Dominions II - Low Budget and Overpriced? I think not.

[UNIVAC]

Im sorry but you cant mix satisfaction ratio with economical issues.If you want to be objective and speak only in economic terms, satisfaction has nothing to do.
Saber, if you want a rational and coherent answer, try to figure out why you pay the same, for two games like Dominions 2 and Max Payne 2.Try to figure out people involved in both projects, marketing, equipment, ....You like or not, production cost is directly linked to the price.And you are wrong in one thing, you can calculate the production cost of EVERYTHING

With this im not saying that i support the point of view you are attacking, because i dont.But i think your speech is subjective.

[Karacan]

The term "low budget" is a descriptive term, mostly. Flashy eyecatchers, impressive opening videos, fullscale 3d battles with tons of animations, animated world and tons of earrending soundeffects are noticeably missing from Dominions II.

The graphics are functional, the soundtrack is pleasing the first couple of games (though the very few tracks always repeating themselves get tiresome rather quick) and well, at least there's flashy spell effects in combat.

We're not talking about replay value, fun, clever gamedesign or anything, just about the Flashiness, whose absence causes Dom II to be labeled by most people (including me) as "low budget".

I admit the price made me gulp as well. My decision to purchase the game was more of a fanboyish attidue: When I played Dom I, I knew instantly that if Dom II ever made it, it'd be mine. If I hadn't have tons of experience of the deep gaming experience of Dominions I, I strongly doubt that the Dom II demo (with that lousy 40 turn limit, which turned me off additionally) would have even started to convince me to shell out a lot of cash.

A lot of cash? Yes. When I describe Dominions to others, I tend to use the term "the Nethack of strategy gaming". Nethack, which I still play - a great low budget game of immense depth and replayability, which did not cost a lot of money.

Anyway, the point is that I purchased the game because I loved Dominions I, not because I think it's not overprized.

[apoger]

I think people are using the term "low budget" as a synonym for "poor production values". Perhaps not the best use of language, but I understand the intent.

When people pay "full" price for things they expect all the amenities, such as good documentation, good tutorials, and a clean/intuitive interface.


Price versus perceived value is very important. The "low budget" commentary is the way the the players are expressing their dissatisfaction with their perceived purchase. Nobody really cares how much money has been spent on game production. What they care about is game fun/functionality versus their time/money.

[Karacan]

Hmm, I forgot to add two points:

Is it worth the price? Yes, for me, it is. Although I had to think about it.

Why is it worth the price? And this is the point: Not only because of a good game design that offers a lot of fun, but mainly because I supported with my money a cool low budget company with great ideas about games and excellent ideas how to make them work (have a look at any other shareware fantasy strategy stuff to know that this is apparently not an easy feat).

I am still left with the (subjective) impression that Dom II is not a shareware game, not for this price. And as a non-shareware game, the critics are more unforgiving for polish and shine, too.

[SurvivalistMerc]

I think the real question with computer games is: Are you satisfied with what you got for what you paid? With respect to Dominions, I am satisfied.

I did suffer a bit from sticker shock when I saw the price they were asking. But games like this might be hard to price. I have no idea whether they've even sold enough copies to meet their production costs. Because this game isn't in stores...only over the internet. And I want the game to be at least somewhat profitable to illwinter/shrapnel because...if it's not...we won't have other games like this. So I've resolved not to complain too much about the bad documentation or lackluster (but serviceable) graphics until I know the game has at least made a reasonable profit.

To me, what is most important in a game I'm paying over $40.00 for is replay value. I hear a lot of folks wanting a random map generator...but for me there is already a random map generator built into the map. The provinces aren't exactly the same every game. Because the most improtant thing...to me...the magic sites...differs with every game. It may be that income and population are constant...and the rivers and mountains certanly are. Of course, unless you make your own maps you never know where you are going to start.

The demo was critical to my choice to purchase the game. I had never played Dom 1, and if I had not heard about Dom 2 on another game board...I would have missed out.

This may be silly of me...but I'm hoping that if the game is a huge financial success the company will improve the documentation and the graphics, add some more sound tracks, and offer it to customers as a "patch" (more medieval music in the form of a downloadable mp3 "patch" would be totally wonderful, and it can't be all that expensive to hire performers since the intellectual property rights to authentic medieval pieces have long since expired). I know a number of folks who wouldn't like this "niche" game because those people are more into graphics than into rich, strategic, complex, multifaceted gameplay. I still think that is their loss.

[Whismerhill]

I totally agree with karakan
the fact that I bought the game is for supporting them and allowing illwinter to create one day a dominions 3
because cracking the demo to play without any limits is easy as hell ;-)

ho, and speaking of "is the game my money worth?"
for me dominions 1 was not but dominions 2 is

keep up the good job illwinter (and give us that long awaited patch )

[Gandalf Parker]

I think generally that the "low budget / high budget" thing is that when something obviously wasnt done like one of the big budget things, then it could be priced less than the big budget thing. Some feel that it was big-budget priced unfairly.

But worth is a seperate subject. Thats how you decide the fairness of the pricing. Dom1 lived on my machine while at least 2 dozen games of far more price came and went. Therefor I feel it was a good purchase.

Dom2 I highly expect will live on my machine for longer than any game of equal cost. Therefor I will not consider that to have been a waste of money.