Pre-ordering is a benefit not for the buyer...

[Varjostin]

Endoperez said:

Varjostin, have you tried out DomII at all? You might want to adjust a little to the user interface, because the change from Dom:PPP to DomII was much bigger than it seems to be from DomII to Dom!!!.

Well, I have played the demo and the whole game at a friend, but I couldn't convince my parents again to lend me their credit card back then, because they (or my mother) became aware of the so-called dangers of e-buying. Yeah, it's the policy of my family. Since I now have a Visa Electron I was able to buy Dom III and I thought it's not worth of buying Dom II this late.

I have looked at the screenshots and feature lists and they look awesome. I can't wait to get my copy of the game. I presume it's published in June, right?

[Nerfix]

Varjostin said:Well, I have played the demo and the whole game at a friend, but I couldn't convince my parents again to lend me their credit card back then, because they (or my mother) became aware of the so-called dangers of e-buying. Yeah, it's the policy of my family. Since I now have a Visa Electron I was able to buy Dom III and I thought it's not worth of buying Dom II this late.

Goodnes, a fellow finn with same problem as I have.

Except my VE can't order stuff abroad.

[Gandalf Parker]

Ive worked for internet providors and I often recommend that people get some cheapo credit card that is NOT tied to your main bank account. Something like a $200 limit. And mark it as "for internet use".

Of course you are more likely to lose your credit info by carbon copy theft using it somewhere like cheap restaurants or gas stations, so its generally a good idea to get a minor card like that and mark it for daily spending also.

[PDF]

Varjostin,
Here games are also in the 45-50€ range... I forgot the $ was so cheap these days, when I preordered rate was rather 0.85 !

DominionsFAN,
Sure the publisher choice on price is dependent on the "price elasticity" he etimates... Maybe Shrapnel thought that the game has a rather big "sure audience" (eg fans) that won't be scared by higher price, or that to the contrary not much additional people will buy it even if it's cheap.
BTW I understand their analysis, Dom is a rather demanding game that will never sell in very high numbers (however good it can be)

[Varjostin]

Yes PDF, it's certainly amazing how such an esoteric thing like an exchange rate can affect our gaming hobby this much. I actually started to follow the economics pages of our newspaper after discovering the price difference caused by the exchange rates! I think I managed to buy Dom III just in the right time.

[Agrajag]

Lucky for you.
No matter how weak the (USA) Dollar gets, the NIS (New Israely Shekel) always gets lower.
So here 55$ is quite expensive (roughly 237 NIS, 267 with shipment), which isn't far from the average computer game, costing 220-240 NIS.
Which is still very overpriced compared to buying power of an average consumer in here.

Also, getting a special benefit for pre-ordering is extremely rare, and pre-ordering is just a means of slightly decreasing the chance the shop will run out of stock when you try and buy the game.

And people are surprised digital piracy is high in Israel :\ (especially the people who think we live in tents and drive camels to work)

[WraithLord]

Agrajag said:
And people are surprised digital piracy is high in Israel :\ (especially the people who think we live in tents and drive camels to work)

Where did you get that impression from?
I have been to Europe, China and S. America and I found that ppl there have an exaggerated conception of Israel as a large country with a strong economy and science. This is of course a generalization but at least that was the impression I got when talking to locals about Israel.

And more on topic, I agree that NIS is weak compared to dollar which makes dominions (and most other games) more expensive to Israelis.

[Endoperez]

Nerfix said:

Goodnes, a fellow finn with same problem as I have.

Except my VE can't order stuff abroad.

I got Dom:PPP when my dear godmother bought it from an otherwise non-games computer shop in Helsinki. I have since visited there once myself, just to see the place from where I received the Swedish blessing.
I hoped to get DomII for my birthday in December or Christmas, but for some reason my parents thought it to be better for me to wait until summer holidays.
Thankfully, I have no problems with Dom!!!. Being 18 does help, even if I don't care about alcohol or cars.

Do you other Finns remember the wonderful, wonderful review the Pelit magazine wrote for DomII? It was titled 'Tulkoon sinun valtakuntasi' (May thy kingdom come). I adore it. I have thought about scanning, printing & framing it. As far as price is concerned, if reading the review of a game I'm already familiar with makes me giggle, laugh and act unnervingly happy, it is worth its price. How did Gandalf sum it up, again? Digitalized crack? Pixelized crack? He was right!

[Nerfix]

I've read it. The best, but politicaly incorrect, subtitle there was "Nothing new on the West Bank"...

[Endoperez]

Nerfix said:
I've read it. The best, but politicaly incorrect, subtitle there was "Nothing new on the West Bank"...

Actually "Uutta länsirintamalta", literally "New on the Western Front" but better as "Something new on the Western Front". Sweden is Finland's western neighbour.
If those titles didn't fit the game that well, I'd have thought that the religious title and subtitles would be incorrect.

I just realized we conquered this thread. Sorry, Argitoth!