BioWare have big plans for big value when it comes to the downloadable content for their upcoming fantasy RPG, Dragon Age. They’re planning on having the content span up to two years.
BioWare’s Greg Zeschuk knows gamers are not to be trifled with. They don’t like long, awkward elevator rides in sci-fi RPGs. Fine, those are gone. Gamers mean business, and they want their money’s worth. “You have to remember that video game consumers are some of the smartest, most connected people on the planet,” he told MTV. “You can’t trick them with anything, so don’t even try.”
In recent years, one of the most common tricks that’s been pulled on gamers is the wallet gouging practice of crummy DLC. Good DLC’s worth paying for, many will concede, others are opposed to the practice in all its forms. Regardless of that, nobody likes to get ripped off when it comes to this stuff, which is why BioWare believes that, for DLC, the “strategy behind it has to be fully thought out.”
And if you’re going to fully think something out, you’ll need to take your time. BioWare’s planning on taking plenty of time – almost two years’ worth of it, in fact. “This is the reason that with Dragon Age, our DLC strategy is doing it in maybe a year and-a-half or two years, planning exactly when you’re going to do it and how you’re going to do it,” Zeschuk said.
For the vivid fictional world that Dragon Age hopes to be, two years will provide ample time to flesh out and deepen things, BioWare hopes. “Some of our fans would really like us to extend the world, so it’s going to be something that will make the world even bigger and more interesting,” Zeschuk remarked. “It’s not going to wreck it or break it.”
