what about the future?

[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.

[Zeldor]

I think that Shrapnel insulted Dom3 community so many times, that only few people would consider buying anything else from them [unless it's IW stuff, we'd only curse at them for choosing Shrapnel again].

Tim Brooks really tries hard to get the image of arrogant distributor that thinks his customers are enemies. But why would anyone here want to harm Shrapnel? All we want is to enjoy the game. But Shrapnel insists on making this experience less pleasant.

People are giving advices and criticism cause they love good complicated games. And all ideas are towards getting more of them at higher quality - and also bigger community, people we could enjoy the game with.

But Shrapnel knows better - that people are maybe on some mad quest to take down Shrapnel? Maybe you should barricade your buildings, just in case? I have better idea - learn from mistakes. See Elemental? They totally ignored any feedback from beta and lost all trust. They listen only to fanboys, fanboys that got their agreement to mock and insult all that dare to criticise. How is situation here different? You have unknown mods, that just ban community legends, you have *deleted* who should have been banned many times already, you have one of the worst ad campaign [those drug-addicted girls], you screwed us with forum transfer, you insult us with digital download price [it costs you more than burning cd and printing manual? really?] and now you try to insult us here, in that thread.

So how about you use some money you earned on us, hire a consultant to make an audit, see why your costs are so high and also send someone [like yourself] to get some proper course on marketing and advertisement? Some training in customer relations for all your staff wouldn't hurt either.

[HoneyBadger]

I don't know if this is meant to be a serious statement, but I've never felt to be "insulted" by Shrapnel Games, and that's coming from someone who's a pretty touchy guy, without a lot of shiny happy feelings towards game companies, in general. Particularly game distributors. I've purchased two games from them, paid a price I considered to be fair (and still do), and haven't had any serious complaints.

$50 isn't bad at all for Dom3. That's roughly an average 8 hour day's work. Maybe 2 days, back when I was bagging groceries as a teenager, and a third of one now.

Regardless of whatever profit Shrapnel and Illwinter may make per unit, this isn't a major release by a major distributor. You can't find it at Walmart. So, I consider it to be similar to purchasing any other specialty item. Yeah, it's expensive, and yeah it would probably be possible to price individual units lower and still clear a profit on individual units, but it's unrealistic to expect them to charge less than they have to.

[Foodstamp]

This thread is not delivering. For the first time, I am really feeling the absence of the "Sombre Crew".

[lch]

Originally Posted by Foodstamp

What this guy said. I did a break down of my average time playing and modding Dominions and it is one of the best values for my dollar I have ever gotten out of a PC game second only to Master of Magic.

Same here. Like many others, I only noticed Dominions because I was looking for a replacement for MoM. I'm still looking for something that's closer to MoM, but up to date. Elemental promised that it would be that game, but from what I read here my doubts about these assertions have been justified.

Originally Posted by Foodstamp

This thread is not delivering. For the first time, I am really feeling the absence of the "Sombre Crew".

That's because he is banned, as well as a couple of other guys, though I don't know who you'd count as "Sombre Crew", I only see individuals. What's missing for you?

[Soyweiser]

Originally Posted by lch

That's because he is banned, as well as a couple of other guys, though I don't know who you'd count as "Sombre Crew", I only see individuals. What's missing for you?

I think he is missing the lulz.

[Squirrelloid]

Wait, the names of other forums, presumably open to whomever wants to join, is somehow secret? lol.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

Wait, the names of other forums, presumably open to whomever wants to join, is somehow secret? lol.

Secret? no.
Really nice places and not eager to invite people on this forum to them? yes.
Does this thread not make this clear?

[thejeff]

And they're Shangri-La. The secret heavenly forums.

Well, I'd hate to corrupt that with us common folk. Good job keeping it secret, Gandalf.

[Annette]

Not really a "community", I guess, but there is an active game matching service at http://dom3.matryx.org.uk/ Anyone without a valid key need not bother, though. The administrators will verify your purchase with us.