DLCs and the death of the expansion pack...

DLCs are interesting... In essence, the DLC is a replacement for the old idea of an expansion pack... How many "expansion packs" have you seen in the last few years? Beyond the next sack of insipid content for your chosen poison of the MMO variety I can't remember any.

Sooo... is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Well, ultimately it doesn't matter. The slow, unstoppable change to electronic distribution won't be stopped by our complaints or any misstep by any random company. But let's look at it anyway!

Positives:
DLCs allow you to buy only the content you want! Each DLC can be a bite sized bit of content that is both easy to download and install yet give you plenty of enjoyment for your money and bandwidth.
DLCs are easier to make than an expansion, meaning more content will be available (on average) compared to what we used to see.

DLCs are a less risky method to providing content, allowing developers and publishers to release more experimental types of material that in our modern profit driven existence might not otherwise see the light of day.

Negatives:
DLCs are the next stage of non-complete-release-itis; back when games were on cartridges or floppy disks (that were actually floppy! *gasp*) it was bad practice, worthy of flogging, to release a game with any notable bugs... let alone leaving the game unfinished! These days incomplete games are sadly common, with endings that show a lack of care and game killing bugs, poor design... etc. DLCs are often promised to fix various issues, a DLC pack should not be considered a good way to deliver bug fixes.

Stupid ideas for DLC! E.g. Horse armour... FUCK YOU BETHESDA!!! Simple model and skin changes, stupid boosters to your characters for no good reason... Essentially pay to win booster packs for your game.

And finally, Day One DLC; this has a special place in my cold, dead heart, Day one DLC covers any 'content' that is either used as a stick to flog people who buy a game second hand or as a way pretend a game is cheaper than it actually is and sell important game content at an inflated price. EA are especially guilty of this practice and seem to have elevated it to a level of an art form providing BOTH TYPES of day one DLC for their most recent opus, Mass Effect 3 (Oh, and a review is coming for that one folks!).

Conclusion:
DLCs are good overall, but it's clear that just as any game that comes out can be a piece of garbage fodder or the best thing since sliced bread DLC content isn't necessarily good or bad so my advice? If you love a game and it's got DLC have a look, otherwise ignore.

Keeper3 - Ooooh... there's DLC for fallout 3 that makes it NOT CRAP!!! Oh wait, that was a mod, nevermind.