Yes, let us compare 20 year old expansion packs with map skins in a game with mod tools. That makes complete sense.

The point is evaluating on a case by case basis, same with the games. Civ5 felt full on release, the added maps were pointless and I skipped them. The added Civs looked neat, but not for $5 a pop. When they hit a dollar or so on sale, I bought them. Gods and Kings looked cool but not for $30. When it hit $10 I bought it.

The OCD part is when you say "OMG there is new content I MUST have it or my game is incomplete!!!!" That is not rational. Needing everything no matter it's quality is not rational. I finally get my gaming PC back in a week and can't wait to play Mass Effect 3's Leviathan DLC, but I will be completely ignoring Omega, because it's overpriced and not worth it. That's how capitalism works.

And the prize for DLC goes to ... http://store.steampowered.com/app/24010/?snr=1_7_suggest__13

I'm getting a bit obsessive about games recently and have to have a complete game. - provided its game-play DLC and not just skins. However, I am also happy to wait for the sale and grab the GotY eitions in 75% off sales.

Patience is a virtue - and the ultimate in patience has to be GOG.

DLCs are not only new skins. A DLC with a new vehicle and a new weapon? How the hell am I supposed to know whether they are worth it for the gameplay? If they are completely irrelevant, I'd think no one would buy them, hence they wouldn't be made by the publisher either because I'm sure they only want to make content that people feel are relevant.

Not all expansion packs for 20 years old game were that good either. But at least there weren't usually dozen different expansion packs for one game.

And I am specifically talking about content made by the original publisher/developer, not user-made content.

So how do you evaluate each small DLC? Googling for reviews of each of them separately? My point was that trying to figure out the relevance and usefulness of each of the dozen DLCs makes already buying the damn game too much work, so the idea of simply buying it all and doing the evaluation by yourself starts to sound a good idea.

And of course GOTYs are the preferred way because buying the base game + DLCs separately is most of the time laughably overpriced. Look at e.g. the Darksiders Franchise pack (which is a kind of "GOTY" with not only Darksiders 1+2, but all the D2 DLCs too): that bundle costs _less_ than the Darksiders 2 base game alone.

Except when we are talking about 20 year old GOG games, right?

If most DLCs are completely useless, how come they get made?

If you don't care enough about it to look up what it is then you don't need it and shouldn't buy it.

Not being essential does not mean useless.

It is all 100% subjective - like the games themselves. If you want it, get it and enjoy it - then you should be happy with your purchase. Even if the only reason that you want it is because you have a "collector" personality - that's valid too.

Games are by no means the only (or even remotely the first) place where this goes on:
- those countless magazine "series" - collect all 100 "authentic" (replica) whatnots - just 9.99 per month for 100 months.
- charm bracelets
- ornaments
- toys
- ...

It is just surprising that its taken so long for the games industry to cotton on to it as a mechanism for milking the market in a wholesale fashion.

It may not seem rational to anyone who doesn't have the "collector" gene - but it seems to a pretty common (and lucrative) part of human nature.

The only real difference for games (DLC in particular) is that, unlike most other "collections" they have zero resale value.

This Collector gene brianhutchison is talkin about is rly strongly expressed by my body. I got over 150 Games on GOG and i just have finished with like 30 of them. But i still get new ones just because... they are awesome? because oneday i will finish them all?! because i love to collect games on GOG?
So many reasons!
But i dont regret any game bought and the ones i allready finished were totally worth the price

A reason why I stopped buying BioWare games.

Amazon has a much better deal for Civ 5 in the following bundle:
Civ 5
Civ 5: Gods & Kings Expansion
Civ IV Complete
The Stronghold Collection

All for $19.99 at the time of this writing. All of the games include Steam Keys.

Here's the link:
http://www.amazon.com/2K-Strategy-Super-Pack-Download/dp/B00AMKTR48/

The only thing the bundle is missing for Civ 5 is the Korea and Ancient World Pack, but that can be gotten separately from Amazon with a Steam Key as well, or direct from Steam.

That's really cool, but neither Amazon nor Steam want German customers buy their games outside Germany, let alone the States.

Sorry to hear that. So much for the 'global economy,' right?

Well, the Painkiller complete pack is $30. Doesn't leave much money out of $38.09 for hookers though.

I feel your pain...