Prince of Eckmühl
Posts: 2459
Joined: 6/25/2006 From: Texas Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko However, the very fact that I feel compelled to comment the game prices with the last batch of very very content-poor Matrix releases, is telling. 50 bucks for CAW, CEAW, CoI, Battlefront.... very short, meagre, tiny, unpolished, and/or content-poor games or re-releases, even if they are built on decent basic engines, leaves a sour after-taste in gamer's mouth....... 20-30 bucks would be a fair price for such games. So yes, even though I kinda hate myself for doing it, I did stoop down to commenting the game prices I've always considered myself an ambassador of sorts for computer wargaming, one who sought to get his board-gaming buddies interested in games like Sid Meier's Gettysburg or Close Combat. It was a hard-sell at best, even with fantastic games like those two. I won't burden you with my pet theories as to why so many of them refused to take the leap, but, the fact remains, many, many failed to do so. Now, the computer end of the hobby has experienced a retrenchment in interest and sales, something on the order of eighty- or ninety-percent. It can't help matters that so few quality titles are emerging from publishers like Matrix, ones that are feature-rich, properly tested and fun to play. In that kind of environment, I CAN'T POSSIBLY ENTICE OTHERS INTO BUYING THESE GAMES, regardless of the price. A familiar refrain from developers, on this forum and others, seems to be, "we've been making these games since the flood, and (until recently) managed to sell a hell of a lot of them, so don't go telling us how to run our business." Well, lovely, but I can't peddle them, neither to grognard nor to noob, if they are of such poor quality as to be unusable by anyone who's serious about their gaming. There is no title in the Matrix inventory which I find compelling enough to ask a friend to purchase, at any price, with the proviso that, were he to do so, the game might someday be completed. Apart from the ethical concerns, I know that it simply won't wash, not anymore. At some point, you kill the goose that laid the golden-egg, and that time draws nearer with each of these failures, the "glory-days" of six-figure sales, notwithstanding. PoE (aka ivanmoe)
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Government is the opiate of the masses.
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