Dragon Age - Warden's Keep & The Stone Prisoner Reviewed

DA:O DLC is probed at Eurogamer, the outcome; it's a bit pricey really.

It's appropriate that each of the two downloadable adventures begins with a tip-off from a merchant. In the case of Warden's Keep, one Levi Dryden shows up in your camp before you buy the pack; accept his invitation to adventure, and you'll be taken straight to the game's (or console network's) marketplace to buy it for 560 points (of either the BioWare or Microsoft variety), $7, or a little under £5. You won't get to access Levi's own in-game wares until you've finished this short dungeon romp. It's a good joke, but is it at our expense?

More information.

Well folks? How about it? The RPGWatch community opinions mean a lot more to me than any review site.

Is Warden's Keep worth $7?

Originally Posted by LuckyCarbon
Well folks? How about it? The RPGWatch community opinions mean a lot more to me than any review site.

Is Warden's Keep worth $7?

Hmm, that's extremely subjective.

I think it adds a little something to the game, but compared to what you can get for the same price (like on GOG.com) I don't really think it's worth it, no. I think I completed the actual story content in (at most) 2 hours.

Beyond that, you get some minor conveniences that I personally could do without quite easily.

But since Dragon Age is a superb game, maybe it's a different matter - as you're improving on something that's already so great.

In the end, it's impossible to say - but I'm not sad I paid for it.

Originally Posted by LuckyCarbon
Well folks? How about it? The RPGWatch community opinions mean a lot more to me than any review site.

Is Warden's Keep worth $7?

Price seems too steep for me, I mean, game is 60-100 hour gameplay for $40-$50 but this is only about 2 hours for $7? math doesn't add up. Maybe it's better to wait for a bundle of DLC if you ever decide to play it again.

I do admit it was kind of weird to have an NPC try to sell me DLC… at launch! Normally I don't complain about DLC so much, but apparently we have arrived at a time where we can have extra content downloadable for a price right after you've bought your copy. Should the retail price go up or are we headed to a modular business model where you can pick and choose which parts of a game you want to own?

Obviously, this content was already finished when they released the game. So why not include it in the main game? Was this game really that expensive to make for this extra money-maker to warrant its existence?

I like Penny Arcade's comic about this issue.

Hmmm, I pay $10 to see a two hour movie so paying $7 for two hours of game entertainment is okay for me. Do I need to pick this up before I progress very far in the game? I just arrived in the first area after prologue….

£5 for a couple of hours of direct play, some cool loot and an extra skill tree sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

I think the higher cost / hour of entertainment provided of DLC doesn't seem too unreasonable. The price points for the standalone game are pretty fixed by the market unfortunately, in the UK shitty & short games hit the shelves for the same £30 as something massive like Dragon Age. If they can earn a bit more on the DLC (which is only ever going to be sold to the converted anyway) they'll still be competitive on the cost / hours of entertainment.

I would like to see the DLC more clearly labelled though. They did do well in terms of pointing out the additional skills, PCs etc but should have an explicit measure of the direct gameplay hours as well.

I think it's overpriced - if you only get 2 hrs. Consider: the original game - 60-100 hrs (?) -> $50 BUT this includes the *huge* cost of developing the the game core assets, mechanics, brand new engine etc - vastly more expensive than trotting out some extra geometry/scripting/art work afte rthe fact. Simple scaling would already suggest the DLC in this case should be (2/60) * 50 (to be generous) - a mere $1.70 ;-) … so given that everything they need (bar the new assets) is there (excl some scripting) $7 is too much. But no one ever claimed that DLC pricing was designed to be fair to the consumer - it's a cash cow, if it works. They would charge even more if they thought people would buy it. That's why the only DLC I usually buy are large expansions - 20+ hrs - and for that I am happy to pay a bit more than the naive scaling above, since more thought has (typically) gone into it's creation.

Maybe we're starting to see the razor blade business model in AAA games.

I'm convinced. No Warden's Keep for me.

The whole thing just seems slimy. Being ready at release, the unlock "special abilities!" and the guy in game telling you to buy it (which very clearly tells me they chose to do it this way, no development was frozen and they couldn't include in the game in time BS ).

It really makes me feel like I'm being milked by EA. I don't care for it.

It's the same as deciding if you purchase electric windows on your new car or not.

As long as the basic car is good as it is, good enough if they want to make some more money by selling some "special features" for people who want them.

Good point about the price for games being fixed. That could be a problem for game developers. That is, not every game costs the same to make. If you go and buy a car, there are different price ranges in which you could spend for different kinds and qualities of cars. What if you spend 4 developing a game, building up huge costs and you still have to offer the game at the same price as that 2-year developed game with only a small team? You can only rely on more sales to make up for it. Maybe it's good that game developers can in some way fix that by offering more content for those who want it. You know there will always be people that will buy it, just because they love the stuff. Just like people who buy BMW instead of… well, whatever car brand is less than that.

Originally Posted by vanedor
It's the same as deciding if you purchase electric windows on your new car or not.

As long as the basic car is good as it is, good enough if they want to make some more money by selling some "special features" for people who want them.

Power windows don't increase the total price of my car by 18%. Power windows are also a convenience feature, I'd say it's more analogous to a premium stereo and if you don't get it every time you turn on the radio it tells you to go back to the dealership and upgrade.

Well, of course it's slimy.

But let's all agree that the entire capitalistic system is basically one big incentive for human nature to show it's slimy side.

If you want something else, you gotta think out of the box and stop supporting something so rotten and destructive

I should sell all my material possessions and try joining an Amazon tribe, hoping that I don't wipe them out by tranfering common cold or flu onto them!

Originally Posted by Thaurin
I should sell all my material possessions and try joining an Amazon tribe, hoping that I don't wipe them out by tranfering common cold or flu onto them!

Yeah, that would be an obvious alternative

Welcome to the future:

EA presents Super Duper Mega RPG!

Thanks for buying…

Do you want to continue playing? ( $5 ) ( Y )

Marvalous super intro plays.

Do you want to create a character? ( $5 ) ( Y )

Really cool character creation…

Do you want to create another character? ( $5 ) ( Y )
…

Do you want to create another character? ( $5 ) ( N )

You have a party of 2 characters do you want to begin to play the game? ( $30 ) ( Y )

Marvalous intro 2 plays

Do you want to buy DLC for the world ? ( $20 ) ( N )

Thanks for playing super duper RPG, see you soon.

The Stone Prisoner doesn't work with patch 1.01 (your worldmap is not updated and you can't go to the village) - I experienced it on myself :\ Save the money and buy another game if the DLCs are not even compatible with new patches.

Originally Posted by Konjad
The Stone Prisoner doesn't work with patch 1.01 (your worldmap is not updated and you can't go to the village) - I experienced it on myself :\ Save the money and buy another game if the DLCs are not even compatible with new patches.

Are you sure? This is the first time I've seen this mentioned.

GothicGothicness thank you, I couldn't think of a way to clearly convey it but that's exactly what I see happening here.

But let's all agree that the entire capitalistic system is basically one big incentive for human nature to show it's slimy side.

Incentive to be slimy? Sure but incentive doesn't make it acceptable. Fortunately I think most people and businesses still operate within society's mores and accepted ethical practices. However I think the anonymity of working through the public face of a large corporation makes good people hear the siren's song of the almighty dollar. When you're entirely surrounded by people disconnected from society, all clamoring to "boost the quarterly profit", well, you get things like 1 hour $7 DLC.

If you want something else, you gotta think out of the box and stop supporting something so rotten and destructive

I purchased DA because it was a good game at a good price ( I paid $40 ). However I will not be supporting the DLC because I don't think it's a good value. Voting with my dollars if you will, I'm sure EA will really miss my $7 since they've already made a million. I'm not sure how out of the box that is but I'm not very clever.