Game Cost?

[eastonb]

I'm curious whether the exile series has been released into the public domain, or whether the price has at least come down from $25 per game? These games seem really interesting, and I understand developers have to make money, but I would find it hard to impossible to justify spending that much on a ten year old game. Any info on this?

[Lilith]

They're still for sale. Lowering the price of the Exile series would be counterproductive, because the Avernum trilogy is basically the same three games as the Exile trilogy dressed up with different engines, and for obvious reasons Jeff doesn't want his older games to compete on price with his newer games.

[eastonb]

So the suggestion would be to ignore the exile series and purchase the Avernum games instead? Even so, $75 for the entire trilogy seems a bit steep. Obviously the pricing decision isn't really any of my business, but I'd be much more inclined to buy the games if they weren't more expensive than newer commericially produced games. Is there perhaps a package deal or anything for purchasing more than one?

[Swimmin' Salmon]

Shame on you Thuryl.

 

According to the official web ordering place for Spiderweb Software , the Exile Trilogy costs $25, and the hint book set for the Trilogy costs $15. There is a shipping gratuity, and likely taxes if you live in an oppressive state.

 

Edit - I got carried away and put a smiley in my post. I apologize and have removed the offending character. Flagellation will commence forthwith.

[eastonb]

OK cool thanks for the link. The $25 or $45 for the trilogies sounds much more reasonable than what I thought was being charged.

 

Followup question: Can I order the games to download rather than ordering a CD and paying shipping costs? I have a fast internet connection, so the size of the games wouldn't be an issue for me, but I could see them not wanting to sell the games that way since it might consume a lot of bandwidth for them.

[Swimmin' Salmon]

It never hurts to ask the man himself. Shoot Jeff an email (spidweb at spiderwebsoftware.com) asking him if that is possible. It is likely that he will say yes, and ask that you download the three demo copies, provide him with the three registration codes, and he will charge your card and give you the three keys. Try to remember to ask for the character editor keys as well, I forget that part.

 

Edit- Comedy Central must have run out of programming, since Jeff is roaming the boards looking for fresh victims. Jump up and down and scream at him and he may notice this thread.

[ben4808]

Also, paying $25 for all three games is well worth it, and then some.

[Zeviz]

Quote:

Originally written by eastonb:
...Followup question: Can I order the games to download rather than ordering a CD and paying shipping costs? I have a fast internet connection, so the size of the games wouldn't be an issue for me, but I could see them not wanting to sell the games that way since it might consume a lot of bandwidth for them.

You can download the games and ask for registration codes (see order form for details). However, shipping cost (in the US) is only 2$, so it's not that expensive to just get a CD and not worry about having to backup your registration.

[Alorael at Large]

But no, there's no standard way to get the trilogy CD discount without the CD. Go figure. Still, if you ask Jeff, he'd probably be willing to give you three registration codes and not ship.

 

—Alorael, who just realized that it's now cheaper to get the Avernum CD than to get two individual Avernums. Go figure. And the Avernum Trilogy plus Nethergate costs only twice as much as Nethergate. Go figure even more.

[eastonb]

Thanks for the help guys. I ordered the Avernum trilogy CD, as Washington state is close to me so it shouldn't take long to ship, and $2 is a reasonable shipping fee, and the extra $20 seemed worth it to get updated games which presumably run smoother and with fewer bugs.