Dominions 3 News!

[DominionsFan]

Gandalf Parker said:
I dnt think I will bother comparing Dom3 price to games that MIGHT last a month at most on my machine (like Oblivon). Also Im not sure that asking any company to compare their prises to the types of places that have their own factory cranking something out in bulk ever works anyway. I see it tried alot, I just dont think Ive ever seen it work.

I understand what you say Gandalf, but this is not true generally. Here is our example oblivion. Even if you completed the main storyline and the hundreds of side quests, there is still a huge potential in the game. You can make mods, even own "campaign" if you are good enough, or if you want to do that. I remeber that Morrowind was on my comp for 1+ year, and I played it all week. Other examples? There are countless of games, what the people are playing for years even, and I doubt that any of those went above 50$ or euro.

Anyways, I already preordered my copy of the game of course, I would even buy doms 3 for 100 euro. :-) .. my post regarding doms 3 price was not about myself, but it might scare away many people.

[NTJedi]

Well the key will be getting them to try to the DOM_3 demo... I recommend the demo lasting 55 turns instead of 40 as before. Once they recognize the content and depth of the game they'll be convinced to buy the game which has a slightly higher price then other games.

[Alneyan]

B0rsuk said:
Sounds like you never heard about Linley's Dungeon Crawl
http://dungeoncrawl.org/

Careful with the "Reply" fields! It looked as though you were replying to me, while it was probably not the case (DominionsFAN was probably the one you replied to). Don't dare say I never heard about roguelikes, or else.

[Nerfix]

My only problem with the price is that the I'm not sure if I have any way to pay it.

The closest credit card to me is owned by my paranoid mom.

[Annette]

Alneyan said:
Of course, I'm not saying it is good news, but I'm more concerned about the "why" than the end result. Somehow, I doubt Shrapnel has raised the pricetag so that Tim can buy his third mansion in California. I'd trust Shrapnel that something is not looking quite so well in the Book of Scribbled Figures of Doom (the accounting department, and the dust therein), hence making the price increase necessary.

Still working on that first mansion The only reason for the $5 bump is because of the increase in production costs. Remember, we're going from a 134 page manual to a 200 page manual. And everyone is working very hard to be sure it will be worth every penny!

[alexti]

DominionsFAN said:
Awesome news!!!! Btw after maj 20 the game will cost 54$?!?!?!? EVEN TES4: Oblivion is cheaper!!!!! WHAT THE! O.O

If Dom3 is as good as Dom2 54$ is a steal. Even if I don't like Dom3 at all, I will just count these 54$ into "Dom2 expenses" and still think that at $100+ Dom2 was a bargain

Not if it's worthwhile to compare Dom3 with Oblivion. Oblivion has to compete with bunch of other RPGs (admittedly, there wasn't good RPG in a while) and attract plenty of casual buyers. Dom3 has no competition (AFAIK) in its niche.

[Ironhawk]

Alneyan said:
I frankly would be surprised if a mundane player found 50$ to be a bargain for Dominions. A few more bucks does not seem that likely to make a difference for the non-convinced player: 50 bucks is still as expensive (if not more so) than a retail game with their shiney graphics, so the comparison is never going to turn out to Shrapnel's favour.

I agree. While I am sure that a great deal of effort went into Dom3 I feel that $50 is a bit much to ask for what is effectively an indy game. Normally they come with an easier pricetag given that they dont have huge publishing and marketing budgets or cutting edge graphics.

[Graeme Dice]

Ironhawk said:
Normally they come with an easier pricetag given that they dont have huge publishing and marketing budgets or cutting edge graphics.

Actually, I think you'll find that Indy games are almost always more expensive, unless they are extremely simple. I mean, take a look at Spiderweb Software's catalog. They are still charging full game prices for their very first products. Or look at some of the stuff from Matrix, which is also extremely expensive, and doesn't even come with a demo. Niche products are always more expensive, because you don't gain many sales by dropping the price compared to the lost income from dropping the price.

[Saber Cherry]

Unfortunately, you have to consider indy games as "custom". Consider the price differential between a home-made berry pie and the equivalent from a grocery store. One is priceless, and the other (IMO) is garbage. You can step down a notch, and go to a many-star restaurant for pie... where you'll pay way more for the same thing than at a grocery store, and it will be substantially better.

Any place has a similar cost for ingredients (although the cheaper the pie, the cheaper and crappier the ingredients... they still aren't the primary expense). But expensive (and priceless) pies have a much lower capital investment in production facilities. In the generic case, there is a strict inverse relation between the capital investment in a food product, and its quality.

Personally, I never, ever buy pie, and only eat it when I make it, or my dad makes it. Much like Adam and/or Eve, having tasted the fruit of wisdom, I cannot go back - though I know I would be happier without my new knowledge, as I would be satisfied with anything. But I am a busy person, and I don't have time to make pie... so, I go without.

It is therefore a blessing that some industries - primarily books and software, but also produce, peanut butter, bread, electricity, water, radio, and so forth allow consumers to pay more for low-volume, high-quality items.

At an organic food store, one can buy apples, pears, kiwis, peaches, and many other goods at a higher price than at a conventional store... for stuff that clearly looks worse. Sometimes I buy it, and sometimes I don't. Often it is incomparable (most peaches I eat taste like ****, and most walnuts are old or even rancid, and I'd pay at least triple for good versions of either). I don't have the time or space to grow my own peaches, and I'm thankful that the people who do - and are willing to sacrifice 30% of their yield to forego ethene treatments (the "fruit ripener" that kills chlorophyll, and is responsible for rock-hard strawberries and apple-like tomatoes that dominate the US market) and pesticide sprays - will sell their products on the open market, rather than caving to "industry knowledge".

At a real bakery, they sell real bread, made from ground wheat kernels, salt, water, and usually yeast and sugar/honey/molasses. Most people find this stuff nasty; I love it, and find bleached ultra-fine white flour "Wonderbread" inedible. Normal factory bakeries somehow turn pure **** into a white, fluffy, rectangular solid, and legally market it as "bread", while supermarket and standalone bakeries produce the exact same crap and sell it at a premium, because it is "free-form" or "loaf-shaped". Again, I rarely have the time or will to make bread... so I am very thankful that in the last 5 years, a niche market has arisen to provide real bread to people who know what bread is. Is $5 for a 20-slice loaf that only lasts a week before getting moldy too much, compared to $2 for 50 slices of Wonderbread that will last until Doomsday? No... because the real bread tastes like bliss, and contains actual nutrients, while the Rainbow **** gives you colon cancer and diabetes - and tastes like ***. Not to mention that the loaf of bread weighs 2 lbs (.9kg) while the loaf of imitation bread weighs 1.5 lbs (.68 kg), despite being double the volume.

I could go through all the examples. But at the end of the day, it's personal choice. Most people prefer to use coal power, Wonderbread, rock-hard strawberries, canned/frozen orange juice, LCD monitors, tapwater, console games, television, and fast-food chains. If you are in the minority that believes the alternatives to be superior, regardless of their disadvantages, accept that they will cost more - that's how an efficient (and/or free market) economy works. You should be happy that there is a reasonable price you can pay to get what you want, instead of the popular alternative... in many areas, there is no price - let alone a reasonable one - that will allow you to purchase a superior alternative, simply because most people like the crap they're told to like.

[PrinzMegaherz]

Annette said:

Still working on that first mansion The only reason for the $5 bump is because of the increase in production costs. Remember, we're going from a 134 page manual to a 200 page manual. And everyone is working very hard to be sure it will be worth every penny!

If the manual is as helpful as the manual of Dom2, you should just drop it, save the money, lower the price and include a good tutorial / launch a Dominions 3 wikipedia as Stardock is doing for GC2. Maybe you could offer a cheaper download only version, saving people the shipping cost.