Posted April 06, 2018
Telika: I don't know. I bought it long ago, heavily discounted. Haven't played it yet, because "oooh for the real experience you totally need THIS and THAT expansion, which adds THAT and THIS dimension" [don't even quite remember which ones it was, religions or stuff like that].
And my point is more general. Fragmenting a game into DLCs is, I noticed it on gog aswell, a great way to look like you're offering generous discounts (like 75% on the base game) while keeping the discount minimal on the DLCs. It looks more like creepy fish hook investments, aimed to facilitate further expenses. It's annoying to look at game discounts and having to ask "wait, which portion of the game is discounted how much now". Such giveaways are an extreme case of this.
I wonder how many people, amongst those who are getting it for free, will (or are expected to) play it for free.
mystral: You know, it always makes me laugh to see people complaining about getting free stuff. Obviously, giving the base game away for free is a way to get new players, hoping some of them will be hooked enough to buy DLC or even other Paradox games. They're not a charity after all. And my point is more general. Fragmenting a game into DLCs is, I noticed it on gog aswell, a great way to look like you're offering generous discounts (like 75% on the base game) while keeping the discount minimal on the DLCs. It looks more like creepy fish hook investments, aimed to facilitate further expenses. It's annoying to look at game discounts and having to ask "wait, which portion of the game is discounted how much now". Such giveaways are an extreme case of this.
I wonder how many people, amongst those who are getting it for free, will (or are expected to) play it for free.
But the fact remains that the base CK 2 without any DLC is an excellent game in its own right. Whining about how getting it for free is a marketing ploy is ridiculous imo.
But okay. Free, free, yay. Enjoy and feel grateful. On my side, it's how enthousiastically people react as soon as something is "free" (freeeeee), that perplexes me a bit. Whatever.