Comments on: Gameboys From Hell: Solium Infernum Part 5

By: digimortal

digimortal — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:55:01 +0000

Sure, I like to save money as much as the next guy – my wife would say probably more!

Here in Australia it cost between $16 and $20 to go see a movie. Average length say 2 hours.

Will I get more then 4 hours enjoyment out of this game? I already have, and we haven’t even started our PBEM game yet.

It’s cheaper entertainment here than seeing movies.

By: Archonsod

Archonsod — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:59:55 +0000

@mrmud

Yes it is ludicrous. I’m paying for a game, not buying shares in the company. I couldn’t care less how much it cost for them to make it, all I care about is how good the game is and whether it’s worth the asking price. Which SI most certainly is, even in single player (at least in my opinion).

It’s not a game likely to hold much popular appeal, in fact it’s pretty much niche by definition. With mainstream games you can make money by lowering the price, because price is usually the reason most people don’t buy it. With a niche game on the other hand you’ve pretty much got a limited audience irrespective of the price, while lowering it might see you sell a hundred more copies it’s unlikely you’ll shift the thousand you need to make up the price difference.

By: Martin Edelius

Martin Edelius — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:50:54 +0000

Kieron: I have, and they are usually more proof read than this. But it’s Quinns that has created the most confusing sentence in this post:

“Don’t forget, I took that perk at character creation that gives me a +4 bonus to my Deceit rituals, which .”

“Which” what?

By: MadMatty

MadMatty — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:20:50 +0000

tekDragon, i wasnt being sarcastic, i was just being mean
…and YES… it would seem from the latest round of testings that a 5 quid game makes more money than a 30 quid one thru numbers of sales…
excellent news.
If only it would be the same with graphics cards,…

By: Vurt

Vurt — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:27:43 +0000

Great read. Thumbs up RPS.

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:05:30 +0000

Autopanda: For the board-game comparison, it’s worth noting there’s hotseat. So you could treat it like a board-game and have it at a price far less than most board-games.

By: Autopanda

Autopanda — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:55:22 +0000

My biggest problem with SI is that I see it as a board game, rather than a PC game. That means that if I want to play it with 4 friends, it costs £125 for us all to play. A similar board game would cost maybe half that for the equivalent experience and it’s hard to sell that to a group of people, no matter how boardgame-y they are.

If you could buy group licences for a discounted rate, then it would be a much more sensible purchase and be competitive against some of it’s rivals in that arena.

By: jalf

jalf — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:59:52 +0000

IT’S A GOOD GAME, THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS.

No. It is not all that matters. At least not to me.

A lot of factors matter to me when I buy a game. One of them is, “is the game reliant on multiplayer action? And if so, can I convince my friends to buy it”. At $30, the chance of my friends buying it is… slim.

But even regardless of that, it’s not just “a good game”. It is a good game with, frankly, lousy graphics, an awkward interface, a steep learning curve and, according to some here, unplayable on some systems due to scripting errors.

My condition for buying a game is not “is it a good game”, but “will I enjoy playing it?”

With SI, I just don’t know. I would enjoy playing it if 1) my friends are going to get it so I can play against them, 2) the game works on all our systems, 3) the interface isn’t so bad as to make the game painful to play.

I don’t know that either of those is true. I could still be convinced to buy the game, but not for $30. At that price I want to be reasonably sure I’ll get something out of it.

By: tekDragon

tekDragon — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:50:22 +0000

Here’s how it is. SI is a board game. It has a computer initerface and allows a few things that would be difficult to manage if not managed by a computer but the fact remains that if it looks like a board game, feels like a board game, plays like a board game it… a board game.

A decent board game costs $50-$80 for five to six players to play… SI will cost $150-$180. Pass. I’ll never be able to convice 4-5 of my friends to shell out for it at $30 each.

By: Cuchulainn

Cuchulainn — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:08:38 +0000

I’m definitely up there with the “make it cheaper” crowd. It’s a game to be played with friends. At $10-15 I could easily see four of us buying aa copy to have a tourney. At $30 I don’t think I’d convince any of them to buy it, so I’m certaainly not going to pick it up myself. Pity, it sounds like a good game too..

By: dzddz

dzddz — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:24:27 +0000

RT Quinns-
Thanks for the speedy reply about praetors. I also feel like I’m in a constant state of swearing/cackling while playing this game.
Also, this series has convinced me to sign up to the forums and try to get some games going. If anyone is up for it just reply here or something and I’ll try to work out the play-by-email thing. I’m pretty sure there was a section on it in the manual..

By: Johnny Go-Time

Johnny Go-Time — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 07:31:09 +0000

Yes I too promise to buy for $10 if it appears on Steam.
As is, the game is just too risky a purchase for me; it’s kind of outside my comfort zone, and I don’t think many of my friends will be interested in it. These turn reports make it sound fantastic, but $30 is too much on such a gamble…I do want to support this kind of product and this company…