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[cactus]

CROSS POSTED FROM BGG:

I was one of the beta testers for the new Goko version of Dominion.

Since they tried to go live and failed a few months ago I have probably been one of the biggest critics of the Goko implementation but I have to admit it has improved. Most of my biggest gripes have been resolved. Yes there are a number of minor problems but for me at least none are deal-breakers.

Things that have been improved (at least to my satisfaction):

1/ Price. Originally they wanted to charge about $90 USD for the total game (i.e. all of the expansions). It now costs $40-45 for everything. You may still not think it is all that cheap but $40-45 USD I can live with (I play the game quite a bit).

2/ Security. You can now pay with Paypal. I am no expert on internet security but this seems to have silenced almost all of the people who were expressing security concerns.

3/ Stability. The game has been/is subject to prone to freezing and crashing. This was a big one for me. I was not prepared to pay for a game that crashed as often as Goko dominion did. I was playing with Safari. It was suggested to me that I try playing with Chrome. Now the game works fine as long as I clear my browser history occasionally. No crashes at all. Maybe a tiny bit of lag now and again but not enough to be a problem. I do still hear reports of people having problems using Firefox but Chrome seems stable.

4/ Interface. There are still some problems with the interface but fairly minor IMO but most of the early problems that made playing on Goko a bit of a painful experience have been corrected. Your hand is now arranged in a way that you can easily see what you have. Buttons are now marked so you can easily tell what you are doing.... still some things to be ironed out but they are making progress fixing these and the things that are left are minor issues to me....

5/ Monetization. This was the really big one for me. When the Goko version of dominion was originally released Goko had this unbelievably ill conceived idea about having these things called "zaps" that you could buy with real like money and use to improve your starting hand or disadvantage the AI players (I don't think it was envisaged that they would be used against other human players....). Essentially it seemed to me they were trying to turn dominion into some kind of a farmville clone and this was an absolute deal breaker for me. I would have actually preferred to give up dominion completely than put up with that sort of thing. Happily this demented idea has almost completely been abandoned by Goko. Yes "Zaps" still exist in the adventure mode of the game but they are freely available in bulk without using real money and they have no relevance whatsoever to people who like playing against other people.

Basically what I'm saying is that for me all of the major issues have been fixed to a level that I can live with. I have been a fully payed up player on Goko for about the last 6 weeks and I have been enjoying it plenty.

For the record there are a few things that are still "works in progress" but none of these is really a deal breaker for me:

a/ Goko dominion is not really optimised for iOS yet. Apparently this is what they are currently working on. You can play with an iPad but not all of the features work perfectly (chat for instance).

b/ Adventure mode. Basically a kind of narrative version of the game where you play through a whole heap of predetermined sets. Could have been fantastic. Is actually incredibly lame. 90% of the sets are completely boring and the script writing.... well lets just say it is an insult to the witty and surreal writing by Donald X. which accompanied the actual physical boxes of the game.

c/ Promo cards. The only way to currently get access to the promo cards is to slog through hundreds of games of the adventure mode. See b/ above.

d/ Avatars. Basically Goko have come up with all these almost identical looking rather childish looking avatars that you must select one of. They're pretty off putting.

But these negative point to me pale into insignificance when compared with the joy of playing Dark Ages cards online.

Before I end I should mention the one way in which I think Goko dominion is clearly better than isotropic. It is much more accessible for people who are not hard core dominion players. My wife will not play dominion with me on isotropic because she finds the isotropic interface very off putting, but she loves the way Goko looks and feels more like an actual game of cards.

[andwilk]

I tend to agree that Goko is now at a point where I am willing to pay for it.  I bought all of the sets about a month ago or so.

My biggest negative right now is that Shelters have not once shown up in a Professional mode game that I have played since I've bought the cards.  Have you noticed this as well?

[DStu]

My biggest negative right now is that Shelters have not once shown up in a Professional mode game that I have played since I've bought the cards.  Have you noticed this as well?

That's because Goko is under the impression that Shelters should show up in 3 out of 1000 games when you have all sets, because math.
https://getsatisfaction.com/goko/topics/can_duplicate_colony_platinum_option [for Colonies, but somewhere there is also the same topic for shelters]

[Brando Commando]

I've gone back to Goko in the past few days and have found a generally worthwhile time, too; I felt pretty much the same way as the OP -- what I played months ago and found terrible is good enough to play now and quite possibly fork over $45 for the complete set. I'm still not in love with it, but between that and nothing that seems pretty okay.

[eHalcyon]

On number 5, Zaps were always Adventure Mode only.

[cactus]

On number 5, Zaps were always Adventure Mode only.

Yes, I didn't make that very clear (though I did know it).

I think it has been stated elsewhere in the forums (by Donald X.?) that they were to play a more significant in the role in the adventures and were designed as an alternative revenue stream but Goko has now backed away from that. Not sure if that is exactly accurate but I'm pretty sure I have the gist right.

[Beyond Awesome]

On number 5, Zaps were always Adventure Mode only.

Yes, I didn't make that very clear (though I did know it).

I think it has been stated elsewhere in the forums (by Donald X.?) that they were to play a more significant in the role in the adventures and were designed as an alternative revenue stream but Goko has now backed away from that. Not sure if that is exactly accurate but I'm pretty sure I have the gist right.

If they want to make more money they should charge 40 Gokoins to get all 5 current promos and then also charge to get the Base Set art. Not everyone cares about having Base Set art so mkaing it a purchase shouldn't hurt anyone, and also for those who want to grind, they can still get the promos for free, but for those who don't want to deal with the grind, Goko gets a little extra cash on the side.

[cactus]

On number 5, Zaps were always Adventure Mode only.

Yes, I didn't make that very clear (though I did know it).

I think it has been stated elsewhere in the forums (by Donald X.?) that they were to play a more significant in the role in the adventures and were designed as an alternative revenue stream but Goko has now backed away from that. Not sure if that is exactly accurate but I'm pretty sure I have the gist right.

If they want to make more money they should charge 40 Gokoins to get all 5 current promos and then also charge to get the Base Set art. Not everyone cares about having Base Set art so mkaing it a purchase shouldn't hurt anyone, and also for those who want to grind, they can still get the promos for free, but for those who don't want to deal with the grind, Goko gets a little extra cash on the side.

This is a good suggestion I reckon. The promos might have to wait until they are all actually implemented of course....

Question: is there any way to actually obtain the Base Set art as of this time...? Does that promo card thingie that came in the box with the base cards give you access...?

EDIT: answered my own question. Went to Get Satisfaction and found that the issue of the base card art issue had been raised about 3 months ago by Wero. I tried to light a fire under the issue by reposting it.... but I don't think things on Get Satisfaction are all that flammable....