Anyone who has been following me for awhile knows that I'm no fan of Sega. I think they have the unique ability to take a game, and then burn it to the ground. Quite literally. Creative Assembly, the mind behind the Total War franchise, has been in a tough position with its fans for quite some time due to its practices. Now, I don't mind DLC. DLC can be good and often times DLC is a wonderful extension of the game. Look at Mass Effect 2 for example, Lair of the Shadowbroker is hailed as one of the best peices of DLC in the series, arguably one of the best bits of DLC ever made. A pre-order incentive can be valuable to a company and sometimes is a calculated risk. Will putting a DLC out hurt the companys reputation with its fans?
Creative Assembly has lost a lot of its fan support over the years. Let's look at it through the years. Rome 2 launches with the Greek City States. It launches with the worst launch in Total War history, but it launches nontheless and its reached the point where I've now met more than a few fans who look back on Rome 2 nostalgically. Attila launches, with the Viking Forefathers as DLC. Twice now we've got two fan favorite factions or groups of factions that have been included not as main-game but pre-order DLC factions, despite mild objections. And this doesn't include the Blood and Gore DLC, which inevitably comes up sometime when the game is launched. Now Total War: Warhammer comes up and does the same thing with the Chaos faction, an undeinable fan favorite and essential to the lore. To their credit, Creative Assembly does realize its mistake eventually. Rob Bartholowmew, Creative Assembly's brand director is on record saying he 'completely understands' that the studio needs to build back its fans trust. "We think that eventually we're going to get onto that kind of even keel, where people see new Total War content as an unequivocally good thing." But good news, good news. Recently, Creative Assembly has turned a new leaf. They're still releasing DLC, but they've decided to call it 'Free-LC'. I don't know if its in jest or not, but the concept is solid. The DLC comprises of two individual characters and eleven maps, some of them specific to only one faction for certain campaign missions. It's a small gesture but a definite step in the right direction to fixing years of malpractice and dissapointment.
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