Great game, awful name/branding

Sammas · #1 August 30th, 2005, 08:55 PM

I've been actively looking for a game like this ever since Master of Magic came out, and yet I haven't picked this game up until now..

I'm sure I've actually seen the this game numerous times, but I've never even looked into it because I always assumed Dominions and its sequel was an Ion Storm RTS, and the game name and box cover art do not dissuade a potential customer from this association. In fact, the name and cover art don't really tell a potential customer *anything at all*, which is really a huge problem for obvious reasons.

Anyway, looking forward to getting my teeth into this one, finally.

Zooko · #2 August 30th, 2005, 10:40 PM

Yeah, the box and ads for Dom3 really ought to include a strategic map or unit display or something, not just the battlefield screen shots...

Arralen · #3 August 31st, 2005, 03:43 AM

Sorry, but "nomen est omen".

Did you ever notice that Dominions is exaclty about that: the dominions of the various pretenders? Most likely not (yet), as you are new to the game ...
Armies, Assassines, Priests, Temples, Mages - there's only one purpose : to further the worshipping of the one and only god.

So it's very unlikely the game name would ever change. Maybe the subtitle, but that's it.

Sammas · #4 August 31st, 2005, 04:34 AM

You missed the point. All I'm saying is that if someone is in a shop looking for a fantasy TBS, they're much more likely to pick up something called "Heroes of Might & Magic" with drawings of wizards and castles on the front than something called "Dominions" with abstract purple/blue art.

They can't change the name now of course, and I'm not suggesting it change. Just putting in my 2c as someone who would have bought it ages ago had I looked at it in the shops.

PDF · #5 August 31st, 2005, 10:21 AM

But the game isn't available in shops, nor is it even boxed, so what's the point ?
Unless I've missed some distro agreement between Shrapnel and someone else ??

Endoperez · #6 August 31st, 2005, 12:22 PM

Dom:PPP (Dominions 1) had box art with a painting of a man looking down to a world, but it was so small one coulnd't really make it out. The box art could be improved a lot. The blue something doesn't even look like fantasy. Classic 'gods playing chess with creatures magic and mortal' would work much better, and almost anything else that would show up the tremenduos amount of everything in this game would work well, too.

I have known of Dominions games for a long time, from the times of Bogus Game Design, and I have noticed some other games with names similar enough to be mistaken. Unfortunately, these other games are better-known than Dominions. Especially the online game Dominions comes quite close to the description if one doesn't really know what he is looking for. However, the name suits the game and I have grown very fond of it.

magnate · #7 August 31st, 2005, 12:53 PM

I have to say, for a long time I thought references to Dominions on c.s.i.p.g.strategic were to "Dominions: Storm Over Gift", which I think is an RTS title, and Dominions II was a sequel to that. So I also ignored it for a year or more.

If Illwinter want to leap forward in terms of online-only market reach, they could do worse than study GalCiv. Say what you like about the game (and I'm ambivalent), the online marketing was very good. I knew what it was and why I might want it well before I got it.

CC

Endoperez · #8 August 31st, 2005, 04:26 PM

That game was Dominion: Storm Over Gift. Not Dominions. Still, it is too close...

Nerfix · #9 September 2nd, 2005, 04:15 PM

Was D:SOG the RTS with the biological units or am I thinking about something else?