I always kind of planned to create an introduction post, given the amount that I post, but I was never quite sure when or how to do it. So I guess I'll go with this:
Hi. I'm Kirian, and I live in Ohio. I've played Dominion since about 3 months after it came out, own all the expansions except Dark Ages, and have them all neatly packaged in a pair of containers so they all fit. I also play a ton of other Eurogames, as well as WOW and D&D (I'm one of the approximately 5 people who liked 4e). In my non-gaming time, I've been variously a teacher, a biochemist, a writer, a web designer and web programmer, and a father to two.
I was drawn to Dominion for its simplicity and replayability, and I was drawn to DS.com and then these forums by the great discussion of those strategies. I'm probably responsible for more than a dozen sales of Dominion and its expansions. That said, I feel that online Dominion is superior to its offline version--though I'm certain we can find cases that make it not strictly superior.
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But, alas, this is (mostly) goodbye as well.
I haven't been playing on Iso as much lately, partly because of the Goko mess, partly through having less time because of other projects. The Goko thing has been an ongoing annoyance of mine since before it was even Goko, and I always worried that the new system wouldn't be as good as Iso. But I had hope, as some of my dealbreakers were getting fixed.
The Goko Q&A today pretty much solidified my opinion. There are other major problems, but the Walled Village/Google+ thing actually is a huge one. It may seem minor, but it implies future creep of sponsorship and monetization, maybe not of Dominion cards but almost certainly of other games. The lack of substantive response on key issues saddens and amuses me; there's at least one future politician in training at Goko, somewhere. That lack of substance--the continued essential "Yes, we hear you, but no, we probably aren't going to do anything about it"--is the final straw for me.
Prehaps Goko will get their act together. I'm sure they'll put something together. I estimate the Goko Dominion community will pull perhaps 20% of Isotropic's traffic at their peak, and that will wane after a short while. I'll be surprised if, a year from now, Goko Dominion has even 10% of Isotropic's current traffic. Too many prominent community members have all but said they aren't moving unless these same issues are cleared up.
Donald, you created an amazing game. I'm truly sorry that your publisher screwed the pooch on this, and then made you the messenger.
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In the meantime, until Goko cleans things up or goes belly-up, I won't be buying from companies that have licensed to Goko, including RGG, Mayfair, Knizia, and Gopherwood, as well as whoever else gets announced as having licensed to Goko.
I'll play on Iso occasionally in the meantime, and for those in the SE Michigan area I'll be at U-Con; feel free to contact me via PM if you like. I'll probably even still jump in on the tournament there.
But I won't be here on the forum as much, and I won't be seeing you all on Goko. Perhaps someday.
