Demo downloaded like crazy...but

[Marc von Martial]

I live in England and can't afford the shipping fees. It would bring the total to around $55.

You should try our international dealers

[willgamer]

Marc S wrote:

Ever thougt about the people with small bandwith modem? Not everybody is lucky enough to have cable and or ADSL.

FWIW, I regard that as an astonishing reply! So if there's a large group of on-line buyers that could be tapped into with download and unlock at perhaps an under $35 price point, you would refuse to make a profit in the name of "fairness"!?!

Disregarding that I think you're confusing "having" cable, as opposed to "having access" to high speed internet, you've

already uploaded 10,000 copies of this. Wouldn't it have made sense to convert a portion of those uploads to dollars with an unlock?

If tiny outfit like Spiderweb can do it, why can't you?

Ready to buy at $35 + unlock; anyone join me?

[vbmark]

Originally posted by willgamer
Marc S wrote:

Ready to buy at $35 + unlock; anyone join me?

I was thinking more around the sharware price of $25 for a downloadable, unlock version. Isn't it the same game upgraded?

[Nixuebrig]

Originally posted by Marc Schwanebeck


You should try our international dealers

even there they arse sold for a cut throat 69 EUR.

That is about 140 ,- DM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I first considered this as a joke, but they meant that in honest.

And to be honest, Starships isn`t worth that price. If you consider the avarage price for games at about 40 EUR(or 80 DM)
you just have two count one and one to see why something is going wrong.

[Marc von Martial]

you just have two count one and one to see why something is going wrong.

Why don´t you start to count?
SUDG is at your suggested price,

$ 39.99 ~ € 42

the rest is import/export fees and shipping (the dealers have to pay that too) , something we have no or little influence on.

I was thinking more around the sharware price of $25 for a downloadable, unlock version. Isn't it the same game upgraded?

No it isn´t.

[Nixuebrig]

Originally posted by Marc Schwanebeck



Why don´t you start to count?
SUDG is at your suggested price,

$ 39.99 ~ € 42

the rest is import/export fees and shipping (the dealers have to pay that too) , something we have no or little influence on.

LOL. tell em they can get the taxes back from their government. Fees will be significantly les per unit, when they order more then one game per order. And I don`t think the resellers will have to pay the same price I would have to pay when I order it directly from Matrix. Would be ridicolous.

[Marc von Martial]

LOL. tell em they can get the taxes back from their government. Fees will be significantly les per unit, when they order more then one game per order. And I don`t think the resellers will have to pay the same price I would have to pay when I order it directly from Matrix. Would be ridicolous.

I see you´re a very smart person. I bet our dealers would never have thought about the possibilities.

In fact we want to squezze the last drop of blood out of our "customers", we and our dealers make those fees and shipping costs up to get a little extra, you know.

[Spooky]

Originally posted by Marc Schwanebeck



Why don´t you start to count?
SUDG is at your suggested price,

$ 39.99 ~ € 42

the rest is import/export fees and shipping (the dealers have to pay that too) , something we have no or little influence on.

In fact, SUDG is available for about 60 € (including shipping & VAT) from Duchet - so a little less than the 69 €.

However, do not forget that the Matrix US suggested price does not include VAT ... so European customers must always add a 15-20% VAT to it

Spooky

[Nixuebrig]

Originally posted by Spooky


In fact, SUDG is available for about 60 € (including shipping & VAT) from Duchet - so a little less than the 69 €.

However, do not forget that the Matrix US suggested price does not include VAT ... so European customers must always add a 15-20% VAT to it

Spooky

Maybe that was the think i am missing, prices here in germany are always with VAT.

[Nixuebrig]

Originally posted by Marc Schwanebeck


I see you´re a very smart person. I bet our dealers would never have thought about the possibilities.

In fact we want to squezze the last drop of blood out of our "customers", we and our dealers make those fees and shipping costs up to get a little extra, you know.

Never said that, if it sounded like that, I appologize, think i missed the target.
I just got a bit angry of the way, the demo was misused.
A Demo will raise sales if the Demo is good, but it will lower sales if it is bad. If the price is above avarage( speaking for me compared to th prices here in germany), then the Demo and the game must be of very good quality. And after playing the Demo, i said: "Nice, but not worth the 60 EUR for me" That was the point is was thinking of.

Again, sorry if I should have sounded insulting.

[Montanan]

STUNDG looks like a fun 4x game.

I really appreciate demo available. BUt this demo only goes 50 turns and we so no combat not much of anything with the aliens.

Suggest making the demo give us a tase of combat etc..get us wanting more.

Pluses are Demo & good 4x game
Minus's Demo too short, cant really get a feel for the game.

Lengthen demo, sales will go up.

Graphics look fine to me, just need longer taste of the game.

[Montanan]

I must say, after playing around with the demo again, i think STUNDG has the most wide market appeal out of any matrix game.

Lengthen the demo like civilization or SMGettysburg, and i'll buy it.

thanks and good work Andrew, keep 4x alive.

[Arralen]

Originally posted by Andrew Ewanchyna
The Underdogs site is for games that are no longer sold or supported by their developers. This isn't the case with STUN or SUDG. Are you proposing I stop supporting these games, KG Erwin?

But STUN is on Underdogs already - and it needn't be abandonware for this.
It only needs to be an underdog, what it shurely is.

http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?n ... +Unlimited


And, no, I didn't download the demo, but maybe do so just of curiosity.
But I will not buy SUDG, as I simply cannot afford it for the next 2 years.

From my experience with STUN I would suggest the following:

1) Do not make SUDG downloadeable, or get a lot better copy protection than with STUN.

2) I think the interface layout is a major pain .. and as it didn't change with SUDG, I won't like that part of the new game either.

3) 50 turns of demo is too short unless you start with high tech level. Is it possible in the demo? Would recommend to make it 100 turns nevertheless. (You'll need 100 turns to realize that the interface sucks, as you need 200+ turns in SE4 to realize that this i's true for AI, ministers and GUI)

Sounding too harsh? Na, it's only that I'm having a bad day again - looks like I'm making a habit of it.

yours,
A.

[Kahn]

From scanning through all the feedback here, two factors predominate the discourse.

1. The demo is too short to convice folks to buy.
2. The total price (including shipping & tarrifs) is just too high for most people to swallow.
   [/list=1]
   
   The final factor to consider is one that may not be so obvious as it isn't mentioned, but it's manifestation verifies the impact that the previous two factors have on sales.
   
   I tend to frequently visit forum sites of other games that I have purchased, and actively play and mod. The amount of activity in this forum is extreamly small compaired to that of any of the other sites I frequent. The impact of these two points is even more startling when a game like "SuperPower" can generate 20 times the activity in it's forums, yet is the worst piece of crap (excluding the trash generated in the Czech Republic) that I've come across since "Axis & Allies - Iron Blitz"!
   
   Everything under this thread pretty much echos what I mentioned in my first post, "You have a good product that's priced not to sell.". Switch to the internet sales model before you end up in bankrupcy and the big guys win. Lord knows, you don't have the problem that "Not a Number" (Blender) has (Excellent product, free, declaired bankrupcy in April 2002).

[brownj00]

I played the demo of the shareware for 3-4 hours last week and liked it. So I downloaded the STUN DG demo to check it out.

I liked the demo, but was surprised to see it stop after 50 years. The shareware demo I played probably 150 years and considered that a good demo - getting into some of the dynamics between the other species, etc. I play a lot of demo's - usually for an hour or so before discarding them. I found the complexity of the UI to be acceptable.

I understand the company doesn't want people to play the demo a few times, get tired of it and not buy the full version. But the demo experience was not compelling because it was so limited. I did not meet any other races, build any ships, etc.

I would liken this very short demo to trying to sell a car by showing a picture of the bumper.

I haven't read all the posts in this thread, but some. There is some good feedback here, which is what was asked for.

It must be hard to try and meet the demands of so many different potential customers. I know this is a competitive market space. From my perspective though, mailing a customer a CD as the only purchase option is almost archaic. I am not trying to be unkind, but you must figure something else out to compliment what you have now. You are completely missing the "impulse buy" potential. I, for example, am going on vacation tomorrow and was ready to buy and download TODAY. Maybe I will buy when I get back...

If you cannot control the shipping costs, you can control your asking price. $30-40 is reasonable for a game as a TOTAL cost. Shipping and printing costs are reasonably considered part of the total cost.

I am not trying to short-change the results of the developer's efforts - it looks like a great game. But there is a certain business skill in marketing and delivering a product that could use improvement. I am a technical person and NOT good at that kind of thing, but it is an important part in a product/company's success.

I hope sales pick up.

[wpurdom]

I invested a certain amount of time in the game and couldn't really make sense of it. It was too hard to slowly figure things out without a overall explanation of the commands. I usually skim the manual, then fool around with the mechanics, then read the manual for real.
Now I'm intimidated by the game; this from someone who happily plays UV and MOO2.

[MacCready]

I just went out and bought this game,had not even tried a demo.just interested in that sort of game.

I think its a good game,maybe a little to expensive,but fun if your into space conquest,expansion games.

I stopped playing it alltogether after a couple weeks,not because I don't like it,just don't have time for it at this point.

As a matter of fact,I have three versions of SPWAW installed and I have not been playing them either.WW2 bores me after a while.

Combat Leader seems a non priority at Matrix these days(We'll work on it piecemeal as we have time availible)

[pasternakski]

Played the demo a little. Wasn't impressed, but maybe it's not the game's fault. I think I burned myself out on MOO, BAA, and the other barnyard acronyms for the names of "I built, I fought, I lost, but ultimately kicked alien butt" future history opuses. A lot of 'em were a waste of time and money. Some might have been all right but got lost in the crowd (who has the time?). I cringe at the upcoming release of MOO3 (maybe if we're lucky it'll never happen).

I just think it's the wrong product at the wrong time without any pizazz to re-energize the genre. This subject doesn't interest me these days, I guess. RFTS may have done all that needed to be done 20 years ago (I still get a minor kick out of playing it on my C64 emulator once in awhile).

------------------------

I will now proceed to entangle the entire area

[juliet7bravo]

I bought it without DL'ing the demo. Good game, not great, but bulletproof, fun, and enjoyable. Reminds me of Starflight1...why someone doesn't upgrade that classic, I dunno.

Easy to play, but alot more depth to it than appears at first blush. Money well spent as far as I'm concerned.

[Black Cat]

I bought the Shareware version pre-Matrix, I have a feeling there`s a great Game in there somewhere, but I never really felt I had an understanding of the system/interface, or what I was expected to "head" toward..probably my fault.

As far as Demos, forgeta about em Matrix, I`ve played PC games since my first PS 1 from Sears and a Demo has never sold a Game to me, all your doing with Demos is providing free Game time to the tire kickers...and Ammo to the Never Buy Fault Finders IMO.