what about the future?

[13lackGu4rd]

Tim Brooks, while all this information is obviously hidden from us, the public, it's still false to discount everything on the basis of "lack of information". experience also counts, and can help fill some of the gap created by the lack of information you're describing. moreover, we're part of your customer base, so we know what we want personally, as well as what we like and dislike about Dominions3 and everything related to it that we're exposed to.

so sure, in a university course the obvious answer would be "can't answer, not enough information". but in life you can never have enough information, yet you must make decisions. thus you make decisions without adequate information.

with that being said, not everything we say about Shrapnel is bad, heck personally I haven't said anything bad about you guys(at least not in this thread, can't bother with digging up all my posts around here for this...) and others too. the simple(yet often overlooked) fact that we're still here, 6 years after the original release of Dominions3 should tell you a lot about your game. most games don't last this long, only truly exceptional games do, so there were many things done right in Dominions3.

but like everything else in life, each coin has 2 sides. there are the good things and the bad things. the wisdom is not to eliminate them, cause that's impossible, it's to emphasize the good and try to hide the bad as well as you can.

as for actual marketing techniques. right now it seems like you're trying to fight the community to prove a certain point, instead of actually trying to listen and filter out the useful information we give you from all the background rants. this thread, as well as other threads around here, have offer you(as Shrapnel) as well as Illwinter with some very useful information, masked with endless rants and spam. if you can filter out the useful information you'll have a lot of new material to work with, which can greatly improve your game as well as your marketing, which of course will in the end lead to higher profits.

[Eximius Sus]

Shrapnel sucks. Discuss?

PS: Of course this is a banning offence.

[Eximius Sus]

Originally Posted by Tim Brooks

So go ahead tell us how terrible we are. We're pretty used to it. But pardon me if I don't take the conversation all that seriously.

You replied. You generally don't react to most of the drivel posted on this forum. Clearly you care. I'd say you take this quite seriously. I mean let's face facts. Sales is your life blood. If you don't sell you die. Simple enough.

[Eximius Sus]

I thought about this some more. The price of Dom3 is a smoke screen. If it sells then you win. If it doesn't discount. Who gives a crap about the AAA results. Dom3 isn't AAA material. You can make the decision on what price point works. Cliffski has it right. What makes nerds like me pay for a game? Content and challenge. Simple enough. Provide enough content and enough challenge and grognards will buy.

Then you have the tough part. How do you keep the grognards playing? Clearly it's not by kicking their asses when they tell you that you got it wrong.

[Eximius Sus]

Grognards are simple. If you have the best game they will pay for it. Dom3 is pretty much the best game going.

[Fantomen]

You do not have enough information to answer this question.

We do have this information:

We know how you treat your customers.

We know how other game distrubutors treat their customers.

We know the difference.

[Tim Brooks]

I'm sorry you thought that I was attacking you. My bad. It wasn't meant as an attack, it was meant to impart my thoughts on the whole issue. Sorry for getting involved.

[Foodstamp]

Originally Posted by Eximius Sus

Shrapnel sucks. Discuss?

PS: Of course this is a banning offence.

The guy has already been banned once.

[thejeff]

And then of course there's the meta question of whether you make more people angry by responding and explaining why you won't change your marketing strategy based on forum comments or by ignoring them.

And whether anyone will actually be annoyed enough to not buy further Shrapnel games or talk the company down to other potential customers.

Thanks for explaining some of your reasoning.

[Tim Brooks]

Originally Posted by thejeff

And then of course there's the meta question of whether you make more people angry by responding and explaining why you won't change your marketing strategy based on forum comments or by ignoring them.

And whether anyone will actually be annoyed enough to not buy further Shrapnel games or talk the company down to other potential customers.

Thanks for explaining some of your reasoning.

I always consider this, especially in this forum. Alot of passionate gamers here. I was surprised that my post was thought of as an attack though. Thanks for the post.