Why Not Digitial Distribution?

[johan osterman]

Velusion said:
Jazzepi -

You are wasting your time. They don't really care about getting the game out to more people or increasing sales. The creators said it themselves in this thread (in so many words) and in other places.

While this concept is bizarre to most people (i.e. us) it is their purgatives.

It's the same reasoning that leads to the creators saying they don't want a save game feature and why glaring interface/ai issues exist but we get more expansion nations. It's also the one of the main reason why dominions will never get above the reputation that it is just an eccentric niche game for "hardcore" players.

The reasoning that leads to more nations is that JK and Kristoffer make the game for fun. They both have adequate incomes outside illwinter, and at least in Kristoffers case no desire to become a full time developer. The strengths as well as the weaknesses of the game are all a reflection of this. Your post almost make it sound like this is some sort of moral failure. Besides the nations vs AI interface is a red herring, in the illwinter division of labour Kristoffer does the nations, and he doesnt have the skills to fix any AI or interface issues no matter how much he wanted to. So the new nations does not in any significant way impact AI, bugfixes or interface issues.

The above is a different issue from the digital download, which is entirely shrapnels decision, I think you conflate the decisions of shrapnel and illwinter. Kristoffers post was a joke, I assure you he is not personally invested in not providing digital download. Illwinters interest in these matters are to do stuff they enjoy and avoid hassles, with the bonus of making a few bucks out of their hobby.

Edit: I would also like to point out that illwinter do certainly listen to customers, and try to meet their requests within reason.