What's lottery about it?  Stardock has said there are plenty of keys for it, there is no lottery.  They have good customer support.

Gamestop...not so much.

Provided they notify people when they run out of keys, it's not really lottery or misinformative.

Dragon Age is the perfect game for me.

I'm not going to buy it.

Announcing a DLC even before the game is released is an insult. In fact, this business practice causes me to never ever buy a product from any company embracing consumer exploitation like this.

I wish EA financial ruin.

Despite the fact that one of the "DLC" packs is included with all new copies, and the other is part of the collector's edition?  That's not exploitation, because you can get them as part of your purchase, without paying additional fees.

You know what else it is not, not actually waiting for player feedback to expand the game. I guess with 2 years of DLC already lined up, no reason to find out what fans want, or what the game needs, only what EA thinks it can sell.

They never actually said that they had the specific content planned out, just that they had plans to release more content on for about 2 years on a rough schedule.  And actually they've already started talking to the community about these things over on the dragon age forums on bioware's site.  They've taken ideas, and will continue to take feedback.  I know you want to demonize EA, but bioware is trying to do things right for the community.

You don't know me so don't pretend like you do. If you want to worship the ground EA and Bioware walks on, that's your choice. It has nothing to do with me.

Okay, wish me luck on this, guys.  Here's the plan:

While I loved the Baldur's Gate games (especially BG2) and I followed DA:O very closely, I am not going to rush out and buy this game.  The temptation is great--I've already read good reviews, and the game does not even have obnoxious DRM.  However, I am going to wait about a year.  As I figure it, that will be enough time for Bioware to do a proper expansion and bundle it--along with all of the DLC--into a "Game of the Year" edition.  And that will be the version that I buy: lots of content, all patched up, discounted price. 

As has already been said, EA/Bioware wants to draw you in with all of the DLC trickling out, hoping that you will buy it all individually.  However, if you can just wait until they bundle it all togehter into the Gold or GotY edition, you'll get a great deal of content at a discount.  They all do it this way--Oblivion, Fallout 3, Neverwinter Nights, the Sims 2, Dawn of War, etc. 

Now, I'm not saying that I'll be able to resist the temptation to buy DA:O pretty shortly.  But that's the plan.  Wait until the Game of the Year edition.

I do trust stardock, but I don't trust EA. And EA is the one holding all the cards here.

@the_hunger: Sounds like a solid plan and I wish you luck. However, I knew that I would never hold out that long and went ahead and bought it.

http://xkcd.com/606/ :

To the defense of Bethesda I want to note that they stopped the Horse-Armor bullshit DLCs like in Oblivion. I hope it was because they couldn't stand the insults from fans anymore.

And the Fallout 3 DLCs were actually worth their money. And they came out long after the game was finished and right when the demand was there.

Not like the Dragonage bull.

and i bought the damn horse armor lol

"while supplies last" is utter crap it is a way for the industry to regulate supply to artificially increase demand.

It reminds me of movie ads that say "only in theatres".

Sure... right up until it's on PPV, then DVD, then movie channels, then regular TV.

I have to admit, the 'while supplies last' on a virtual product made me do a double take.  You can run out of copies of a DLC?  Really EA?  Sigh.

You can.. some retailers already have.

What they do is they give retailers copies of the game, and a list of DLC serials. When the retailers/etailers sell the game, they ALSO give you a "free" DLC serial number you can cash in. However if they ran out of serials, tough luck.

Stardock is amazing and goes above and beyond, but in this case they are just the STORE, not the legal rights owner. I don't think there is anything THEY can do to help you in such a case.