Are we paying more for less?

[Neophyte]

Part of the value (for me) that Dom3 comes with is multi-platformability without loss of features (iirc, Oblivion was "dumbed down" to accomadate the console people). Granted, I have other hobbies than computer gaming and do not have the most current knowledge of the computer gaming industry. However, I feel safe in thinking that Dom3 is in the vast, vast minority of games that get released with Win / Linux and Mac distributions at market release all in the same distribution. Dom2 even had a Solaris executable.

To this end, I bought Dom2 before being sure I liked it to support Linux gaming development. (Please don't tell KO that I am currently playing Dom2 on Windows... )

This multi-platformability is way more than the big manufacturers provide with their supposed bigger and better resources. And when the big mfg's do provide multi-platformability, they often force the consumer to buy a separate instance of the game for each platform. Why should I have to buy a separate copy of a game to play on my Linux machine when I already possess a license to run the game and will only be playing on the Linux machine xor the Windows machine? In this respect, multi-platformability, Dom3 has the bigger mfg's beat hands down.

I do agree that the pricing for Dom2 could have come down a bit, especially after Dom3 development was announced.

As for graphics, I want be able to play the game on my notebook, which does not have graphics upgradability. I got stiffed on this by Civ4. A turn-based strategy game, in my opinion, should at the very least have an "ugly mode" to allow for dated graphics cards. Civ4 has nowhere near the price per unit time spent playing value (for me) as games with limited replay such as the KOTOR series for just this reason.

[Unwise]

I find it interesting that no one has really brought up the one aspect of the Dominions games that have made it such a long-running favorite with my buddies and me: the fact that we don't have to be on-line at the same time to play it.

Seriously -- my pals work different shifts (occasionally on different continents), and the ability to download the data from the server, plan out your turn on a bus or airplane somewhere and then upload it for the nightly turn-running is absolutely spectacular. There is no way that any significant number of us could get on-line daily and resolve a RTS-style battle... at least not on a long-term basis.

We've had Dominions games that have lasted months. Actually, I don't think we've had a game that has NOT lasted at least a month. We send elaborate messages to one another spelling out in horrific detail what we will do to someone's lawn if they even *think* about taking that coastal province from us, and on at least one occasion a $50 bottle of scotch was the bounty for a joint sneak-attack on Vanheim.

No way we could do that with a 'Total War' game.

[BigJMoney]

I also cannot believe M:TW is being used as a comparison. I won't even go into how much the developers are screwing up THAT strategy game (although, now that I've read some of Tim's posts here, I can maybe see that they are trying to save their necks, financially), but I will mention the glaring fact that game doesn't even support strategic multiplayer. I will say this again, M:TW is not a multiplayer strategy game. Dominions is a very good single player game, but at the heart of it is a very, very, very good multiplayer strategy game.

By the way, when you get M:TW2 can you come here and discuss it some in an OT thread? I'm curious about that game, but not curious enough to shell out $$. I fear those developers missed their chance to cater to niche players and are forced to make their games more mainstream compliant with every succession.

=$=

[Mltdwn]

BigJMoney said:
I also cannot believe M:TW is being used as a comparison. I won't even go into how much the developers are screwing up THAT strategy game (although, now that I've read some of Tim's posts here, I can maybe see that they are trying to save their necks, financially), but I will mention the glaring fact that game doesn't even support strategic multiplayer. I will say this again, M:TW is not a multiplayer strategy game. Dominions is a very good single player game, but at the heart of it is a very, very, very good multiplayer strategy game.

Ok the only thing I will say about the MP aspect is this... I, like ~95% of the strat gaming community, do not play MP (http://forums.stardock.com/?forumid=162&aid=98074), I would rather have challenging AI with deep gameplay and various ways to achieve the same goal (i.e. being able to play two different nations off against one another whil selling each weaponary and supplies, and then using the money they are paying me to get rebel nations/states to secretly come over to my side and hitting them both when they are at their weakest rather than just turtling up and focusing up on military domination, or research) and the like, and then if MP is thrown in on top of that cool. That's just me, and I am DLing the Dom3 demo to see if perhaps it may be something that I will enjoy, but given the depth of upcoming games (i.e. GalCivII Expansion, SEV, etc.) it is going to be hard justifying spending ~$77 for a game including shipping when I can purchase other games for cheaper in the stores themselves or buy online with a DL package.

[alexti]

Mltdwn said:
I, like ~95% of the strat gaming community, do not play MP (http://forums.stardock.com/?forumid=162&aid=98074)

I don't know if you can trust those numbers, but in any case they certainly don't apply to Dominions. The main reason more people don't play MP is that very few games implement MP properly. Most of strategy games are hard to do in one sitting and arranging time to continue is a nightmare. That's not the case with Dominions and playing against live opponents is more challenging than vs AI.

[Gandalf Parker]

Well I dont agree.

If what you said was true then I would have 50 nations declaring war on me by turn 10. Ive never been challenged by more than a few nations and they were always within a few provinces of me.

[DominionsFan]

alexti said:

I don't know if you can trust those numbers, but in any case they certainly don't apply to Dominions. The main reason more people don't play MP is that very few games implement MP properly. Most of strategy games are hard to do in one sitting and arranging time to continue is a nightmare. That's not the case with Dominions and playing against live opponents is more challenging than vs AI.

It is different in Doms, Im pretty sure. I would say at least half of the Doms players are focusing on MP mainly, but hell knows the exact percentage.