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[pst]

No $85 is absolutely insane.
No one who is not already an insanely addicted board gamer will pay that much.

Of course no one who isn't addicted will buy everything they can at once. People will buy one expansion. Then maybe later they will buy another, etc.

/Captain Obvious

[polonkus]

No $85 is absolutely insane.
No one who is not already an insanely addicted board gamer will pay that much.

Of course no one who isn't addicted will buy everything they can at once. People will buy one expansion. Then maybe later they will buy another, etc.

/Captain Obvious

Actually just about anyone who has played on isotropic (and I don't consider us all addicts) would probably prefer to buy them all in one chunk.

[DG]

Remember that the headline price is not always the price paid. Promotions and sales will happen at times.

[Tombolo]

No $85 is absolutely insane.
No one who is not already an insanely addicted board gamer will pay that much.

Of course no one who isn't addicted will buy everything they can at once. People will buy one expansion. Then maybe later they will buy another, etc.

/Captain Obvious

Actually just about anyone who has played on isotropic (and I don't consider us all addicts) would probably prefer to buy them all in one chunk.

I am an edge case who is probably only going to have a few bucks to spend at a time.

[cooperaa]

If they are reasonably priced, I'd probably just buy them all so I can play with them all. I already own all the sets IRL so I'm not going to spend another $75-$80 just to play online.

[Mecherath]

I suspect that like and savvy business - they will drop the price and have sales after they have maximized their profit buy taking more money from the people willing to give it.

This.  Steam sells games for full price when they come out, but it's not too long before there's a 25% or 50% sale.  This lets them maximize profits from those willing to pay full price.  Then when those people are tapped out, well there's more willing to pay half, or a quarter.  I know this Steam model works on me.  I rarely buy a game full price, but I'm ashamed to admit how many games I've bought at deep discount.  Far more than I'll ever be able to play, yet I still check every day for sales...

[Donald X.]

If only there were half as many expansions. Then it would cost half as much! And man I'm glad there aren't twice as many expansions.

[NoMoreFun]

If only there were half as many expansions. Then it would cost half as much! And man I'm glad there aren't twice as many expansions.

Unfortunately, expansions for dominion are in an awkward grey area between traditional board game expansions (which usually have their own strong identity) and booster packs for TCGs. Most people on this forum seem to care very little about which expansion each card comes from, and find an experience without every available card isn't getting the quality of experience that they're accustomed to. Perhaps at least the option of a monthly "all in" subscription would be more suitable for this community.

The value proposition is going to be a tough pill to swallow for everyone though. I hope there'll be a package deal through online retailers of getting both the virtual and physical cards when you buy a new expansion, and later putting codes to redeem virtual cards inside the boxes of new expansions once a reprint happens. This would also help address the issue of people selling used copies of the game.

[Kirian]

Jeez... I've been hard on Goko, but I'm really not seeing $70-80 as a problematic price point, guys.  Slightly steep perhaps, and the "Gokoins" thing is annoying, but it's not in the realm of ridiculous.  Remember:  That price is for seven games.  Not one, seven.  Ten bucks a game really isn't that terrible.

[Cave-o-sapien]

Jeez... I've been hard on Goko, but I'm really not seeing $70-80 as a problematic price point, guys.  Slightly steep perhaps, and the "Gokoins" thing is annoying, but it's not in the realm of ridiculous.  Remember:  That price is for seven games.  Not one, seven.  Ten bucks a game really isn't that terrible.

But it's not the price for seven games.  You're paying for X combinations of kingdom cards for Dominion.  I'm guessing for a lot of people, X will be sufficiently large after an expansion or two, and they'll occasionally play with other expansions when the host has them.  This will lead to a pretty fractured player base, and I'm not convinced it will actually net Goko any more money than if they'd priced the expansions at half of what they are.  But I've never been a VP of Monetization, so what do I know?

Even if it we did agree on your definition of games that price is still high.  When I look through my purchase history of iOS boardgames, $80 actually gets you a lot more than seven games (and I should add, they are truly games that go anywhere).

[WanderingWinder]

If you think something is overpriced, don't buy it.

[polonkus]

If you think something is overpriced, don't buy it.

Or bitch about it until they lower the price.
Or both simultaneously.

[engineer]

If you think something is overpriced, don't buy it.

Or bitch about it until they lower the price.
Or both simultaneously.

Zing!

[Slow Dog]

You're paying for X combinations of kingdom cards for Dominion.  I'm guessing for a lot of people, X will be sufficiently large after an expansion or two, and they'll occasionally play with other expansions when the host has them.  This will lead to a pretty fractured player base

I don't get your "fractured player base". Everyone can play with everyone. There've been plenty of computer games where those without out an expansion can't join in with those that have, but this isn't one of them.

Also, you can play with cards available to to any of the players, not just those of the host. (With the caveat that it's how it's supposed to work, and I don't know if it actually does)

I'm perhaps rather more relaxed about this than some folks here as that mirrors real life; I own a base set and some expansions, my friend owns a base set and some (so far distinct) expansions, and when playing together we may or may not mix as mood and/or availability demands. We don't think we need every dominion card in existence to have a complete game. The ex-isotropic player (and the completionist real life card owners), on the other hand, may well feel they're missing out by not having everything in the way they used to.

[polonkus]

You're paying for X combinations of kingdom cards for Dominion.  I'm guessing for a lot of people, X will be sufficiently large after an expansion or two, and they'll occasionally play with other expansions when the host has them.  This will lead to a pretty fractured player base

I don't get your "fractured player base". Everyone can play with everyone. There've been plenty of computer games where those without out an expansion can't join in with those that have, but this isn't one of them.

Also, you can play with cards available to to any of the players, not just those of the host. (With the caveat that it's how it's supposed to work, and I don't know if it actually does)

I'm perhaps rather more relaxed about this than some folks here as that mirrors real life; I own a base set and some expansions, my friend owns a base set and some (so far distinct) expansions, and when playing together we may or may not mix as mood and/or availability demands. We don't think we need every dominion card in existence to have a complete game. The ex-isotropic player (and the completionist real life card owners), on the other hand, may well feel they're missing out by not having everything in the way they used to.

Well if all you know is base and intrigue, going into a game with someone who has prosperity and cornucopia you are going to get your ass kicked. So you'd probably rather only play with people with the same sets as you.

And if you are familiar with all the cards, like most people by the time they've played on isotropic for a while, then playing with just a few sets is going to feel ridiculously limited.

Then of course there is the "purity" argument of playing with the full game as designed, which we won't really know the scope of till Guilds comes out.

[meow]

Given it's renaissance of wisdom, perhaps Goko will get the bright idea of offering a discounted "all the expansions" price.  Offering a monthly fee version as well as "buy it permanently" could be an interesting way to go, but would make things a bit more complicated, so seems less likely (but might still be possible).

[O]

I would have said a fair pricing would be 30-50$. It seems pretty likely that that's how much I'll end up paying, as I'm only going to buy them if they go on sale from their current prices.

It's also possible that they don't and I end up paying 0$, but I kind of wish that doesn't happen. 

This isn't "ZOMG I GOT SOMETHING FOR FREE NOW I WANT IT CHEAP" either. I would never pay over 30$ for a single board game, which is what I consider dominion to be. (the fact that there's *so many* expansions pushes that up a bit. Say now it's 60$, or two board games.). Factor in that online play, as a general industry rule, is cheaper than irl play....

[polonkus]

Given it's renaissance of wisdom, perhaps Goko will get the bright idea of offering a discounted "all the expansions" price.  Offering a monthly fee version as well as "buy it permanently" could be an interesting way to go, but would make things a bit more complicated, so seems less likely (but might still be possible).

Yeah a monthly fee in the neighborhood of $5 would be more palatable to me, even though I'd probably end up paying more in the end that way.

Probably could not fly with gambling laws in the US, but I would love to see something where each player kicks in say $0.15 per game, Goko take $0.05 and the winner gets $0.25

[BJ Penn]

I was really hoping that they were just going to essentially commercialize isotropic and class it up a bit.....

So I come back to dominion after some time away and I'm directed to a new site and see this:



(Shamelessly stolen from another thread)

I come here and realize they've decided to make everything much worse and charge absurd prices for expansions that I've owned IRL for years.

Seriously, it's like they are trying to make this as unappealing to the hardcore players as possible. I'll probably play a little if they include a point tracker (and laugh at them for being so fail if they don't), but I can't pretend that I like anything going on here.

[yudantaiteki]

Jeez... I've been hard on Goko, but I'm really not seeing $70-80 as a problematic price point, guys.  Slightly steep perhaps, and the "Gokoins" thing is annoying, but it's not in the realm of ridiculous.  Remember:  That price is for seven games.  Not one, seven.  Ten bucks a game really isn't that terrible.

That's how I feel too -- when I said the price was "reasonable", I meant it seems to strike a good balance between casual and hardcore players in terms of moneymaking.  I personally wish it were cheaper just for selfish reasons, and I doubt I will pay the $80 right away to buy all the sets.  But from Goko's standpoint it's not a great idea to price the expansions to target the hardcore players who want to buy every set on day 1.

What might be a good idea is to make a package deal -- $50 for all the sets at once, or you can buy them individually for the current price.

[polonkus]

Remember:  That price is for seven games.  Not one, seven.  Ten bucks a game really isn't that terrible.

If you want to claim this, you have to remember that one of those games (base) is pretty lame and boring, and many of the others are completely unplayable taken alone.

[michaeljb]

Remember:  That price is for seven games.  Not one, seven.  Ten bucks a game really isn't that terrible.

If you want to claim this, you have to remember that one of those games (base) is pretty lame and boring, and many of the others are completely unplayable taken alone.

First part is only true after a good number of plays, and the second part is just nonsense--unless the two small expansions suddenly counts as "many". Also remember that the "lame" game is the free one.

Edit: also the "unplayable taken alone" sets won't even be alone anyway, since you'd have base to go with it.

[Kirian]

Remember:  That price is for seven games.  Not one, seven.  Ten bucks a game really isn't that terrible.

If you want to claim this, you have to remember that one of those games (base) is pretty lame and boring, and many of the others are completely unplayable taken alone.

If the base game is so lame and boring, how the hell did RGG and DXV sell so many expansions and win Spiel des Jahres?  Just asking.  Unless you meant lame and boring compared with the expanded game--as opposed to lame and boring compared to other games.

On the shelf, it's 8 boxes (9 with Guilds, later).  It's a total of ~2700 cards, plus a bunch of extras, for retail ~$320.  If you're trying to suggest that there aren't 8 games there, well, you'll have to tell the retailers perhaps.  Oh, and tell RGG, because apparently Carcassone is just one game, as is RTFG, and all the maps for Power Grid.  And talk to Mayfair about how much they're gouging for all those Catan expansions--all one game!  And don't get me started on WOTC...

Sounds a bit ridiculous when said that way.  Huh.  Who'd have thought?

Look, I've said before that I would pay $100 for Iso as it currently stands.  If/when Goko gets to the point where I'll pay for it--they still have a way to go--I have no problem paying about the same amount to them.  It's ridiculous to complain about the pricing, I think, for the hardcore players.  Casuals... well, they might have a tougher time.  And if Goko wants to rake in the cash, they'll need to get casuals buying more, which will likely require a reduction in price.  But hey, that's a business plan sort of thing.

There are tons of things to complain about with Goko.  Pricing of the games really isn't on the list.

[KingsSkort]

Honestly, $85 for 8 expansions seems very reasonable to me, especially since you can buy them in pieces and you can apparently play expansions you don't own depending on your opponents.

(Of course, Goko right now is not worth $85 but that price for a fully functional implementation is not  overpriced.)

No $85 is absolutely insane.
No one who is not already an insanely addicted board gamer will pay that much.
That's quite a bit more than a AAA PC title like Diablo or Skyrim.
This is a game that at its best should be compared to indie release which might go for $15-20.

Its possibly that I MIGHT spend that much on cards, because there I have a physical product I can use for the rest of my life.
But I absolutely will not pay that for an online only experience that I have no confidence will still exist 12 months from now.

Lol $85. Maybe it's just some price discrimination play to sweep up all the hardcore dominion addicts, and they're going to roll out the real price in a month or two?

[michaeljb]

Unless you meant lame and boring compared with the expanded game--as opposed to lame and boring compared to other games.

Dominion with the expansions is big and exciting, and base Dominion is lame and boring. Lame when compared to expanded Dominion, that is. It's moderate when compared to other games; other games that have won SdJ, anyway; it's exciting compared to those that haven't. But in a big expanded game like this one--big when compared to games with fewer expansions, small when compared to games with more expansions, if such things exist--it can be difficult for some people to remember the nice thing they had; nice compared to nothing at all, perhaps a little less nice than the expanded thing they have now--long story short (at least, of course, compared to longer stories), don't give people free pizza if people like the cheese pizza you sell them, then you sell them a variety of exciting toppings, they won't be thrilled at the thought of going back to that cheese pizza, even if it's free.