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

[NTJedi]

Argitoth said:
LOL!!! I just realized. I can't buy Dominions III because by the time it's released I'll be gone, away! Never to return! Actually, just for a year.

Zero entertainment for a year... either you are joining one of those reality TV shows, some unknown cult, or you're trying to bore yourself to death. Just kidding.

Argitoth said:
But why does GamersFront give us ZERO benefit for pre-ordering? Anyone knows that a good publisher will throw in SOMETHING! Was it Ultima Online or EverQuest that gave you cloth maps for pre-ordering? That's really stupid that GamersFront is completely ignoring the buyer.

Well before May_20th the preorder benefit was financial... saving the consumer $7.00 in cost. So financially it was better to pre_order before May_20th.

Actually if Shrapnel wanted they could release a "Collectors Edition" of Dominions_3. The collectors edition could include 3 unique items to lure the true fans. First a small paper manual providing hints & history otherwise not available. Second could be a figure of the angel in DOM_3 which is to rival the demonlords. having a holy symbol in the box should help. And third and most important is that anyone which purchased a collectors edition could attend a private online 1_hour chat with the Illwinter developers. This chat would be setup where the developers would choose to only answer the questions they wish. All questions would have to be PM to someone which sorts and passes the civilized questions to Illwinter.
--made a topic for this:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...&Number=426312

Argitoth said:
GamersFront is basically saying, "Let the buyers pre-order 2 to 3 months before the game is released, we don't care if we are out of stock, we don't care if the price is high, oh no. Lets ignore the buyer and give them NOTHING for helping us. No reduced price, no store credit, no special mouse pad, no cloth maps... Let's not give anything to our fans."

Anyone which pre-orders the game won't be on the 'out of stock' list because they manufacture the CDs, books and game box in bulk. Shrapnel will examine the total pre-order requests and match the demand for shipping before the game is released.
The TRUE benefit of pre-ordering was before May_20th which I mentioned earlier. The only benefit of pre-ordering now is not being placed on some waiting list if the game becomes a huge success. Ideally the game should still have a $2.oo discount to encourage more pre-orders.

I won't be able to take part in the Doms3 community.

We'll be here when you finish your year vacation which has zero entertainment. And one benefit you can look forward to upon returning is that your first game will have an official patch making it more stable and balanced.