“Expansion Packs”
In the time before digital distribution, you had “expansion packs”. It is a concept that has survived well into the digital distribution age.
You’d release say Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar as an expansion for people who had the game and then Galactic Civilizations II: Gold Edition for new buyers. Similarly, we released Sins of a Solar Empire: Diplomacy and Sins of a solar Empire: Trinity for new buyers.
So why was that done? The answer is, in the old days, there was no sure fire way to tell if someone had the original game. So you had to offer a second SCU just for those people. On the business software side, all kinds of efforts have been made to try to get new editions down to a single SCU including installers that sniffed for the original version, send in a copy of your manual, you name it.
A New Team
Fallen Enchantress gives us the opportunity to have a very different fantasy strategy game than War of Magic. While the original intent was simply to eliminate an unnecessary SCU (we can simply have Fallen Enchantress with an upgrade price for people who have War of Magic), in this case, it lets us make an even bigger break from War of Magic because it has a new Lead Designer (Kael instead of myself) with Jon Shafer helping as well as we begin pre-production of Jon’s new game along with many other changes. It’s still Stardock but it’s a very different Stardock than what made War of Magic (or GalCiv II for that matter).
I’m still filling the role of studio lead developer and Executive Producer but we’re actively seeking out industry veterans to take over the role of lead developer of Stardock Entertainment.
A New Game
There is also another advantage to Fallen Enchantress being its own game rather than an “expansion pack”. And that is, it frees the team to make radical changes to the basics of the game while allowing War of Magic to still be updated on its own source tree. A user of Fallen Enchantress won’t have to have War of Magic to play it and can treat War of Magic as a separate game.
This will be the same case for the third entry in the Elemental world which won’t be out for a long time still (but will be free for people who got War of Magic before the end of October 2010). It’ll be its own game as well not requiring War of Magic and Fallen Enchantress but be available at a sharp discount to those who have the previous entries in the game world.
The Changing Market
A few years ago, this wouldn’t be possible. Retailers would have refused to carry just stand-alone expansion. There were exceptions and the Company of Heroes series did a lot of good for our industry by paving the way here. Supreme Commander’s “stand alone” expansion helps as well.
Of course, no one has brought more attention to the changing digital model of PC games more than Blizzard with its recent release of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty which will have two additional stand-alone games in the Starcraft 2 universe.
Will this be a good thing for PC gamers? I think it depends on how it’s handled. Personally, I’d like to see people get discounts if they have other chapters in the series. That’s going to be our model for the foreseeable future but part of that is because we have our own digital distribution platform (Impulse).
Also based on the press release, it looks like they are really ramping up the RGP elements of the game. Not at the expense of the TBS aspect of the game, I hope.
Thanks, Fistalis.
I think you are the only one here that is worried about that as it is deffo not the case.
This sums up how i feel brilliantly. As long as each new game carrys over the bulk of the content from the previous ones I am happy.
Well Stardock might be able to do that but it'd be akin to committing business suicide and extremely bad PR.
I appreciate the concern but I think there is a 0% chance of the happening.
I'm not sure why you are all so confused...they are releasing the enchantress as a stand alone expansion. They will continue to update war of magic with advancements they make for the enchantress to a point. And you get that expansion for free if you bought it before christmass...so...no one is asking for your "money".
The game is not going in the dustbin, since it is an expansion of the original. I'm willing to bet you don't have to download the whole new expansion, but you will patch your current version.
Me too. I have a number of friends that don't live close to me that would be interested in buying but they'd like to try a demo first.
Perhaps after 1.20 would be the logical time methinks.
Only one person missing the point here.
It is not so much confusion. I am 95% sure you are right with what you say there. But the announcement could be and has been (as is evident by the comments in this thread) interpetated a few different ways. While "common sense" and past experience with stardock suggests you are correct a little more clarification would go along way. It's no biggy I am sure all will be revealed in time.
Can't imagine Stardock doing that and I'm sure they have no intention of. The potential gain of a bit of money would be nothing compared to the the horrible PR and very angry fans. In any case, Brad has said that Stardock is actually prepared to lose money on Elemental to gain back the trust of those unhappy with the release state of Elemental.
How many other gaming companies offer free expansions due to an unsatisfactory release? Never seen that from EA or anywhere else...
But if you read the press release which i quoted in a response to you above it states that THIS IS the free expansion advertised. Your just tripping out without getting the facts.
So AGAIN i will quote the news post on this subject and even provide you a handy link to it.
"Elemental: Fallen Enchantress is expected to be released in the Summer of 2011. It will be free to those who purchased Elemental: War of Magic in 2010 and be available at a significant discount for those who purchase War of Magic."
It can be found here
https://forums.elementalgame.com/403846
Further more its apparent you aren't even reading anything posted here because I already pointed this out and explained it once in response to your crazy arse claims. So for the sake of everyone involved, if you choose to participate in a discussion.. actually participate in it. That means reading as well as writing.
Confusion or not... can't blame people for asking these questions; the announcement is certainly worded very peculiarly.
Thank you. You indeed nailed it perfectly (far better than some who attempted clarifying this).
You get Fallen Enchantress for free. And if you were one of the first purchasers, you get the next one free too.
Oh, the wise one comes to settle everything down.
Perfect, thanks! I missed that in the original.
Does this mean I have to stop calling the Maryland State Attorney General over and over now?
I was having fun...
^^ This is how I feel about it, what happens down the road if EWOM gets some cool new features in a patch that FE doesn't get, or FE get's some cool new features that EWOM doesn't get. How would I choose which to play if they both offer similar but different things, and I like BOTH for different features. Personally I would much rather have a expansion that builds upon the original game, rather than giving us something completely new, as that is what a expansion usually does. Then everything would be in one place.
The Total War series did the same thing, brought *expansions* that were really new games, but didn't build upon the original work, and because of that I never played them. I fear the same will happen with Elemental...
I don't pay taxes to maryland so waste his time and maryland taxpayers money all you want...
Maybe they don't have anything else to do
Both expansions will be free, for those of us who bought before oct 2010 and the original game will still be worked on continuing. Hope that clears things up!!!!!!!!!
Simple people.
If you bought the game before Oct 2010 then you get both standalone future games for free.
If you bought the game after Oct 2010 but before the beginning of the year, then you get the first standalone free, and the second at a sharp discount.
Its unfortunate that so many forum users can't read a simple post given by the developer. Its also sad that the education system of the US is making such stupid mindless people these days, oh wait, people actually voted for Sarah Palin. I rest my case.
Thank you for clarifying this. I'm all for making it standalone.
Lol. Come on... You're trolling right? Did you even read the post and thread all the way through?
So...when do I get my pony? Brad? Pony? PONY!
I still dont quite get why it has to be a new game... I dont want to have to choose to play either EWoM or FE, I want to play EWoM with FE content, as an actual expansion. I dont care if it's free or not, that isn't the point.
Yep, I feel the same way.
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