Don't ShrapnelGames *want* Dom3 to succeed?

[Lingchih]

To be honest, I don't think the Illwinter team really cares whether the game makes a lot of money or not. I get the impression that they do it for the fun of it, as strange as that may sound.

[sum1lost]

I really disagree that the majority of gamers aren't able to wrap their heads around it. Thats a pretty strong claim, and sounds a bit egocentric. Its entirely possible that while they have no difficulty with a game like it, they simply don't want to shell out +50$ (common college student complaint) or simply prefer a faster game (another guy I know who is a double major as well as being on a school team and orchestra...)

[Candew]

If you look at other independent game developers (Matrix Games, for example), they offer most if not all of their games via digital download. The average price, around $50.00 US

As such, I do not think that DOM 3 is over priced, rather, given the large printed manual, I think it is a pretty good deal.

I am patiently awaiting my copy to arrive (3 to 5 business days to Canada via USPS Global Priority Mail). I too have received good play value from the demo.

While I wish it had been available via digital download, I can understand the dollars and cents argument that Shrapnel has made as to why this and other titles are only available via mail order.

[Update: game arrived this morning...goodbye world, hello Dominion 3]

[Dragar]

There is also something special about waiting each day for something you want to arrive in the mail.. was an exciting moment the day it arrived

[Wokeye]

Go Australia Post, eh?

[Arralen]

Innocence said:
Officially, anything with a value above some 10 Euros is subject to import tax. However, whether or not they "catch" your package and slam a VAT/import tax bill on it seems random, although I recon they go for the big packages foremost (wouldn't you? ).

They don't look for "big packets", they look for those where a value is declared. And right after that for those without a "value" or declared "gifts" .. and if they see something going from Shrapnel Games Inc. to Mr.SoNSo .. they immediatly suspect some commerical transaction going on

That said, the threshold for Import Tax and Import Duty e.g. in Germany is 22 Euro, and that should be the same throughout the EU.
On 1. Dec 2008, there will be a big change, though: the Import Duty threshold will raised to 150.- Euro !!
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Golde...meldung/106159
I'm not sure about the import tax, though, but I'll get me some more info on that - and if it turns out there's really something positive going on I'll post it to the forum.

[Zeldor]

Value is declared on every package. You need to give it when sending anything. I really think it is random, there are way too many packages arriving every day to check even 5-10% of them.

[Leif_-]

Don't ShrapnelGames *want* Dom3 to succeed?

I'd say it already has.

[JimMorrison]

Lingchih said:
To be honest, I don't think the Illwinter team really cares whether the game makes a lot of money or not. I get the impression that they do it for the fun of it, as strange as that may sound.

I am not sure these things are mutually exclusive. I am quite sure that if they had reason to believe that tweaking their business model would result in even 10% higher profits, or a short term surge in sales and activity, that they'd probably go for it, since they needn't even be directly involved beyond making the decision to change.

sum1lost said:
I really disagree that the majority of gamers aren't able to wrap their heads around it. Thats a pretty strong claim, and sounds a bit egocentric. Its entirely possible that while they have no difficulty with a game like it, they simply don't want to shell out +50$ (common college student complaint) or simply prefer a faster game (another guy I know who is a double major as well as being on a school team and orchestra...)

Well let me clarify. When I said "wrap their heads around it", I didn't mean people are intellectually incapable (well some are, certainly not all), but there are a variety of factors that go into it. In my experience, having many people of varying intelligence levels come to my home while I have a game going, MOST of them will comment on a game such as Dom3 that they lack the patience to play a game like it. Neither they or I are calling them mentally incapable, but the fact remains, many people have no desire whatsoever to play this style of game, and this is exacerbated by the growing dominance of "eye candy" in the gaming industry.

[MaxWilson]

RE: "Wrap their heads around it"

Agreed. It takes a certain kind of mentality to ENJOY shuffling units around and watching them smash each other. I can understand why many people don't find that appealing, in the same way that I dislike the superhero comic soap opera that my friend tries to describe to me once in a while--I could follow it if I cared about it, but it bores me to tears. Wargames like Dominions3 are probably similar. Niche market.

-Max