This is what is wrong with gaming, and buying games, today.

That is an absolute mess! Just by the standard game - I suspect within a week you'll be able to get everthing on e-bay anyway. Certainly better than trying to decipher that obscure collection of offers.

Thankfully this seemes to be the worst offense against "exclusive content", however, I'd brace for even more rediculous setups in future. *shivers*

...

+scantily clad witches?

Quoting CrazyElectron,

reply 1

That is an absolute mess! Just by the standard game - I suspect within a week you'll be able to get everthing on e-bay anyway. Certainly better than trying to decipher that obscure collection of offers.

Thankfully this seemes to be the worst offense against "exclusive content", however, I'd brace for even more rediculous setups in future. *shivers*

Exactly. I think a lot of people will initially turn to piracy, because at least then they can be sure of what they're getting. That is to say, all of it. One way or another.

I'll buy the game six months down the line when I know I'm not getting anything and I am sure I've got executables readily pirated of the net to add the minor and retailer exclusive content. That's always how it was.

This is getting worse from game to game, these days. Especially in MMOs, where it is (in my opinion) even more important not to have this schemes, since it permanently turns off those (like me) that don't get access to this "exclusive content".

Quoting Kitkun,

reply 2

...

+scantily clad witches?

You're in the game?!

.. No wait. You're not scantily clad...

I'm sure there will be other ways to get the items. I was already told I'm getting the Memory Band. I guess the other item I'm getting is the Ferral Wolf Charm.

Well, at least it'll net me a scantily clad witch

Hmm, better not tell the wife I'm getting a scantily clad goth chick with the game...hehe.

Most of these extra features are just bait to get you to pre-order the game or purchase it upon release. If they were essential to the game, they would be included in every version. Just ignore it and buy the game if/when you are ready. Sooner or later, all this extra stuff will be made available as part of a "gold" package or as free or modded-in content.

BLeh, Crusader got to it before I did. The items are just a way to get you to preorder the game. You probably get something better in the game within 30 minutes of the game. As for the game play content, I think I'm going to wait for the "gold" package as CrusaderScott mentioned, because you know there will be on .

I think MMORPGS are what's wrong with gaming today. Lack of real satisfying and fun gameplay, huge time investment for minimal reward, and tons of kids and smacktards that are still a higher level than you. They just don't make sense.

Back on topic these pre-order deals never go well with me. Why deny certain items to certain players? That's profiling against the people who shop at other stores and that is retailing racism

Honestly it's not that hard guys. There are really only two pieces of "goodies" that really matter and that's Stone Prisoner and Warden's Keep since they both add many hours to the gameplay.

Stone Prisoner comes with every new copy of the game for *free*.

Warden's Keep is a $7 DLC or free with the Digital Deluxe edition.

Honestly, it's that simple. All the other stuff is just fluff that doesn't matter and is just marketing madness. Ignore it.

I think MMORPGS are what's wrong with gaming today. Lack of real satisfying and fun gameplay, huge time investment for minimal reward, and tons of kids and smacktards that are still a higher level than you. They just don't make sense.

I beg to differ with your opinion.m While yes there are alot of people who can ruin your MMO. I find that even when I play alone I enjoy my time. Then again it just depends also on the MMO you play.

I'm not a fan of downloadable content just as a game is being released. I don't really like exclusive content either. This worries me somewhat as Dragon Age was supposed to the be the successor to NWN, so having exclusive content is a little worrying in a game where you're supposed to be able to mod the game with new items pretty easily. I hope they don't try and protect this content by making the main game impossible to mod or making those particular items impossible to replicate.

I've been waiting for this game for 5 years. I'm not buying it anymore. Thanks for outlining that .

Yep, scratch that for me too. Nickel and dime you to death. Enough already!

Let me tell you about a great game for free! Absolutely free! ... If you stay out of the Cash Shop, which is truly optional. No glass ceiling, no forbidden areas. No second class citizens. A truly free WoW style game that also resembles AION a lot.

pwi.perfectworld.com and sign up for an account on Perfect World. All they want is a valid email address, no financial info.

Download client for your OS, wait for long update to run, log in, make a character. I highly recommend a PvE server when starting out. You can have 8 characters per server, and up to three servers I think.

This is a huge game, a bit geeky, challenging enough. Nice community. And it is really free.

How can they do that? Well, you can either play the game and earn enough ingame coins to buy gold at their store, or you can be impatient and stupid and go pay real world money at the company store for gold. Gold trading is built into the Auction House, so you can buy your own gold with ingame money that way. Since most people are either impatient or stupid, they are making a ton of loot!

They are doing so well that a new expansion will be out next couple months, Rising Tides. This is also free. This will give a total of 8 classes and 4 races. Each race has its own starting area. Yes, there is a teleport system, ingame mail, bank, auction house, you get to fly at level 30, can buy a land mount at level 40 if you really must have one, set up your own consignment shop to sell stuff for you while you are away from the keyboard. Everything you want in a MMO, really. About 5000 quests in all, plus dailies. Guilds. You name it. Oh yes, crafting professions.

Graphics are lower end than WoW or GW, but this allows for a huge beastiary, and a huge amount of cute!

Other games could take a lesson from PWI. Give the camera away for free and sell the film; but if you want to make your own film that's fine too! Amazing innovation in game economics.

These items are hardly gamebreakers I would assume? Still its a bit tactless to do this. I would think that if you drop buying the game because of this, then you arent buying many games. There are far worse issues in gaming. Examples:

1. If I buy boxed version of Empire Total War I still need Steam for installation and verification (I dropped buying that one)

2. Most of the games that interests me on Impulse or Gamersgate are region restricted. UK only, North America only or whatnot.

+++

The items are minor at best and won't make a huge difference in your game. If you get the PC version, you'll have the toolset and will be able to make any of those items (or better ones) if you want. I wouldn't get tied in a knot about those incentives.

Wilebill: 'nickel and dime you to death'? The only thing you have to pay extra for (if you want it) is Warden's Keep - assuming you don't buy the Digital Deluxe edition, with which you get it for free.

Furthermore, it won't even matter most likely after a couple hours of gameplay.

Possibly the most ridiculous video game marketing scheme I've ever seen. Yes, worse than Daikatana's. Whatever happened to buying the game and *gasp* getting the entire game? DLC on release is the cancer killed gaming. I'd say I hope nobody is dumb enough to buy it to send a message to developers and publishers, but unfortunately I know better. Expect this to get worse and worse.

On a different note, Gamestop really lucked out on the 'bonus item roulette'. Who the hell can compete with that?

DLC on release isn't the problem: the problem is DLC that gives tangible, gameplay advantages to those who buy it. I like it when they do as Hearts of Iron 3 or Killing Floor where you pay for purely cosmetic niceties, making the DLC more of a "thank you" for a donation than anything else. But giving "premium" customers an item with a +3 bonus to every stat? that's just low.

Me, I won't pirate it, far too many trojans around plus I'd rather use my HDD space for something useful, but I'm definitely not buying the game either. Hell, this move has made me reconsider buying Mass Effect 2 despite my love for the original.

If you don't like it, don't buy it, but don't pirate!!! I know the majority of Stardock game forum posters seem to be aetheist for whatever reason, but I beleive God is watching you...

Do you guys realize that these minor things are major and minor parts of the game's content? In that you pay the same but get less? I hardly see the need to drop $50 on a game anymore. I don't have the money to do it and gaming is cheaper now that there are fantastic $10-$20 games which I spend a lot longer on. The only games I see really worth a lot of money are games worth playing for a long time.

I buy plenty of games, but I now wait for the prices to drop. I stopped doing that for about 5 years there and started it up again because most of the games I wouldn't finish anyway. For example, I wish I wouldn't have paid $45 for Fallout 3 and waited until it came down in price because it's Obivion II or Morrowind III, and it gets really tiring to see this. Fallout 3 is definitely not the sequel to Fallout 2 for sure.

To make me okay with this nick/dime aspect, I'd rather get game expansions. This is why I don't mind the Sins Solar micro-expansions (which are about $3-4 too much) or the amazing expansions that come with Age of Empires games. With those games, you're told up front that you're purchasing a game and, in the long term, there will be optional extra content. Something that prevents me from liking a game is in the case of Prince of Persia where they sell you an incomplete game and then try to con you out of another $10 to actually get the final piece of content that actually completes the story. I'm not buying games for full price ever again so long as it's not going to be worth it to me. I'm glad Stardock constantly keeps patching their games and added content and even telling people up front before they pull something. Heck, Sins of a Solar Empire I got for $30 so really, two $10 micro-expansions makes it $50 total meaning that's the complete experience there.

This stupid cycle that started with the popularity of the Xbox 360 marketplace and hopefully will die out as the marketplace is dilluted with more and more of these terrible, games.

Quoting Stanley Tarrant,

reply 18

If you don't like it, don't buy it, but don't pirate!!! I know the majority of Stardock game forum posters seem to be aetheist for whatever reason, but I beleive God is watching you...

I have no idea what you are trying to imply here. That you need religion to determine morality, or that you actually know anything about the religious status of other members. ANyway, pointless post. Thanks for that.

Now, I am 100% against this nickle and dime DLC on release day myself. I mean its one thing to release content after the game is out and already proven to be relatively bug free and the most quality product (or close) the team could come up with. But this release day stuff, not buying it, literally or figurtively. I also remember the first time I remember conversations about this hitting the boards and gaming circles, and it was horse armor. And this pre-order crap, all the retailers, e-tailers and now the digital distributors (Steam) are doing it too. I guess I'll be getting games like these years later when they package them as they should have been releaed in the first place.

Personally I have lost interest in Dragon Age. I was jumping for joy when they said it was a "Baldurs Gate" followup, but after reading they don't have consequenses in actions, no negative reactions etc I was bummed out. And now all the greed surrounding the game makes me want to puke.

Well after you buy the game, there will be some torrent site or cheat site where you can find the rest of these items.

Quoting wilebill,

reply 12

Everything you want in a MMO

Player housing that's buildable?

I notice that on that list Impulse doesn't get an exclusive item. doh?

The only real problem I see here is that almost every store has some extra goodie. That's just silly. The actual content DLC (as opposed to the goodies) being available at launch isn't the problem, its included in the game anyway. All that does is put a dent in the used market for the game, since you're not getting as much as someone who buys it new.

The main reason why there is DLC content on day 1 is for one main reason: The game itself was supposed to come out in March but was delayed.

1) Stone Prisoner was supposed to be in the main game at March release but was taken out do to AI problems with the new character and moved to a DLC to be made available in the fall. Well, the game itself got delayed until fall and thus they are now including the Stone Prisoner DLC for free with all copies of the game. Don't see a problem here.

2) Warden's Keep DLC was always planned as a DLC to be out in the fall. Well, guess what? Game itself delayed until fall now makes the DLC's release at the same time. As a bonus they are giving it away free with the Digital Deluxe version to make up for no tin and cloth map. I guess they could have just held back Warden's Keep for a couple months, would that have made you guys happier? So then just "pretend" it's not out yet and buy it at the holidays in a couple months if you are interested in it, nobody is forcing you.

Sounds like those with an issue here would not have had an issue had the game itself not been delayed until fall and instead game out last spring or summer. So just pretend and quit being mad about something so trivial.

As for the extra "goodies" that is all just fluff and meaningless to the game. You'll have better items after the first hour of playing and will forget all about the special ring you got for pre-order or whatnot. I do thing EA has muddied the waters here but frankly it's all just fluff and meaningless.

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This is what is wrong with gaming, and buying games, today.