I hate Premium. It's annoying.

Both COD and Battlefield have "premium" content. If you're unfamiliar with the concept - you basically pay around $60 for extra map packs and a few other perks. I'm not familiar with COD's recent bundles, but I know Battlefield's very well.

"Premium" sounds like some sort of class-separating, horrible and nasty system designed to take our money. But it's DLC like any other game, it's just that when it's for online maps that rotate on servers, it can becoming annoying. And if you 'get premium' you also put faith in the developer that the rest of the packs will be good.

The problem with this kind of DLC is that it divides friends, communities, servers and creates peer pressure issues. I want to play on new maps. I don't want to pressure my friends into buying it. I want to play with them. But I want to play with the new content and get the most out of it. I can't ask my friends to all fork out $60. That's a whole other AAA game they could buy. But I unintentionally, passive aggressively, subconsciously harass them to get it.

I've noticed with BF4, my friends are doing EVERYTHING they can to avoid forking out the extra $60 (making the whole game around $140). But it wasn't like that with BF3. So I asked them (and twitter) why, and got a variety of responses:-

"I stopped playing bf3 before close quarters, so didn't really get any benefit. Bought it because I'm a completionist in that sense"

"it seemed cheaper in case I missed out on 'fun' by not having DLC. Ended up barely playing BF3 anyway so not very smart."

"Didn't want to be encouraging the behaviour of drip-feeding content through DLC. Zero interest in the single player campaign and I felt the MP could have had a couple more maps on release. Back in BF3 I didn't buy any content DLC and didn't feel I missed out on anything. By the stage the tanks DLC (can't remember the name of it) had been released I felt only a few friends were still playing BF3 and for me it's not so fun solo in pub matches

"I did [buy BF3 premium]. Time wise, yes it was huge value. I spent over 200 hours playing BF3. Some of the maps weren't very good though."

"I think [BF3 dlc] was too much really. Lots ended up reverting back to the classic maps, so found myself playing those instead."

"[my] friends didn't buy premium though so I had fewer and fewer people to play with each expansion, which felt like diminishing value"

It's obvious that players were a little burned with this type of drip feed DLC system in BF3. Sure you can buy them all separately - but there's less value overall to do so, and you miss out on the early access. I myself ended up playing not much of the later BF3 content and while I don't feel like I wasted my money (I thought their maps were really, really good) I do feel like I missed out on good times with the last couple, because the game had been out so long and we had all moved on.

I've mentioned before, that I think Battlefield and COD need to change. COD needs to revamp a lot from the ground up - return to what makes COD, COD. Frantic score/perk based online action, exciting singleplayer campaigns that rock your face off! And a revamp of the basic gunplay/field of view and visuals is overdue as well. I don't need a story in my COD, I'm happy with exciting scenarios and slow motion explosions. I'd like a story, but I just don't think anyone is thinking hard enough about pulling off a COD:Spec Ops:The Line.

The lack of enthusiasm from my hard-core shooter friends with BF4 premium is a bit telling in that the model isn't great. I want Battlefield to find a way to become a more affordable multiplayer only shooter, with more content initially and faster DLC releases (and obviously, a more stable launch). They have an incredible piece of tech with this game. And some obviously very talented map and system designers at DICE - I'm worried that this premium model might prove less successful overall and ultimately hurt the future of the franchise or quality of later maps. But I'm just speculating... who knows..?

Will you be buying BF4's DLC? I'd love your comments. I'd also love 'Second Assault' the xBone exclusive DLC to get on my PC already! I miss Caspian border.