Expansion Pack: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| (One intermediate revision by one other user not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
What makes an expansion different from a new game or a stand-alone game or even a sequel is that you need to have the original game installed to play it. The expansion contains more data for the game and does not have a game engine of its own, and it usually doesn't come with the original game. Although recently, a few companies have been releasing ''standalone'' expansion packs, which do in fact come with the engine, and allow the gamer to play with the extra content by itself, but having the original game too may have benefits (such as an [[Old Save Bonus]] allowing you to pick up with your endgame character, and avoid [[Bag of Spilling|bag-spillage]]).▼
▲What makes an expansion different from a new game or a stand-alone game or even a sequel is that you need to have the original game installed to play it. The expansion contains more data for the game and does not have a game engine of its own, and it usually doesn't come with the original game. Although recently,{{when}} a few companies have been releasing ''standalone'' expansion packs, which do in fact come with the engine, and allow the gamer to play with the extra content by itself, but having the original game too may have benefits (such as an [[Old Save Bonus]] allowing you to pick up with your endgame character, and avoid [[Bag of Spilling|bag-spillage]]).
There has been some recent controversy over the fact that additional purchasable content on some recent games actually consists of unlocking material which shipped with the original game. While this practice is not exactly fraudulent, and has been employed for productivity software for years (for a recent and commonplace example, Windows Vista's five or so versions are all included on every disc, and the license key determines which features will be enabled), some gamers have felt cheated by being compelled to pay extra for content they already physically possessed.▼
▲There has been some recent{{when}} controversy over the fact that additional purchasable content on some recent games actually consists of unlocking material which shipped with the original game. While this practice is not exactly fraudulent, and has been employed for productivity software for years (for a recent and commonplace example, Windows Vista's five or so versions are all included on every disc, and the license key determines which features will be enabled), some gamers have felt cheated by being compelled to pay extra for content they already physically possessed.
▲This is not a new phenomenon. It is said that back in the 1970s, IBM would sell a low-end version of its original 360 mainframe, that if the customer ordered a higher-end version (which cost several thousand dollars for the upgrade), IBM would send out a technician who simply used a clipper to sever one wire.
Nearly every RTS game ever made had at least one expansion pack. While the older games usually just added bonus missions that were more challenging than the original game, it has become custom to expand the different factions unit lineup as well as frequently adding new factions to the game altogether.
Line 14:
Not to be confused with third party self-titled add-ons, which usually just contain maps made with the games map editor (and usually not very advanced either). Third-party add-ons are often (though not always) produced by a game's fan community, and can take the form of extended (or heavily-revised) storylines, additional missions, new weapons, or a 'Total Conversion', which is a time-intensive process that (as the name suggests) converts the game into something else entirely, and usually involves a graphical overhaul, a new soundtrack, and even (in the most extreme cases) new model design and programming extensions (some of which push the game's original engine ''far'' beyond its design limitations).
Related to [[Downloadable Content]], which are basically downloaded Expansion Packs. See [[Mission Pack Sequel]] for when developers try to pass these off as actual games. See also [[Sourcebook]] for the [[Tabletop RPG]] equivalent.
{{examples}}
* [[Blizzard Entertainment]] loves these. But not as much as they love using these to play the [[Bait and Switch]] by effectively reversing the ending of the game they're for. (Unhappy endings become happy ones and vice versa.)
** ''[[Warcraft]] II'' had ''Beyond the Dark Portal'', which took the fight, well, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|beyond the Dark Portal]], to the orcs' homeworld of Draenor, adding several hero units and a new tileset in the process.
Line 125 ⟶ 123:
[[Category:Collectible Card Game]]
[[Category:Videogame Culture]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
| |||