what about the future?

[13lackGu4rd]

fantasma, first of all I was replying on the reduction of computer game prices in general, not specifically about Dominions3. hence many of the examples I gave don't apply to Dominions3, being in the very niche category that it is in... with that being said, you're still wrong on several accounts.

Originally Posted by fantasma

That said, we are facing an audience for this game that does not have the luxury to select between a dozen products, I have not seen anything comparable to dom3 for years, have you?

wrong, the audience you're talking about is a very very small group. Dominions3 doesn't rely on the audience you're referring to, or else it would still be losing money over the production fees, sallies, etc... dominions3 targets quite a variety of people, here are a few examples:
1. hardcore TBS freaks
2. casual games who don't have a lot of time on their hands for long multiplayer sessions, yet still enjoy multiplayer a lot more than mindless battles against crappy AIs
3. strategy freaks in general(both RTS and TBS) who can appreciate good games despite having bad graphics, sound, UI, etc
4. older people, many with families already, that are not your typical "gamers".
5. people who utterly dislike the whole "click fest" of most modern games(no matter the genre).

these are just examples, there are more, and obviously some(or even most) people fall into more than 1 category.

This is vastly different to most of the examples (TVs, cars, etc.) where development is extremely fast, meaning a product is outdated upon introduction. This is not the case for dom3 after so many years. If you have not understood, this game lives because it wraps up mythology from the whole planet packages that into a $50 product and let you play god! WTF about graphics, sound, UI, AI, I think it is a great deal.

no offense, but this was just pathetic fanboy material... Dominions3 was very much outdated even on its release date on 2004. it has awful graphics(compared to other games in 2004), unimaginative sound, very bad UI, etc. heck, just look at how little Dominions3 taxes your hardware to notice that it's very much outdated.

Dominions3 is appealing because of its concept, and because it aims for populations that don't care much about high end graphics and sound, which are the focus of most modern games. Dominions3 cares about the quality of its content instead, which is too rare these days

with that being said, there are still other game companies that also try to live up to the same standards as Shrapnel. the Civilization series is a good example, Stardock(and the now infamous Elemental) is another. there are still innovations even within this very limited concept, so Shrapnel just can't afford to keep Dominions3 at the same price it was on release, when for the same money you can get newer games that are a lot more appealing in many ways.

Sure everything could be better, but you know, I still enjoy fending off impossible AIs, and I would enjoy multiplayer much more if I had the time on a regular basis. Of course I am annoyed by transferring blood slaves one by one and the like.

well, good for you. but most people don't enjoy fending off hordes of mindless AI that you can easily destroy with a few Earthquakes, Rain of Stones, etc. the real challenge lies within multiplayer, and the deficiencies of Dominions3 are certainly annoying(mainly the bad UI) but we still like this game because despite of them it's still a great game.

I think dom3 is a product that attracts certain people and there are not many competitors. You could increase sales mainly by increasing the number of people who have heard about it, but that is easier said than done.

I partially agree with you here, but only partially. at 55$(the price I bought it for just a few months before they finally released the digital download) the price of Dominions3 is way too high, heck new "standard" games go for 30-50$, and these have a lot more expenses than Dominions3 had(massive game engine, state of the art graphics, better sound and UI, etc), not to mention they're new(max 1-2 year old), not 6 years old. moreover there are people, that Dominions3 appeals to, that spending 55$ on an old computer game is just too much, but they would have bought it for less. moreover the people interested in this genre have mostly heard about Dominions3 already, from various sources, it's not like Dominions3 doesn't have any publicity/public awareness...

I think sales are important since they create the incentive to actually buy the product instead of pondering for another six months, not creating more customers.

totally agree with you, but I ask you to take it a step further. instead of inducing sales they should just lower the price globally, to get the same effect, just more powerful.

In short, supply and demand is not applicable because demand is limited, supply not. But demand is limited in the sense that you either want it or not want it, pricing is mostly irrelevant in this target group, as long as it stays reasonable.

in short, supply and demand is still very much relevant. the people you imply this concept doesn't imply to are a minority within the total customer base of Dominions3. the majority of the customer base do have alternatives.

Originally Posted by thejeff

Many products don't drop in price over time, if we're talking about product lines as opposed to actual things. Sure, two year old cars are cheaper than this year's model, but that's because the actual thing is two years old and used and thus is not likely to last as long. If they just keep making them to the same design the price doesn't drop.

first of all we're talking about actual products here, in this case dominions3. not the whole product line, which in this case would be all of Shrapnel's games, all TBS games, etc. second of all, even for product lines, there are still innovations that are made every day which eventually impact the line, sometimes it takes more than a few years but it does happen. again, classic models and antiquities aside...

lets take a basic example you claim stays steady, furniture: say you got an office chair from 5 years ago. today you have office chairs which are a lot more comfortable, have better angles, better back padding, handles, etc. why would you still buy the lesser chair from 5 years ago instead of a new chair? the only reason you'd do so is if the 5 year old office chair is significantly cheaper than a new office chair. now, how will the price be significantly lower? line production fees, raw materials, salaries, etc haven't increased over the years, the only field in which an increase in producing cost would be in engineering innovations, but those are not nearly enough to justify a significantly higher price than a state of the art office chair of 5 years ago.

Clearance sales and discontinued products aside, furniture stays at about the same price as long as it's being produced. Chairs that were designed 2 years ago aren't half the price of this year's chairs.

maybe not half the price, and maybe a bit more than 2 year difference, but saying furniture prices stay the same is just false. refer to example above.

Electronics are a special case. The same specs do keep getting cheaper, but that's because the tech keeps getting better. Not only do higher performance versions keep coming out, but it gets cheaper to make the lower performance hardware. Software often follows this pattern, since new versions keep being made to exploit the new hardware.

electronics is not a special case, it's simply the extreme side of the phenomenon. technology advancements usually make all production lines cheaper, the only difference is how much cheaper they become and how much better they allow the final product to be. heck, the whole point of technological progress is to make production as a whole cheaper, otherwise there would be no economical logic behind investing money in making better technologies in the first place...