# One day of Wii Ware and I'm already being nickeled and dimed... **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 13, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-day-of-wii-ware-and-im-already-being-nickeled-and-dimed/449220 "2008-05-13T23:59:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-day-of-wii-ware-and-im-already-being-nickeled-and-dimed/449220/1 "2008-05-13T23:59:12Z")
So the Wii’s new downloadable game service started today and as I was poking through the initial titles _Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King_ stood out. I checked for a little bit more information online since both the information in WiiWare and the video channel was particularly vague and I was told it was a game about being a king of one of those RPG kingdoms. It involved building up my own kingdom and sending out people on quests. It sounded a lot like a PC strategy game I used to enjoy so I figured that was the game for me to try out the service. So I buy my 2000 points for the 1500 point game since I had 400 points and you can only buy in increments of ten dollars (already annoying but that’s a given with these online services). I then choose to buy the game and after I select it I’m informed that additional purchases are required to access some features. This wasn’t listed in the product description or the information I checked online. Well I’m committed now so I download it anyway with the intention of never buying another add on. Still out of curiousity I looked at what the additional content to purchase was. There were two that might be considered proper additions: a new set of dungeons for $3 and a race track for $8 (the price of another Wii Ware game). The rest of it are things like minor graphical changes for $1. But to get the content you’d have to spend around $25 on your $15 game. I know it’s been popular lately to try to quietly drain gamer’s wallets with “additional content” that is in total is priced astronomically higher than the original game content. It’s a perversion of the classic idea of the expansion pack by sneaking a small “expansion pack” out one bit at a time and hoping no one adds up the total. And _My Life as a King_ might be the worst offender I’ve ever encountered. (Oh, after half an hour or so the game is kind of cute; I wish it was more open than it is but I don’t have any major complaints.) ---
**Author:** ![Autumn\_Almanac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d26b3c/32.png) [@Autumn\_Almanac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autumn_Almanac)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-day-of-wii-ware-and-im-already-being-nickeled-and-dimed/449220/2 "2008-05-14T14:09:10Z")
I’m half expecting S-E to put out a retail, disc-based compilation of the game and all of the DLC in a few months. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-day-of-wii-ware-and-im-already-being-nickeled-and-dimed/449220/3 "2008-05-14T18:12:21Z")
FWIW, you can buy Rock Band songs for $1.99.