Why isn't every 4x fan playing Distant Worlds?

[Blabsawaw22]

Do we know the price of DW2 or something?

Yes I agree DW1 is priced wrong.. but we are talking about graphics upgrade with DW2..

[AKicebear]

I agree that the pricing policy is reducing overall revenue for DW, and is the easiest change to improve that for DW2

I think the publisher's assumption is that since this is a niche game, sales volumes won't be very high so best to keep the price high. Civ5 sold over 5 million copies, and I'm pretty sure EU4 and CK2 are both in the 1+ million range (not including DLCs for any of those 3). All of those players are potential DW fans, but many probably wouldn't consider a price above $40.

I guess the publisher also views pricing as fair, because for someone that likes this game they can play it for hundreds of hours; that is true, $60 is fair from this perspective. At the same time, the market dynamics are such that there are endless choices in the $20-30 range that might be also as good a purchase from a time/dollar metric. At AAA prices Matrix essentially guarantees only diehard fans will buy...

[Blabsawaw22]

I have money, but I will say this,

I'd buy every single game out there if they were no more than $20..

I've already recently bought a bunch of games including GTA V because it was on sale for $35 instead of $60.. I don't know who in there right mind would pay $60 or more for a fricken game.. they are games people.. games...

I'm sure they take years to make.. but that's that.

the pirate population, which is by far the problem with the industry, is taking atleast a million dollars per game away.. at least,..

if game companies saw the truth and light, they would lower the cost to something ridiculous that even pirates would buy the game just because they don't want to deal with hacking it and dealing with online cracks etc.. they would just buy the game if it was $10 etc..

I'm just sayin...

and $10x 50,000 people buying the game legally = $500,000

what does a programmer charge? $100,000?
Graphics arts designer team - $50,000?

etc.. etc..

please fill me in the cost of gamemaking..

[Hattori Hanzo]

ORIGINAL: Blabsawaw22

Do we know the price of DW2 or something?

Yes I agree DW1 is priced wrong.. but we are talking about graphics upgrade with DW2..

incorrect, this thread is about : "Why isn't every 4x fan playing Distant Worlds?"

[Blabsawaw22]

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo

graphic can be nice, but in my opinion solid gameplay are much more important.

I still play the original Master of Orion that is far superior to 90% of the in-space 4X of the new-generation.

"incorrect" we are talking about why people don't play Distant Worlds??

really man?? really??


what the hell are you talking about? it's the same thing I"m talking about.. wow.. responding to a few posts back.. that's why I said what I said, about the price.

people were talking about the price and graphics (which even you did!) of distant worlds which DOES relate to why people aren't playing Distant Worlds game.. etc..

unreal man..

[Hattori Hanzo]

I totally agree with you Blabsawaw22: both graphic and price (and not oly them) DOES relate to why more people aren't playing Distant Worlds.

my intention with my previous message was NOT to polemize with you, but to simple point out that [:)]

[Edmesa]

ORIGINAL: Blabsawaw22
the pirate population, which is by far the problem with the industry, is taking atleast a million dollars per game away.. at least,..

if game companies saw the truth and light, they would lower the cost to something ridiculous that even pirates would buy the game just because they don't want to deal with hacking it and dealing with online cracks etc.. they would just buy the game if it was $10 etc..

Even if a company would sell a game for a dollar someone would pirate it and there will always be people who want content without wanting to pay for it. Having that said, i have the opinion that some companies have called on their selves that their games get pirated, to name a few:
- Horrendous DRM that destabilizes the game / exit the game if the connection to server is lost / fails to authenticate legitimate buyers.
- Pay2win bullshit.
- Full price games that u can complete in a couple hours.
- Games with the corners cut off, so they can sell those as "DLC" content.
- Serious bugs in games that have anniversaries before fixed or sometimes never gets fixed.
- Trailers that pretends to show actual game footage, but actually only consists of prerendered graphics.

Not that im a fan of pirating, but i can understand that people play pirated version before they actually buying that $60 game to make certain they like the game as free a demo version isnt standard anymore.

What makes in my opinion a good game? Good solid gameplay which encourages to replay it. For example another game that i play is Factorio, i really love that game. Graphics wise its not very impressive, but the constant tinkering your factory to optimize it further is very addicting and i always wonder where the hours went.

A big reason why i play DW over other 4x games? I not a big fan of turn based gameplay in this type game.

[Blabsawaw22]

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo

I totally agree with you Blabsawaw22: both graphic and price (and not oly them) DOES relate to why more people aren't playing Distant Worlds.

my intention with my previous message was NOT to polemize with you, but to simple point out that [:)]

ha ok then. That's one thing the internet will never achieve and is probably 90% why people start bashing on the internet.. there is no "emotion" and "feeling" to type print..

Even if a company would sell a game for a dollar someone would pirate it and there will always be people who want content without wanting to pay for it.

While I don't somehow doubt there would still be someone idiot hacking and whatever but seriously? I don't expect a dollar for a game but the idea of selling something cheaper to gain more people has always been around and somehow works.. take your typical WalMart/CVS/RiteAid/Dollar General/ whatever..

those places are in business because thousands upon thousands of people buy the "cheaper" products..

I don't see why that wouldn't be the case with games. I just bought some games because I saw they were $5.99 and I'm about to buy Battlefield 4 for $19.99..

And look at the graphics and gameplay of Battlefield 4.. it's 19.99!

Distant Worlds what?? over $59.99??

[HerpInYourDerp]

The high pricing issue is something that covers most, if not all of Matrix's titles tbf and not just this game specifically.

RPS, one of the more high-profile proponents of the nicher PC genres and the ones who gave DWU its biggest endorsement on Steam, has covered this issue before in some detail; there's even an article specifically on the matter, although they're citing the war games range of titles as the examples.

[sedmi patuljak]

For me the graphic at DWU is perfectly matched with the gameplay. Personaly I always prefer 2D graphic over 3D in strategy games. I like to get information simple clear and that is not easy with fancy 3D graphics. If DW shifts to 3D I will likely search for some other 2D strategy game.

[Bingeling]

Keep in mind that for instance Pillars of Eternity is 3D. Being in a 3D engine does not prevent the game from having a fixed top down camera, for instance. Pillars of Eternity has the looks of the old inifinity engine games, although the characters are 3D objects, not 2D sprites or whatever.

But just as the people behind Pillars of Eternity chose a 3D engine, so it would probably be a good idea for DW2 to do the same. Keep "up to date" and pick the actively developed, mature technology.

[Blabsawaw22]

My god, the heavens opened and finally something made sense.. and someone with brains put a definitive and probable example.. only proving that better graphics would help, not ruin Distant Worlds 2...

absolutely all I'm trying to say also and Bingeling gave a great example.

Adding depth like this to a space game will not hurt it..

[Bingeling]

I think the image benefits a lot from the angle of the view, and that is probably not a fantastic view angle for distant worlds. For me, it could be fun to be able to pan the camera around when zoomed in (to view ships and space battle unfolding), but it should be trivial to move to "top down", and the galaxy itself should be 2D with maybe some 3D fakery. So zoom out and it becomes more of a 2D map.

Good graphics is not a key feature of any strategy game, but it for sure does not hurt either. If it hurts, it is not good

[Retreat1970]

This may apply, or may not. Back in 2000, Space Empires 4 came out. Awesome 4x game. I won't go into to many details, but it was 2d and basic, but the gameplay was solid.

In 2006 SE5 came out. Same basic game as SE4, but now 3d. I thought, awesome, SE4 but prettier. Unfortunately the 3d made the game clumsier and hard to manage, and this was turn based.

If DW decides to go 3d, I don't know how it would work real time. I know I can pause, but working the camera to zoom or pan or work the xyz axis sounds tiring.

just my 2c. I'll add a picture of SE5. Imagine changing the camera all the time.

[Bingeling]

I agree that changing the camera would the a chore in normal gameplay. It would be a novelty in special situations if the graphics actually looks really good.

A DW2 that is not top down and "flat" would be very different to the current one, and possibly something that does not fit the current players. If the layout becomes something like the screenshot above, I know of one person that is unlikely to bother to play it

[Blabsawaw22]

ok..

[Retreat1970]

I'm not arguing. I believe in a beautification. My point, in my last post, was when you have a good game just throwing 3d on it could make it worse not better. I'm all for 3d if it can be done. Oh, and multiplayer [8|] LOL.

[Lucian]

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970
In 2006 SE5 came out. Same basic game as SE4, but now 3d. I thought, awesome, SE4 but prettier. Unfortunately the 3d made the game clumsier and hard to manage, and this was turn based.

That was a good example to illustrate your point. 3d really ruined SE5, I'd hate to see the same thing happen to DW.

[Blabsawaw22]

no,

(Programmer or Creator or Artistic developer etc..) Somebody's idea to make a bad game ruined it..


You can always have graphics and good gameplay. There is nothing stopping that fact except being lazy and/or not enough money to continue the work it takes..

Since when did having graphics ruin games? it's brought games to a new level. And there a millions of examples which you know me, I will not start to get into to show you..

Way more examples of games than that got "ruined" or "failed" by adding graphics..


It's always somebody's idea or concept and design flaws that ruin games.. could be the publisher that has bad ideas etc.. anything.. but Graphics never ruined anything.

Lack of Graphics can ruin things.. think about that..

Graphics add a new level of Immersion.. don't lie to yourself saying you would rather look at a straight line than a 3d Helicopter flying over you with the grass below you swaying from the wind current of the Downwash wind current from the Rotary blades..


You need to blame the people who created such "great gameplay" and that they don't care about graphics enough.. to add to their such "great gameplay games"

Why don't the "great gameplay" games have good graphics? it was usually just time and money...

[Bingeling]

Well, graphics could put in limitations that leads to the game not being good. Like limited level sizes, "corridor world" and such things to make the graphics actually perform.