[Nick]

The day is a long way off when a publisher has the balls to ask for extra cash for an add-on that truly affects the gameplay. Look at Hellgate: sure, the extra bits are handy but by no means necessary. Same goes for Rock Band, Guitar Hero and just about any game I can think of that has any significant DLC add-ons.

Don't want to pay the extra? Then don't.

What would worry me more is if patching slips in as DLC... pay for the upgraded version of the game with the bugs fixed... or the latest updates for games like Champ Manager... Now that's a scary thought as it'd be supremely easy to blur the lines between an update with add-ons and a patch...