Am I the only one who sees this a punishment?

[manythings]

I take a bit but I have a point honest.

I've been thinking about the DLC for DA:O, mostly wishing I could buy it, and consoled myself with the free stuff (Dragon Age Journeys items, The stone prisoner and such). I thought "How nice of them to give use these things just because they could and like encouraging the gamer" before I noticed all these things have a date by which you must claim or else TS for you. Now this made sense, why host forever this stuff for the trickle of gamers who will buy the game a year from now when the majority will buy it in the first 3-6 months. The steam and D2D exclusive items seemed odd but they made sense as a way to encourage digital purchasing, and that's fine too.

Now looking forward to Mass Effect 2 the information about DLC has me viewing all this with in a different light. The whole cerberus network jiggery seems to be forcing me to buy the game on day one to actually play all of Mass Effeect 2 as it is meant to be played rather than letting me choose when I will purchase it (Say when it is ?25 or less) which seems a bit... cynical and vicious to a guy who has played anything Bioware (I even bought the special edition of Jade fucking Empire (First and last game I fell asleep while playing)).

Am I crazy or are other people thinking the same?

 

[Eagle Est1986]

The Cerberus Network provides free downloadable content to whoever buys the game brand new, regardless of when they buy it. It's basically to encourage customers not to get the game pre-owned.
It's a pretty good idea to be honest.

 

[AlphaOmega]

It is to discourage rentals and second hand sales mostly.

The Cerberus network will not be exclusive, but It will provide (limited) free of charge DLC.
I think expiration dates have to do with Microsoft's policy on free downloads from xbox live though.

It is not a perfect system but hey at least they ditched the bad form of securom and nobody sane uses starforce so it is not as silly as before.

 

[Volafortis]

I don't think it requires you to beat the game before redeeming, or buying on release. Just within a time frame.

 

[Eagle Est1986]

Perhaps also worth noting, if you do decide to buy the game pre-owned, then you can always purchase the DLC instead, so you never have to miss out on 'the full game'.

 

[manythings]

But that's kind of my point. It's like having someone standing there with a timer waiting to slot the bigger price in place because I am currently an unemployed student who can't spare the cash.

 

[Steampunk Viking]

To be honest I think this is a good plan on Bioware's behalf as it's probably the first "anti-piracy" system that vaguely works. It's like telling a burglar where your cutlery is, but not the code to your safe.

The system never bothered me to be honest, I hardly ever buy pre-owned games. I love my games turning up all shiney. Ooooo, shiney.

 

[TheRocketeer]

Of course it's a sales maneuver, and I can't and won't fault them for that. What I took issue with was in Dragon Age. That Blood Dragon Armor you get turns out to be, with very little argument, the best armor in the game, and you get it just by buying it.

By contrast, the Legion of the Dead armor, the Juggernaut armor and the Gray Warden armor all had difficult quests involved with them- difficult in that any single item was incredibly easy to overlook, and it's the set bonus that matters. How many people actually found Duty without the Internet?

So I finally have these awesome armors, and the Dragonbone armor, but what's still the best? The Blood Dragon armor I bought from the dwarf a quarter of the way through the game. I ended up wearing the armor of Duty and Effort through the endgame just out of protest.

These pre-order or first-owner bonuses should be things that are pleasant to have, not game-changing items that you'd feel like a sucker not owning. It's all bribery anyway, but I don't care about that, that's just marketing. But why would you so completely upset game balance for the people that are presumably your best customers?

And now in Mass Effect 2, I'm entitle to Terminus armor if I preorder, and- and here's the funny part- more Blood Dragon armor for Shepard, since I got it in Dragon Age. Guess I know what Bioware fans are going to be wearing the entire game.

 

[Waruins]

Hmm ....Blood Dragon armor was not my armor of choice. Surprised to hear some think it is best armor in the game.

I see your original point though. I just happen to agree with the previous posters. Not sure its that big of a deal what they are encouraging.

 

[manythings]

I ditched the blood dragon armour once I killed that last guy for the juggernaut plate. I had much better results when i went back to murderate the False Andraste.

OT: No one seems to be kind of paying attention to what I'm saying though, this whole system seems to be designed to penalise people who can't afford the ?60 (about $85) price tag on launch day. The only reason I own Dragon age was christmas price cuts that had it at half price pretty much after release.

 

[Pimppeter2]

Hmm ....Blood Dragon armor was not my armor of choice. Surprised to hear some think it is best armor in the game..

Not to mention it looked plain ugly

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

Companies want much money as possible at one time so of course they're gonna make deals like that

 

[Irridium]

I ditched the blood dragon armour once I killed that last guy for the juggernaut plate. I had much better results when i went back to murderate the False Andraste.

OT: No one seems to be kind of paying attention to what I'm saying though, this whole system seems to be designed to penalise people who can't afford the ?60 (about $85) price tag on launch day. The only reason I own Dragon age was christmas price cuts that had it at half price pretty much after release.

The expiration dates are differant for each game as time goes on.

For example, a bag of chips has an expiration date, but as time goes on, every new bag of chips has a differant date of expiration that is later than the ones before.

Its the same principle for the game. When the date comes, the games in the stores will have a differant date of expiration.

 

[manythings]

I ditched the blood dragon armour once I killed that last guy for the juggernaut plate. I had much better results when i went back to murderate the False Andraste.

OT: No one seems to be kind of paying attention to what I'm saying though, this whole system seems to be designed to penalise people who can't afford the ?60 (about $85) price tag on launch day. The only reason I own Dragon age was christmas price cuts that had it at half price pretty much after release.

The expiration dates are differant for each game as time goes on.

For example, a bag of chips has an expiration date, but as time goes on, every new bag of chips has a differant date of expiration that is later than the ones before.

Its the same principle for the game. When the date comes, the games in the stores will have a differant date of expiration.

Is it though? I'm pretty sure all the free Dragon Age stuff expires in April. It seems really unprofitable to keep it for more than a post-release period and drop it during summer/fall.

 

[Irridium]

Is it though? I'm pretty sure all the free Dragon Age stuff expires in April. It seems really unprofitable to keep it for more than a post-release period and drop it during summer/fall.

Yeah, I'm sure.

Credit cards are the same way. Each has an expiration date for, like 2011. And the expiration dates will go into 2012, 2013, ect. as time goes on.

It was also this way for old xbox live cards.

The 2 month cards and such were only redeemable by a ciertaint date, and as time went on, the expiration dates for newer cards were later than ones shipped out a few months earlier.