Age of Empires Online isn't a "nickel and dimey microtransaction thing"

Stop! Don't lay a finger and/or hammer on that piggy bank! Age of Empires Online, you see, has no need for your nickels and dimes.

"It's not a nickel and dimey microtransaction thing," Microsoft Game Studios General Manager Dave Luehmann told Joystiq.

"I don't like to pay for things I don't like to do, that seems kind of backwards. So how about we produce things that people actually want?"

"So it would be like paying for an expansion pack. ... You won't buy one thing at a time. You might buy an entire civ or another region with a bunch of quests in it," designer Jerome K. Jones said in response.

Apparently, though, the game already packs over 25 hours worth of content that won't cost you a penny - let alone a nickel or dime - so there's a little something for everyone. Or a lot, as it were.