[Gandalf Parker]

Just in case you are interested in what might be reality to some of this let me make some comments here....

The graphics are abominable. Together with the sound (which I must turn off, especially if I ever "view battle" (I cannot stand the Commodore 64 squeak of serpents in battle)), this makes the excellent gameplay much less enjoyable.

While the things you say might not be untrue, who are you comparing it to? Are you comparing to windows games on the store shelves? Are any of them other games being offered here at Shrapnels site? Are any of them games that run on so many widely different operating systems? Again I say it doesnt make what you said untrue but it is a touch of reality here.

This also gives the impression that the team had little "dedication" to its target group.

Hmmm I think there would be a disagreement on who you think their target group is if you think graphics and sound rated high.

By dedication, consider games where (it appears that) a lot of "love" has gone into the game.

??? These are two guys who have real jobs with real familys. I think I would love to hear their Mrs comment on things like how much budget and time and love was put into this project of their husbands.

Think of Deus Ex I (the attention to detail) or Warcraft III (the cute voices, excellent graphics, extreme customer support (battle.net).)

Wow. These are games where alot of "love" went into them? I'm not doubting that but they seem like games where alot of money went into them. Its like you are compairing jet planes to the Wright brothers. No offense to Illwinter but I think the territory you are referring to is more like Dominions 9. If you look at the products produced by those companys before they had full-time programmers and artists and writers and web people etc etc etc then things might be alittle more fair.

The designers obviously love the concept, but it appears they did not want to invest in a finished product for a larger target group. And that is why the price seems so high.

That I can agree with. But I would have to say that they may have wanted this but at least part of the blame for this would have to lie with me and other Users of Dom1. If you look back to the conversations in newsGroups such as comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic you might see that pushing Dom toward a publisher and wider distribution was a common Users comment. And as with many things in Dom2, they did exactly as we requested with all the Pros and Cons involved.

[ January 09, 2004, 15:56: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]