No it was normal? I remember patches on CoD in 1999 (I think) and CoD:UO would always add a map or two with their major patches, sometimes a weapon. Same with team fortress classic, battlefield vietnam (if I remember correctly) and most shooters. Pretty sure CS was adding maps all the time.

Expansion packs were a thing though but they actually had meat AND vegetables, today you get to buy a pea, or a pack of peas at a reduced price, maybe a carrot, and a potato for ridiculous money. Today, think TW3 content and price. I mean, blood and wine is about the same price as Ubisoft will charge you for a fucking baseball cap, a pink gun skin and maybe shoes...but not REALLY nice shoes, they cost extra, and yet, this generation seems to beg them to fuck them harder, and Ubisoft are laughing because as their bending them over, their actually defending them! "You don't have to buy it! It's only cosmetic!" No, you're right, I won't buy it, but you will, further aiding their shitty business practice, so why should they do anything else?

DLC (or, better to just call it updates) kept the games and populations alive. Dedicated servers allowed for fantastic different experiences far beyond that of today where you can just alter damage, spawn time, map rotation etc.

But it use to be better, it really did. Now, we saw how quickly the tide turned last time they did this, where a lot of shitty mods appeared quickly with "modders" saying how they deserve it. Perhaps real modders do, but this was not what mods were about, it was a passion piece, which is what often made them so good. Bethesda should be paying them for fixing their bugs, improving their game.