[Agrajag]

First, read the informative post by Tim Brooks

Jazzepi said:
If I could buy this game through digital distro with the same DRM currently in place, I would have, and it would have added value to the product while cutting the amount of money it cost you to sell the game, thus increasing your profits.

As Tim said, it doesn't really decrease costs, but rather increases them.
Furthermore, if we rule out a PDF manual (it's pretty clear that a PDF manual isn't going to happen.), even if we exclude all of Tim's previous arguments, the product becomes more expensive for Shrapnel - the production costs stay the same, while bandwidth and support costs are added. (support for the actual digital distribution service.)
So, you're wrong.
Actually, ignore the support costs, since Tim mentioned them. But still, bandwidth costs

Responses to the following quote are in bold inside the quote.
Also, thanks for all the sarcasm kasnavada, it really makes your post enjoyable

kasnavada said:

Everything but the conclusion is correct. The cost per copy is higher, but it sells more copies.
Yes, but how many of those more expensive sells are actually people that would have bought a physical copy?
We don't have any figures on how many extra sales Dominions would get, and Tim seems to indicate that he has figures to show that a digital distribution will not generate enough extra sales to generate a profit.
And like the tongue-in-cheek example from before, adding cheese and wine with each copy would also increase sales (anyone who would buy the game would still buy it, and more purchases will be generated from people that decide that the extra cheese and wine make the deal desirable enough), but it won't generate extra profit because it will be much more expensive to produce each copy, and the cheese and wine would probably not contribute enough new sells.

Elitist thinking like this does give the game a far worse name that more newbies will. Furthermore, the manual isn't up to date, and many things are not in the manual, which means that if I follow what you say, people already have a bad understanding of the game. And are already giving it a bad name. Finally : you are assuming that people need the manual ? Have it sent by mail even if you buy it online ! Why should disappear all of a sudden ?
read more carefuly, point 1 assumes a manual will be shipped, point 2 does not.
And of course the effect I mentioned isn't that significant but it's there, thanks to the wonderful magic of statistics

... that was the most ridiculous argument ever. It's not pirates you spot, it's idiots. The ones that want to pirate the game and have half a brain working won't speak about the manual at all. And won't be caught by such a simple thing.
You should really spend more time at the forums then

Furthermore, does it also mean that anyone playing the demo, since it doesn't come with the manual, is giving the game a bad name ?
There's a reason it's called a demo.

And, in order to end this argument, ever considered the slight possibility that it might actually be true in some cases ? There is a number of reason why it could be : theft, fire, accidental destruction, lost when moving to another place...
Sure I have, those are common excuses for pirates, so I'm aware of them
But... Your manual being burned is the same as your car being stolen - tough luck as they say.

That is already done by other company and there is no problem with it. Why should it be a problem for shrapnel ? Are they dumber than others or something ? Besides cdkey scams already exist since the game can be resold. It's not a problem associated with digital distribution at all !
They deal with the problem, and dealing with the problem costs them money.

Why ? I mean, That is already done by other company and there is no problem with it. It's just a different writing of argument four. Saying it twice doesn't make it true.
The problem is in switching from one model to the next. It's quite obvious that there are already existing models for Digital Distribution, and there are models for physical only distribution, but they are not the same, so switching from one model to the other will cost money. (And might actually be quite expensive)

Putting the same argument twice doesn't make it more true. More costs ? Yes, obviously. More sales ? yes obviously. I'm among those that believe that the new sales (given what the game is) will lead to more profits that the new costs.
[b]That is your belief. And according to Tim you are probably wrong
And the costs for adding the product to the digital distribution service are not the same as the costs for distributing it over the digital distribution service, which is what I talked about in a previous point, so these are not identical points.

That said, I don't really expect things to change to online distribution. However, I won't stand idle when people say that it is inherently bad, because it isn't. It's different, but not better or worse.
It's better or worse for a specific product.

Well, I'm in the process of waiting for the game to arrive. Which may take up to a month.
It may take up to ten million years