I'm coming at this question from two angles.
One, I thing the only calculation that makes sense is whether each person would value the entertainment hours they got at $40. I've played quite a bit with the DLC characters and am fortunate enough to not be in a tight financial spot, so for me the value was right. This is also one of my favorite franchises, so that factors into that calculation for me too.
Then there's the ethical point. I don't think it's fair to look at all a game's DLC, price it, and say "I would never pay that much for a game". Games today are way different than they were when the price for a game was more or less established. When I was a kid, I paid $60 for a game, and if it sucked it sucked. No DLC, no patches, the game just was the way it was. At that time, devs worked on the game, released it, and then moved on to the next thing. Games today are much closer to services in that a dev team is onhand to provide support for that same game for sometimes many years. You can't expect them to do that for free. If you view many games as being closer to services, which is what they are, the concept of DLC is much less predatory. If you really still don't like the idea of continuing to pay for content of the game you bought, you're also free to just buy the base game on the merit of whether it's worth the full price of the game.
So, yes.
100% totally agree on both points.
On the first point, do we not remember how during the SNES/Megadrive (Genesis) era, that often some places were selling games like Super Street Fighter 2 for around £60??? If you were crazy enough to own a Neo Geo, games were £120 a pop. I remember getting MK3 for the SNES for £49.99. And money was worth a lot more 25 years ago! Regular editions of games don't cost that nowadays, they're usually in the realms of £39.99. Yes, there's £60+ versions with extra content, but that's optional and it's supported long down the line with updates, DLC and fixes.
On the second point, as grown adults, I'm sure we've all wasted much more money on one single night on the town with drinks (especially if you bought a round for friends or treated a date) and taxis and whatever and that's just one single night out. Hell I stupidly took a girl out on a date in December that seemed to be going great; I'd never go for a first date
for dinner, it's got too much weight and worry and expectations to it (for both parties), but if it's all going well just for a few drinks, you've been laughing, smiling and connecting and then drop "hey shall we get something to eat whilst we're here? My treat?" figure you're in the good zone if they want to stay and join you. She obliged, we laughed, joked, had a great meal, got on great, she said she wanted to go out again, whilst dinner and drinks cost me fucking £110 (we were in a nice place)... so whatever, it's all good because it's all priceless in the pursuit of love.
Did I get a second date? Or a reason? No. Oh and the taxi home was nearly £20 too. £130 to feel like a twat basically. I've dated a lot, pretty good at reading the person I'm with; that literally stung financially and insultingly, felt an utter mug.
I bought MK 11 Premium Edition for a £66.66 pre-order and I've been enjoying it for almost a year now. It was there for me like an old best friend when I had my heart broken last year by the love of my life (hence why I've been back on the rotten dating scene... which needless to say is rather impossible now!). Spent around £5.00 getting Kold War Skarlet in proper DLC version (rather than the Premium Store version that's specific to your profile), bought the few little packs of skins that weren't in the Kombat Pack, and maybe bought 3 rounds of the cheapest Time Krystals when I desperately wanted something in the store. Probably spent around £100 in total on the game... and it's still there for me a year later, still giving me new content, as part of a franchise I've loved for 28 years, that over the last 49 weeks amounts to little over £2 a week... hell I spend more than that weekly on my son's Haribo that I don't even want him eating anyway.
That date that cost me even more than that (without even originally intending it to) was
one night, no memories worth keeping and nothing more than an exercise is pointlessness; just get to enjoy knowing I wasted my time, money and effort on someone who was faking it the whole time. Thanks again Tinder.
Sorry for the rant, not trying to be self-absorbed, just mean it from the perspective that we've all probably wasted more than the cost of MK11 on silly adult follies without caring, and all its all acceptable collateral damage for a simple night out, be it for a good or bad reason but that's besides the point, and we've likely all done them and never thought twice about it.
I can honestly and quite sadly justify most purchases with "yeah, well, how much did I waste on beer last week, and for what? Nothing other than a bad head, antagonising my IBS and a big wee in the middle of the night?" If it costs less than a pint of beer at my local pub, I probably won't care in paying that. The same goes for all the times at a pub jukebox i've wasted money on songs I own for free at home, but putting a pound coin in whilst hammered to hear a song I can hear from free at home feels weirdly justified.
MK11 has given me way more than £100 of entertainment over the last year, I have not many complaints at all other than I'd like some better costumes for the some of the girls (Cassie and Jacqui especially).
