The Oblivion Orrey Quest on Xbox Marketplace.

[Litigator]

Just a heads up: The quest is to run around and clear five camps of standard-issue bandits. They wear glass armor and I got a couple of enchanted items at each camp, but nothing that you couldn't make at the enchanting altar. I sold most of it.

When you complete the quest, the locked door to the Orrey in the Arcane University opens up. Inside is a nice little piece of eye candy, and you can go there and get a new power, like the race powers or the birth sign powers. This changes with the phases of the moon. The one I got gives you +20 agility, -20 endurance for 30 seconds.

The Orrey looks very cool, but I didn't think this was that compelling as a content addition.

[Miasma]

Holy crap, that's why I can't get in there?  I thought it was just from a quest I hadn't found yet, they want me to pay to open that door?  Wow, brave new world, I don't think I like it.  I'll just wait until some modder creates something five times better.

[Calantus]

What. The. Fuck.

EDIT: Let me elaborate. It's lame as all hell that the orrery was closed simply so you have to pay $2 to open it. Micro payments are also lame as hell. I want a lot of content for a lot of cash, a little bit of content aint worth me fucking around for. Give it to me in the original game, in the expansion, or give it to me for free.

[Trippy]

Quest writeup:

http://gaminglogic.wordpress.com/2006/04/17/exploring-the-orrery/

[Azazel]

The guy got assfucked like that and still gave it 4/10?

Which should equal "just slightly under average."

awesome.

[Yoru]

I particularly like how the content isn't even a special dungeon or anything. The actual meat is 5 outdoor camps using standard levelled bandit lists; a shitty modder could put that together in a day or two given the tutorials on cs.elderscrolls.com.

$2 for that and the ability to see the Orrery, a recreation of a room from an earlier TES game.. redefines lame.

I'm guessing this micropayments thing was some marketing guy's idea for a 'continuing revenue stream' and he's been given, maybe, a few hours of an intern's time to actually produce content for it.

[Reg]

Bethesda has created a lot of good will with their fans over the years. It's a shame to see them squandering it with lame crap like this.

[Calantus]

The guy got assfucked like that and still gave it 4/10?

Which should equal "just slightly under average."

awesome.

Actually I think a lot of sites use 7 as the average point. Gamespot uses that system for instance, and a score of 6 is a fairly crappy game. Think I've seen maybe a couple 5s on real stinkers. Not sure they'd even be able to bring themselves to use a 4. If the site that reviewed the mod goes by the same system... 4 is hella low.

[Miasma]

Quest writeup:

http://gaminglogic.wordpress.com/2006/04/17/exploring-the-orrery/

Someone needs to tell that guy how to get screenshots working, taking pictures of his monitor is really hurting "The Logical Gamer's" street cred...

[Sky]

Pay $ to open a fucking door in a game?

I've got a baad feeling about this.

[Murgos]

Yeah, they are really abusing the concept.  A set of armor for my horse isn't worth $2 to me because in a few months there will 80 sets of armor for my horse for free, most of lesser quality buit one or two that are even better.  A tower in the middle of nowhere isn't worth anything because there are already people making towers in the middle of nowhere for free.  A room and a simple quest isn't worth anything because there are already or soon will be a dozen of those out there.

Fuck, even the MMOG's with thier mostly captive audiences and no internal competition give out 'minor' content for free.

It's simple, if they want me to buy thier content updates then they need to provide me with content updates to buy that are worth buying.  I assume a lot of people are buying thier content updates at the moment but once the shiney of the concept wears off I imagine they will have to start working a little harder for thier grift.

[Azazel]

Pay $ to open a fucking door in a game?

I've got a baad feeling about this.

It's a TRAP!!

[Lt.Dan]

3PO! 3PO, Open all the orrerry doors on the detention level!  3 Peeeeee Oooooooo!

[Jain Zar]

Largely its for the console people who don't know any better.

I have the 360 version, but im not dumb enough to give up 150 points (roughly 2 bucks) for an extra mini dungeon and quest suite.
Sadly, I am outnumbered.

[Hokers]

I am hoping that they are sill in proof-of-concept mode, and that the future mods will be more substantial.

I'll pay $2-3 for a really cool dungeon not for 4 bandit camps and a pretty room.

[Trippy]

Wizard tower is available now and this one even looks semi-useful:

http://obliviondownloads.com/StoreCatalog_ProductView.aspx?ProductId=4

[schild]

For $1.89 you can buy content that should've been in the game at launch but wasn't ready yet! Fantastic!

They are introducing too much too early to make me think that this stuff was made after the release.

[Tale]

This looks like a clear case of "we wish it was an MMORPG so we could make a killing on it like WoW" syndrome.

[Sky]

Nah, I don't think it's that indisious. I think it's just the result of people being bombarded by the micropayment mantra that business fucks have been spewing for a couple years now.

I think capitalism passed the point of no return (jumped the shark?) when Pepsi and Coke learned they could make more money selling water than soda. People are completely fucking retarded.

[HaemishM]

Nah, I don't think it's that indisious. I think it's just the result of people being bombarded by the micropayment mantra that business fucks have been spewing for a couple years now.

The THEORY of micropayments is nice, in that you don't have to pay a buttload when you only want a thimblefull.

The practice has been a case of "let's eek every little red cent out of these gullible bastards for as long as we can with the minimum of effort."