With the recent backlash, I am sure many of you have noticed, toward the upcoming Diesel Legends of the Great Western pack I thought I would have a bit of a thought experiment. I mentioned in one post that Dovetail Games may need to 'rethink the way content is packaged' and so I figured I would make a note of my thoughts on the matter. Now, I will not claim to be an expert in game design, publishing or marketing or anything like that, so I am in no way making a demand nor do I hold the expectation that my thoughts will or even should be adopted. I also do not intend for this to be a complaint or attack against TSW2, DTG or their business model. This is after all DTG's game, and it is their decision to make. This is simply me writing down my ideas, of how, in an ideal world, the content could be packaged as part of Train Sim World 2's Add-Ons. As a clarification, I will be using British Routes and locos as my examples, simply because these are the reason I personally play the game. I am not intentionally overlooking other content, however, I can only comment on what I have personally bought and played. So without further ado, my thoughts on the matter. Specific 'locos' such as the Class 101 DMU have now been packaged as part of three separate add-ons: Northern Trans-Pennine and Tees Valley as base content in those route add-ons and now as part of a loco add-on to the Great Western Express. This has understandably led to complaints that people will have paid for the 101 a total of three times already. Rather than this being the case, I believe that players who already own content within an add-on should be offered the add-on at a reduced price. For example, if you owned the Northern Trans-Pennine route, and with it the Class 101, then the price of the Tees Valley Route would have a deduction. If said content included a new livery for a loco or rolling stock then the deduction would be altered accordingly, after all, it is new content. This would apply similarly to the Class 08 and Class 101 in the Great Western Diesel Legends add-on. However, for new content such as the BR Blue Class 52 which has been built anew from the ground up, including a new livery, then a discount will not apply for owners of the West Somerset Railway Class 52, as it is not a case of recycling the WSR loco in a new livery. No matter what, I do not believe that any reduction offered should not be a substantial one (The region of 5-10% seems alright as a rough suggestion). The Pack must remain profitable for DTG, and so the development cost of new timetables, scenarios, liveries and whatnot must be considered for any form of discount. As added clarification, I will stress that I am not accusing DTG of laziness, or a cash-grab by including existing content as a part of new add-ons. In many cases, this is a perfectly logical thing to do. I will stress once again that I am not in any way shape or form an expert on the matter, DTG are the only ones who will know the viability of my suggestions. I also acknowledge that there are numerous variables in the feasibility of such an idea and also that such suggestions likely have been made before and have been thoroughly considered by DTG, or even that their current pricing system does, in fact, take into account any repeated use of older models. I welcome any other suggestions on how DTG could reconsider their current system for packaging and pricing add-ons. Though I request we maintain civility and respect towards DTG and treat this discussion not as a place for venting your complaints or attacks against DTG but as a thought experiment of how add-ons could be approached so that customers do not feel like they are being charged numerous times for the same content.
