Dragon Age - DLC Woes
 

The process of obtaining the DLC and bonus content for Dragon Age has lead to complaints all over the 'net. While I didn't have any trouble with my Steam version, it was a round-about process - and it seems other users have found it even more so. Ars Technica has written about the issues, saying that Impulse buyers have it the worst:
…and a statement from Impulse:
There are links in the article and in our Dragon Age forums that might help for those still having trouble.
More information.

For me the problem was knowing what to do - I ended up at the Steam forums, where there is a 'sticky' that tells you to head to the Bioware Dragon Age site and head to 'redeem' and you will get to enter your serial numbers and get all of your stuff. From there, head to the main game, hit the DLC on the front page and it should all be downloading.

The biggest problem is that instead of just doing the entire thing thru the program interface, you have to juggle between an internet browser mucking around on some "social site" thing and the program itself. The instructions on the card which has the validation code can be followed verbatim, and still you'll be wondering if youre doing the right thing.

Worse yet, if you have gotten in their system previously (EA,Bioware) youre gonna be looking around for not only some old login account information, but your old forum moniker, etc…. granted that you should be keeping these things close at hand in some file somwhere, but even when i used my old info it required me to re-validate that. Did it work? Refresh the browser, login in the program itself, and if all went right it should show up in the game interface.

In hindsight, when it comes to some of the fiddling Ive had to do w/ games, (sometimes being literally days until im actually playing) it really isnt that bad. Still, it's certainly a process that could have been streamlined a bit, like Battlenet for example.

Me != DLC purchase

I'm in no mood to go through EA BS to get a few silly trinkets and "quests". It comes directly and easily to me or no sale, not me to them.

Yeah it was too all over the place and disorganized. The fact that it's somewhat different/extra hoops you need to jump through depending on what platform you bought just makes it even more confusing.

I'm just glad I've been fiddling with games and computers and the internet since each of them were born basically so I can usually figure things out for myself pretty quickly (after a little cursing). I can't imagine dealing with it if I were someone new to this sort of thing and just expecting to buy a game, install it, and play. And you know something could have been done much better if even the friggin console versions have trouble getting their DLC installed and working.

In the end it's worth jumping through all the hoops for but man it coulda been easier.

Well, I'm stuck having to wait. I took off some days from work to play this, but they apparently didn't manage to send me the redemption codes for the free stuff, and since there are two quest packs that need to be integrated - I'm not going to be able to play properly until I've got them.

Pretty incredibly annoying and unsatisfying - but DLC is all about greed and this "bonus content" is to promote the product, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The way they've opted to handle it, however, is enough to get me frustrated and that takes some doing.

I agree that Steam's process was relatively painless, though can be confusing at first, especially since the window displaying your codes on Steam specifically says that all DLC will be automatically downloaded and installed. This was absolutely not the case. You had to log into your Bioware social site account in order to enter the DLC/bonus codes. Also, I somehow wound up creating an entirely new Bioware social club account and couldn't understand why the game wasn't showing the content for me, until I realized that my Bioware social login was different from my login in the game (yeah - that's how confused I was, too).

I really think the whole social, massively single-player thing is needless - certainly it shouldn't be necessary in order to claim DLC and bonuses. Maybe I'm just too old and grumpy?

The crux of the whole isssue was the page said "Beta". On launch day no less. Be happy that the Steam version worked because for many with the real tin box in hand, the system was broken and not working. What a difference 24 hrs made. People had made threads on going into your program folder, cutting, pasting, swapping, With caps, without caps, etc. What a bunch of crap! Glad they got it working. Not so glad it wasted my first day. Oh well the game is pretty fun

I'm very unhappy of several aspects of how they are handling premium content, particularly that I don't know if I'll ever be able to replay the game with the premium content years down the road (someone really needs to start an Angry Internet Men & Women campaign about that, BTW).

But I can report that, fortunately, I haven't had trouble getting it into my current game. All my content is there which includes all the pre-order stuff, store-specific stuff, CE stuff, DA:Journeys stuff, original purchase stuff, character creator stuff, and whatever other stuff there was.

Because I already had the social network garbage (and I refer to it as that both because it's a very poor website and because I'm, as I've said before, an anti-social curmudgeon) setup ahead of time for the CC and Journeys, everything else was, fortunately, painless and fast.

I'm unsure why ppl jumped on that game the same day it was released.
The same day? Who am I kidding, the same second it got released, thousands were getting it.
And we all know that nothing works like a charm the very first day, right?

So I'm still waiting till everything is dealt with. If you expect me to be another DLC and/or game tester, you're very wrong.
Get it to work and release a patch or two, then we'll talk about the game. :D

Well I'm like a few other OCD suckers who wanted to have all the content loaded up and ready prior to starting my first playthrough.

I found having created a social profile for the char creator worked well, and getting all of the extra content through Journeys and D2D was very smooth (asides from the delayed pre-download, kudos to them). The only problem that took me a few minutes to figure out was how to purchase Warden's Keep.

@DArtagnan:

There's no need really to wait on getting the DLC installed before playing. They will integrate into your pre-existing saves (at least they all have with mine, Stone Prisoner hasn't finished loading but I've read it will as well).

The Warden's Keep and Stone Prisoner won't be doable until about 10+ hours into the game (assuming you read the codex info and do all the side quests). And I've restarted about 5 times already trying different origins/builds as I learn the game mechanics so even longer if you do that. The Dragon Blood armor piece that you get from the start has such a huge Strength req that you'll be at least 6-8 hours into the game before being able to use it…assuming you max Str. The ring and one CE item you can start with are nice but nothing worth delaying starting the game for.

I was about to say the same. It's been messy but not worth putting the game aside for. The freebie rings are worth little and all the other stuff takes a while to access.

I haven't decided yet if I get this Game or not - stuff like this is not encouraging at all…

I'm sure plenty will disagree (and I can understand some are frustrated) but I'd judge the game on the game itself. The DLC setup is pretty silly but doesn't have much impact on playing the game itself and most of the freebies are trinkets.

Thanks for the advice, and I sorta figured as much. But I'm pretty pedantic about such things, and I enjoy the idea of having some nice items for the begininng making the game more managable, seeing as how I'm planning on playing on hard.

That said, if I don't get the codes by tomorrow, I'll just live with it.

Really wish they'd handled all of this differently - but it's no big deal in the great scheme of things.

On a more positive note, this game really does seem quite excellent and I might just have to eat my words about Bioware. But the jury's still out - and I can't tell you how often I've been initially impressed by mega-hyped games only to have them fade in time.

But so far, so good.

When talking about DLC woes, here's one more: (small spoiler to follow)

When playing the Dwarven Noble origin, you will, at one point, be stripped of all your gear. This includes any DLC that you have such as rings, tomes etc. It only happens on the PC, though. Small comfort…

OriginalBaern points to a solution to this

http://daforums.bioware.com/forums/v…orum=145&sp=30

A Bioware dev. (Sydney Tang has verified this to be true; he has also confirmed that the issue is NOT to be found in the console versions of the game:

Sidney Tang wrote:

Seems maybe Bioware wasn't ready for so much DLC ? or maybe they didn't expect so many people to buy the game - and the DLC that came with it?

I'm sorry to hear that so many people are having issues with their DLC downloads. I was actually impressed by how smooth mine was. It took me less than 10 minutes to download and install The Stone Prisoner.

Same here. The most "stressful" part was getting my lazy ass out of my chair to walk over to the couch (really long walk, you know) to retrieve my wallet from my jacket and to enter my credit card number for Warden's Keep. A truly exhausting experience I tells ya! :biggrin:
Other than that it could barely have been any easier though I agree with Sammy that browser integration into the game's interface would have been even more comfy so that you would've been able to do it all from within the game.

Must admit in all fairness that I only got my boxed US CE yesterday and not on Tuesday when the servers were getting hammered. And I already had an EA/BioWare master account before buying DA so all of that might have made it a little easier for me than for other people.

Another problem that happened with DLC, to customers from Impulse at least, was that the installation file coming from impulse didn't/doesn't properly install a service related to the DA updater. That caused (me and many users) to not be able to get the DLC content to show up in anyway under Windows 7 (and possible Vista)…

The way to fix this was to make hidden files visible in your system, search for installutil.exe from one of your system folders, copy it to the electronic arts\dragon age origins\bin-ship\ folder where daupdatersvc.service.exe file is. Then you open your CMD Command Prompt under administrative mode, go to the said blala\bin-ship\ folder and type installutil daupdatersvc.service.exe …and it will install the updater service and allow you to see the DLC. (Actually you could leave installutil where it is and just type the whole path the long way, but its easier like that)

Deffinitely user friendly :P

I spent about an hour with a EA customer rep to try and solve this, but since they couldn't figure out what to do and that their level 3 tech support never contacted me back :P, I ended up poking around and trying stuff and finally came upon this solution heh.

Happily I had no issues. I am in Australia though and the game was released a little later so the issues might have been fixed.

I signed in to the Bioware account from work (using logmein, what an ace invention!) and redeemed all my codes so when I got home the game was ready to go. It just needed 10 minutes to download the content.

So far the best bit is the ring that has +1 to all attributes. I think that came from playing the Journeys game.

Well, I didn't get my codes - so I went ahead and bought points instead. It's been more than 24 hours (their support "guarantee" limit) - and I hear several people have been told be EA support that it'll be up to a week before they can get e-mails out.

That cost me ~35$ extra because of the euro conversion. Also, I really love how it's standard practice to make these add-ons cost the least convenient amount of points - so that they force you to buy significantly more points than you actually need. This way, you're not only overcharged - you're also psychologically conditioned to add even more points later on, so you can afford the next one, because having spare points go to waste doesn't sit well with human nature.

None of this should reflect on the developers themselves, of course, but it's incredible what we consumers seem to accept as acceptable business practices these days. Naturally, I've only myself to thank for this.

I tell you, it really requires a promise of something TRULY great to get me to break my own standards like this, and what I've seen of the game so far seems to be just that.

I hope I'm right, or I'll have to go kill someone.

Seems to be sorted by now. My install/redeem/download etc. process all went really smoothly.

I guess it should be noted in all fairness though that owners of the CE were able to buy Warden's Keep without being forced to buy any excess points. Warden's Keep was 560 points and there is a 560 point package to match that purchase. So they don't generally force anyone to overpay, i.e. your "standard practice" accusation is not quite accurate in this case at least.

Yes, that's what they GENERALLY do, you're talking about a specific example. This is true for anyone who hasn't bought it upon launch under these conditions. The practice is standard not only for this game, but for online systems in general. Like the Microsoft points on Xbox Live and so on.

Why do you think they even have a points system in the first place? It's not to minimize profit, that's for sure.

It's the same reason things cost 9.99 and not 10. It's just extra psychological factors to squeeze more money out of people, and the fact that some of you are oblivious to it makes it that much easier to do, now doesn't it.

Whatever you say, Chief :lol: . OK, fine, I may be a dumbfuck, sure, but at least I'm a happy dumbfuck who didn't pay a single cent more than was advertised.

You can respond any way you choose, and if you think I'm calling you a dumbfuck you're mistaken.

I'm saying it's standard practice to squeeze as much money out of people as you can get away with, and I'm surprised people would disagree with that.

In any case, if there's something wrong with me because I wanted the extra content I paid for - then you're free to consider me as whatever you wish. I'm pretty happy with my choice, seeing as how the game is great. I'm just sad that I had to pay extra because I find it wrong that I should have to, but that's the price you pay for trusting EA and their digital store.

I don't know how their support works and it's probably getting hammered with customer requests at the moment but couldn't you have waited for support to solve your problem with the codes? It would seem to me that your situation is an exception and not the rule.

The rule is millions of happy dumbfu… I mean customers like myself who bought the retail CE and then were able to optionally acquire Warden's Keep for an extra $7 or 560 points. As I said there was a 560 points package on offer for exactly $7 or -since I am from Europe like you- EUR 6.51. There was no rip-off and no excess points and no overpaying or overcharging involved whatsoever.

That's why in this case I find it unfair to accuse them of overcharging or adhering to some sort of "standard practice". The only shop I can think of where it's "standard practice" that the points and the real world prices for the products on offer don't always match up would be Microsoft's Xbox 360 points system but even then the points are not lost and if you use the Xbox shopping platform on a regular basis it will most likely even out at some point.

Yes, I could have waited - but I didn't want to. That's not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about the points system.

The fact that EA store messed this up is not surprising, and it's not like I'm blaming anyone for my own impatience. It's just an unfortunate thing that could have been avoided without all this promotional crap of extra DLC upon launch. They could have simply made it part of the CE and not a downloadable mess causing problems for so many, and I can assure you that my case is no exception.

Yes, people who paid extra for the CE got extra content - which is 100% irrelevant to my point.

I'm talking about the people who DIDN'T buy the CE now, and in the future.

You're wrong and you obviously have no clue what you're talking about. Go look at the points on the Bioware social site and then realise that you can't avoid buying SIGNIFICANTLY more points than you need for either of the two specials, separately or combined. That's a fact, and nothing you want to believe can change the facts - sorry.

What we could potentially debate is WHY that is the case, and my point is that they want to squeeze more money out of people. You might have some different theory, but really, I don't care based on your inability to think rationally or logically about what I've been saying.

That you got the extra content you paid for is not in question, and I would have gotten the same if they'd managed to send the codes. So, if that's not clear enough for you, I'll have to clarify by saying that I'm not talking about you or I, I'm talking about those who DID NOT buy the CE or digital deluxe edition, but who intend to buy the extra content now or in the future.

Anyway, back to Dragon Age and I think I'll leave this thread for good ;)

Not sure how many times I need to repeat this but the equation is really easy, you know… Warden's Keep = 560 points = $7 = 560 points = Warden's Keep. And conveniently there actually IS a 560 point package that you can buy from their store for the sole purpose of buying Warden's Keep with it. Not 580, not 600, no, 560 points exactly. For exactly $7. How wicked is that? I'd say it's KRAAAAHHHHZZEEE KEEEEWWWLL!!! :p
What you are saying is completely wrong. "Fact" is that you can absolutely, positively buy Warden's Keep w/o buying any (let alone "significantly") more points than you need for it.
I've only said this two times already in my previous posts above though so maybe this third time it will stick even for you? Pretty please?

And as for the Stone Prisoner, well, everyone gets it for free who purchases a retail or digital copy of the game so the only people who would need to buy it anyway are a) pirates or b) people who buy the game second hand.
Anyway, if for some reason someone would need to buy it then it's $15 or 1200 points.
OK, this is a tinly little bit more tricky since there is no 1200 point package but anyone with an elementary school level of skill in maths should be able to figure it out because there are conveniently packs of 400 and 800 points so you can buy the exact amount of 1200 points that are required. Magic!
The 400 points package is $5 and the 800 points package is $10 so once again we got this easy equation… Stone Prisoner = 1200 points = $15 = 1200 points = Stone Prisoner. You're once again not paying a single cent more than you need. Not. A. Single. One.

As we can see we can in fact buy each pack separately or both packs combined for the exact amount of money that is advertised with the corresponding packs of virtual currency (points).

Them's the facts but, hey, feel free to keep on ignoring them.

Please look at this post:

Nahlra wrote:

http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showt…post1060982065

Just as information.

Yep - I was pleasantly surprised when I heard about that (on a Mac forum, no less ;) ). XBOX Live is usually a huge rip in terms of points, so doing this is a nice change.

I like PSN store since I can just add currency to my account (used to be in $5 increments with a minimum of $25! ) … so when I bought Zombie Tycoon for PSP it cost $8, and Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron cost $40.

Actually, I just noticed they added the 560 point option - which wasn't there when I bought my points. That means you can now avoid extra points if you buy 3x400 for Stone Prisoner (or 800+400) and 560 for Warden's Keep. Last time there were only the 400, 800, and 1600 options.

Also, I didn't realise Stone Prisoner was free for non-CE/DE editions.

In any case, it means that I'm wrong and I apologize for the mistake and my being an ass about it.

Not only that, but I was also wrong in not expecting more from Dragon Age. If it keeps on like it has, it might just top all previous Bioware games - even the great ones.

[Darth Vader Voice]Apology… accepted, Captain DArtagnan[/Darth Vader Voice]

/target = DArtagnan
/forcechoke

:biggrin:

Seriously, no worries. We all have our blind or blonde or whatever moments sometimes, myself very much included, of course, and I could have been a little bit nicer, too :) .

:biggrin:

True enough, but I have an unfortunate tendency to trust in my own stance too quickly sometimes, and in this case I think I had a brain meltdown or something.

I can only hope this isn't the case (much) more than I'm aware, or it could be very counterproductive to my ideal of looking at things with open eyes ;)