In defence of Dragon Age, Shale comes free with all new copies of the game, it's meant to discourage piracy/second hand game sales.  I think the price for buying him if you don't get the code is a little ridiculous, but the general message is understandable.

Wardens Keep on the other hand was supposed to be released a few months after the actual game was released.  It's only available now because the game itself was delayed so heavily.

Personally, I don't consider it a example of micro-transactions though.. I'd rather see something more akin to Guild Wars, you got things like the mission pack that added four new stories where you played as different characters through-out the GW timeline and it added in a few new weapon sets, etc.

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