Ubik

 
"I was angry that I wasted the last week playing DA:L trying to get Dura's Blue Flame only to have them just give it to everyone regardless of progression"
 
@StarvingGamer: I feel your pain, man.  When I realized how ticked off I was by this move, I also simultaneously realized that I was way too invested in a stupid (but still strangely addictive and fun) Facebook game. 

I loved DA:Origins and I love DA2, as well.  They're just fundamentally different games, in my opinion, but I dig 'em both.  It's nice to play a protagonist with a bit of life in DA2--as opposed to the silent Hero in Origins--and I loved the characters in both games.  
 
(Fenris is a bit too emo for me, though)

Congrats! 

Gothic 1 & 2.  
 
3 drove me crazy, but I still sunk 40+ hours into it before I gave up.  I haven't even tried 4, because the demo keeps crashing on me.

@FireBurger: I agree 100% about these new passes, etc., being much better than pre-order bonuses (even if I totally fell for the pre-order hoopla with DA II; Bioware games are my Achilles' heel in that respect). 
 
@MattyFTM: Agreed.  Just call it as it is and have done with.  Did the term "serial number" fail a focus test somewhere and we don't know about it?

I'm not really into multi-player, so the online pass thing isn't a big deal to me, but what really got me thinking about this was the Black Emporium content for DA II.  This market is free for "original buyers" but it's ten bucks for used buyers. Again, this doesn't really affect me, because I just bought it on Steam, but it seems like a pain in the ass for used buyers.  Like blackCan said, I don't mind buying additional content if I like a game or if I want to support a particular studio, but I can't seem to make up my mind on this issue.  I understand the economic reasons behind it, but I'm still on the fence as to whether I support this new strategy or not.

What's everyone's opinion of this strategy by EA to reduce used game sales?  I typically buy my games new, mostly because I've gotten burned one too many times by my local Gamestop (scratched/unplayable discs, etc.), so this new marketing push doesn't really effect me, but it seems like a huge annoyance for everyone else.  Thoughts?

Officially jealous. 
 
I admit that I considered being "sick" on Tuesday, just so I can play DA II when it unlocks at midnight on Steam on Monday night.  

I was just having this exact dilemma this week when I was trying to decide what platform to buy Dragon Age II on.  I bought DA: Origins on PS3--mostly because my old PC couldn't handle it--and I loved it, even if it looked awful and ran pitifully on that system.  In the last week ,I've probably played thru the DA II demo 9-10 times, going back and forth between my new PC (which runs it without a hitch on high settings) and PS3, because I like the way Bioware has tried to optimize that game for consoles (even if it becomes a bit button-mashy on easier difficulty settings).  I finally settled on the PC version, for most of the same reasons that others here have stated (I just hook the PC into the TV and use it like a high-end console).  For other multi-platform games, though, I tend to pick and choose depending on my own taste (I never even hesitated to buy Mass Effect 2 on 360, for instance, or Dead Space 2 on PS3, although the lack of DLC for PC really made my decision for me on that one).