Read: Why is Mass Effect 3's day-one DLC wrong?

Mass Effect 3. To many, that name means the end to a long-celebrated trilogy. To others, it means a 9.5/10 from IGN. Yet to some people, it's synonymous with "scandal". Why? It has day-one DLC.

Now, let me tell you that first off, I don't have any experience with day-one DLC. I've spent the seventh generation playing my Wii (which has little DLC, with the exception of Guitar Hero, which makes me want to shoot myself with all the DLC it offers), and my PS2, as far as I know, doesn't support DLC.

With that aside, I want to give my own view on day-one DLC. And here me closely; I am going to go into a few specifics.

Day-one DLC is okay.

WHAT? How can I say such a thing? Am I mad? No, I am not. It's true, I just said that day-one DLC is okay, but there's only ONE specific type of day-one DLC that I think is permissible.

Day-one DLC is okay if:

1) The DLC does nothing to advance the story that the game disk otherwise would not have alone.

2) The DLC was developed AFTER the completion of the game.

3) The DLC is not included on the game disk.

Now, let's get through each of these 3 statements separately.

1) The DLC does nothing to advance the story that the game disk otherwise would not have alone.

DLC should not be required in order to progress the story of the game. In a way, it's swindling. Unless the box-art specifically says that you can't beat the game without paying more for DLC, this kind of day-one DLC, or DLC in general, is not okay.

Let's use the example of going into a movie theater to watch a movie. When buying the ticket, you expect to watch the full movie with that one-time purchase. How would you react if the movie just stopped with just 30 minutes left and you were forced to pay more in order to watch the rest of it? You'd be pretty mad right?

How does Mass Effect 3 break this rule, you ask? Well, technically, it doesn't, yet at the same time it also does. The day-one DLC for ME3 is basically a small side-story to complement the main game. Yet, this side-story, though completely optional, is important to the core and the lore (haha, that rhymed!) of the series. So while ME3 makes the DLC totally optional, they also kinda just made it necessary.

2) The DLC was developed AFTER the completion of the game.

DLC was "invented" with the goal of providing players with extra value for only those who want it. It was made in order to show love to the most loyal fans of a specific game. So if you're purposely limiting the game to your loyal fans while developing the game (and effectively "cheating" them into buying the DLC), that just makes you an, for lack of a better term, evil developer (or publisher, whoever makes the decision).

Now, if the DLC was created AFTER the game has "gone gold," then it's understandable. Usually, there's a period of a couple months between the game's completion and it's actual release, usually used for marketing and production purposes. If the DLC was made during that time and coincidentally completed at the same time as the game's release, then day-one DLC is okay. Of course, unless that was your plan all along. That's still makes you evil.

The problem with Mass Effect 3 is, thought, that the DLC was developed in-sync with the actual game, even though BioWare claims otherwise. How do I know? Read on to the next point.

3) The DLC is not included on the game disk.

Really, it all comes down to this. Is the DLC up and ready on the disk, and what you're really buying is just a code to unlock that content? If so, then it automatically breaks both rules 1 and 2. So honestly, it's the only rule you need. It's plain and simple. Why lock out content from your players that you could have allowed free access to? That's just mean.

Mass Effect 3 has recently been hacked to reveal that it's day-one DLC isn't just day-one DLC. It's on-disk day-one DLC. It's immoral. It's wrong. But it's business, and unfortunately, that's what the video game industry has come down to.

And Mass Effect 3 isn't the only offender here. It was recently uncovered that Capcom's character DLC for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was also on-disk. Who knows how many games out there have on-disk DLC also?

But the real question is this: why should you care? Some of you guys probably went ahead and purchased that DLC, or maybe some of you didn't really care all that much. The answer is simple. Such actions will devalue the retail games that we buy in the future. If developers continue to "force" you to buy DLC (and yes, I did use the word "force," but in quotes), then who's going to buy retail games anymore? Who's going to even buy games at all? If we can't trust the retail market to give us a full product when we pay for it, then why would we buy games anymore? In short, day-one DLC, if done the wrong way (a.k.a. the Mass Effect 3 way), can and will destroy the gaming industry.

So tell me fellow MyIGNers, when is day-one DLC okay for you?