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Comments: 241 +- Games: Dragon Age: Origins To Get Paid DLC Expansion — On Launch Day on Thursday October 08, @03:10AM
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BioWare's upcoming RPG, Dragon Age: Origins, is set to launch on November 3rd. Today they announced details about some of the downloadable content they have planned for the game. In fact, it's scheduled to become available on the same day the game launches, at a cost of $7. (The PS3 version will be slightly delayed). "Called the Warden's Keep, the DLC will add a dungeon-based quest to the game along with six new abilities, a variety of items, and a base where players can trade with merchants. It will feature a supernatural storyline set in an ancient — and possibly haunted — fortress once used as a redoubt by the Grey Wardens, the ancient order at the center of Origins' main storyline." There will be two additional bits of DLC that are available for free to people who have purchased the game new. One "adds a stone golem character to the player's party from the beginning of the game, unlocking numerous story options," and the other increases a character's defense against some attacks in-game.
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EA rears its ugly head (Score:4, Interesting)
Seems like EA already is taking over Biowares customer friendlyness (usually it is 2 games until the EA shit starts to boil in the companies they bought)
RIP bioware, not that I wont buy Dragon Age, but I am not very eager to buy any expansion, I probably will wait until a collectors edition with all extensions comes out in a year or so.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
I have the same sentiment.
I will buy DragonAge for the PC for Bioware's sake and download the content EA forgot to burn on the disc from another site.
Re:EA rears its ugly head (Score:4, Informative)
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Paradox had pay-for DLC available for their game East India Company on the day it was released.
And the Steam game 'RailWorks' (or something like that I'm at work so can't check Steam) seems to be nothing but pay-for DLC and most of it costs a significant fraction of the original game's price.
Re:EA rears its ugly head (Score:5, Interesting)
Paradox had pay-for DLC available for their game East India Company on the day it was released.
Speaking of Paradox, the recently released Majesty 2 - published by Paradox outside Russia - doesn't have any DLC available yet, but it was stated that it will be available soon. Some enterprising modders unpacked the game resources, and found a bunch of new content that is already there, apparently only waiting for some bit to be flipped to get activated.
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Re:EA rears its ugly head (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:EA rears its ugly head (Score:4, Insightful)
Despite being a very big fan and supporter of used, sales, I must concur. First-sale doctrine says that you can resell your goods. It doesn't say that the manufacturer must give subsequent buyers the same perks and extras. That's like you buy a soda from Burger King, giving it to the homeless guy outside, and then him getting pissed because they won't let him come back in and get free refills.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
There is a fine line between "bonus content" for first owners and "crippled content" for secondary owners. I'm sure different people will draw distinguishing line at different places. But I'm also quite sure that EA/Bioware draws that line on the side of crippling the content for secondary owners. I sincerely doubt they thought, "Hey, let's give a bonus to the first owners," instead they were thinking, "Let's incent people to buy new by making the game harder if you buy used."
The core problem here is tha
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You're right.
Anyone who buys used copyrighted material is just like a homeless guy stealing soda from Burger King.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
OK, there is no such thing as a "free" perk.
In both of these examples - the "free" stone golem and the "free" refills - the "free perk" is obviously tied to your purchase of the game, which means you paid for it.
And yet you cannot sell it to someone else.
But as long as the studio is up-front and honest about what can/cannot be transferred, it is fine.
Just realize that the value of your used game just went down, so (presumably) the amount that you are willing to pay for the new game should go down as well (v
Re:EA rears its ugly head (Score:4, Funny)
You hear me, game companies? You do this "exclusive code for DLC if you preorder from Gamestop" bullcrap, I don't buy your game till I can get it used for cheap. You want me to buy it new, stop doing that crap.
I'm sure after reading your post some intern is worriedly running down a hall somewhere trying to pull the Gamestop DLC offer from Halo 5 before it's too late.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You put out "exclusive free DLC that only the first owner gets", you're intentionally crippling the game for anyone who buys used.
Could you please explain how this 'cripples' the game? 'Crippling' a piece of software means you cannot use it, not that you don't get a shiny toy with it. You can still play the base game, the DLC isn't required to play and enjoy the game -unless it's a patch to fix bugs, but that isn't really "DLC". If your enjoyment of the game is solely based on the special edition candy apple red dresser for Sims 7, the jet black BFG in Quake 30, or the golden widget in whatever - don't buy the game, but don't bitch ab
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When levels are missing, characters are missing, storyline options/quests are missing? That's a crippled game.
Yeah, if you don't get a skin or two, tough cookies. If you're missing a major character from the game, or something of that sort, it's crippled.
Re:EA rears its ugly head (Score:4, Insightful)
From TF Summary:
The resold version of the game is designed to be harder (one less party member, and increased vulnerability to certain attacks), and includes less content ("numerous story options").
Parent
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The article specifically state that this DLC will not be in the Collectors Edition.
Re:EA rears its ugly head (Score:5, Insightful)
A guy from Bioware had some things to say about this on Blue's News. He (obviously) was very adamant about how the content had not been removed from the game to make a quick buck. Bioware has had a dedicated team working on DLC for a long time, working in parallel with the main game team. The DLC would not have been ready early enough to pass through QA etc, there was no time to have it in the game on release day; obviously the QA process for just the expansion is faster than for the whole game -- I'd assume the criteria are more relaxed, as well, if the DLC breaks, it is optional after all. There is free DLC on launch day, as well.
That said, the obvious question is, if the people working on the dedicated DLC team had been part of the main team, wouldn't they have had the resources to include more content in the released game? In that way, it still seems like they're "cheating" customers out of content. On the other hand, while it started out controversial, DLC in general is very accepted these days, and it seems arbitrary to react differently to it simply because it's released on launch day. Should they have simply let the DLC lie on a HDD somewhere for a few weeks?
BTW, the developer (Derek French, I think) implied they founded the dedicated DLC team after very positive experiences with NWN, which let them support the game for another couple of years, and which was very well received from the community IIRC.
Parent
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That said, the obvious question is, if the people working on the dedicated DLC team had been part of the main team, wouldn't they have had the resources to include more content in the released game?
No. There's a certain point past which they can no longer add content to the game as shipped on disc, because they need to lock down the content for the QA process. But the artists and designers can still work on standalone DLC while the programmers concentrate on the QA process and bug fixes.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
On the other hand, while it started out controversial, DLC in general is very accepted these days, and it seems arbitrary to react differently to it simply because it's released on launch day. Should they have simply let the DLC lie on a HDD somewhere for a few weeks?
It may be accepted by some, but PC gamers, especially those that have been around long enough to have played Bioware's earlier RPGs, are definitely not accustomed to paying extra for small bits of content like this. Recall the scrap over the Oblivion DLC a while back. I can only hope that the DLC we get from Bioware is far better than what Bethesda tried to foist on gamers.
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Speaking as a developer that's gone through this process, folding the DLC team into the main team wouldn't necessarily have helped speed things up much.
There are a lot of different roles in game development (programmer, artist, designer, QA, each with dozens of specialties within them), and these different roles taper off at different rates as a project finishes up. Usually your art guys are done well before the programmers, then a chunk of designers and programmers come off, then the more of those, and fin
Well, (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Well, (Score:5, Interesting)
This indeed feels like draining additional money out of the people buying the game. If they brought it out 3 months later no one would complain but this looks more like ripping off customers than anything else.
What next, basic game for full price which unlocks you the first levels and for finishing the game you have to buy at least 200 dollars of special items?
EA at its best, I am pretty sure this was not Biowares intent, but they were forced to do this by EA. This is not the Bioware I know of where the two bosses posted on Usenet (Baldurs Gate time) and talked directly to the fans.
Parent
Re:Well, (Score:5, Funny)
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Wow, almost made it a page and a half before someone equated extra content that you would have never even noticed not being there while playing the actual full game if Bioware hadn't announced its availability to a full game that is sold in pieces. Why don't you just throw in a car analogy concerning how charging for options on new cars is going to lead to cars being sold without an engine or tires until you pay extra for them and round out this load of tripe nicely? Oh right, Bioware fucked up and gave awa
Re:Well, (Score:5, Insightful)
If they brought it out 3 months later no one would complain
I'm sure *someone* would complain.
It is an interesting discussion. What is appropriate for new content release? Especially if that content costs extra. If Bioware already had this content done and finished, and it was always planned to be offered as extra content, does it make Bioware any more/less "evil" by releasing it on day 1 or releasing it 'x' days later?
The thing that leaves a bad taste in peoples mouths is trust. There's no reason to trust that this content is truly "extra", rather than a piece withheld from the original game. Another question would simply be, is the original game worth the sticker price without this extra content? Are you getting value for what you're paying for? We'll find out soon enough.
I can say, if Dragon Age doesn't offer massive amounts of time investment without the DLC, the move by Bioware to offer DLC on day 1 is going to backfire big time. If Dragon Age offers 40+ hours of epic RPG goodness without this DLC, it will change minds as to if this DLC was truly "extra" or more of a scam.
Right now, Bioware still have good will with their fan base. If Dragon Age fails to deliver value for the money (While good, Half Life 2 was considered to be too short and the episodes even shorter and caused some ill will towards being shafted for the price, but Valve came back and offered the original game for fee with the orange box, a very value stuffed package, thanks in part to the great experiance Portal became, and even allowed you to gift that part of the game you already owned to a friend. Much good will was restored.).
Let hope Dragon Age turns out for the better!
Parent
Re:Well, (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with the whole "DLC" concept is the second I heard this term used I figured it would translate into "big game corp says pay full price for a piece of a game, and THEN pay us more monies for the rest!". Why? Because we PC games have had "DLC" for years in the form of mods, only nobody came up with marketspeak to try to push them, that's why.
When you look at the way the games have been going- "multiplatform" being a code word for shitty x360/PS3 port, more and more "DLC" that smells like stuff that should have been in the "real" game in the first place but was ripped out to make the extra monies, blaming piracy for everything when your DRM sucks ass and many of the games have no gameplay or are about as fun as a trip to the DMV, games the any beta tester could tell you are gonna suck but loaded to the brim with "Graphics 2.0" and "Ultraphysics" and other bling that gives you the sinking suspicion that is was designed with some Dilbert PHB checklist, it all comes down to one thing- corporate greed.
Real games take time and love. And with the exception of a few genres where the hardcore will buy every year (Hi Madden!) you can't just repackage the same bullshit with another notch or two added to the features PPT. And with a dead economy I think we can all agree that the $59+ they have been charging for new releases is pretty much a mugging, which is why so many of the corporate drones are trying to find a way to kill first sale and places like Gamestop. So it appears the next idea to "maximize our profit potential" is a death of a thousand cuts upon the consumer. "Why give him the whole game" they say, "when we can just give him a piece of it at full price, and the gouge him out of more money for the rest of the game? Hell we can make $100-$200 a game!"
You mark my words, we'll be seeing more and more games where it feels like larger and larger chunks are missing, only to have the "rest of the game" show up as expensive "extras" thanks to the marketspeak called DLC. That is why I am so glad there are still dedicating modders out there in the PC gaming community, that make add-ons because they love the game and want to see it continue. If any of you are reading this...thanks. There are so many games out there from top notch titles like Freelancer to even bargain bin titles like the Delta Force series where dedicated modders are giving us lots of new worlds to explore and levels to beat years later, all for the incredible price of $0.00 dollars.
So I truly hope this DLC phase dies in a fire. The mega game corps like EA find new and more nasty ways to screw us over every time we turn around anyway, the last thing we need is a way for them to easily sell us less game for more money, and then turn around and bend us over for what should have been in the game in the first place. So bad move EA, and this is one less customer you'll be getting for Dragon Age. Bioware, it is sad to see you go, but since you got bought by EA we really shouldn't be surprised. Hell the only bunch worse to sell to would have been Actiblizzard. So Long Bioware, and thanks for the fish.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
they could have just raised the price of the game and stuck it in. Would make me feel less of a sucker
But it still wouldn't change the fact that they are trying to charge extra for what should just be in the game from the start.
This isn't an expansion, this is just a side quest that has been ripped out of the game and is now sold separately.
If EA gets their way we'll soon be paying for our RPGs on a per quest basis.
Not that any of this will stop me from buying Dragon Age (although I don't think I ll buy any DLC).
Which is of course the main problem. Dragon Age already has a strong following of BG/biowa
"Collector's edition" (Score:2, Insightful)
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This approach is not so different from having a normal and collector's edition of the game - there have been plenty of times in the past where the collector's edition gives you some in-game bonuses
I disagree. The only games I know of with extra in-game stuff in the collectors edition are MMOs, and the stuff is usually pretty lousy to compensate. Most collectors edition bumfluff is stuff like maps, coins, cards, making of DVDs, etc. But I have never seen meaningful extra in-game content given away with the collectors edition of any single player adventure game, and I don't think most people would stand for it there, either.
How can something justifiably be called a 'collectors edition' or a 'special
Re:"Collector's edition" (Score:5, Interesting)
So far collectors editions generally include vanity items, mild bonuses for the start of play - items that just show off that the user bought the CE, but don't have much impact on the game. Making DLC including an *area* and *new abilities* immediately splits the game into haves and have-nots.
This is less like a CE, and more like WoW when Burning crusade came out - you want to be a blood elf? Well, you can't unless you have the expansion. Want to give your character jewelcrafting? Want to go to new areas (let alone progress pass 60), you can't.
These expansions are fine, though even in WoW's case it really made second class citizens of those who didn't have the expansion. However, to do this on LAUNCH day is nothing short of a money grab.
Parent
On release day? Really? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, that should have been part of the game. Sorry, but where else will it end? Before you know it companies will be releasing half finished games, and charging for 'service packs'.
I pre-ordered this badboy in a show of support after their 'No DRM' statement. Now there's part of the game I'm going to have to 'pirate' on day one if I want the full game, so already there's little point to my gesture. I might as well pirate the whole thing if I'm going to have an illegal copy on my computer anyway.
I won't cancel my pre-order for now, but I'll be watching how this pans out.
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Aren't you making a huge assumption? You're assuming the DLC was something that existed when the game finished testing and went to manufacturing. If they had waited for this DLC to be ready before sending it to testing and then production, it would simply have delayed the game.
Instead, they've been working on this DLC instead of sitting on their asses while they wait for testing to finish, production to ramp up and shipping to commence.
And again, you do -not- have to buy it. Or pirate it. You could simp
Yeah.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Just another righteous indignation article.
Except they are right (Score:3, Insightful)
That there is sick greed in other walks of life doesn't make it right.
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I do respect that you feel like you haven't got the full game if there is a lot of DLC, though. But really, that game has to please you enough for you to buy the DLC so whilst it is one of the many examples of bleeding a consumer, you atleast have to be fairly happy with the original product before purchasing the accessory.
Textbooks have DLC (Score:3, Insightful)
There is no DLC for movies, books or music.
A growing number of textbooks come with online extras available only to those who buy the book new.
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Imagine having the ability to buy additional scenes to the film. Or a better camera angle.
Movies have been doing this for nearly a decade. Almost every film that gets released on DVD sees a basic version first, then a "collectors edition" follows several months later with director commentary, deleted scenes, etc... In fact, while people here rage against EA deigning to release extra content the day of the retail release, movie fans have been clamoring for such a thing on DVDs for quite some time now, as the current structure is intentionally designed to get people to purchase the DVD twice, fi
At least it's something that is being added (Score:4, Interesting)
Is This Different From Neverwinter Nghts 1? (Score:3, Insightful)
I bought Neverwinter Nights years ago and still play it to this day.
One of the reasons I still play it is because they released additonal content (way after the game was released). I didn't mind paying for additional modules because a lot of work went into it and extended the life of the game.
On the other hand - The DLC for Dragon Age seems to "enhance"/"influence" the gameplay of the main game.
Which to be fair is a bit naughty - to get the "full experience" of the game you have to buy an additional module!
If they released the DLC in say a few months later - maybe the reaction would not be so negative.
As far as I am aware there is no Linux version of Dragon Age - so I will not be buying it. The other reason I still play Neverwinter Nights is because it was well ported to Linux and is also the reason I did not buy the sequel.
Re:Is This Different From Neverwinter Nghts 1? (Score:5, Insightful)
The difference is that, as you mentioned,
If they released the DLC in say a few months later - maybe the reaction would not be so negative.
By releasing modules for NWN months down the road, it implies that Bioware devs spent time and effort, after the game was initially released, into improving the product and giving players more content.
With this and other recent games, releasing DLC near or even on release day implies some executive went "Okay guys, strip out 5% of the game's content, and put it online for $10 instead."
Parent
It's a move against the second hand market. (Score:3, Insightful)
The point of this is not to combat piracy or to increase the price of the game, the point is to discourage people from buying it second-hand. The first owner will get two DLC pieces for free, but if you buy your copy used, you will not receive those DLC pieces, you have to buy them from EA, on top of paying for your used copy.
The proper way of looking at it is that the two free DLC pieces should be included in the full game, but that they figured out a way of robbing second-hand buyers of it.
I can see why publishers want to get money from the second-hand market, but doing that at the expense of their customers is incredibly annoying.
Re:False advertising? (Score:4, Insightful)
It is widly known that games are probably going to have exansion packs, and now a days paid for DLC, so that is not the shocker. It is that they are releasing DLC on the day of release and since time probably does not factor into when DLC is release no falso advertisment or selling an incomplete product.
Now if the cover art of the box included pictures of the DLC golem in the party they I would agree since the box is an advertisement of the product and they are showing you something that can only be seen if you purchase something not in the box.
Parent
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Actually it is an extra $15. The $7 is for additional content. The DLC that you get by buying the game "the right way" costs $15 otherwise.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
"This message was brought to you by Sarcasm and Troll Feeders United (or STFU, for you un-hip people)."
I saw the potential and just couldn't resist.
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Maybe when Linux (all distros) has more desktop market share than a Microsoft OS which isn't even released yet [w3counter.com] they'll begin to care. Until then, please feel free to manually edit your
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The better question is, why don't coders make sure linux will run it (not, will it run on linux).?
You already know that it's going with be a game made to run on Windows. So instead of asking if they modified it so that it'll run perfectly on Linux, you should be asking why the people coding Linux don't focus on making sure Linux can run more games instead of features that no one (even the most die hard power user) uses.
It's kind of like this http://xkcd.com/619/ [xkcd.com]
And before you try to claim I'm a troll, I'm
Re:Next thing you know, (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
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EA have threatened to kill everyone I know if I don't buy this DLC- and as I've replied to your post this now includes you and the people reading this post.
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Alot of games on steam come with securom and other copy protection methods.
Such games include: bioshock, fallout 3 and Crysis Warhead.
However EA has released patchs for some of thier games that remove Securom from the steam version.
Also you can also find games with TAGES on steam.