The Abomination of DLC

When playing an RPG or first person shooter, among the game's goals are to surprise you, to keep you excited, enthralled - to maintain a sense of mystery or suspense, to throw you the occasional curveball, maintaining the freshness of the experience to the end.

In short, a vital mechanic in storytelling (in any medium) is the unexpected. Surprise.

I mean vital. Perhaps the most vital. Without it, we're merely reading a sequence of facts. It's basically non-fiction. Perhaps even non-entertainment.

So..

.. You download miniature additional adventures, to be applied to our game. Do I choose Point Lookout, or Tribunal? Fort Buckmoth or Return to Ostagar? Will we soon have travel salemen for our virtual worlds, persuading us to get the deluxe pack, or perhaps just a sweet romantic evening for one in the Frozen Northlands, where you will battle Werewolves and Granite Ogres before meeting a beautiful girl who needs you to find her pony and return her four sacred elemental crystals to the tower of the sun, or the winter will not end? Would you prefer the added motorbikes with four (FOUR!) custom paintjobs instead?

I find myself reminded of Total Recall.

You don't get sweet surprises. You buy exactly what you want via an ingame applet, having been nagged to do so by an ingame NPC, then play the sequence of scripted events you've paid for to completion. And ask for more.

Is THIS the death of the immersive experience? Or did that happen years ago when I was too busy drugged up on optimism for the potential of the new age of gaming?

What is wrong with you?