11 years ago

Soundtrack update?

I'll try to stick to the facts and ignore how furious this whole situation is making me, but I have doubts I will be successful.

I had the soundtrack issue that many people are reporting where I could not download it even though I purchased the digital deluxe edition online.

After a couple days of regularly checking the dragonage website, I was suddenly able to download the "soundtrack" - I use quotes here because I don't think this file should ever have made it into the hands of a consumer. Here is why:

First, the filename is practically gibberish, it is literally, "da_i_pc_dlc__ww_final_beta_6__soundtrack.zip" - What on earth does that even mean, heaven forbid they name it something intuitive like "dragon_age_inquisitoin_soundtrack.zip".

Second, this zip file contains a lot more than just the soundtrack. It has numerous executable files under a "_Installer" directory. Seriously, this file is not just a soundtrack, and there is really no reason for these extra files. I doubt the executables would even do anything considering I don't have the PC version of Dragon Age... It just completely crazy that they are there. And considering the compressed zip file is already almost 1GB in size, they really don't need this in there taking up extra space.

Finally, there is no metadata (song information) on the audio files. This is a small point, but when you bear in mind that virtually ANY audio you buy online today (and I've bought music from some pretty unpolished websites) will have metadata, it's kind of sad to see a major video game developer (GOTY anybody?) backed by the biggest publisher in the industry still can't provide song metadata?!

Also, the soundtrack files are in .wav format. I truly haven't seen a wav file since the 90s. I'm sure the quality is ok, but come on, who even digitized this soundtrack? Who works in wav files?! FLAC or MP3 people. Theres a reason EVERY online music store offers those formats and very few offer .wav files. Just making an already shoddy experience seem even more unprofessional by having them be wav files.

Overall this has left me with a very sour taste in my mouth. Also because it seems impossible to get a single response from anybody at EA or BioWare. I have been tweeting this issue to their main @dragonage twitter handle without even the slightest "we'll look into it" response, which is really all I was asking for. Finally impatient with that I decided to open a chat support issue, I am still waiting to connect to an agent and I started the issue before I even started this thread and after my 20 minute estimate (which is INSANE for chat support) didn't go anywhere after 10 minutes, I came here. Since starting this post my chat support wait time has gone up to 25 minutes..... It INCREASED. This is truly the first time I have ever seen that.

All these issues and it still appears they have not even fixed the original soundtrack download issue based on the support forum topic still racking up posts even today. What are they even doing? BioWare is Canadian (like me) so it's not like they have thanksgiving this weekend. Please fix this soon and investigate the sountrack file you are providing.

Overall this has been a pretty comical experience if it weren't for the fact that it is really pissing off their consumers (worth it for the joke?).

Can anybody at EA or BioWare please acknowledge any of this?! People aren't going to hate you if you admit making a mistake, but they will hate you if you just ignore your mistakes...

dragon age inquisition

20 Replies

thegnomed
11 years ago
Here is a transcript of the chat conversation as an update. Clearly there is an issue with the soundtrack file although I will be amazed if anything comes from this action.

Also note the chat process took pretty much exactly an hour (59:17) for a tiny conversation that would take 2 people a maximum of 30 seconds of direct communication. Also note how the time estimate went up... how does that even happen?

Chat start time Nov 26, 2014 3:26:42 PM EST
Chat end time Nov 26, 2014 4:25:59 PM EST
Duration (actual chatting time) 00:59:17
Chat Transcript
info: Your approximate wait time is 16 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 16 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 16 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 16 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 21 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 21 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 21 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 21 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 16 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 16 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 10 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 10 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 10 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 10 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 5 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 5 minute.
info: Your approximate wait time is 5 minute.
info: You are now ready to chat with Michael.
Michael: Thanks for contacting EA Customer Experience, my name is Michael. How may I assist you today?
you: Hi, I was recently able to download the soundtrack for Dragon Age inquisition, but I have doubts on whether I have downloaded the correct file. The name of the file I downloaded from the dragonage.com

website is "da_i_pc_dlc__ww_final_beta_6__soundtrack.zip" which is very unintuitive and the word "beta" suggests it should not be in a regular consumers hands. Also, the zip file contained several executable files which really have nothing to do with a soundtrack. Are you able to verify this is the correct filename and I could expect to find completely executables in the zip file?
you: i should* expect
you: completely useless* executables
Michael: Sure, let me see what can be done about your concern regarding the Dragon Age soundtrack.
Michael: To start with, kindly provide your full name and your Origin email address.
you: XXXXXXXXXX, I believe the email address should be XXXXXXXXXX
Michael: Nice meeting you online XXXXX, I hope that you are doing fine today.
you: Not bad
Michael: Nice knowing that, let me just check my resources to make sure I give you the right information.
you: Sure, thank you
Michael: Thank you for patiently waiting Brian, I just tried downloading the file as well and yes, that's what the file contains.
you: So my next question is, should it? What are the executables for? Should I run them (I doubt it)?
Michael: It also contains the soundtracks, right?
you: Yes, although the files have no metadata, which is disappointing.
you: Anyway, I know you personally aren't going to change the file and fix things, but this is really not a great presentation for the soundtrack so maybe it should be brought to the attention of someone who can fix it.
Michael: I can understand your point, I will be more than willing to forward your feedback to our Studio so they further review and improve the soundtrack file.
you: Thank you, that is all I ask. While they are looking at the file, they might want to consider adding metadata (song information) to the audio files. Even the smallest websites do this for any online audio purchases and I was surprised to see it missing here. (the use of .wav files is also questionable, but I can overlook it)
Michael: Thank you for your feedback, rest assured it will be looked at and considered by our Studio.
you: Thank you, have a good day.
thegnomed
11 years ago
Weeks later and still no fixes.

The soundtrack is completely unusable in WAV format. I cannot upload the files to Google Music because they are not a supported format.

PLEASE FIX THE USELESS SOUNDTRACK!
thegnomed
11 years ago
Gonna keep bumping this till someone responds. These files are completely unacceptable and I am tempted to report my entire game purchase to my bank as fraud since goods were not delivered as promised.

SOMEONE RESPOND PLEASE. It's a serious question and all I am looking for is some acknowledgement of the problem.
thegnomed
11 years ago
bumpity bump bump
thegnomed
11 years ago
After a second chat with the live support staff it appears this problem is being worked on, and BioWare did not think it was worth the effort to tell anybody about this.

So here I am posting this update and informing BioWares customers for them..... I should really get paid for this.

Here is the important part of what EA support said:

Deepak: I have navigate so many things for you and finally found that the studio is investigating this issue
Deepak: I understand your concern however this is a temporary issue and our engineers are already aware of this. They are working to resolve this as soon as possible. Please wait for some time. If the issue remain same please feel free to contact us again.

Needless to say I will probably be contacting them again in about a week when this is undoubtedly not going to be resolved.

Thanks for jack-sh*t, Bioware. The least you could have done in responded "we are working on this" and saved me 2 hours worth of chat conversations with EA support.

And you're welcome, to all the other people impacted by this massive issue looking for updates.

It's kind of funny to see that whoever created that soundtrack file and made it available clearly has no knowledge of audio files or what a digital soundtrack delivery should look like (and it doesn't take a university degree to know these things, I've talked to junior high students who could do a better job than this). Yet they almost certainly got paid a decent salary to do quite literally the crappiest job I have ever seen. In this day and age of employment/financial woe for both the US and Canada, that is pretty disheartening to see. Hopefully they at least realize how stupid they were and can learn from their mistakes (and if BioWare want's a QA expert, you have my user information).
Neshira
New Scout
11 years ago
Try a repair install of the game perhaps? Mine came through just fine and is playable and all.
thegnomed
11 years ago
I do not have the PC version of the game. I am just talking about the zip file BioWare is providing on the dragon age website.

I am sure the .wav files play, but they are not a format for anybody who has ever purchased digital music (hence google play does not even support wav files), and they are missing metadata.

Honestly it is about 15 minutes of work for me to convert them to MP3 and add some metadata, but I would like it if BioWare did this since I know I am not the only person who would appreciate it. Even if somebody doesn't know what metadata is, they will be thankful when it is there.

So I know what the problem is, and I know what the solution is. The new problem is that BioWare is doing nothing and communicating nothing when this is literally 15 minutes of work.
thegnomed
11 years ago
Bump. I can't believe this hasn't been fixed yet. It is literally 15 minutes of work.
thegnomed
11 years ago
Well I fixed my own problems because I got tired of waiting, but I am still going to be harassing their support staff for the next couple weeks till I get a refund on this digital deluxe edition that turned out to be completely useless.

I would have saved more time and effort if I just illegally downloaded the soundtrack.

Seriously, it took me less than 5 minutes to unzip the wav files into a folder on my linux PC. Run the command 'flac *.wav' to convert all the files into lossless (44.1kHz) flac files (it would have preserved metadata too if any was entered in the **bleep** first place).

Run the command 'zip DragonAgeInquisitionSoundtrack.zip *.flac' and I immediately have a soundtrack file that is half the size of the one provided on the current dragon age website, with a more useful filename, while remaining lossless high quality audio (or as high a quality as whatever those wav files were) and excluding the unneccesary executables that were in the original zip.

This takes literally under a minute to run these 2 commands and end up with a significantly better soundtrack to provide customers. Why on earth has BioWare not done this themselves?!

The only reason BioWare has not done this for their customers (and added metadata) is because they are too lazy and inconsiderate and obviously don't think their customers are worth the mere seconds of effort it would take to fix this.

Really f*cking sad, can anyone blame me for being pissed?
thegnomed
11 years ago
bump