BioWare Issues Dragon Age Demo Call to Arms

[CleverCover]

This is kind of getting annoying.
Why all this work just to get a few extra things?

I know it'll enrich the story, but does it really have to be a bonus thing? If it's a bonus, that means I'll enjoy the game without it. Like the ME2 Weapon packs. I don't need it, but it helps, right?

I'm downloading it anyway to play...but it just gets tiring after a while.
I feel like I'm being conned or something...

 

[Super Toast]

Okay, I'll contribute. Hope the items are decent.

 

[MisterShine]

I feel like I'm being conned or something...

This is 100% marketing. "We're giving away more stuff if you buy our game at 60 dollars now than 20 dollars a few months down the road!" Those're the words between the lines here. It's necessary these days, in Bioware's business. I support it, as Bioware games are fantastic and I'd much rather Bioware games sell 10 million copies the first day than the Ho-Hum-fests known as the last two CoD's.

... JUST to have the feeling you have a full game in your hands.

I don't get this thinking. Judging by your avatar, you're a Mass Effect 2 fan. I only got the pre-order bonus for the digital deluxe, I didn't get Zaeed (there was a glitch with my keycode that didn't work the first week..), or the Gamestop/Dr. Pepper crap, the heavy arms packs, the alt appearance packs.. and yet the game was still amazing and felt 100% to me. Similar story with Dragon Age. Hell for Dragon Age the only DLC of the 6 or so they released I played was Warden's Keep, and yet the story for the main game still feels wrapped up to me (I haven't even played Awakenings yet)

I understand being concerned that such a thing will happen in the future, but there is just no evidence of that yet, and this demo bonus isn't it either.

 

[kael013]

When did Bioware become gaming's version of a Bond villain? New headline: Bioware holds two items hostage, and will release them for ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS.

Wait, what? I thought BioWare was just a developer subsidary of EA, since when are they in charge of all of this? What does the EA Marketing Department do?

 

[BlindChance]

When did Bioware become gaming's version of a Bond villain? New headline: Bioware holds two items hostage, and will release them for ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS.

Wait, what? I thought BioWare was just a developer subsidary of EA, since when are they in charge of all of this? What does the EA Marketing Department do?

You're right, you're right. But you have to admit, Bioware sounds more like the name of a Bond villain organization than EA.

 

[chainguns]

... JUST to have the feeling you have a full game in your hands.

I don't get this thinking.

I'm with you, Straying Bulllet. Us (real) RPG types sometimes replay a whole game just to get some hidden helmet from a (not even great) armor set -- or find that last letter in a quest. Knowing that there are items around that you can never get because you don't jump when the EA marketing tells you to is disappointing.

In any event, I want EA to first tell us the DRM (specifically phone-home intervals) behind DA2 before I allow their marketing department to whip me into a frenzy of irrational fanboy desire. At the moment, that information is on a 'need to know basis' (wait, this *is* out of a Bond movie)

 

[snfonseka]

This is what we call "Cheap Marketing Tricks"....

 

[chinangel]

/eyeroll.

I have ALWAYS said taht special items or special edition inclusions or what have you should contribute something to the game, not be an action figure or something that is largely useless in the game. i'm NOT paying fourty extra dollars for a big daddy action figure.

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

I find it rather silly that people are getting super pissed off about two books that merely add some gold and experience that might not make it into the game and thus the game is a lesser experience because of it.

They could do a much more invasive tactic and do what EA did with the Need for Speed demo and block off a portion of the demo(and in this case the books as well) until you send annoying invite messages to x amount of your friends, and then they have to play the damn demo as well.

 

[Woodsey]

Kind of tired of all these pissy little content additions.

What if I don't want to download the demo because I want to play all of the game completely new?

This is exactly why I am NOT picking up DA II. Every kind of content held hostage, unless you pre-ordered, joined their FB Page and done a lot of other digital bullshit JUST to have the feeling you have a full game in your hands.

Well, not really.

Two books, some swords, and armour or whatever - its all stuff that's been created after-the-fact anyway just so that they can have these promotions. I'm just bored of them.

 

[LastDarkness]

I hope you all also know thats theres additional bonus content unlockable only in the demo.
*Edit*
So you can either play the demo and transfer your Hawke into the full game or get the game, play the demo to unlock then trasfer your Hawke into the full game.

Seems pointlessly silly to me that playing the game is a spoiler when your character continue forward after the demo into the full release.

 

[nin_ninja]

I was already gonna download the demo. But hey, bonus stuff doesnt hurt!

Exactly. Why do people complain about stuff like this? "Here, if enough people download the demo, we'll give you stuff." If you don't want the stuff, don't play the demo.

 

[Alpha Maeko]

If you're a PC person who uses ATI/AMD, be sure to update your drivers before playing the demo.

I was getting 20 fps during the dragon cutscene before (best settings possible, (ATI Radeon HD 5850 1 GB). 70+ fps after the update using the same settings.

Maybe it was just a random screw up the first time around, but seeing as the update was released on steam shortly after the demo was, I'd say it does have an effect on the DA2 demo.

 

[Alluos]

This is dragon age we're talking here, the game where darkspawn pretty much do whatever they want, I'm sure the biggest spoiler we're gonna get is "Your village was destroyed by darkspawn" or "Your village was conquered/bought by X", not that I'm complaining of course.

 

[FoolKiller]

I already deleted the demo. I had it downloaded but couldn't play it where I had internets so now I tried it out but without being logged in... .oh wells.

 

[Yureina]

Played the demo today. It wasn't too bad I have to say. Even so, I'll probably be waiting until reviews roll around of the full game before I decide whether or not I'd buy it. I wasn't a fan of DA:O, but the demo did reveal that the combat system seems to be better - and that was my biggest gripe with Origins.

So I am among those potential million downloaders.