I recently got an e-mail from BioWare asking me to take a survey about Mass Effect 2. Seeing that I love myself some surveys, I complied. However, I found that the questions weren't about what I thought Mass Effect 2 needed, they were about whether or not Dragon Age Origins should include custom character skins for Mass Effect 2. Not only do I hate the whole "buy/pre-order this" and get exclusive game content that pains the world of video games, I also don't think that BioWare should worry about whether people will buy Dragon Age or not. Mass Effect sold around 2 million copies, and even though Dragon Age is a much more niche experience, Baldur's Gate sold bucket-loads of copies as well, so BioWare really doesn't have to worry about whether Dragon Age: Origins will sell or not--or they at least don't have to have it ride on the coat-tails of Mass Effect 2.

This isn't the first time that developers have employed the "PLZ BUY THIS GAME" strategy. Crackdown obviously had the Halo 3 beta, and earlier this year InFamous gave you an Uncharted 2 Beta Code. While beta codes, soundtracks and awesome posters are perfectly fine ways to persuade someone to lock in some cash for your game, in-game content and demos sure as hell aren't. Ubisoft recently announced that those who pre-order the Splinter Cell: Conviction will get a free auto-shotgun, and we all remember the strange mess of LittleBigPlanet pre-order bonuses. This "exclusive" in-game content for those who pre-order a game is ridiculous. It busts online play and will still eventually find its way to others as DLC for another $5. The thing is that all this really does is piss people off. You really can't punish people for waiting to see if your game is good, or deciding to buy it after it comes out, and when they then have to shell out another $5 to balance out the game or get Commander Shepard to look like a hot Dragon Witch, or just watch with jealousy when they see their friend with a freaking orsome automatic shotgun that they can't possibly have, things are just getting a tad RED-ICULOUS.

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