Dragon Age DLC

[alanschu]

Argg... I found out something annoying. The BioWare SocialNetwork Account for Dragon Age is tied to a single e-mail address that cannot be changed. In other words all the DLC you might get is tied to that address - so if you change it down the line...

 

 

From the Social Website's FAQ:

 

 

You cannot update your email address on this site - you would need to go to profile.ea.com to manage the email address associated with your EA account. Note that this would change it for all EA games and sites!

[alanschu]

I've never actually complained about an expansion pack.

for you it might be effective marketing, for me it is dealbreaking issue... there is reason why i never watch TV stations, which do have commercials in middle of movies... they do break the immersion for me as much as stuff for real money NPCs in computer games... But yes it is effective marketing in a way... it effectively saved me 60 EUR

 

 

I straight up contend that if this is the reason is why you saved 60 Euros, you had other reasons for not wanting the game.

 

A character in party camp and another guy on the side of the road and the 2 minutes of conversation, based on hearsay commentary from other people about how "immersion breaking it is," stopping you outright from buying a 60 hour long game you'd otherwise have enjoyed?

Edited November 9, 2009 by alanschu

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Argg... I found out something annoying. The BioWare SocialNetwork Account for Dragon Age is tied to a single e-mail address that cannot be changed. In other words all the DLC you might get is tied to that address - so if you change it down the line...

 

 

From the Social Website's FAQ:

 

 

You cannot update your email address on this site - you would need to go to profile.ea.com to manage the email address associated with your EA account. Note that this would change it for all EA games and sites!

 

Oh, thanks! I had not noticed that.

[Gorgon]

I've never actually complained about an expansion pack.

 

same for me... i purchased all expansion packs for all games that i own and have released it... the difference between DLC and Exp pack is in most cases very big... you usualy get more fun for same money from exp packs

 

What you call trickery. Is called effective marketing.

 

for you it might be effective marketing, for me it is dealbreaking issue... there is reason why i never watch TV stations, which do have commercials in middle of movies... they do break the immersion for me as much as stuff for real money NPCs in computer games... But yes it is effective marketing in a way... it effectively saved me 60 EUR

Trickery is effective marketing, otherwise they wouldn't bother. Now in the case of the DLC It's all about appearance, I'm not suggesting they are deliberately scamming. For me the nuisance is the salesperson in the camp. Making an adon with considerable impact on the skill tree and doing it concurrently with the host game, intending to launch them at the same time. To me it's also ever so slightly dishonest.

 

If people insist that people who try to sell them stuff appear honest, and I am one of those people, an overt strategy like the one in the DLC will run into problems. I actually pay attention to business practices that I dislike and make it a point not to buy from such vendors. Say if there has been news coverage about an electronics chain which attempts to dissuade people from making claims on their warranties or price an enferior product line identically to the high end one figuring people would be too stupid to notice.

 

Recently there was a case where a supermarket chain re packaged old meat and sold it as new. After the story broke they started loosing business at an almost exponential rate. After which they started running apology ads in all the major newspapers. They are certainly acutely aware of the importance of perception and having one's name unstained.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Ok, I know we've bandied around the whole DLC issue in the other Dragon Age topics, and I know a third topic might be excessive, but this topic is less about the game and more about the bizarro sales pitch going on here.

 

For those not in the know, when you make camp in Dragon Age, you have a little place to talk to your companions, buy and sell gear, and craft. It works like the ships in KotOR and ME. You will also notice a guy concerned about his family. He offers you a quest. But before you think about accepting, he hits you with a sales pitch.

 

So in order to do this quest, you have to pay for it separately.

 

Now I'm not typically bothered by DLC. In fact I rarely bother with it, and I think it is a creative way to continue the development cycle of a game.

 

But what bothers me is the fact that Dragon Age has been out for less than a week, and they are already trying to peddle content. That means this was done when the game was done, and they withheld it to milk some more bucks out of the player, and then they put it front and center in the game. It isn't in some tucked away corner, it is staring you right in the face, saying "if you don't buy me, you aren't getting the full experience."

 

So I'm a bit perturbed, to say the least. I'm not someone who gets too wound up over video games, but this did push a button for me.

Its profiteering and I don't like it. I am referring to little things that should have been put into the game since it was made at the same time as the game. I don't mind paying for DLCs if its expansion sized like a Mask of the Betrayer for NWN2 or a Point Lookout for Fallout3.

[alanschu]

Making an adon with considerable impact on the skill tree and doing it concurrently with the host game, intending to launch them at the same time.

 

I think you're overstating the "considerable." You get one tree, four talents. Picking them means not picking other talents as well.

 

 

Once upon a time I became a big believer that people should spend some time working in retail, as well as in a restaurant, to gain better appreciation for the people that work those jobs. Unfortunately the education requirements will be too strict, but I think it might not be bad for game players to actually spend some time working in software development to gain an appreciation for the process.

 

Based a lot on what I have seen people say and write over the years, particularly the ease with which people think programming is, as well as design decisions within the development cycle (and I'm not even just talking games here), it might be some interesting perspective on the issue.

 

I'm almost convinced that posting the full schedules of the staff, the full changelog of every update, checkin, and checkout from the repository, coupled with a divine omnipotent being corroborating all of it, and people still would maintain their preconceptions for how decisions are made, and how easy it would be for people to implement so many of their changes/suggestions/what have you.

 

I mean, Lucian himself comments that he doesn't like profiteering, specifically referring to things that should have been in the game since it was made at the same time...yet he has a Baldur's Gate modding webpage in his signature.

Edited November 9, 2009 by alanschu

[CoM_Solaufein]

If you are referring that I make money from making Baldur's Gate mods, that is false. All BG mods are free, if they weren't Bioware could easily kill the mod scene.

[Gorth]

I'm almost convinced that posting the full schedules of the staff...

Schedules? Schedules?!? You mean they actually take time off?!?!?!? (faints)

[Fighter]

What you call trickery. Is called effective marketing.

 

for you it might be effective marketing, for me it is dealbreaking issue... there is reason why i never watch TV stations, which do have commercials in middle of movies... they do break the immersion for me as much as stuff for real money NPCs in computer games... But yes it is effective marketing in a way... it effectively saved me 60 EUR

 

It must be hard for you to find interesting things in life if one little annoyance can deprive you of the entire game experience, such an extreme reaction.

[Mamoulian War]

What you call trickery. Is called effective marketing.

 

for you it might be effective marketing, for me it is dealbreaking issue... there is reason why i never watch TV stations, which do have commercials in middle of movies... they do break the immersion for me as much as stuff for real money NPCs in computer games... But yes it is effective marketing in a way... it effectively saved me 60 EUR

 

It must be hard for you to find interesting things in life if one little annoyance can deprive you of the entire game experience, such an extreme reaction.

 

I am enjoying my life a lot, because, i do not need to purchase everything shoved down my throat, i have a lot of other things to do. Even in gaming there is so much to purchase, that i do not care if i will miss a game or two i'd like to purchase, i have made a lot of principles during my life and i stand fully behind them, one game will not change that...

 

As Alan mantioned, the NPCs are not only things that did convince me not to buy the game, I was thinking a lot about buying it, but 3 things had put me into dont buy at release date

 

1) it's EA game

2) marketing campaing

3) the possibility of draconian DRM

 

The built in game advertisement (or however you wanna calll it), is just the final info on the game, which convinced me that i have made right decision of not buying it... And i am not regret this decision at all. My wallet has voted.

[Fighter]

It's your loss really.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Is the DLC actually good, at least?

[Volourn]

I don't get why someone who has absolutely no interetsing in buying or playing a game would waste time in threads dedicated to it. It's illogical, and just waste a time. Better off going to experience something you 'enjoy'.

[Monte Carlo]

Is the DLC actually good, at least?

 

I've only paid for one piece of DLC directly (i.e. outside of the the collector's edition) and that was Soldier's Peak. I've written about this elsewhere, but I liked it and am enjoying the skill tree that you get in it if you play your cards right (it's agreeably Diablo 3-ish, even the graphics). It was perfectly reasonable value for money, as a result I've done loads of playing and only scratched the surface of the game. This is good.

 

Shale is also good, the little quest to get him is pretty easy but he's a solid NPC and wittily written.

 

The bonus items are a bit like BG2 - the twinky Red Dragon armour is unlikely to be of much use to you until you hit level 9-10 because you need 38 STR to wear it! The little tome that improves your stats is useful too.

 

Cheers

MC

[Pop]

Is the DLC actually good, at least?

The Stone Prisoner is probably worth the money. Shale was pretty obviously modeled to be a less sadistic version of HK-47 and he's a tremendously powerful tank (decent strength, considerable constitution, your choice of elemental damage, interesting battle stance things) Plus I'm guessing in the dwarven part of the game he's got to have some sort of questline.

 

Soldier's Peak, eh. I didn't find the quest to be that interesting at all. The chest is nice, but it's not worth $7. Basically the nice things about it are the extra blood magic spells you get for free if you go a certain way in the storyline (not sure if you can get these as a non-mage) and a really nice low-requirement suit of armor.

[Monte Carlo]

Soldier's Peak, eh. I didn't find the quest to be that interesting at all. The chest is nice, but it's not worth $7. Basically the nice things about it are the extra blood magic spells you get for free if you go a certain way in the storyline (not sure if you can get these as a non-mage) and a really nice low-requirement suit of armor.

 

My fighter was able to take the Diabolist skill tree.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Is Soldiers peak the same as "wardens keep" or something else?

[Hurlshort]

That guy standing in my camp with a giant arrow over his head is extremely obnoxious. I get that is might be a personal opinion and other folks can tune him out, but he's a distraction that won't go away in my game.

[Oner]

Is Soldiers peak the same as "wardens keep" or something else?

The same.

 

 

That guy standing in my camp with a giant arrow over his head is extremely obnoxious. I get that is might be a personal opinion and other folks can tune him out, but he's a distraction that won't go away in my game.

The question mark is what annoys me. "There's a quest left, you damn maximalist, suffeeeeeer!"

[aries101]

That guy standing in my camp with a giant arrow over his head is extremely obnoxious. I get that is might be a personal opinion and other folks can tune him out, but he's a distraction that won't go away in my game.

 

As for getting rid of the NPC, you can't. You can, however, turn OFF the exclamation mark. You'll just turn off all exclamations on all NPCs you'll meet.

 

And my problem is with the NPC being there, if you didn't want to do the quest at this time - or maybe not at all.

 

My thoughs about this is that people need to know that they buy DLC before, the've even read about the quest. Or been given info on the quest.

 

I don't complain that I can't get the quest, if I don't pay for it. Such is the nature of the [capalistic] system....

 

Edit:

 

As for the draconian drm, there is none. The game uses an (initial?) disc check system to launch itself from the DVD-drive.

Your DLC is tied to your Bioware (ea?) account, not your computer.

 

So far, the marketing have blatantly misrepresented the game. Many people over at the Bioware forums and the Bioware Social site have posted threads and posts where they've complained about this game, DA: Origins, being way too hard - even for some of the seasoned veterans of tactical rpg genre. Others are having a blast with, others again come asdking for advice. And then have a blast with the game.

 

This game seems to be nod back to the somewhat old school rpgs of yesteryear, game that was deliberately made hard...and difficult...

Edited November 9, 2009 by aries101

[Monte Carlo]

It is hard, no doubt about it.

 

I'm still trying to beat a certain encounter by a gravestone in the woods, but again it's like the old BG games where you knew there was a certain party to fight in a certain location (which had nothing to do with the critical path) that you are meant to return to when you were ready.

 

My weakness is the D&D hangover that I need a thief in my party - Imoen Chick is a real weak link. When do I get exotic elf assassin dude?

 

Cheers

MC

[Volourn]

"So far, the marketing have blatantly misrepresented the game."

 

No, it isn't.The marketing was right on. The issue is that the marketing and the game can come across differently to different people. The marketing was a multiple angle blitz. And, it was presumably fantastic (guess we will find out for sure how successful it is when the sales numbers come in, though).

 

The worse thing one can say about the marketing for DA is that it was all over the place; but for the most part, it's pretty accurate.

[Fighter]

The constant use of the sex scene in their demo videos and the Marilyn Manson song were just retarded.

Edited November 9, 2009 by Fighter

[Volourn]

Not if it worked. Nope. The overreaction to it by a vocal few? Yup.

[Fighter]

Not if it worked. Nope. The overreaction to it by a vocal few? Yup.

 

Most people are retards, of course it worked. That still leaves it bloody retarded.