I think entitlement is one of the biggest problem the world is beginning to face and will eventually take on full force. I am part of this generation, and I find myself routinely shamed by the behavior of my peers and at the same time I struggle to try to keep myself from succumbing to it. I'd like to think I hold myself to a high standard, but every once in a while I say something that haunts me later and I realize that I'm not separate from the rest of my generation, and that many of the problems I rage against I actually have myself. I just want to start out by saying that in most cases entitlement is a big problem.
That being said, I think the way DLC is being offered nowadays is very insidious and manipulative, almost like game companies are trying to subtly return us to the days where we had to pay coins for fun at the arcade.
The problem with coins for fun at the arcade is that it gave game companies an incentive to make it virtually impossible to get through a game without shelling out a small fortune, and you often see this in arcade games--they are full of unbelievably hard parts that are almost impossible to get through without paying, either paying for continues or paying for your own home machine so you can practice enough. And the brilliant part is that, because a big reason people play games is to be challenged, it is easy to disguise the difficulty. There are many people who like arcade games simply because they are really hard.
When games moved out of the arcade, this incentive disappeared, and in fact many games today are almost insultingly easy. People feel that if they're going to shell out $50 or $60 for a game then they had damn well better be able to finish it.
But with the increase in multiplayer, this incentive has returned, but with an even nastier edge to it, because now it's not just an unthinking machine you're competing against. It's other humans. It's an entire community of jerks who talk trash and hold performance in the game as a substantial portion of their self worth. The problem with DLC in multiplayer is that it basically means whoever spends the most money gets to win. And it gives game companies an incentive to make it work that way. Think about it--if you spent money on the DLC you would be annoyed if the deadbeats who didn't spend anything could still win just as easily, right? You'd want to get your money's worth. But what if you don't have the money to spend on DLC? You've already shelled out for the game, but over time your ability to play it diminishes because you're not keeping up with everyone else. It's a situation that is not really conducive to good, clean fun. It invokes jealousy, anger, and a lot of rather unpleasant emotions, all because of a silly game.
You need only look at what has become of Magic: The Gathering to see how much ugliness can result when a profit-seeking entity realizes that it can make more money by appealing to peoples' nastier emotions. Ultimately, it's not of earth-shattering importance, since it is all just games. But it can still be sad to see a hobby you love succumb to jerks and jerky behavior.
