Dragon Age's Two Year DLC Plan

[Keane Ng]

Dragon Age's Two Year DLC Plan

BioWare have big plans for big value when it comes to the downloadable content for their upcoming fantasy RPG, Dragon Age. They're planning on having the content span up to two years.

BioWare's Greg Zeschuk knows gamers are not to be trifled with. They don't like long, awkward elevator rides in sci-fi RPGs. Fine, MTV [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90631-Mass-Effect-2-Speeds-Up-Elevator-Rides]. "You can't trick them with anything, so don't even try."

In recent years, one of the most common tricks that's been pulled on gamers is the wallet gouging practice of crummy DLC. Good DLC's worth paying for, many will concede, others are opposed to the practice in all its forms. Regardless of that, nobody likes to get ripped off when it comes to this stuff, which is why BioWare believes that, for DLC, the "strategy behind it has to be fully thought out."

And if you're going to fully think something out, you'll need to take your time. BioWare's planning on taking plenty of time - almost two years' worth of it, in fact. "This is the reason that with Dragon Age, our DLC strategy is doing it in maybe a year and-a-half or two years, planning exactly when you're going to do it and how you're going to do it," Zeschuk said.

For the vivid fictional world that Dragon Age hopes to be, two years will provide ample time to flesh out and deepen things, BioWare hopes. "Some of our fans would really like us to extend the world, so it's going to be something that will make the world even bigger and more interesting," Zeschuk remarked. "It's not going to wreck it or break it."


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[Brotherofwill]

Most connected I can agree with, but smartest? Not by a long shot Mr.Zes..s..hu..ck

Good to see that they have a solid DLC plan though, never bought DLC in my life but I might just consider it for this game.

 

[Liverandbacon]

It might be considered a bit old fashioned, but I prefer paying slightly more for expansion packs with much more new content to paying piecemeal for tiny improvements. I'm surprised I haven't seen more people just make mods that are near-replicas of the DLC for many games. After all, there's so little content to create that it wouldn't take very long.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

I wasn't inticed by this game for a while but now I am..when does it come out, damnit?

 

[Aries_Split]

It might be considered a bit old fashioned, but I prefer paying slightly more for expansion packs with much more new content to paying piecemeal for tiny improvements. I'm surprised I haven't seen more people just make mods that are near-replicas of the DLC for many games. After all, there's so little content to create that it wouldn't take very long.

That's a stereotype that doesn't apply anymore.

 

[ranc0re]

I love BioWare and all, but didn't they say there would be tons of DLC for Mass Effect? All I got was one crummy mission.

 

[Avatar Roku]

I love BioWare and all, but didn't they say there would be tons of DLC for Mass Effect? All I got was one crummy mission.

While I loved Bring Down the Sky, they did say there would be more. They might continue it once ME 2 comes out. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. On one hand, it's continuing to support a game when some might not want to/be able to afford the sequel. On the other hand, when will they make DLC for the sequel itself?

 

[scarbunny]

Hopefully they will take a leaf from rockstars book and relase some expansion sized DLC, maybe a decent 10 hour extra quest line, I would pay for that.

 

[Baby Tea]

I love BioWare and all, but didn't they say there would be tons of DLC for Mass Effect? All I got was one crummy mission.

While I loved Bring Down the Sky, they did say there would be more. They might continue it once ME 2 comes out. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. On one hand, it's continuing to support a game when some might not want to/be able to afford the sequel. On the other hand, when will they make DLC for the sequel itself?

I'm pretty sure there was a recent news story which said that new DLC for Mass Effect was coming soon.

The thing about Bioware's DLC, is that i's a bit deeper then the regular DLC that I've seen. Take, for example, Oblivion.
Bring Down The Sky is a bit deeper then suddenly having a note in my possession that I didn't have before that let's me know I can buy Horse Armour. Or that I suddenly have some dead uncle, or something, that gave me his Mage Tower...in the form of a note I didn't have before.

Bioware likes to integrate it, not tack it on.
I like that.

EDIT:
I almost forgot!

I can't wait for this game! WOOO! Bioware is my favourite by far!
Canadians make the best RPGs! CRPGs for the win!

 

[Biscotti187]

"You have to remember that video game consumers are some of the smartest, most connected people on the planet," he told MTV. "You can't trick them with anything, so don't even try."

now that sounds like an attempt at flattery lol

 

[Jandau]

I have no problem with DLC as such, but I have a few issues with Dragon Age's DLC

1. It's bugged. The official forums are full of reports of DLC flat out not working. This is inexcuseable, especially when the main official response was (for a long time) "Buy it again and reinstall it". The irony is that pirated versions of DLC work for almost everyone. Basically, I don't want to pay for DLC that doesn't work.

2. Warden's Keep cost 7$. At that rate it won't take too long before the total DLC price (content packs only, not counting item purchases) matches the price of the actual game. However, I doubt it'll be anywhere near the lenght and width of the original game, which begs the question of value. Expansion packs used to cost less than the original game precisely because of this. DLC seems to be going in the opposite direction.

3. I fear they'll just keep adding stuff into the middle of the game, instead of expanding the game beyond the ending sequence (which I'm guessing most players would like). Expanding it that way would likely require a cohesive expansion pack or some such, which again doesn't correlate with their plans for milking every tiny bit of content...

 

[Carnagath]

OP pic: What the hell? Why can't I zoom out like that on the PS3, or am I missing something?

 

[Amnestic]

OP pic: What the hell? Why can't I zoom out like that on the PS3, or am I missing something?

If you read that other news article, you'd see that they didn't include the overhead 'Baldurs Gate' view in the console versions.

This was announced well in advance of purchase.

I have no problem with DLC as such, but I have a few issues with Dragon Age's DLC

1. It's bugged. The official forums are full of reports of DLC flat out not working. This is inexcuseable, especially when the main official response was (for a long time) "Buy it again and reinstall it". The irony is that pirated versions of DLC work for almost everyone. Basically, I don't want to pay for DLC that doesn't work.

PC user here, not a single piece of DLC doesn't work for me. Sometimes if I don't wait five seconds before clicking Resume on boot up it doesn't load, but a quick quit to main menu and then clicking Resume again and it's all back.

2. Warden's Keep cost 7$. At that rate it won't take too long before the total DLC price (content packs only, not counting item purchases) matches the price of the actual game. However, I doubt it'll be anywhere near the lenght and width of the original game, which begs the question of value. Expansion packs used to cost less than the original game precisely because of this. DLC seems to be going in the opposite direction.

No comment until I see what the rest of the DLC they have planned are. So far we've seen...what, two released pieces plus one which is still in development? Oh, and Blood Dragon Armour, though that barely counts.

3. I fear they'll just keep adding stuff into the middle of the game, instead of expanding the game beyond the ending sequence (which I'm guessing most players would like). Expanding it that way would likely require a cohesive expansion pack or some such, which again doesn't correlate with their plans for milking every tiny bit of content...

Bethesda pulled off expanding the end with a little content of Fallout 3, did they not? (the answer's "Yes"). As above, you're putting the cart before the horse is even born.

 

[silasbufu]

OP pic: What the hell? Why can't I zoom out like that on the PS3, or am I missing something?

That's the PC version. You can also see how the skills are placed differently on the screen. I can only Assign 6 hotkeys for skills on the xbox.

 

[Jandau]

PC user here, not a single piece of DLC doesn't work for me. Sometimes if I don't wait five seconds before clicking Resume on boot up it doesn't load, but a quick quit to main menu and then clicking Resume again and it's all back.

PC user here, it took me alomost two weeks to get Warden's keep working. It simply refused to start the quest. And I wasn't the only one. A lot of people (20+ pages of complaints on various forums) had the exact same problem and no fix was made available. I had to DL a pirated version of the DLC I paid for to get it to work. Again, if I was an isolated incident, I'd let it slide, but I wasn't. Glad you didn't have any trouble, but that doesn't mean nobody did.

No comment until I see what the rest of the DLC they have planned are. So far we've seen...what, two released pieces plus one which is still in development? Oh, and Blood Dragon Armour, though that barely counts.

I don't count the item DLCs. Warden's keep took less than 2 hours to complete. Stone prisoner even less than that. I'm making a guess based on info available so far, but I'm pretty sure that if they put out DLC longer than that they'll also charge more.

Bethesda pulled off expanding the end with a little content of Fallout 3, did they not? (the answer's "Yes"). As above, you're putting the cart before the horse is even born.

As above, am I not allowed to have concerns based on previous experience? Fallout 3 is a game with different structure and it's easy to tack things on due to a loose and linear plot. In Dragon Age it would be hard to add extra stuff after the end since in some endings pretty much every member of your party goes his/her own way, not to mention you are dead, so unless they retcon about half the game's lore it just wouldn't work.

 

[Amnestic]

Spoiler: lolendofgame

In Dragon Age it would be hard to add extra stuff after the end since in some endings pretty much every member of your party goes his/her own way, not to mention you are dead, so unless they retcon about half the game's lore it just wouldn't work.

Spoiler'd that for you. Thankfully I'd already finished the game. Also, that's only one of the endings. If:

Spoiler: Lol more end of game spoilers

you choose to have sex with Morrigan or have Alistair have sex with Morrigan and pass the persuade checks, you can come out of it alive. That was the first ending I had in fact. I did assume the other ones would end with me dying though, so nothing ruined for me.

PC user here, it took me alomost two weeks to get Warden's keep working. It simply refused to start the quest. And I wasn't the only one. A lot of people (20+ pages of complaints on various forums) had the exact same problem and no fix was made available. I had to DL a pirated version of the DLC I paid for to get it to work. Again, if I was an isolated incident, I'd let it slide, but I wasn't. Glad you didn't have any trouble, but that doesn't mean nobody did.

Fair enough. I question whether it really counts as a pirated version since you already paid for it, but I think we're treading into legal murky waters there.