It all began with horse armor. No really, it did. Back when the Xbox 360 debut and when Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion wowed people with its graphics and expansive gameplay back in 2006, Bethesda came up with an idea that lets you pimp out your horse for a price of a mere 200 Microsoft Points, which is the equivalent of US$2.50. Naturally, the forum outcry was really big, but this also opens up a whole new path for developers and publishers. No more do they need to worry about third-party manufacturing: anything new they wish to add for console gaming, they can just create and distribute it via online hubs like Xbox Live, the Playstation Network and Nintendo’s recent WiiWare channel.

Three years later, we are now knee-deep in having the option to buy extra tracks for rhythm games, exclusive weapons and game-breaking unlockables, and even dozens of expansion packs for one particular game. Truly we live in a convenient era where everything is now accessible as long as you have a decent and fast internet line. “Why should I bother?” you may ask. Well, here’s why:

Extension of Gameplay: The simplest reason why DLCs exist: to prolong a life cycle of a game. Players want to have more to do in their current game saves and experiences: why not give them more? You want more songs for your Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero 5 playlist? Go ahead and buy them for a US buck(or so) a piece. You want to expand the already-large Fallout 3 experience? Go ahead and expand it with Broken Steel and Operation Anchorage, as you’ll have new quests and new weapons to partake and acquire. Burnout: Paradise was one of the few who started this recurring trend of establishing a long-term life on a console game, or at least a good example. Because let’s face it: there’s only so much to do with a game after a week or three before you shelve it or sell it for a second-hand price. Why not add more play time to it if you already love the game to begin with?

Keep in mind that there are certain developers who sometimes can’t include certain bits of a level in the final product of a game because it was unfinished, only to find out later that said level was increment in context to the game’s narrative or flow. Or that there are some publishers who actually placed in a specific kind of content and you have to fork out cash to unlock what’s already in the disc (Beautiful Katamari, Soul Calibur IV’s Yoda/Darth Vader hubbub). While not commonplace now, time and again this sort of thing will rear its ugly head.

Cost-Cutting: Again, it’s easier for developers now to create an expansion without worrying about distribution costs to third party sellers like GameStop or Challenger. Think about it this way: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas are based off the same engine of Grand Theft Auto III. While they are big in scope, these two games would have been sold at a lower, DLC-worthy price and would have come out probably faster had this DLC scheme came into place. It’s a hypothetical situation, sure, but DLC has changed how production and development goes as far as expansions are concerned.

There’s also the type where a single game comes out divided into episodes. Telltale Games adopted this idea since their first adventure game Bone (based off the legendary Jeff Smith comic), where you can either buy each episode separately for a low price, or just book for the whole package for a set attractive bundle price. Of course, the danger for these sort of deals is that if you happen to pay the whole package, there’s a chance that the game might have not done so well that there wouldn’t be future episodes coming out for that particular game. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened yet, as Bone, Sam and Max, and the recent Tales of Monkey Island have been met with glorious fanfare. Fans of the series get to see their classics revived in a new format, while the publishers and developers are taking a low risk.

Some of the more recognized expansions as of late:

Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage, Broken Steel, and so forth: Just when you thought you were done with Fallout 3, along come a bunch of extra maps and locations for exploration. Operation Anchorage offers artic ninjas, while Broken Steel has 50s style robots as enemies. Pick one or all of them: you won’t be left disappointed with these expansions.

Prince of Persia (2008) Epilogue: Because of the open-ended closing of the game, Ubisoft manage to create an Epilogue episode to cap everything off just fine.

Fable 2: See the Future: What begins as a few extra quests in a snowglobe robbed of color ends up as a small peek to the fate of your character and Albion in the already-announced Fable 3. What, you really didn’t see that one coming?

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost And Damned/ The Ballad of Gay Tony: While there’s already a CD bundle out called Episodes of Liberty City containing these two, these two expansions still count as added bonuses if you’re tired of Liberty City’s tale of Niko Bellic. From a focused story of a biker thug, to the over-the-top action where you’re parachuting from tall skyrises, these expansions got you covered in extending some life in GTA. Plus, there’s extra stuff in the multiplayer modes if you’re into that sort of thing.

Borderlands “The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned”: Okay, I’m cheating here, since this isn’t out yet. While the prospects of shooting zombies of different shapes and sizes is cool, you’ll also be getting new kinds of loot as a result. Think of this template of DLC as a potential tip of the iceberg for extending Borderlands’ life cycle.  Who knows? We might be getting ninjas, cyborgs, and even rocket-launching skags in the future (please let there be cyber-enhanced skags).

So readers: what are your thoughts on the future of DLC? Or the state of DLC right now?