What the hell is up with Dominions 3???

[Nerfix]

I've been tinkering with the idea of a website with some basic Dominions info such as nations etc. then some of the key concepts explained. This could provide some "noise" and info.

But I've been occupied with other stuff and I sort of forget HTML... =/

[Morkilus]

My one rant for today:

I've made dozens of attempts to get my friends to download the demo, all without any success at all... the only person I've gotten to play the game is my brother, as I actually installed the game on his computer so I could play during vacation. This is one of those games that can't be sold by graphics or a flashy website, or even by name alone (Civ IV, ahem)... just by gameplay and flavor. Maybe my friends think I'm full of it, or maybe there simply isn't enough coverage for them to believe me. I have a hard time believing that someone so disappointed in Civ IV and so into fantasy stuff like M:TG wouldn't give this game a chance. But there needs to be a critical mass of buzz to get this game out of the "elite strategy/niche" category. I never would have seen this game nor forum if I hadn't been following GoGamer specials.

[NTJedi]

I completely agree the developers/publishers should be focusing on creating a huge buzz for this game... instead it's dead silence.
Dead silence never brings as much sales as good advertising for a game. The game should have developer diaries every two months, screenshots, chat rooms with the developer answering questions to gaming fans, and brief 20MIN interviews with gaming websites. The total time investment for what I listed is only about 1_hour a month, which is small potatoes for increasing game sales. Instead of generating a hype for the upcoming game, many publishers are using a dead-silence... which only confuses/upsets the fans of the developer.

WHY the Dead-Silence?? We all wonder why... well my theory is the dead silence was placed into the contract by the publisher. The publisher is afraid some other game maker will try stealing ideas.... thus they place a "NO COMMUNICATION of any kind until 3 weeks before the games release." The publisher fails to see the negative side effects of dead silence and the game and its sales suffer in the long run.

WORD OF MOUTH is one of the main ways for a game to increase in sales... but if gamers don't hear anything they equally cannot promote the game via word of mouth. I'm sure we'll eventually hear something... let's just hope it's not too late.

[Endoperez]

Sorry, but I must disagree. Going for that much publicity would be hard, and expensive, for a game so little known as Dominions. And it would certainly take more than an hour in a month. It'd be nice to have something. However, it shouldn't be off from the actual developer time - I think we all agree on this. Thus, the "big news" must come from Shrapnel's side. They have already said that big news will appear this month.

It is pointless to discuss "what they should have done" now. It's a pity this discussion didn't appear two, three months away - we might've gotten something very juicy for Christmas, instead of the annoyingly teasing one-sentence update on the Illwinter site.

[NTJedi]

Endoperez said:
Sorry, but I must disagree. Going for that much publicity would be hard, and expensive, for a game so little known as Dominions. And it would certainly take more than an hour in a month.

Everything I listed can take ABOUT an hour each month. Exactly where do you see LOTS of time being spent?? Each event I listed can easily be set with a fixed timeframe which totals about one hour.
Chats in a chatroom = zero cost
Screenshots to fan websites = zero cost
One developer diary every two months = 15mins... setup on a fans website is zero cost.
interviews with gaming websites = some charge and some don't

--not sure why you see these as expensive.

Endoperez said:
It'd be nice to have something. However, it shouldn't be off from the actual developer time - I think we all agree on this. Thus, the "big news" must come from Shrapnel's side. They have already said that big news will appear this month.

I agree it shouldn't cut into actual developer time, but 6 months before the games release the buzz should be started. One hour each month is small potatotes.

It is pointless to discuss "what they should have done" now.

I strongly disagree... it's never too late to educate the developers/publishers what should have been done because in the long term it's better for everyone on future games.

[DominionsFan]

Tim Brooks said:
Dominions 3 is on track, in beta, with alot of effort currently going into getting marketing up and running. Shrapnel Games has a signed contract with Illwinter to publish Dominions III. With a game of this scale, we can't guarantee a release date, so we have been waiting until we are closer to completion, and can at least give a reasonably close schedule, before we announce.

Now, having said all that, look for more infromation, MAJOR information before the end of March.

Has not anyone wondered about the Awakening ads?

See you soon.

Finally!!!! I cant wait to see the update! thx!


Oh Tim btw....can you tell us..will there be diplomacy in singleplayer? I really missed it in Doms 2. :-) I know that this is a real wargame but it would be a nice feature.

[Saber Cherry]

I think a lot of the reason the world went crazy over GalCiv 2 and Oblivion were the huge amount of pre-release exposure, and constant trickling of exciting details (even if they were the same ones that trickled the week before, and the week before that). Oblivion, of course, can't be compared since they had a multi-million dollar PR budget, a guy (Pete) that did nothing but fly around the world pimping the game at the offices of every magazine and website that would let him in the door, and a team dedicated to making content for previews. But Stardock is an indy company, and their constant info trickle (aka "hype") netted a massive community and incredible launch...

I don't know how much of this is luck, how much is due to the specific game, how much is due to being slashdotted or penny-arcaded, and how much is due to netting big interviews and previews with big-name magazines. But all together, they worked very well... since the world has been craving 4x-ish games recently. CivIV largely satisfied the Civ fans, GalCiv2 largely satisifed the Master of Orion fans, and now there are just the Master of Magic / Age of Wonders fans looking for a deep Fantasy TBS... especially when HOMMV has Starforce, and only a 50% chance of being good; and isn't quite in the same genre.

Maybe Dominions 3 can fill the void and become huge, with enough hype. Making one of these purported beta testers into a liason for the forum might allow limited dissemination without interrupting busy people who are doing real work. As for netting magazine interviews and previews... I don't really know the process for that, but it would be great if it happened

To quote Dijkstra: "That was back when I still believed the success of a product had some relation to its quality." (<-with regards to the IBM 360)
Good products fail without hype.

[Tyrian]

For French people, there are an interview and an article about DomIII in the cybertratège magazine. There are some screenshots.
http://www.cyberstratege.com/

For the infos, they talk about:
*subterrean races and castle
*the system of era
*the random map generator
*the awakening system (the pretendant can be in sleep at the start of the game)
*better IA (more castle construction)
*lesser powerful drain life
*lesser "micro-gestion"

(sorry for the bad english)

edit for Dominionsfan: in the interview, they clearly say no diplomatie for the moment

[Saber Cherry]

Neat, a magazine that takes hardcore strategy seriously! Thanks for the translation.

[DominionsFan]

Tyrian said:
For French people, there are an interview and an article about DomIII in the cybertratège magazine. There are some screenshots.
http://www.cyberstratege.com/

For the infos, they talk about:
*subterrean races and castle
*the system of era
*the random map generator
*the awakening system (the pretendant can be in sleep at the start of the game)
*better IA (more castle construction)
*lesser powerful drain life
*lesser "micro-gestion"

(sorry for the bad english)

edit for Dominionsfan: in the interview, they clearly say no diplomatie for the moment

I see!! Can you post these screenshots? I must see them!