion of what's right and what's not, I am afraid that such a "solution" would be exposing InXile to lawsuits because of the content and even if they ended up winning such lawsuits (which I don't know if they would, I honestly don't know enough about such things) I don't think exposing themselves to this would be such a great idea.


That being said, I am all for an Adult game, regardless of the final rating (and if it has to be Adult Only/18+ to have the content it deserves, then so be it).

[uber]

Hi Raelwind, thank you for taking the time for a thoughtful post. I'd like to break down your post to three main points I see. (Please correct me if I missed something)

1. The game passing for something it's not (an adult game passing as kid friendly because of filters/dlc for "extremes")
2. Parents outrage over a kid-friendly game having free dlc that would add even more gore/language etc.
3. Lawsuits because of point 2

1. I don't think a parent will buy a M rated game and think it's "kid friendly". I don't think inExile under any circumstances would publish a game anything less than that rating.
2. Beyond what I said in my counter-point 1, I don't think the game would include a link inside the game to the AO stuff dlc. This would by definition raise the rating (I would think).
3. Any company can be sued for anything. If inExile includes modding tools, then it would effectively be the same thing. As mentioned, there are already games that have shipped with this very same feature.

As far as AO, I think that's for other topics to debate. I hope I'm coming across as respectful to your opinion.

[Lantander]

You'd be surprised how little goes on in some parent's heads when buying video games for their kids:
http://notalwaysright.com/grand-theft-i ... rt-3/18279
http://notalwaysright.com/grand-theft-i ... rt-2/13986

With lots of other funny examples in:
http://notalwaysright.com/tag/video-game-store

[Ekaros]

It's not like we're afraid Walmart won't sell the game, are we?

I'd love it if Walmart sold the game. More sales means more money for inXile means better chance of Wasteland 3. Or Bard's Tale 4.

You are going to this wrong way.

Clearly the correct solution is to make a AO game for backers and then release cut-version for general populous. All sides win, and slip update patch somewhere ;D