Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It's a niche game because turn-based strategy titles are a niche market. There just aren't enough people out there right now that are willing to play this kind of game. Think about how much time you have to invest to just learn the rules for SE4.

Now, being in a niche market doesn't mean the game is bad (it's in my top ten!), but it does mean you have a limited audience, and a very tight budget. MOO3 tried (albeit unsuccessfully) to make a game that appealed to the less hard-core by reducing the micromanagement you normally find in a 4x game.

It may well be impossible at this point in time to make a good 4x game that has mass-market appeal. Which is why I hope SE5 is more of an evolution of SE4, rather than a drastic change to the formula... </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Indeed, I sincerely hope it doesn't go the real-time route...

Paul

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

I wonder if sending game shops an SEIV poster would work. Ask them to display it for a copy of the game.

Who knows maybe that would work. For every 10 copies sold through that store give the store a free copy of the game as an incentive.

When I was in the Firearms business there were many incentive programs like this out. Sell our product and we will give you discounts and even free merchandise. Of course you had to sell a lot of stuff and buy a lot to get the discounts, but at the end of the year it was well worth it.

(Mostly appearl, accessories, and such.)

I would love to walk into EB Software and see a SEIV poster by David Gervais hanging on the wall with a coupon to order Space Empires IV through Shrapnel with free shipping.

They use the coupon which tells which store the game was ordered through so the store gets credit.

After say 10 or even 20 coupons are used from the same store to buy SEIV, send the store a free game to sell. Offer them a 10% discount on the purchase of 10 or more games from Shrapnel.

Hell if you think about this it could work for all of shrapnels games.

Just a thought though. Remember it takes money to make money and Shrapnel can wright off all this as marketing on there taxes and gain a huge tax break.

But the bonus would be that the games become more visable.

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Which matters not a whit because copy protection is easily broken. As of right now all it does is inconvience the end user, many of whom go to sites to find cracks for their legitimately bought games.

Some of them have no option; protection can render a game unplayable. And of course since these cracks are out there the games are still pirated. SE Starfury has a CD check for example, but I play it and have not had the CD in my drive since install.

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

As I recall, the CD check was dropped in the latest SF patch.

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

What killed Tribes 2 was the crappy way they had there patch system designed to operate. The other thing that killed tribes 2 was that there copy protection actually worked and many hackers and pirates could not play. Ohhh to bad. By the time the hacks came out, the game had lost its novelity.

Half-life = Most pirated game ever made.

I favor copy protection, smart copy protection.

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Apparently so. Doesn't change the point, though. (I was doing the same with 1.00 and 1.08)

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

Copy protection should be a component to any game - nullifies pirate activity. In terms of SE5 adn SE4 i do my best to promote it on different forums i visit - hoping it sells a few games.

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">As I just got through pointing out..no, it doesn't. There is not a game on my hard drive or in my collection that hasn't been cracked.

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

Copy protection actually increases piracy to some degree, as it creates an artificial challenge to break the protection...

Every copy protection scheme ever devised has been broken. Only with company-owned multiplayer servers can CD keys actually have any chance of keeping pirates off of the servers. But the game can still be pirated, and will be. Just not for use on official servers.

[ March 25, 2004, 02:23: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: SEIV Only A Nitch Game
 

We use copy protection here at work for some of the programs I do that are for use overseas. I am not saying it can not be broken, but it seems very good. The catch... It costs an extra $10 per license to protect the code, plus all the unlock trouble and relicensing when the customers computer changes processors, harddrives or other information the lock code is attached to.