Re: Pre-ordering is a benefit not for the buyer...
 

Actually most of the special set could be offered by any of us I think. How about a CD full of mods, and maps, and all of the units as icons, and the tutorial game, turoial map example, tutorial mod, some started games, some pre-made gods, a manual. Plus you can throw in a nice tshirt, mug, and a bumpersticker.
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/sell?pid=2837642

Gandalf Parker

Pelit-magazine
 

Damn, I have totally missed it. I read their small introduction for Dom 1 but not for Dom 2. I didn't even know they had done one. Who was the editor of that article? Niko Nirvi? His articles are definetely the best! I can't wait to see the introduction for Dominions III!

Yes, Gandalf that idea for an account for e-shopping is very handy indeed. I would consider it, if my original account had any money to be stolen. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif Mail-in check sound a bit too complex for a mortal, but frankly, I didn't even consider one earlier. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

And of course, sorry for capturing this thread. (Newcomers have to be polite, but just wait a couple of months.) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Pelit-magazine
 

February 2/2004. It was written by Mikko Rintasaari, but in the 'good' they had "pomminvarma moninpeli" (fantastic multiplayer), so I can't be sure about who else took part in the testing. The names of the pretenders shown were too conservative to tell much (namely, Odin the Allfather and Nyarlathotep the Void Lord).

I'll send you a PM, or personal message. Look for a flashing letter icon near your screen name on the top-left part of the page.

Re: Pre-ordering is a benefit not for the buyer...
 

Well, overall Dom3 is rather expensive : 55$ plus postage (5$ for me in France) is clearly above average, for a "small budget" game. Not even counting possible VAT making it increase to 70$ !
I don't have any problem with that though, since Dom2 alone had for me 1000hr+ lifespan !
And I understand that Shrapnel and Illwinter wants to do some money with it. The only other solution good for developers and customers and allowing to lower prices is to distribute through download only, but that's not the way they did it.

Re: Pre-ordering is a benefit not for the buyer...
 

Well yes...but like I said, the question is, what is the best way for Shrapnel and Illwinter to gain more money?

Example:
1. The retail price of the game is 45 euro. -> More people gonna buy the game probably.
2. The retail price of the game is 55 euro. -> Less people gonna buy it probably.

Frankly...I have no idea which one is better for the devs. All I know is that the price of the game gonna scare away xy number of players...it wont scare away "potential" costumers for sure however.

Re: Pre-ordering is a benefit not for the buyer...
 

Do you really think so?
I wish them well and all. I think its a great game. But I think the market for this game is measureable. Im not sure if the difference in the number of people who will/wont purchase based on that price change is enough to cover making the change.

Especially with the "bill rule". That people tend to base their purchase decisions based in sizes of bills. In the US thats 5, 10, 20, 50. Once it crosses from one denomination size to the next then everything in between is pretty much the same in the mind of most buyers. (the bill rule is also why you see so many things priced at 19.99 or 4.99)

Gandalf Parker

Tariff-jargon coming up
 

Here in Finland an average game bought from a game store costs over 50 euros. I don't know about France. So would you tell me how much an average game costs there? Damn, after long browsing ah-so-lovely wikipedia page for VAT and the pages of the Customs Service, I have to say you are getting it right. According to the Customs Service I have to pay 22% or 17% of VAT (Value added tax) and a customs duty of a small sum, because the product comes from the U.S. This is of course in Finland.

It has to be remembered, though, that this tariff-jargon is a very complex thing to master and it's possible that no tax is being collected from a game. In any case every european buyer of Dom 3 should probably take the suggested 70$ and multiply it with the current exchange rate between euro and dollar, which is today 0.7203, when changing dollars to euros. This results 50.421, with which I presume you had came up too. The price is still the price of an average game in FINLAND. It's the final price rounded up (70 $) with tariffs and taxes counted with. So the information for the average prices in other countries is needed.

I'm sorry if I sound too argumentative or just micromanage too much. It's my style. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: About prices
 

Varjostin,
Here games are also in the 45-50€ range... I forgot the $ was so cheap these days, when I preordered rate was rather 0.85 !

DominionsFAN,
Sure the publisher choice on price is dependent on the "price elasticity" he etimates... Maybe Shrapnel thought that the game has a rather big "sure audience" (eg fans) that won't be scared by higher price, or that to the contrary not much additional people will buy it even if it's cheap.
BTW I understand their analysis, Dom is a rather demanding game that will never sell in very high numbers (however good it can be)

Exchange rates
 

Yes PDF, it's certainly amazing how such an esoteric thing like an exchange rate can affect our gaming hobby this much. I actually started to follow the economics pages of our newspaper after discovering the price difference caused by the exchange rates! I think I managed to buy Dom III just in the right time.

Re: Exchange rates
 

Lucky for you.
No matter how weak the (USA) Dollar gets, the NIS (New Israely Shekel) always gets lower.
So here 55$ is quite expensive (roughly 237 NIS, 267 with shipment), which isn't far from the average computer game, costing 220-240 NIS.
Which is still very overpriced compared to buying power of an average consumer in here.

Also, getting a special benefit for pre-ordering is extremely rare, and pre-ordering is just a means of slightly decreasing the chance the shop will run out of stock when you try and buy the game.

And people are surprised digital piracy is high in Israel :\ (especially the people who think we live in tents and drive camels to work)