Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries

Official Strategy guide

Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Show only dev responses
Susana

Susana

COO Paradox Interactive
43 Badges
Aug 18, 2004
1.636
34
  • Stellaris: Galaxy Edition
  • 200k Club
  • 500k Club
  • Cities: Skylines Deluxe Edition
  • Crusader Kings II: Holy Knight (pre-order)
  • Europa Universalis III: Collection
  • Hearts of Iron: The Card Game
  • Rise of Prussia
  • Paradox Order
  • Cities: Skylines - Snowfall
  • Achtung Panzer
  • Victoria 2
  • Stellaris: Galaxy Edition
  • Stellaris: Galaxy Edition
  • Hearts of Iron IV Sign-up
  • Hearts of Iron IV: Cadet
  • Hearts of Iron IV: Colonel
  • Hearts of Iron IV: Field Marshal
  • Tyranny: Archon Edition
  • Tyranny: Archon Edition
  • Tyranny: Gold Edition
  • Stellaris: Digital Anniversary Edition
  • Heir to the Throne
  • Arsenal of Democracy
  • Crusader Kings II
  • Commander: Conquest of the Americas
  • Deus Vult
  • Diplomacy
  • East India Company
  • Europa Universalis III
  • Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations
  • Galactic Assault
  • Hearts of Iron III
  • Hearts of Iron Anthology
  • The Kings Crusade
  • Magicka
  • Majesty 2
  • Europa Universalis III Complete
  • Europa Universalis: Rome
  • Rome Gold
  • Sengoku
  • Sword of the Stars II
  • Supreme Ruler 2020
We are thrilled to announce that we have teamed up with Strategy Guide experts Prima Games to create an exclusive and extensive digital Strategy Guide for East India Company. The devs have been hard at work providing all the necessary content to make this a "must have" for all serious strategy buffs out there.

In our upcoming newsletter we'll give you an excerpt of it, but in the meantime you can read more here:
http://www.primagames.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780761563365

Sign up to the Paradox newsletter here
 
Omg, this is HORRIBLE news. Have you actually *tried* using one of those Prima eGuides?

Think of them as copy-protected .pdf files. They have to be viewed on the computer that you downloaded them on to, they can't be moved around. Try and ask them about this on the Prima forums and they will bite your head off telling you that they are not going to allow you to distribute their Intellectual property willy-nilly. Huh? Didn't I just pay for this??

My experience trying to use the one I bought for Dawn of Discovery ended in Prima support (who were onlly available during their business hours, no matter that I bought it on a Friday night and had to wait all weekend) finally giving up trying to get it to work on Vista. They gave me a refund, which was nice, but it was overall a very painful experience.

It took a week to resolve, because different support staff would read my emails and respond in different ways. One guy would say "I can't find your record of payment, can you send me your order confirmation number?". I responded with the number, and another employee would then email me explaining to me how to use my new Prima eGuide. I would then respond to him trying to bring him up to speed, and then the other guy would respond asking me for the order number. Madness, total absolute friggin madness.

I will never buy another eGuide from Prima. Give me a printable, copyable pdf, or give me a hard copy. But lose the eGuide, please.
 
And another thing. This new policy of not shipping a manual and relying on people getting all of their information from the Prima eGuide is an unfortunate mistake, but understandable. I'm all for seeing game companies become more profitable so that they can continue to fund great game development. But I will BUY a manual if you will offer it. Please don't assume that a Prima eGuide is going to fill the gap. Ship it as a printable .pdf if you must, or even SELL it as a printable, downloadable .pdf, I will PAY. But please don't rely on an unreliable 3rd party to tarnish YOUR reputation by providing something that I can't even *use*. Everyone loses except Prima. Why on earth would you sacrifice your business goodwill for their benefit?
 
Don't worry, there comes a manual with EIC. 48 pages (you can deduct about 10 pages for epilepsy warnings, index pages, legal text, credits etc.) - I bought the game from GamersGate and got the manual in pdf. You don't have to pay for the manual separately.
 
Yeah, I found it in my Impulse download. Glad they shipped something with the product.

I can understand why the decision to do a Prima eGuide benefits Prima, who doesn't have to print and distribute anything, just bits. Talk about no Cost of Goods Sold. But I wonder if Paradox/Nitro realize what a lame product eGuides are?
 
Yeah, it's a rip-off this whole Prima Guide thing, especially at $20 price. They made me mad when they did the same for Anno 1404, didn't attach a proper manual to their game but some 4 pages long crap and then told everyone to buy proper manual from Prima. Now two weeks later Anno 1404 Wiki has better stuff and is for free (I wrote some of it!). So whoever bought Prima Guide can feel robbed now with wiki being better for free than what they purchased for $20.

Same for EIC. We can write better guides here on this forum by experimenting and sharing our experiences. I already wrote a few mini-guides on different strategic aspects of the game. There's also a wiki out there with all the hard data from the game... so don't waste your cash on Prima and don't allow companies to go down the route where you are forced to pay additional money for a manual to the game you've bought.

It's in our own interest to sink Prima company... or more publishers will do what happened to Anno 1404, add 4 pages of how to install the game and the rest of the manual you will have to pay for. :)

Seriously, just think about it, the game costs $50 and the manual additional $20? What kind of an idiot would go for such a deal while forum and wiki can provide everything for free?

Instead of buying Prima Guides for two games you can have third game of your choice...
 
What kind of an idiot would go for such a deal while forum and wiki can provide everything for free?
Click to expand...
people can do whatever they damn well please. maybe they like guides, maybe they need extra help with the game, maybe they don't like the wiki, maybe they have limited internet access and can't come to the forum that often. there are a myriad of reasons people do whatever suits them and they don't need some nimrod calling them an idiot for the choices they make.
 
I am entitled to an opinion about their actions as much as they are entitled to making mistakes.

Also, Nimrod reminds me of Green Day. :)
 
delra said:
What kind of an idiot would go for such a deal while forum and wiki can provide everything for free?
Click to expand...
The kind of idiot who doesn't mind supporting game companies by giving them some extra revenue in order to make sure that they continue to be able to afford to put out great games. In other words, me. :eek: Take Dawn of Discovery (Anno 1404), for example. Great game, great company. But they made the damned stupid decision to ship NO manual and require you to get all the information about the game from Prima. I looked over the sample demo and was sufficiently impressed with the information in the guide that I bought it. I didn't mind paying extra to get something of value. But I had no idea that I was buying a copy protected pdf that would be heavily restricted and poorly supported when it didn't work. First eGuide I'd ever bought. Last one I *ever* buy.

The good news is that Prima refunded me my $20 after I sent customer support a letter complaining.

Be forewarned. Whether the online demo sample is good or not doesn't matter. The whole concept of a copy protected pdf with restrictions on where you can open and read it, just plain sucks.
 
Anno 1404 made many people unhappy and manual rip-off scheme is only the tip of the iceberg here. They promised real multiplayer and didn't deliver. They also put the worst kind of DRM on the game preventing thousands of customers from activating the game when their Steam server went bust. All in all this particular game launch was a gigantic clusterf*ck.

Personally I put this particular Anno on the shelf after a week (faster than any other installment and I play them since 1503!) because of very low replaying value. I wait for those promised patches now. I think it'll be very hard to make up to us what they did on game launch.

I'm glad Paradox didn't choose to go down Anno's route and sell manual to HoI3 for $20. :)
 
Last edited:
The kinds of manuals that ship with HoI and EU are a big reason why I buy Paradox games every release, every expansion, and multiple copies. My wife and I are still playing EU3. We gave up completely on East India and Anno 1404. A shame, but both have been miserable experiences compared to EU.

I didn't know whether to laugh out loud or react with sadness and disappointment (anger was an option, too) when I read Susana's announcement at how "thrilled" she was to announce the Prima eGuide thing. I understand that she's just posting the company line, but omg, I'm sure she hasn't actually tried one of these things. Because if she had, she'd know what a POS they are. Bad decision and more tarnish on an already badly tarnished brand.
 
I guess Prima are paying some cash to Paradox for Susana advertising their "thrilling" guides here.

Also, to be honest, EIC is the reason why I'm not playing HoI3 yet. Which is quite an achievement. :)
 
It wasn't despised until they decided to sell Anno 1404 without a manual and tell people to buy Prima Guide instead. :)
 
Good for you. :)
 
delra said:
Good for you. :)
Click to expand...

I also despise e-guides, but a funny thing happenned with the e-guide to Anno 104 Dawn of Discovery. I downloaded the guide and after about an hour and six or seven tries, printed the e-guide! Yes, HP loves me for using a lot of ink, but wth, it works. Their guide is a little lame, it could be better with better strategy and more tips and this may apply here to East India company, but cheat happens has a wonderful trainer..., so give the e-guide a second chance and encourage Prima to allow us to print a copy for our personal use. Certainly, Paradox and Prima are entitled to a few extra dollars(or pounds or Euros) for their excellent games. I also play EU3 and it rocks!:rolleyes:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back