GS: So in terms of Dragon Age's pre-order bonuses, both the regular and collector's edition of the game come with an item that gives 1 percent more experience and one bonus point for characters' skillsets. [All new purchases] also come with the Stone Prisoner extra content, which gives them a stone golem non-player character. Obviously, those are moves to attract more presales of the game and dissuade used game sales.

[...]

GS: The Stone Prisoner sounds like it's going to be a pretty substantial add-on since you're selling it separately for 15 bucks. How big is it going to be?

MD: Well, it's huge. It introduces a whole new character, and this is a character that's as complicated and well fleshed out as any other character in the main game. You're also getting full voice-over and plots and things like that. The Stone Prisoner is going to be offered for free for anyone who purchases any new copy of Dragon Age, collector's edition or not.

GS: So how many hours of playtime does the Stone Prisoner add?

MD: It's kind of hard to quantify that. The way that the character works in Dragon Age is they're along in your party, they're interjecting throughout the game, they're talking with other characters in your party, they're commenting on areas as you visit them. So, in one way, it's 60 hours or 70 hours of content because if you put this character in your party right away, it's going to enrich it and affect your experience throughout the entire game.

GS: And in terms of it being sold separately, it will be DLC on all three platforms.

MD: Correct.

Stinks of marketing trap

If you create a dwarven noble character you begin the game as the middle child of the king (you can create a male or female character.) You have older and younger brothers, which creates some tension in the entire who-gets-to-inherit-the-throne question. But dwarven society is rigidly divided in castes, which makes for great dialogue options as you can have your Second (your companion/bodyguard/advisor) act as the intermediary in all of your discussions if you don't want to interact with anyone of the lower caste, which basically means everyone else since you're practically royalty.

You can decide the argument, and the possibilities are extreme, from telling the noble to kill the scholar, to telling the noble to shove off, to ordering your Second to dispose of the noble. I chose the latter, a decision that impressed the scholar because it displayed I had the requisite amount of ruthlessness and cunning required for someone of my rank. Assassination is apparently a dwarven hobby