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Now this might be a bit ignorant, but cant he use both ?
(Shrapnel online, strategy first offline)

Those two markets are so far apart,

And imho yes, SE5 will not sell as much retail, ppls will see the screens and the not too flashy graphics and wont buy it.
One biiig suggestion for aron, if you go retail, make sure to include a VERY VERY GOOD tutorial, otherwise ppls will get it, open box, play it, dont get what the hell is going on and just quit.

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Yeah, a good tutorial is absolutely vital for the retail market I beleive. I confess, I'm one of those typical dorks who assumes that the game will spoonfeed me as soon as I start it up the first time, and when I did that with SE4 the first time I admit to being lost for a while - until I actually read the manual and did the tutorial - and by that point you've probably already lost a fair percentage of the people....

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I want to add my thanks to Shrapnel for their amazing offer not only to allow the SEIV forum to continue, but to allow SEV to be represented here as well. It's incredibly generous of them, and demonstrates a high regard for their customers. Personally, it makes it more likely that I'll purchase a Shrapnel game in which I'm only marginally interested, simply as an expression of support for such a dedicated company.

I'm disappointed that Malfador decided to go elsewhere, but I wish them no ill. I may even buy SEV, although it won't be an "automatic" purchase as it would have been previously. We'll see.

p.s. "To each his own," but I like GalCiv also. It's a different approach to 4X, but we don't need a bunch of SE clones--each game is good at what it does. I agree, however, that, if GalCiv's success played a major role in luring Malfador to Strategy First, they may be seriously disappointed. It's my impression that the impetus behind GalCiv's success was not due to Strategy First, but to the community of GalCiv fans, originating in GalCiv's OS2 days and incremented through the GalCiv forums where you could purchase the beta and participate in the development of the game--receiving a copy of the finished product when it appeared. That's what drew me in, and I'm sure I'm not alone. I don't know if Malfador is prepared to make that kind of effort--tracking the demands/suggestions of a huge number of ad hoc beta-testers and deciding what should be incorporated into the game.

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Why not? MM has had betas for all of their games since at least SEIV. Not sure about SEIII... The SEV beta will be starting in under a month!

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From a legal point of view, it could work I guess, if the right partnership deals were made. But realistically, probably not.

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OK, I have read what everyone has said and have owned and still own registered copies of every SE version since SE II and like everyone else here have some concerns.

1. I am concerned that this will be mutilated by Strat 1st seeking to make it more commercial, I dont like them or the games they have published in the past.

2. I am concerned with this going mainstream that the series will lose its way in the attempt to garner broader support.

Point blank if either of those two things happen I will move on (while still playing my copies of SEIV).

Having said that I am re-assured that Aaron is still in control. I also want to express that aside from some MMORPGs, anymore my games are bought from Shrapnel and other similar online publishers. I don't buy retail anymore.

Shrapnel,

Keep up the good work, I will keep checking the site for more games. You already sold me on Dom2 and I have tried others as well. Hope to see more from you!.


Rasorow

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There was a beta test team for SE3, However all of those folks have moved on by now.

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Hmm, I'd like to, but as I said, this thread isn't really the place for a discussion about the quality of GalCiv. This thread deals with Aaron's decision to choose Strat First as his distributor for Space Empires V, and neither Aaron nor Strat First had anything to do with the quality of GalCiv.

So I hold myself off from going into details here, and instead just state that both games have many strengths as well as some weaknesses, and I'm very glad that we have them both. Even better, they continue to thrive and develop - Space Empires V will be out this year, and the public beta of GalCiv 2 will start this month. What more can we wish for? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

If you're interested in a more thorough comparison of the two games, just pm me, or perhaps point me to another thread where this doesn't feel off-topic. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

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I jsut cross my mind that shrapnel most likely does contracts game-by-game, so in reality there is a chance future SE games could return to Shrapnel

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Ah, but does Strategy First do so? If the contract says SF has exclusive rights to publish the next five titles of the series, then it doesn't matter if Shrapnel does contracts per-game; Strategy First gets SEV, SEVI, SEVII, SEVIII, and SEIX. Only after all that can MM and Shrapnel make the triumphant return with SEX.

Ok, ok, I just had to do it. Ignore this entire post, I only made it for the punchline (such as it is).

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif