Any Plans

[Sombre]

I haven't found stardock annoying at all. It isn't like you have to leave it on - you just start it up every now and then to check for patches and browse through some other stuff.

[S.R. Krol]

Steam sucks.

But to address the actual original question it is extremely doubtful it will be offered as a download (there's a reason why we went all out with the manual, after all), but if it ever was offered as a download it wouldn't be with another company, but direct from us.

And if your friends are balking at the $54 cost there are a couple things to bring up:

1. You can play the game daily for years and still discover things. Ask anyone who's been playing since release day one. Therefore the cost to fun ratio is extremely high.

2. $54 gets you what, about a tank and a half of gas? A week's worth of groceries for one person? Five days of lunch? What's going to last longer, everything I just listed or the game?

3. You can spend $60 on a console game that has six hours of gameplay.

It should also be noted that periodically we offer sales, and if your friends are by any chance university students or in the military, we offer a discount program for students and military personnel. Details can be found on the store site, look for the "Savings for Scholars and Soldiers" link on the bottom left.

[Zeldor]

Exactly, standard console game costs $59.99 + tax. And if you live in Europe there is a huge discount made by US goverment, that is low value of dollar

And there were many topics stating that selling small amount of copies is much more expensive [per copy] than tens of thousands.

I guess many people tried here pirated version, especially in the beginning, when it was really hard to get it. But that game is sure worth buying and paying full price. Try to name 10 games with playability over 2 weeks

[vfb]

Panzer General & sequels, Civ/Civ2/AC, MoM, Moo I & II, XCom, Thief I & II, Nethack, Moria & clones, Starcraft, and ... and ... and ... oh, brain freeze ... and ... oh, Warlords or TG16 Military Madness or Sega Master of Monsters. or something like that.

But I only play Dom3 these days .

[Sombre]

Xcom Apocalypse, Planescape Torment, Fallout 1+2, Warlords DLR, Jagged Alliance 2, Gladius, System Shock 2, Warcraft 3, Total War series, Startopia, Galactic Civilisations 2, Devil May Cry 3, Dynasty Warriors series, Diablo II etc etc ETC.

There are thousands of excellent games out there.

I personally think Dom3 is expensive in comparison with other games, because I never buy games at full price, I buy them when their price drops. This didn't happen with Dom3 and clearly wasn't going to. I have my money's worth, but I would tell anyone planning on buying dom3 to try the demo first. I wouldn't feel the need to warn people when it comes to cheaper games.

[Theonlystd]

S.R. Krol said:
Steam sucks.

But to address the actual original question it is extremely doubtful it will be offered as a download (there's a reason why we went all out with the manual, after all), but if it ever was offered as a download it wouldn't be with another company, but direct from us.

And if your friends are balking at the $54 cost there are a couple things to bring up:

1. You can play the game daily for years and still discover things. Ask anyone who's been playing since release day one. Therefore the cost to fun ratio is extremely high.

2. $54 gets you what, about a tank and a half of gas? A week's worth of groceries for one person? Five days of lunch? What's going to last longer, everything I just listed or the game?

3. You can spend $60 on a console game that has six hours of gameplay.

It should also be noted that periodically we offer sales, and if your friends are by any chance university students or in the military, we offer a discount program for students and military personnel. Details can be found on the store site, look for the "Savings for Scholars and Soldiers" link on the bottom left.

I've linked em all to the demo.. Again they cant get past the price. And really i find the demo pretty underwhelming it gives you basic idea about the game play but doesnt let a person truely appreciate the variety of nations and strategy not to mention mods .And all thats very important considering the lack luster graphics .


People have limited funds for entertainment products . 60 dollars for an indy game is a pretty big investment ..And the people im talking to arent big console gamers and most assuredly not the kind that drop 60dollars for a shooter that'll last em one day.. Not to mention PC games are usually cheaper than console ones so not even a good comparison.

So just curious if there are any plans about a price cut.

[capnq]

Theonlystd said: I've linked em all to the demo.. Again they cant get past the price. And really i find the demo pretty underwhelming it gives you basic idea about the game play but doesnt let a person truely appreciate the variety of nations and strategy not to mention mods.

If someone can't see how much variety and strategy the game has from the demo, they haven't spent enough time playing the demo.

People have limited funds for entertainment products . 60 dollars for an indy game is a pretty big investment

This is a pet peeve of mine. Gamers are notorious cheapskates who often seem to forget that games are a luxury item. They constantly whine about how expensive indy games are, even after people have repeatedly explained the concept of economies of scale to them. I'd rather see Shrapnel and Illwinter stay in business and make more games, than try to placate the complainers who will never be satisfied with a game's asking price.

[Zeldor]

If they do not buy every crap that comes to market they should have a lot of money to spend on few good games. And they spent at least $1000 for their computer, so I am sure they can spend $50 every few months for a game.

[sector24]

I think you guys are forgetting that you already know how awesome Dominions 3 is. For someone who just plays the demo and looks at the cost, it's not nearly the same. It's very easy to spend $60 on something that ends up being complete garbage, so they're looking at the risk that Dom3 might be another one of those situations.

When you're younger, you have far less money and are far more attracted to flash rather than substance. Most gamers can tell you a story about how they saved up their money for the hottest newest game, bought it at full price, and got burned by what ended up being a complete waste of time.

We take that hard lesson with us as we grow up, and even full grown adults with expendable income are reluctant to spend what they feel is a corporate big budget price for an indy game. Of course we can tell them what a fool they are for not getting Dominons, but there is reluctance all the same.

I'm not really sure how to fix this. Obviously the developers deserve the money, but maybe there is a way to create a price break for a Dominions "light" vs. a Dominions "gold". The light version costs less, has full functionality, but perhaps slightly less content. Fewer nations, maps, maybe just Early Era. The gold version would of course be the real deal. Dominions "Light" players could at some point in the future pay the difference to upgrade to gold if they wanted the increased content.

Maybe not the best example, but I'm sure there's some business model that could solve this. Personally, I had to buy a 2nd copy for my friend because he thought it was too expensive. Which meant that I had to wait for his birthday, which meant the world of Dominions went without their God for several months. What a travesty!

[Zeldor]

sector24:

Oh yes, Heroes of Might and Magic 4&5, what a waste of money...

With so many crap games today really many people pirate games and then buy ones they like. But it is not a thing to recommend to anyone. I just try not to touch anything made by EA and it makes choices much easier I have 2 games only now, Dom3 and ET:QW.