Why Not Digitial Distribution?

[Shovah32]

Even though alot of people seem to be against it, I support this too. I've spent plenty of money that I probably wouldn't have on things that couldn't be downloaded.
Digital Distribution is so much fun n_n.

[Revolution]

With Gal Civ 2 I was able to Download the game/cd key online and pay an extra 5 bucks to get the CD's shipped to me. Perhaps with Dom3 they could do it where you could download the game and get a password for the "I want to play now" aspect and then the person would get the actual CD/manual in the mail a week or two later.

[sector24]

I may be wrong here (and feel perfectly free to tell me so) but I think Shrapnel is very sensitive to piracy, far more so than some companies. Digitial download opens the dark door to the scary place. Some companies believe that the increased sales outweigh the small percentage of pirated copies, but I have never seen any hard numbers on this subject.

[Jazzepi]

sector24 said:
I may be wrong here (and feel perfectly free to tell me so) but I think Shrapnel is very sensitive to piracy, far more so than some companies. Digitial download opens the dark door to the scary place. Some companies believe that the increased sales outweigh the small percentage of pirated copies, but I have never seen any hard numbers on this subject.

I always find this type of argument very silly. Steve Jobs wrote an interesting piece talking about how the vast majority of music sold by CD-labels is sold DRM free, or with DRM that is so easy to circumvent that it might as well not even be there. CD ripping software is easy to use, and convenient.

On the flip side, said Jobs, the DRM you buy from digital downloads is atrocious.

Why then, if the vast majority of your output is unprotected, do you mire a rather small proportion of it in this draconic, DIVX style, DRM? The answer is, you shouldn't be.

So to make the comparison complete, the DRM on Dom 3 (CD-key) is relatively trivial. Pirated copies are out there on the internet, available with CD-keys. This is a reality of modern gaming that applies readily not just to Dom 3, but to all games.

So the idea that releasing it into a format with digital downloading would somehow increase piracy, when the game is already readily available in pirated form, is just silly. The genie is already out of the metaphorical bottle. By making the game available for download on say, Steam, which has decent DRM in place that would not require any more work by the illwinter staff AFAIK, they'd be able to reach a whole new audience.

Personally I'd /love/ to see Dom 3 turn into a block buster multimillion dollar product for the designers of the game. That way they could actually hire some people, and churn out Dom 4 with all sorts of neat goodies. Of which I would be first in line to pre order the gold version

Just to nip this in the bud, I have both a legitimate copy of Dom 2 and 3. I was thinking about taking a photo with my copy of the Dom 3 manual, but I seem to have misplaced my digital camera during the move =\

Jazzepi

[Nikolai]

Are you serious saying you would rather have Steam DRM'd version of Dominions III than version we have now?

Sorry, but this is nuts! From Steam, I get only games that I cannot get in a box and a CD, and then I play them only on my home desktop. I play Dominions III from two computers day to day, and two others when I move around. Can you even play Steam locked games without Internet connection?

[Endoperez]

I got it the usual way. I also got DomII usual way, but I had to wait for more than 6 months for that, because I couldn't order it on my own and my parents thought it would have a negative effect on my grades.

That reminds me, even though the Shrapnel stuff probably knows the numbers a bit better then me, I'm pretty sure if you sold Dominions 3 on retail you'd have even more buyers! All those impulse-buyers who wander around in PC shops looking for something to buy would see it and buy it, because Dominions is so well known. Also, there are a lot of people who can't or don't want to buy games online, and I bet they'd all buy Dominions as well. Also, translating the game and the manual to multiple languages would be great. Something like esperanto would be perfect - there are probably speakers of esperanto in all countries of the world, which would be a huge boost in your market when compared to just those who understand English. Also, it would be so cool to buy Vatican-version of Dominions to play Marignon. Latin for the win!

[Velusion]

S.R. Krol said:
Is an extra seven days of not having it really going to make a difference?

*blinks* Uh....Yes.

In today's instant gratification culture it makes very good sense to offer it online. I almost didn't bother it because I had to wait on it to ship. There are lots of good games out there I can download immediately - it took a lot of will power for me to invest my time in waiting.

This is ESPECIALLY true for a game you also can't find on store shelves.

[Zeldor]

Nikolai:

That isn't about you, me and many other people. But for many people it is hard to buy it. They have to pay S&H, wait for it to be shipped etc. And they would prefer to have it now, even if it means no pretty manual. Most people that have it here probably live in US and they can order it from Amazon with free shipping.

[Endoperez]

Analyzing the introductions thread:

59 from Europe

19 from Scandinavia (didn't count the Dutch in), the most important European sub-group. I didn't count UK people because UK isn't as important as Scandinavia, but there were well over a dozen from there as well.

66 from USA/Canada

9 from somewhere else (5 from Australia, and single ones from from Solomon Island, Mauritius, China, Argentina)


So while the US is the biggest market, at least judging by those who register at this forum Europe is at very nearly the same numbers. It should also be remembered that there are at least French language forums with Dominions discussion, and those who aren't native English speakers tend to favour forums in their own languages (except for Finns, who flock to these forums). I don't remember where I saw them. Probably after I read a Dom3 review published on some French site. It was maybe a year ago or something, but they had games going on back then.

[Agrajag]

Don't forget that a nice portion of the Dominions III "DRM" is The Manual.
Aside from legalities, The Manual is a very good reason to choose a legal copy of Dominions III over a pirated one.
Selling Dominions III online would require either supplying the manual as a PDF (which would then be instantly pirated and spread through the internet, ruining the current "DRM"), or allowing a download and sending the manual by mail, which would actually be more expensive to do.