Re: Network CD-Keys
I recently attended a LAN party and showed the game to my friends. I didn't know that it isn't possible to play a LAN game with just one key and played some single player on a video beamer. I tried to get some people to remember our old paper PBEM days and get a game going. After the intial enthusiasm the appeal of Dominions soon faded when we noticed that we couldn't even try the game in MP. They resumed to play Starcraft.
That kept me wondering why people are still playing Starcraft with so many RTS-Games out there. I really think that it's the multiplayer spawn installation. You can play a 4 player game with a single copy. But you know what? Nobody was playing with a spawned installation. After playing Starcraft for years everybody bought his own copy.
We even checked out the Online store to see if you can buy and download Dominions Online. I could imagine that some folks would have bought a cheap MP-Key. And some of them (I am sure) would have loved the game and probably would have come back to get the full Version as well.
I know that the comparison between Starcraft and Dominions isn't really fair. Nonetheless would it be nice to have the possibility to somehow play a MP-Game without a full Version for every player. Heck, I can't even play a network game with my girlfriend (who has her computer in the same room as me) without buying a second copy.
I understand this is Shrapnel Games' decision and I can see their point. But from a player's perspective it sucks.
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