Price or Quality??

[Maizel]

Be sure that it wasn't the idea I had when I created this thread.

The thing is that if I have.. I don't know.. let's just say a hundred concerns about HOI4, you can be sure that the price is at the very end of the list.

It just annoyed me when I see all the outrage about the price.

Quality/content > $.

Oh no worries man, we're all friends here, no offense is ever taken by me.

I myself am not even too concerned about the price. €50 extra for 2 DLC and accompanying cosmetic/music DLC does not seem unfair to me at all.

The thing I do notice is that Paradox is slipping off the edge with it's business model. Paradox games have been very DLC heavy since CK2, sure. But I gave them slack because CK2 was, or at least felt like a complete game at launch.

Now, 4 years later we got minor DLC/preorder incentives (models) dangled over our heads, that just as well could have been added to the base game. We got Season passes, even though not too long ago Pdox said it did not like the idea of season passes.

The way Pdox is doing things has very quickly moved to the way that the big developers we hate do these things. This makes the fact that we can expect at least 100€ worth of DLC over a game's life alot more grating.

Then, wouldn't not buying have been a more appropriate (and powerful) way to convey your disapproval of this business practice than words ?

Now that they have your money why would they change their "winning" practice ?

Whether I enable them or not has no bearing on the merits of such practices from a consumer's point of view. I am sure Pdox loves it though. Try again.

 

[BBBD316]

I am not denying anyone anything, I am merely noting that the market will decide everything.

As long as I feel the quality of Pdx's product stays well above someone like EA I will continue to trust them, if they burn me will things will change. But as more people come into our bitter sweet family what we consider acceptable means less to the developers as their market opens up and there are more people in the pie to keep happy.

 

[Maizel]

I am not denying anyone anything, I am merely noting that the market will decide everything.

As long as I feel the quality of Pdx's product stays well above someone like EA I will continue to trust them, if they burn me will things will change. But as more people come into our bitter sweet family what we consider acceptable means less to the developers as their market opens up and there are more people in the pie to keep happy.

I agree with everything you have said in that post.

 

[benice1234]

Paradox has earned my trust with the quality of support they have shown their other games that I own (EU4 and CK2 specifically).

I see you don't own March of the Eagles. Lucky bastard.

 

[Nicolas I]

I see you don't own March of the Eagles. Lucky bastard.

I too was disappointed they didn't give basic support for this game even though they didn't wanted to develop it further (probably because of low sales volume).

 

[benice1234]

I too was disappointed they didn't give basic support for this game even though they didn't wanted to develop it further (probably because of low sales volume).

It wasn't even finished. They couldn't even be bothered to remove the flags, leaders, etc. of the US after they gave up on that MotE is the only proof you need to show that Paradox isn't a saint incapable of error and in fact a corporation motivated by profit, like all corporations.

 

[BBBD316]

I will give you MotE however I got that in a good sale so it was like a cup of coffee cost and I hadn't really followed it too much.

 

[benice1234]

I will give you MotE however I got that in a good sale so it was like a cup of coffee cost and I hadn't really followed it too much.

I preordered it

 

[BBBD316]

Ouch!

 

[LordOfWar16]

Maybe you don;t care about spending more money, but I think it is really unwise to spend money on expansions you know nothing about.

Then simply dont buy them. I really dont get it what people are so upset about. Let the people that want to buy them buy them and simply dont get the Field Marshal Edition yourself, period. Nobody is forcing you and you will still get all the content after release for purchase. It is not like there is exclusive (game) content in it.

That is actually how it has been for the past few years anyway. Take Battlefield 1, Civilization VI and Warhammer: Total War for example. All are 60€ to 90€ or even 210€ games (depending on the version), where you know absolutely nothing about except the theme when pre-orders got live. Hell, EA lets you pre-order a extremely ovepriced 200€ Collectors Edition (with the same content of any 100€ collectors) for BF1 of which we only have seen a IN-ENGINE trailer yet, not even any gameplay.

Nobody forces anybody to buy season passes or expansion passes. Everyone can decide for themself, however, the more people buy them the more comfortable the developers are in making bigger expansions of course, since it is less risky for them of course.

 

[Bridger15]

Now, 4 years later we got minor DLC/preorder incentives (models) dangled over our heads, that just as well could have been added to the base game.

See, it's really impossible to say that. I'd be willing to bet that meeting went something like this:

Art Director: How much money do we have to finish polishing up the 3D models?
Producer: We've allocated $X to the art department for that.
Art Director: Hmmmm, that's not enough to make unique skins for all the major factions. We'll have to go with generic models, unless you can get us some more from the budget?
Producer: and where would we take it from? Our budget is already overstreched. We budgeted 3 years of development time and we're well into the 4th year now.
Art Director: Hmmmm, could we get some additional capital from outside the budget if we sold these models as DLC and/or "deluxe" versions at launch?
Producer: Yeah, that's not a bad idea. I think the bean counters will go for that. The sound department has been having the same problem. They wanted to take some time (and money) to develop customized music for each of the major factions, but we just don't have the budget to pay for it. perhaps we can use this same strategy.


This is likely to be the reasoning behind the majority of DLC. I highly doubt someone at paradox looks at the game and said "this is good, but it would be better if we took out these components and sold them separately." Those kinds of decisions are not made *after the fact.* All of these decisions are made ahead of time.

Of course it's possible that you're right, and if we were talking about EA I'd say it might even be probable. But I don't think it likely in this case. Even if it were, these are such ancillary features that I couldn't care less that they aren't there if I buy the base game.

 

[angelosnau]

The price is fine. You can get the game for €40 and if you want extra cosmetic items you pay the higher price. The only reasonable cost is the base price,but anyone willing and able to spend more,can easily do it.

 

[Peter Wass]

the practices used when selling said product.

Yeah, Paradox really need to stop kidnapping people's grannies when they don't buy enough sprite packs.

 

[SopwithRice]

S

Yea i am an impulse buyer. Instead of weighing the options or waiting for reviews on a product what ever it may be i just get it and find out for myself, minor financial risk i took i guess you can say

Saaaaaaaame.

 

[YourMateGouldie]

Paradox games are still by very, very, very far the cheapest entertainment I can find.

A single night out at restaurant is 50-100$. A single live show or theatre play is 50-100$. That is still fun and entertaining, with sometimes good memories.

But for that price I can get hundreds hours of fun playing Paradox games. The fun per $ ratio is unbeatable !

Strippers you're looking at $400 at least. Hookers... well there's room for negotiation there...

 

[YourMateGouldie]

This is probably a bad example or comparison that im about to make but i like to compare the price of games to food. Looks at it this way, you go to a restaurant and spend 40 dollars on a quality meal. Your satisfaction lasts for the duration you ate your meal and and probably a few hours more , thats it. I bought the Field Marshal edition and thats 89 dollars and i most likely will play for 100's of hours just like other Paradox titles. So i guess you can say spread out through all those hours the price will add up. Most likely a crappy comparison i made but whatever

I too long for the day when my only sustenance will be video games...

 

[warith1000]

Ok, I guess some here are gonna dislike what I'm about to say but there's something I'm missing and I have a hard time getting the grasp on it...

Seems like there's such an outrage about the price of this game/simulation, but seriously is this the kind of game that you just play for 20-30 hours or are you gonna love it for years? (assuming the quality is great)

My point is that the HOI series is my favorite and one of the very few game that I play for years and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

So let's say that I play an average of 3 hours/weeks x 52 weeks/years x 7 years = 1092 hours

So for something that I plan to spend more than 1000 hours, I really don't care about spending 90$ instead of 40$.

I could understand if it was some kind of ''Call of Duty'' with a new version every year but that's far, very far from it...

There's a lot of things I wish HOI4 would simulate, but the price is really the last thing I care about.

As I said before, It's all about supporting Paradox. You don't have to spend the money unless you want to.