WTF Is Up With Dragon Age: Origins DLC?
For those of you that bought Dragon Age: Origins without a pre-order, or God forbid plan to buy it used, have missed out on mountains of loot. To add insult to injury, Bioware is offering some pretty game changing DLC on day one. Tom Chick has posted a rant aimed at Bioware and EA for the “Warden’s Keep” DLC, which offers additional inventory slots for either $7 or the purchase of the Digital CE. His complaint is that the game’s inventory management is cumbersome and restrictive with the only viable solution coming in the form of paid content above and beyond the cost of the game.
Gerog Zoeller of Bioware sent him a pointed response explaining that the decision to add inventory options via DLC stemmed from feedback received by early reviewers of the game and a desire to give players something, “cool…for your own keep.” Georg explains that during the development there were “camp storage chests”, but unforeseen bugs found late in the game’s development left them on the cutting room floor. He maintains that the inventory system as it exists in the final version was balanced as per Bioware’s design, but that players who purchased the DLC would get the bonus storage mostly as a value add and not out of “bilking” their customer base.
Just in case you think we (or Tom) are exaggerating over the volume or scope of Dragon Age: Origins DLC, please review the complete list below:
- Blood Dragon Armor: Cross compatible with next January’s Mass Effect 2 and offered for free with any retail purchase (expires on April 30th, 2010).
- Stone Prisoner: A *new* Golem character named Shale you can recruit for the epic confrontation. Offered for free with any retail purchase (expires on April 30th, 2010) or $15 if purchased from Xbox Live as DLC.
- Warden’s Keep: A dungeon offering unique loot, player abilities and an expanded inventory solution. Offered as part of the Digital Deluxe (Download Only) Edition for free or as $7 DLC on Xbox Live.
- Memory Ring (Retail Pre-Order Exclusive): Adds 1% to XP growth and +1 Skill Point.
- GameStop Exclusive: Feral Wolf Charm – Gives bonuses to Armor and Health Regeneration.
- Steam Exclusive: The Wicked Oath – Adds 10% to Critical Strike damage, Armor Penetration + 2 and +1 to Combat Stamina Regeneration.
- Amazon Exclusive: Lion’s Paw Boots – “Adds to Armor, Dodge, and Evading Missiles.”
Also, there are in-game rewards for playing Dragon Age: Journeys EA’s Flash-based tactical RPG teaser:
- Embri’s Many Pockets – +5% Fire Resistance, +5% Cold Resistance, +5% Electricity Resistance, +5% Nature Resistance, +5% Spirit Resistance
- Helm of the Deep – +2 Constitution, +10 Mental Resistance, +10 Physical Resistance
- Amulet Of the War Mage – +5% to Fire Damage, +5 % to Cold Damage, +5% to Electrical Damage, +5% to Nature Damage, +5% to Spirit Damage
I got my copy of Dragon Age: Origins at an extreme discount from the EA Company Store, so I gladly paid the extra $7 for Warden’s Keep without second thought. For everyone else that doesn’t have teh hook ups, this probably feels like a slap in the face after paying $50-$60 retail. Now, if there was an in-game ad for the DLC every time you dropped a valuable item due to lack of space I think there’d be rioting in the streets; angry, nerdy, entitled, rage-fueled rioting.
[Update: Penny Arcade agrees. Or do they...? Yeah, they totally do. Yay!]
via: Joystiq
News Tags: bilking, Bioware, DLC, Dragon Age, EA, loot, tom chick
Wow, that’s nuts. I hope they don’t pull the same thing with Mass Effect 2.
DLC, the Bioware way.
They should have included the Warden’s Keep DLC with all Collector’s Editions, especially the console versions which are like $80! I might just cancel my pre-order, because Amazon still hasn’t sent it to me and they sent me the pre-order DLC codes for the wrong platform.
@hpv: Actually, once you get the game the DLC codes are entered in-game. They appear to be for the wrong platform, but it’s just an EA key code that will “unlock” the DLC content for a free download on the marketplace. Good luck with the CE.
@player66: Fucking EA! Think they’re so big they don’t have to play by standard platform rules!
The only thing on that list to be reasonably pissed about is the Warden’s Keep DLC, and even then, it’s still a lot for seven bucks.
I’d recommend playing the flash game, by the way, it’s damn good.
@Naughton: Yeah, that thing is crazy. Seems to have more depth than a lot of full retail titles and I haven’t even seen one of the four ogres yet!
Honestly there’s nothing wrong with DLC… I paid Blizz $15 a month for 3 years on top of a $60 game for what? an RPG with a chat system.
DA:O is giving me at least a month’s worth of game for one play through with tons of story/content/voice acting for for $60 (WoW gave first month free, so that’s on par). The story and voice acting are the draw instead of co-op/online play which I think it easily stands up to.
I haven’t got Warden’s Keep yet, so I don’t know how long it is, but I’m perfectly happy to pay $7 for the extra game and other small payments as more content/expansions are added.
You’re crying over nothing.
Well, first of all lets get real. If you buy a game it should come with all the content, quest, armor, weaponry, skill… ect ect already included in the game. It is absolutly ludacris that someone should have to keep paying a game maker for more content so they can complete the game that should have been whole to start with. I hale the game makers as dishonest and greedy who make this part of the games they produce. While i love the game format of dragon age orgins i find the DLC very annoying and frankly a turn off from purchasing future games from this maker.
@sam
i think you’re misunderstanding something. The game is COMPLETELY beatable w/o all the DLC crap. BioWare made a (stupid) decision to make armor/charcters/areas etc. as DLC on release so they could rake in even more cash. The game isn’t incomplete without all that stuff, it just might not be AS full of options/stuff. You get what you pay for, if you want the FULL experience, you gotta pay the FULL amount! I hope this makes sense to you.
I would like to say first of all thanks to TheBludgeoningEffect for your responce to my thread. Yeah I was aware the game was beatable w/o the dlc CRAP from bioware. I don’t misunderstand the concept that GREEDY ol BIOWARE has. I totally disagree witht the concept in that it is pure greed and aimed to drain the wallets of gamers everywhere whenever they can. Besides that if you honestly dont think that 60+ dollars is not already enough for the game when you buy it then by all means spend away. I personally find it ludacris that after paying 60 dollars for the game then I get it home and it starts telling me to get this or that I have to pay extra for the DLC. I do not accept the statement “if you want the FULL experience, you gotta pay the FULL amount!”!!! For as when I purchase the game @ full price it should be complete! It is about as assanine as going to your local Taco Hell and ordering a taco paying the full price and getting only the flour tortia with nothing inside. Sure you could eat it like it is but when you ask where is the meat they simply tell you ohh well you will have to purchase the meat cheese or lettus at an additional price which would be close to or = to the original purchase price so you paid double for a taco… JUST FOR THE FULL TACO HELL EXPERIENCE!!!! I am like most people when I say @#$% That!!! I will go to Burger Queen And have it my way! So I am officially boycotting any games produced or released in that format! If that means I have to give up gamming I will. I will be damned if I will pay for something twice just to have the proper gaming experience.
@sam: I totally agree. It is dis-honest that they would have you pay extra money for the DLC. You would think that the bioware community, tons of fans who pay alot of money for a decent game would have made bioware ‘rich enough’ to be rewarded with some amazing DLC content. Its not like it takes a big effort anyway. Its not like they have to start from scratch. But when it comes to bioware, they just can’t have enough. BIOWARE! HOW ABOUT: THANK YOU FOR BEING LOYAL AND MAKING US ‘RICH’ HERE GUYS! HAVE SOME AWESOME NEW CONTENT! ITS ON THE HOUSE. If they would act like this, I bet they would make even more money. Other people would see this and definately buy their games. You pay once and get tossed a nice bone afterwards. How cool would that be? TOO BAD BIOWARE ONLY CARES ABOUT THE ‘GREEN’ and not about its COMMUNITY