POLL: Expansion Packs: Rip Off or Goldmine?

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Expansions are overpaid and not financially worth it. If you're a hardcore capitalist, you can say it's worth what people are willing to pay, but that's a rough (and rude) simplification ignoring human feelings. I always like expansions but I tend to buy them in one package with the game. I had Morrowind without expansions once but I didn't play it until I got those. And guess what. I bought a bundle of all for 50% more than I paid for the core game, anyway.

 

It's OK if expansions are expensive. No one is forced to buy them.
I consider the high prices as reward from the customers for the enjoyable original.
A good game is worth its and the expansion's price, you waste more money if you buy a bad game in the first place.
So you can reward/punish the game companies somewhat by (not) buying their expansions.

What I don't like is companies crippling their game in order to make the customer buy the expansions.
Especially Bioware seems to be very greedy.

Baldur's Gate was crippled in order to make the players buy their TotSC expansion. (Spells are implemented and in the manual but you can't cast them and a certain item mysteriously disappears when you patch the game without expansion.)

I recently bought NWN and after the update more skills and feats are available, but I can't select them since "requires SoU or HotU" is displayed on the description.
Now I don't feel like playing a normal game I paid for any more, rather a crippled one.
Thank you Bioware.

 

I buy them at every chance. Most of the time it's for the extra features, but sometimes you need them to fully understand a storyline

 

To me, just about every game is a ball-buster. Who has the money to come up with 50 bucks for every "must play" game, only to have to pay 30-40 for an expansion that adds less than 10% of the original content in general? All my purchases usually end up as waiting a year or too once the game has been out to buy it, and then snagging the gold edition for the price of the original expansion. Some games were worth it: Age of Conquerors, Thrones and Patriots, and Throne of Bhaal come to mind, all which added valuable game content and, in the case of ToB, a storyline that really FINALIZED the game in ways that a stand-alone sequel could not. Sometimes a short story is simply the best way to complement a novel.

 

Companies that publish games and expansion tend to release an all in one package a couple years after the original or the expansion release date. These all in one packages some times have bonus content that the original or the expansion has if you do not buy the all in one package.

A great example is NWN and all the bonus modules you receive when you buy the diamond edition for the same price as the Platinum or Gold editions.

Also sometimes when expansion come out they may also be bundles with the original game; for example when I went Christmas shopping for my wife two years ago for Sims 2 Walmart had Sims 2 for $39.99, Sims 2 Christmas expansion for $24.99 or you could buy the Sim2 and Sims 2 Christmas expansion bundled together for $34.99.

As for purchasing expansion to games, I usually wait until they are bundled together for $20 or less. I purchased NWN Gold edition for $5, HotU for $10, BG2 Ultimate Collection, and TotSC for $5.

Most games and there expansions are not worth their cost. I personally prefer to purchase games with their expansion and play a year or two behind; this way I know I am not over paying for something that I may feel cheated; also you have 2 years of reviews to determine if a game is worth it value. I still have yet to purchase KotOR 1 or 2. I am waiting for a game bundle of those two games.

 

Expansions are rip offs at full price but make for good bargains later, like when you can buy the game, its sequel and all addons for like $30.

I still think that HL2 Episode 1 is one of the most pathetic excuses for a addon ever. at 80% of the original games price, but with only 1% of the content, it was severly lacking. Valve obviously needed to make money. That was a massive disappointing waste of money, like 4 hours of gameplay. less counting reloads. and the story barely advances.

there have been some really good expansions, like LoD, ToB (kinda), the NWN expansions, but some really terrible ones like the Clan and Innersphere mech paks for Mechwarrior 4 mercenaries. I have the models for the new mechs, in the game, the enemy can use them, but I cant because... was going to say something obscene but lets just say because I havent spent enough money.

 

it really just seems to depend on who makes the expansions. The expansions for most Blizzard games seem to be worth it, Burning Crusade, Frozen Throne, and Lords of Destruction are good, all the expansions from Black Isles were good, and I've enjoyed all of Bethesda's expansion(Tribunal, Bloodmoon, and Shivering Isles.)

Expansions from other companies tend to be ****ty imo, and I have never been impressed with an expansion that is not from one of the above companies.

 

It depends on the game, I mean if I really love the game mechanics of the original, then I'm bound to love the expansion as well (as most don't change the gameplay that much) and probably wouldn't be able to sleep too well without it.

 

I think expansion packs can go either way, though most are rip offs. A good expansion pack will really expand the game and provide more units, class, race, etc (dependent upon the game). Also a good expansion will add 1/4 - 1/2 the playing time of the original game and this extra playing time will be added onto the end of the game or during the game play (think of Baludr's Gate Tales of the Sword Coast and Baluder's Gate 2 ToB). Some expansion that cost $20 for only added game time with nothing new is not worth the money. There are two expansion I know of that were worth their price...Baludar's Gate II ToB and NWN Hordes of the Underdark.

 

I have yet tio be dissappointed with any Civ expansion. I also loved the Diablo II expansion. Otherwise, I have waited for the gold pack for other games, like Warcraft III and Rise of Nations...