I see Dominions and similar games as hobby gaming.

[BigJMoney]

When I ask myself why I paid $55 for a game that largely doesn't have the same kind of updates and modifications one has come to expect from mainstream video games, I sometimes have a hard time coming up with a good argument. Yet, I have absolutely no problem with it. In fact, I bought Dominions 3 for $55 instead of saving up for the new Half Life 2 episode (with TF2!) that is coming out soon, for around $20-$25. I know I would enjoy that video game immensely. It has cowed to Dominions.

I then thought about my friends who play Warhammer 40k. When a new edition comes out - not unlike the amount of time that passed between the Doms versions - they go out and purchase a large and expensive rulebook. Then, they spend as much as they can afford to buy new units for their wargame. Occasionaly I even hear one of them say, "I can't use this unit because he isn't allowed any more." This is rare, but the point is that they continually put a lot of money into their tabletop gaming hobby, and technologically, tabletop gaming isn't going to change much. While Dominions doesn't require us to glue models together, paint them and build scenery, it very much feels like a hobby. We get together and arrange email games that can take up to several months to complete. Or, we will spend a weekend playing a game online. And there is so much friggin content in Dominions, it's like having an entire table top game all for just one, low price. It's a low cost, low effort hobby.

The truth is, I'm just not interested in comparing Dominions to other video games; hemming and hawing about what I expect from it. I know that I love the game, and I will buy the new edition when it comes out. This new edition is certainly the best one yet. I'll continue to make suggestions I think would improve the game and hope a little that some of them make it in, but overall I know that the next edition will regardless be better. Years from now, I know I will have long lost track of the $55 I spent on this version, and will be ready to put money down for the new one with no complaints. If I want to compare Dominions to another game out there, you want to know what I'd compare? Everquest. There is a game that is similar due the vast amounts of content. Even when the game first released, there was enough stuff there to keep people in for years; and it did. Regularly added expansions only kept people around for more. When Everquest 2 came out, they found that changing the system too much simply didn't work. Everquest is a hobby game, and a shiny new GFX engine and voice acting just really weren't what was needed to keep their hobbyists in the series. So, EQ turned out to retain more players than EQ2 attracted, and development for EQ continues to this day. The truth is, by the time Dominions 3 came out, I had not come close to exhausting the content in Dominions II (and I think most people will not) so the game remains new to me, and the updated version is worthwhile. I probably will never get burned out on this game long-term, because there is too much for me to try, and I like to try out every little permutation I possibly can; even the hopeless and arcane. I guess that's because I'm a hobby gamer. In fact, I've just recently begun to become aware that D&D has rubbed me the wrong way for the last several years primarily because I have been expecting a role playing game, but experiencing a hobby strategy game. Now I can enjoy it more when I realize that's what it is designed to be.

I could sit here and list a host of reasons why Dominions makes such a great hobby game, even compared to the tabletop gaming scene, but I'm sure other people can do that on their own. Suffice it to say that Dominions makes an excellent, low cost hobby for any strategy gamer. I only wish I had the proper method of billing it to my local hobby shop as something they should carry and support.

=$= Big J Money =$=

Interesting observation and i agree. Dominions really is a lot like a tabletop strategy games. Hobby game is a good nomer for those kinds of games. There are a few others that have been on my HD for ages. (MOO3 being an example. I don't agree with the people who say it's bad, though i admit it's very bug-ridden, what most people percieve as bugs, aren't really)
Though i don't agree with the assessment that other videogames have better or more updates. If i look at the few mainstream games i bought, they get at best half a year support, and that's mostly for technical issues. Games like Starcraft/Warcraft where there are balancing patches are the exception not the rule, and in other games not even all technical/gamebreaking bugs get fixed before support is discontinued.

[JaydedOne]

Gotta agree with Dhaeron here. Take a look at how many patches Dom2 got in its lifetime. What, 16 or 17? How many new nations/themes got added to the game during those patches?

I actually think IW is much better than many larger companies about not only correcting their mistakes where they can, but also offering free new content on a fairly regular basis.

[BigJMoney]

Well, I was just in contact with my resident gaming store owner, and I have discovered that labels kill. The idea of selling a "video game" in a gaming shop is unbearable to some owners. I'm sure there are very good reasons for 95% of the cases they get, but trying to describe to someone how Dominions is in the 5% can be nearly impossible.

I think I'm going to start calling Dominions an "electronic (fantasy) wargame" rather than a PC or video game. It's a wargame you play on the computer. I even like the way it's packaged. It doesn't come in the typical uselessly stylish box, but you are instead presented with a 300 page spiral bound manual. If I were to see it sitting on the shelf, I'd have no idea it was even a PC game. So, that's it. I am from now on referring to Dominions as an electronic wargame. Some PC gamers will enjoy it, some won't. Some tabletop gamers will enjoy it, some won't. It sort of falls right there in the balanced middle somewhere. I wish Shrapnel the best of luck on locating their proper market for these kinds of games in the future, because the accepted labels make it very hard.

=$=

[Morkilus]

Nice article. However, I was hoping that it would be about how you were a miniatures developer and were interested in producing a minis line for the Dominions characters. If only I could have a nice set of Horrors and Ice Devils to bring to D&D and Magic tournaments, and I could spam Cainehill's mailbox with Age-Crippled Philosophers.

[Gandalf Parker]

Very nice writeup. And I agree. A hobby game is a good label for it.

[Amos]

(MOO3 being an example. I don't agree with the people who say it's bad, though i admit it's very bug-ridden, what most people percieve as bugs, aren't really)

I liked parts of MOO3, like tactical combat. But the game was unfinished. You dont release unfinished product like that and then close the shop.
IMHO all PC games are hobby games. If you want the product bad enough you will pay what ever price is asked. Its called inflation.

[isodea]

I really enjoy table games but don't have the desire or ability to set them up and play all the time.
Domionions fits that gap nicely.

[DominionsFan]

Hold on, I thought that playing computer games is a hobby. Well for some people gaming is a lifeform, I gotta admit, but those lads are just ehm...sick a bit. ...for the "normal people" gaming is a hobby.

[Teraswaerto]

I guess the difference would be in that instead of saying "my hobby is computer games" you'd say "my hobby is Dominions 3".

Some games can be like that, you don't really play "computer games", you just play World of Warcraft, Ultima Online, Dominions, etc. (there's no time or need for anything else ).