There's a problem brewing in the game's industry.  A good old fashioned "Us vs. Them" war could possibly erupt in the next few years if we're not careful.  Allow me first to describe to you a mentality that I have touched upon before.  The average gamer is rather predicable in a number of ways.  Especially the PC Gamer.  In short, this is how it goes:

They will hate any large game publisher, and will call them greedy.  Conversely, they will love any indie game developer, and worship the ground they walk upon.

The reason for this is rather complex in a number of ways, but there are a few standard, simplistic ones that apply to my point here.  The first and major one is that with large publishers, the customer is more inclined to feel cheated in some way.  Let's face it:  When you're as large as EA or Blizzard, you have a very, very large group of people that you need to aim your product at.  This leads to people thinking your product is either dumbed down, too hard, too casual, or too hardcore.  In today's world, it's cool and standard procedure to hate the "big guys" and to root for the "underdogs".  In this example, big-name game publishers are the big guys, and the indie companies are the underdogs.

Additionally, big budget games these days have a lot of things in common that make the customer feel cheated and/or nickel-dimed.  DLC packs, pre-order bonuses, always-online DRM, and micro-transactions to name a few.  These things are becoming more and more common because they work.  You don't have to like it.  Hell, I certainly don't.  But this is the world we live in today.  As long as people support the games that do these things, and buy these extra items...in other words, as long as they make the companies money, they will continue to exist.  And people do it...of course they do.  I do it.  I snatched up each DLC for Skyrim and Borderlands 2 that exist because I fucking love those games.  People hate me for doing that, but I don't care because I wanted MORE.  Just remember that when you are about to chastise these people -- eventually, there WILL be a game that you love enough to do the same, if it hasn't happened already.

Before I move on, I just want to point out that not all DLC is bad.  It's become sort of a dirty word now in the industry these days, and I much prefer the old types of DLC that used to be called Expansion Packs.  Those I love, and those are typically the only types of DLC that I will buy.  The DLC for Skyrim (aside from Hearthfire) and the DLC contained in the Borderlands 2 Season Pass are examples of DLC that I would actually call Expansion Packs.  There were some other DLC for BL2 that wasn't -- more skins, and an arena map -- and those I did not purchase.  I don't care about skins, extra weapons, special armor, or anything like that.  Those types of DLC can die, for all I care.

Back on topic, though.  So like I said, in today's world it's cool to love those indie devs and hate those big game publishers.  I've given you the main reasons for this already.  But there's more.  Not only do indie games come without all that nickel-diming DLC, pre-order bonuses/rewards, and all that crap, but they also have this inclination to give out free stuff.  And let me tell you, nothing draws the worship of the PC Gaming masses more than free stuff.  Allow me to provide you with some examples.

The developers of The Witcher 2, CDProjektRed, released an Enhanced Edition of The Witcher 2 for free, with additional content, added cut-scenes, and a more polished game.  They didn't charge a dime for it, and this earned them HUGE brownie points with their fanbase.  I say good on them for this, and I don't have a problem with it at all.  It's great of them to give that extra bit of effort.  I do, however, have a problem with the idol worship from the masses that this sparked.  Now, it's come to the point where CDProjektRed can basically do no wrong, and that's a very bad mentality to have.

The developer of Hotline Miami actively assisted people trying to pirate his game, rationalizing that he couldn't stop it and just wants people to enjoy his creation.  This sparked a huge amount of support for him, and PC Gamers everywhere stood up on their soap boxes and demanded that everyone that could hear them go out and immediately buy that game to show that PC Gaming loves people like him. The problem with this, obviously, is that you're supporting a guy who's saying he thinks stealing is okay.  This is horribly misguided.

Most recently, the devs of Chivalry released free DLC for their game.  You remember what I said about free stuff, so I really don't need to explain the response to this.  What's scary is that people are getting up on their soap box again, and demanded not only that everyone should immediately go buy this game, but that people should purposefully wait for it to NOT BE ON SALE so they buy it at full price, because the devs deserve "heaps of success for doing this despite the game having a multitude of bugs."  Are you FUCKING kidding me?  I shouldn't have to explain the problems with this, but fuck that, I'm going to do it anyway.

Let me give you a taste of the hypocrisy of the average PC Gamer.  Dead Space 3 was released to good reviews, with the universal opinion basically being that it's a very solid game with great combat.  It's not blazing any trails in innovation, but it's slick, smooth, runs without any problems, looks great, has great co-op as well as single-player, and is all-around just a very good game.  Yet the masses pound their chests and say "NOT PAYING FULL PRICE!  WON'T BUY UNTIL IT'S UNDER $10!"  And then you have a game that, to me, doesn't look that great, and apparently has a multitude of bugs, yet those same people are standing up on their soap boxes yelling "BUY IT BUT DON'T GET IT ALL SALE!  FULL PRICE TO SUPPORT THE DEVS!"

I'VE OBVIOUSLY FALLEN INTO THE BIZZARO LAND OF STUPIDNESS.

So here's the potential problem that I see looming on the horizon:  Eventually, someone is going to catch on to this mob mentality, and they're going to take advantage of it.  They're going to use the average PC Gamer's penchant for rooting for the underdog, and use it to make some quick money off of their gullibility.  Because you know what?  All that free stuff doesn't mean shit if the product is irrevocably pisspoor and unplayable.