When Free Isn't Good Enough

Written by CodebyJojo

When Street Fighter V launched 2 years ago, it brought some significant differences from other titles in the series, some bad, but others good. Today, I’d like to talk about one of the best changes that Capcom made to Street Fighter, and why greedy players may ruin it for the rest of us. Welcome to Lgndary Thoughts!

As I am sure all of you know, almost every single fighting game released these days has additional characters added after launch in the form of paid DLC. A practice which I am all for, and believe to be fair. New playable characters cost money to make, so I am more than happy to pay money to play them. This is a standard practice, and I believe most people have no problem with it. But instead of simply towing the line, Capcom decided to mix things up a bit with Street Fighter V, and give players another option.

In an attempt to keep the player base active, Capcom made it possible for Street Fighter V players to buy additional DLC characters without spending real money. Instead, players can buy them with what they call fight money, which can be earned by winning matches or completing other in-game challenges. Yes, using real money is another option, but those that can’t afford to buy their favorite character can simply earn them for free.

And yes, earning enough fight money for a character can be a grind. But the point is that it is an option that Capcom had no obligation to give. No other fighting game allows players to earn DLC characters by simply playing the game. The latest Super Smash Bros. didn't, Tekken 7 doesn’t, and even the newly released Dragon Ball FighterZ doesn’t. And no one complained about that either. Again, most people believe paying for extra DLC characters is a fair practice, because it is. 

But in the past few weeks I have seen some fans exhibit an attitude that I find to be incredibly greedy, and short-sighted. They feel that the work it takes to earn characters for free is too much, and that Capcom should give players more fight money for completing certain tasks. For them, it isn’t enough that Capcom offers players a way to get characters for free, they want it to be easy as well. They are forgetting that essentially every other fighting game in the world don’t even have a free option, let alone one where the characters are practically given away.

To be honest, I believe it is getting to the point where I think Capcom made a mistake in letting players earn characters for free. Not only are they giving up money that they would get from players actually paying for the DLC, but they get attacked by making it too much of a grind too? Meanwhile, other fighting games are coming out with DLC that requires a cash payment, and they are receiving nothing but praise? Capcom has got to be incredibly confused, because I know that I am.

This is a perfect example of gamers being given an inch, and wanting a mile. I don’t like to use this word very often, but this is as clear cut a case of entitlement as I have ever seen. And I can only hope that players knock it off before Capcom realizes that they should never have given a free option in the first place, and exclusively took cash as payment for their DLC.