/v/ - Video Games

You got one thing wrong, amiibos are not dlc.

>>14047733

Yes they are

>>14048375

No, they're figurines. Like the old cards with codes on them, just instead of entering a code you scan it.

>>14048430

So on-disk DLC

>>14047719

>I might sound old, but I miss the good ol' days.

You're not alone. While online capability does have valid uses (foremost being multiplayer options for areas where finding people to play with in person might be hard to come by), it's brought a swath of problems the industry could have done without.

>Paid online multiplayer and reducing couch co-op options in favor of online only (which also results in everyone involved needing their own game and machine to play on).

>A lazy "But we can patch it later. Maybe." culture amongst devs.

>Proliferation of day-one patches; games these days usually seem to need some extra work because devs don't ship out games with proper testing anymore.

>Digital-only games (admittedly moreso when the publisher at hand should clearly be able to afford a physical release, but either have too little faith in the work at hand, or are just that cheap/lazy).

>Paid DLC, along with the additional factor that said DLC is rarely worth the additional cost.

>Paid DLC that was clearly made from content that in a prior era would have been unlocked within the game itself (especially if the game/devs have prior works it can be compared with).

>Location-exclusive pre-order DLC.

>Status of digital rights meaning the customer owns nothing they pay for, and the services hosting such games/DLC/patches may well go down and render downloading, or redownloading them (from an official server) in the future unavailable.

Also related is making content dependent to online multiplayer to unlock/access, as when those services go down anyone that hasn't already gotten them in the past will become unable to do so.

Having finally gotten access to a CFW PS3 due to the exploit last month, I will say it feels very good to be able to search the internet for uploads of DLC, updates, or games entirely, and be able to dump them on my PS3 without having to worry about official servers eventually being dropped (especially in cases where various games practically need their patches to be remotely good; ZoE2 HD for example).

>>14047733

>>14048430

They might as well be. Somewhere between DLC and e-reader cards. Regardless of which they're overpriced too, when they sell (or were being sold for) like $13 each new (when not out of stock and being only sold at scalper prices) and only offering a meagre benefit. And that's to say nothing of the actual figure quality at times. I suppose the one benefit is being able to resell them if you don't have/want to play the games using a given one anymore, but still.

>>14048438

Now sure how you download something on a disk.

Still nobody bitched and moaned this much when E-readers did it, and these give you a nice little figurine.

Why the fuck do you even consider buying them if you don't want the figurine? They're priced more for that with iconic figures usually being more costly.

Basic summary of the clusterfuck that is amiibo

>Have the ability to read or write the data of the NFC tag of the amiibo figure.

>Most games just use read and very few actually use write mode for data storage (Smash and Mario Tennis Ultra Smash for personally trained AI competitors, Splatoon 2 for quick access of a gear layout)

>Games that read individual amiibo to unlock in game content are just a glorified unlock code, nothing is being downloaded from the internet so it doesn't count as DLC (this gets into a funny grey area when a game get patched to included amiibo features)

>Amiibo unlocks/uses/amount of times to scan them varies from game to game. Some games can have their amiibo content unlocked without amiibo but it just takes longer (Star Fox Zero, requiring all 70 medals to get the exclusive Arwing variations or just scan Fox and Falco amiibo to get them instantly. Super Mario Maker and it's random costume unlocks or use amiibo to get the ones you want). Most are unfortunately content that exclusive locked to the amiibo, most of which is cosmetic thankfully. Zelda: BoTW are one time scans until you unlock their various (clothing) rewards, once you have that clothing it unlocked for that profile. Then their is complete annoyance like Codename STEAM require having to scan the Fire Emblem series amiibo each play session to unlock those 4 exclusive FE characters.

>>14048430

If that's a reference to e-Reader cards, they could actually store quite a bit of custom data on their "dot code" strips. Small NES games could be stored in 5 cards with 2 strips each, though said games obviously don't have any high score data memory. And it was apparently possible to program your own. The Animal Crossing series of e-Reader cards also has password codes on them to unlock in game items (nothing exclusive or new, just existing in game furniture/clothes AC stuff) I still remember looking at the little free brochure that came with a AC e-Reader pack and being able to read off the small print of Tom Nook's card password to get a free Work Shirt.

dont worry, all the free money that youre going to get from net neutrality being signed out will be more than enough to afford all the dlc you could ever want goyim

>>14048455

Sadly most games these days do have DLC of some form, be it paid or free. I was honestly a bit surprised when Odin Sphere Leifthrasir didn't have any (and as an aside, even played right off the disc without requiring a forced disc install).

>>14048451

>Still nobody bitched and moaned this much when E-readers did it

I don't even know if e-readers even proved all that popular to begin with. I honestly don't see them, let alone the cards for them, at secondhand shops much at all.

>Now sure how you download something on a disk.

>Not knowing about games where the DLC content is actually on the disc itself, with the PSN/VC/What-have-you download just being a key to access it.

>The idea essentially being that you haven't paid enough money to access shit already in the game you've paid for.

Faggot.

One of the things that makes me pirate games is dlcs. It's either I buy the game to play half of it or pirate to get the full experience.

>>14048551

And then you have shit like Samus Returns, where you need to fulfill unlock conditions in the game, first, then use the amiibo to get your reward.

amiibos are not really DLC. They're more like a "DLC for every game applicable", so it is a step up than a single one-time DLC for one-game only.

It also serves as a figurine

It's definitely a step higher than DLC.

>>14048923

Except all that is canceled out by it being physically limited. Only a finite amount of people can have access to that content at any one time, officially. If the tag in the figure stops working for any reason, that means one less person can potentially access that game content. Plus, one person can buy more than one of a single amiibo, creating further artificial scarcity for digital content.

>>14048923

>They're more like a "DLC for every game applicable"

But how many games will the Amiibo be useful for? There's no guarantee that you'll get your money's worth out of an Amiibo since you'll never know how many games will be developed with the Amiibo in mind. Will this Arwing Amiibo have enough compatible games to make the purchase worthwhile, of will Nintendo forget about the Star Fox franchise again and screw me over in the process?

>>14047733

They're in the same vicinity as DLC.

>>14049839

Not only that, but, often, old amiibos will unlock significantly less valuable content than newer ones. In Kirby Planet Robobot, all the new amiibos that were released with the game either gave an exclusive copy ability or a new costume. A vast majority of older amiibos only gave a copy ability you could already find in the game.

>>14048889

More detail.

>Use in game for things like extra missiles or Metroid locations (before beating it)

>Once your beaten it, scan again for things like the extra gallery unlocks/Fusion difficulty

Yeah, it's pretty annoying when you think about it. Not a fan of that implementation. Then again that will just go down the path of amiibo = cosmetic unlocks which people then complain about saying the amiibo aren't useful enough, leading to more annoying gameplay locked amiibo content.

>>14049839

>But how many games will the Amiibo be useful for?

THIS. This is a good point worth mentioning.

>Buy a Mario/Link amiibo, has fuckloads of games that can use it (if you own said games).

>Buy a Little Mac/Duck Hunt Dog/Mr G&W/etc, you better have brought Smash/SMM/Yoshi's Woolly World because you will have no other "exclusive" unlock use for it.

>>14050169

Those Sims addons were developed over the span of four and five years respectively, and offered a ton of new content and mechanics. That's nowhere near DLC quality.

I agree with Guitar Hero though, those were just the same game over and over, just with different music.

>>14050169

DJ hero is a really fun game