Or: When should I stop playing civ5 and get back into elemental......
Yeah seriously. I'm getting to the point where buying games at full price is only for suckers. Give me a sale six months after release and an already patched product. (Or in the case of Dragon Age, basically the same game only with $100 in DLC thrown in free.)
It kind of depends on the game and the company. Companies are starting to get reputations of either putting out gold on Day 1, junk on Day 1 and turning it to gold, or just junk. Creative Assembly games (Total War series) are generally regarded as "don't buy on day 1, wait for patches" because they have a tendency to be buggy on release. I hear the same of Paradox (especially the Hearts of Iron series). And on the other hand, you have companies like Blizzard, which release highly polished games on Day 1.
Ultimately, I feel that Stardock's next major release (new game, not an expansion) needs to go smoothly and it needs to be a finely polished product on Day 1, or it will start a rapid fall into the "wait for patches on SD games" camp in the Eyes of the Internet.
Sales of course are another matter entirely, and it's always nice waiting for deals for games that aren't "must-have"
I love Stardock, but they already had the reputation even before Elemental's launch of putting out incomplete games and making people pay to play the beta, so to speak. That was when GalCiv2 came out, I argued against those that thought that then, but I think I was wrong now. It doesn't matter what game Stardock puts out next, it won't be a "Must-have" for me any more. I think Stardock did a great job making the expansions free for those that bought this game early, and I'm waiting to see how they improve the game, but as of right now, the game is mediocre at best.
Yeah, but Gal Civ 2 was way back before SD became a lot more well known. Sins, Demigod, and Elemental (along with publicity from things like the GBOR) have pretty dramatically increased SD's presence on the 'net. It may be that for SD's long-time fans it already has a reputation of putting out buggy releases and fixing them later, but I think for the majority that point isn't quite reached. Certainly, I've never read multiple reviews and news articles all over the internet about Gal Civ 2's launch, but these were all over the place for Demigod and Elemental and these things stick in people's minds.
Note I'm not arguing for gameplay design (fun/not fun) as that's generally up to each individual player to decide (as evidenced by some *very* polarizing opinions on pretty much every high profile game), but the technical issues and bugs only. Crashes, broken stuff, that sort of thing. Granted Elemental is sort of pushing it here with completely redesigning Magic and Tactical Battles, but that still doesn't really fall into what I'm concerned about.
It depends on the game of course.
Let's take the person who bought Elemental: War of Magic on day 1 for $49.95 at Best Buy. that person is going to get another $40+ of expansion packs (and I'd challenge anyone to find a bad Stardock expansion pack, we don't cheap out on them).
So unless Elemental gets to less than $9.95 by the time the second expansion pack comes out, our customers come out ahead.
Personally, I would like to see this become the standard even on games that are released in a state of perfection in order to combat the very situation you just outlined.
Those loyal day 0 customers are crucial and any smart company should do whatever they can to make them feel good about their purchase.
I loved the GalCiv 2 expansions, they were excellent. I'm glad to here that both the free ones will be equal in scope to those. That makes me a happy geek.
I think StarDock's reputation was very high before Elemental. GalCiv2 had its issues, but for the most part it was pretty polished when it first came out and of course it got very high reviews out of the gate. Elemental has certainly tarnished StarDock's reputation, but it's not irreparable. In my opinion, StarDock's real strength of reputation comes from the patches and expansions to GalCiv2. I think that is why so many people (myself included) who are disappointed with Elemental still have faith that StarDock can significantly improve the game.
I guess what I am also saying is that failing to turn things around on Elemental will probably be as much, if not more, damaging to their reputation than another buggy release. A major improvement to Elemental will at least help them keep their reputation of being able to make a good game.
As for buying a game from Day One - I want to buy it day one at full price and support the game companies I like. I just want the game to be worth it from day one - not a speculative investment.
are we getting 1.1 beta today ?
Yeah, there's no question that you guys are working hard to try and combat this. And I appreciate it.
In the case of Dragon Age, they could have softened up the blow significantly by also releasing a "DLC combo pack" for the day 1 buyers that gives you all DLC at a discount (25% off or some such). Then I wouldn't feel like a sucker for buying early... which is something I'm not sure I'm going to do with Dragon Age 2. It's not like I'm against price drops or DLC or such, but the sheer amount of difference between the day 1 experience and this ultimate edition not even a year later is a pretty strong indication that waiting pays off.
Stardock is certainly taking their time with 1.1. Guess that means they learned their lesson.
That sounds like a long way of saying it won't be here for weeks.
Naw, not THAT long You'll will be testing 1.1 soon enough, but we definatly want to get a few more improvements in beforehand.
Well, sounds to me like you guys have been doin' some serious thinking about the direction of the game since release and are figuring out how to get to the destination at last.
I gotta say, as sad as I am to hear that our precious Beta's getting delayed, it's mitigated by the feeling that you're doing it right. Keep fighting the good fight guys.
I don't care if it takes another month, as long as the end result is positive.
Well, it will be a beta...
when its rdy its rdy take your time
Now that 1.1's nearly here I think it's time to ask when 1.2 is going to be here. Or 2.0 even.
No vacations for you, Stardock.
Well, Brad did say that they were bastards and would not take Veterans day off, so maybe no vacations either? But, I think someone mentioned that the Expansion would be called the Fallen Enchantress? I could be making that up, because I am insane...but either way that sounds interesting and I hope this enchantress has big boobies. I prefer real life boobies, but I'll take cartoony, cel-shaded side boobs too.
I knew I wasn't crazy. Boogie say antying about her boobs?
They're huge, why do you think she fell. I guess they coulda called it the Enchantress with the sore lower back too though
Shouldn't 1.1 being up since yesterday - at least beta? I can't update even i've set the property for pre-release/beta versions.
I'm afraid not...I think Toby will be detailing the official changes but, with Derek now on the team to help re-design, we determined some aspects of the plan didn't flow with what we wanted to reach in Fallen Enchantress. The new 1.1 roadmap puts us on the proper course and lays some solid groundwork for the first expansion.
Only 12 posts above your own post....
Thanks, didn't note it.
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