Should the DLC ever effect the main game?

Bioware needs to STOP releasing novels (and other media) that are completely essential to understanding parts of the plot of their video games, I swear to god.



Stop assuming we will all read all of your additional content and that we can all afford all the DLC. S T O P.



I just finished reading Asunder, and a million things about DAI make a LOT more sense now that I’ve done so.



I haven’t played ANY of the DAII DLC and clearly I was very confused when it was made apparent I was supposed to know who the fuck Corypheus was and how Hawke knew them and was somehow to blame for whatever was going on around the guy. I have yet to play the DLC because I don’t own them and have no plans to own them any time in the near future.



If you’re going to release additional media, make it complementary to the goddamn fucking storyline, not actually essential to understand the events and goings on of base game.



All games should be playable and understandable without having to dish out hundreds of dollars on additional media for things to make sense. And by additional media I mean the novels, DLC and World books. These things should add background information that is not needed to understand the game and what is happening in it.



Things that don’t follow this rule of thumb in Dragon Age:



> Asunder

> The Masked Empire

> PROBABLY The Last Flight, but I know nothing of it save for griffons, so…

> The DAII DLC, specifically the one about Malcolm

> Trespasser DLC

> DA:O Awakening in re: DAII (Anders? Anders who?)

> Asunder when tied to DA:O’s The Stone Prisoner (I have not played with Shale yet, because I only just got the DLC)

> Sebastian Vael DLC when it ties into War Table missions on DAI (I have no idea who Sebastian is, basically)

> Michel the Chevin ???????????

> Fiona, in regards to what is explained both in Asunder and in The Calling



Things that don’t follow this rule of thumb in Mass Effect:



> Leviathan DLC (Actual important back story re: the origin of the Reapers, though not actually game-breaking)

> Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC (what do you MEAN Liara is the Shadow Broker???)

> Arrival DLC (why the FUCK is Shepard grounded, what the HELL are they talking about, what did I miss?????)

> From Ashes DLC (the Protheans are important and playing without Javik is an insult, ESPECIALLY when you go to Thessia)

> The new novelizations that will tie in the original ME trilogy to the happenings of Andromeda



If they want to release side media, then by all means, but don’t make it actually important to the plot of the game/knowing what you’re doing and who you’re dealing with. All of the things I’ve mentioned here break immersion in the game and leave a lot of questions unanswered. UNDUE questions.



DLC should be all about extra missions (like The Descent) that contain lore that is not essential to the base game. Add extra armor, give people who pay a boost in that sense if you like. But don’t explain things that are necessary for the base game to make sense. Even worse, don’t explain things that will be CENTRAL to the next game (cough Corypheus cough) and assume that everyone has paid for and played that. Because 9 times out of 10, people can’t afford all of this DLC. It’s unfair, and it’s bullshit, the same way releasing Trespasser with the ACTUAL ENDING OF DAI was bullshit.



I’m sick and tired of this trend.



ALSO, if you’re going to release novels about your games, at least have the decency to write GOOD novels. I have suffered through The Stolen Throne (tired tropes on top of tired tropes, mishandling female characters, the one promising strong female lead had a weak ending as the miserable wife who doesn’t get her happy ending, then falls ill and dies. Also 100% unnecessary love triangle/square that ends up in everyone being unhappy), The Calling (more tropes! The only exciting part was the Legion of the Dead. I still don’t understand the deal with Fiona and Maric and to be honest it was 100% unnecessary save for the fact that Alistair is their child), and my personal LEAST FAVORITE THING I HAVE EVER HAD THE MISFORTUNE OF READING, EVER: Drew Kapryshyn’s fucking Retribution, which reads as glorified trashy fanfiction, including the shoe-in of an OC, unnecessary romance and some of the most terrible and shoddy writing I have ever had to suffer through. Just to be clear: this book made me decide I was NOT going to read the rest of the Mass Effect novels, because holy fuck that was bad.



TL;DR: Bioware needs to stop making assumptions about their audience and stop making it so that you have to spend hundreds of dollars on top of whatever you paid for your game to actually understand what’s going on in it. CONTEXT IS IMPORTANT, KIDS.