I'd suggest you invite your friends over to the forum, Sombre. You don't have to buy the game to register. If we can't convince them it's worth atleast giving the free demo a chance, then they probably really *are* a lost cause.
I'd also hope that you've found some friends here as well-as the forum really would be less without your presence and extensive contributions.
As far as what the game is actually worth, in my case, I'd say out of everyone, I'm getting the most "bang" for my buck, when it comes to Dom3. I'm not even able to play the damn game, and I'm still here almost every day, having a great time building mods and being as social as I generally get (work for an airline for a few years, you learn to appreciate life without so many people in it, and you also learn to appreciate and choose positive people in a positive environment).
So basically, even if I didn't physically own a Dom3 CD (it's getting dusty on the shelf behind me), I'd still be getting entertainment value out of it. Plenty of education too (I now know more about African history and culture than I ever thought possible, and I'm a better artist.). And it's even comparatively healthy, psychologically, as these forums are a nice distraction and stress-reducer while I'm working.
And I second Jim-I can't get in to other games anymore, like I get in to Dom3. I can't even get in to other forums. This forum is like an island of calm and refinement in a very scary, very stupid universe.
Still, you're right that taken as a game, it's more expensive than many, and will remain so. But I contend that it's better considered as a hobby. Hobby-wise, it's very cheap. Owning and restoring a vintage Dodge Charger is a reasonably cheap hobby at around 15,000 or so. You can buy a small boat for the same price, if you'd rather sail. Various other hobbies (cooking, sports, books, sex, drugs, rock&roll), you'll probably spend 15,000 on them over the course of an average lifetime. There are plenty of more expensive hobbies out there, and for a lifelong preoccupation, 15,000 isn't terribly unreasonable for something that you own and identify with, and that's a part of who you are.
Frankly, if the Devs offered up the complete source-code for Dom3, to be used on a strictly non-commercial basis (as in we couldn't sell it to others, and could only share our versions with others who had paid the fee), at $15,000 a pop, I'd think long and hard about ways I could raise that much money, and then if I did, I'd spend even more time and money learning to write code for it, and trying to convince colleges and libraries that it was worth their investing in it too.
That's roughly 300 copies of the game at the price I bought it (including taxes). No small amount of money (more than 10% of the cost of my house), but taken as a hobby, as something that was a part of my life and my identity, rather than as a game, not entirely an unreasonable price.
Ofcourse, working for an airline as I do, I could just take a discount flight to Sweden, sit on the Devs' couch, and try to pitch what a great asset I'd be to Illwinter
Sid Meyer never invited me over to his couch, the bastard.