LOL. The anti-American cheap shots just keep rolling in. It’s not like I said anything about Ferfide Albion…oh nevermind, I guess that was a Welshman and a Canadien piping in there. (Mama told me there’d be days like these.)
But back to the topic of the thread, what I would really like to know is, how much does Clint & Co, have to pay Tolkien Inc.? (or Iron Crown, whatever) I wouldn’t be surprised if price hikes weren’t somehow related to royalty fees increasing. I’ll bet we’ll never know, as either i) Clint is too professional to say so, or ii) his contractual requirements keep him mum.
LOL. The anti-American cheap shots just keep rolling in. It’s not like I said anything about Ferfide Albion…oh nevermind, I guess that was a Welshman and a Canadien piping in there. (Mama told me there’d be days like these.)
But back to the topic of the thread, what I would really like to know is, how much does Clint & Co, have to pay Tolkien Inc.? (or Iron Crown, whatever) I wouldn’t be surprised if price hikes weren’t somehow related to royalty fees increasing. I’ll bet we’ll never know, as either i) Clint is too professional to say so, or ii) his contractual requirements keep him mum.
But back to the topic of the thread, what I would really like to know is, how much does Clint & Co, have to pay Tolkien Inc.? (or Iron Crown, whatever) I wouldn’t be surprised if price hikes weren’t somehow related to royalty fees increasing. I’ll bet we’ll never know, as either i) Clint is too professional to say so, or ii) his contractual requirements keep him mum.
Keep mAm - I’m afraid. Note ICE is no longer around as a Tolkien company but it is doing some decent Roleplaying stuff. Too professional… not so sure about that… :o
Firstly, sorry for bringing the US debate in to muddy the waters, I stand by what I said but I should have stood and said it somewhere else I guess.
I’ll get back to the matter in hand . . . several people have mentioned a monopoly on here in a negative way. Let’s think about why that is. If there was lots of money in providing this game then Clint & Co would not have gotten a hold of the game. There would have been lots of competition.
My bet is that Clint and the guys could make more money doing other things if they wanted to. However, and I hesitate to put words in their mouths, I bet they keep at it for a variety of reasons. Such as, simply enjoying what they do, pride in the level of service they provide and a motivation based on the quality of the game that they manage.
Call me soft but I think we’re lucky to have stumbled on such a game run by such dedicated people. I’d say that each turn is worth more than I pay for it so I’ll keep paying & playing and one day I’ll win again! If you don’t believe that it’s worth it or that you can afford it stop. But complaining about it isn’t a great use of your time, I’d love a Rolls Royce but I can’t afford it, should I complain to them? I wouldn’t mind drinking the finest wine every night but I think a lot of its over-priced so I don’t. Should I complain to them?
No and no I think you’ll agree. So maybe we should pick up our swords and spears and start throwing them at each other again on the ME battlefields rather than falling out and bitching about prices on here . . .
Firstly, Clint asked for feedback, which is why I posted on this topic. If I didn’t care about the game or company, I would go my merry way and not say a word. The price hike, last year’s and this year’s and projected future years’ have caused me to stop playing this game. So I posted here to let Clint know my feelings. Now you and I do not know anything about one another. I do not know how you spend your money, and you do not know how I spend my money. That isn’t the concern of this topic anyhow, so lets stop making assumptions about my income or my spending habits.
You were absolutely correct in your earlier statement about discretionary spending, which is what caused me to marvel at the fact that you could not understand what I was getting at. How long will people continue to pay more for things every year simply because of this thing we call “inflation”? Do you know how to stop inflation? Stop buying things. Really, its that simple. Will people do it? No, but I do.
To Brad and Everyone Else
When it comes to complaining I have a philosophy: I have no right to complain about something if I’m not trying to be part of the solution. I do not impose this on others, its just what I live by. I am trying to be part of the solution by no longer spending money on a product whose price will continue to rise each year (see my reasons below). Naturally, there are some things that none of us can do without, food, power, etc. But I find it silly to compare products that we need to live to product that are entertaiment, from a manufacuterer’s point of view or a consumer’s. For your information, if you’re interested, I also go to the cinema perhaps only twice a year due to the absurd way the cost of a ticket has risen in recent years. I try to buy my gas where it is least expensive, and, if possible, from a company that does not import oil from the Middle East.
Perhaps I am ususual in my spending habits. I didn’t really think I was up until now. But then this is a small community of people, and not a wide sampling of the general population. I am not looking down upon anyone who continues to play this game. I like this game a lot, which is why the price hike upsets me so.
My references to extortion were not a reference to the amount being paid, but the practice of regularly scheduled price increases for the SAKE of price increases. I did not say it WAS extortion but FELT like it. One definition of the word is: Illegal use of one’s official position or powers to obtain property, funds, or patronage. Naturally nothing illegal is going on here, but because I like this game so much I feel very strongly about the issue. What I’m getting at is that there was not an announcement saying, “because of certain circumstances, we had to raise the price a bit.” Instead we have “Here is a list of this years’ price increases. Expect next year’s to be inline with inflation.” Some people find this fine. I do not.
The reason(s) I do not, have already been stated by myself and others on this thread. Both sides of the argument have been made, but here is what I believe: The service is great, but even with all the new variants, the product is unchanged. All that has changed is how the positions are played and what orders are allowed. There are fewer materials involved in the game’s production now than ten years ago.
Clint has pointed out that all the companies who have run the game in the past have folded, which seems to be an industry trend in general. If these price hikes are what Harlequin feels are needed to prevent that happening to them, so be it. In which case, I feel for the entire genre because I think it does not bode well. People, like I have done, will eventually feel that the value for the money is no longer there.
I do not think that “Clint and Co.” are rolling in money. I do not think they’re bringing in money by the bucketfull. I also do not begrudge them, nor anyone else, the right to make a living. The only way I can protest an increase in the price is to no longer pay it. That is my decision. I posted here telling why so that Clint could have some feed back. End of discussion for me.
Carefull fragilesi, must not use strong words there are those here who cannot countenance that. I am slagged for suggesting they shut up and go away if they think the prices are so outrageous. No one thinks accusing Clint and company of extortion is over the top but saying shut up and possibly telling others to quit bitching are.
Mexican beer used to be on my list too, but I haven’t bought a bottle of Dos Equis since the Mexican crowd chanted “Osama! Osama!” at last year’s world cup match…
At last, a really interesting subject. I am a fan of the Orkney ale known as "Skullspliter’ myself. It is cheaper in Louisiana than Scotland–go figure that one out. No wonder we can’t keep the immigrants out.
Speaking of immigrants, they no sooner get here than they adopt the American attitude “pay according to results, not pay according to time”…
Clint… you might as well raise the prices a bit more…
Looks like there is plenty of people who would love to pay you a bit more…
By the way… I still don’t accept that the American prices should be cheaper than ours just because they are used to cheaper things. We play with the same company which is in the U.k…
Is it cheaper to send e-mails to the US or something? are US turns easier to input than UK turns?
US players just are used to paying less - ie will ONLY pay less for the same product as someone in Europe - that’s the basic economic/market facts. So if you want to sell something in the States you have to do it cheaper than here. Annoying as that is for non-Americans there’s little we can do about it (we’ve reduced the gap this time around if that’s any interest). If you buy a computer in the states and over here the one over here costs a lot more… :o
4.4 turns per month (for a player running 2 nations) is under $16.00 per year for an increase of 30c per turn (a pizza). The reason we’ve increased the price is for us to effectively earn the same money (all our expenses have gone up - the guys had a 5% increase in wages for example) we need more money to stay even. Without this extra money we can’t afford to advertise (last year we had to cut back), travel to conventions (ditto - last year we did 3, the year before 13), programming (we lost a programmer) etc.
So to stay competitive we need more money.
House prices, food, petrol and basically everything in life is linked to inflation. Everything being equal (and Scott I assume you had a pay rise over the last few years) the cost of turns is pretty much the same this year as it was last year. The year before that there was a bigger jump in prices for North Americans (UK had a small decrease you might recall of 10p a turn).
Scott: If you want to play the game GB is cheaper now that it was last year… If your complaint is that turn price will continue to increase; we don’t know the answer to that yet. (We’ve shown that turns also go down in price so it’s possible that will happen - we can only tell that sometime near April next year when we look at prices again).
It is obvious, is it not, that one need not play to post here. Still, it is odd to do so – and the more of your postings I read, the odder you seem. As far as I’m concerned, you may go ahead and post to your queer little heart’s content. I’ll have nothing more to sya about this matter.
Lots of U.S. bashing going on in this thread for some reason. My own interpretation of the complaints is that they’re misdirected. They should be directed at our current administration, which is an embarrassment to our country, criminal (literally and figuratively), and filled with right-wing idealogues who have confused religion and government in direct abdication of our founding father’s intent in establishing the doctrine of separation of church and state.
Please note that:
a. more highly-educated US voters voted for Kerry than Bush
b. more higher-income US voters voted for Kerry than Bush
c. Bush is responsible for Iraq war, for not signing Kyoto treaty, for corrupting our government to make his buddies in big business rich, for… an endless list of horrible things.
My guess is that US MEPBM players mostly fall into the “highly educated” and “higher income” categories, and that statistically, we are therefore right there with you Europeans and Canadians in hating the Bush administration and what it’s doing to our planet and people. I’m sure there are US MEPBM players who like Bush and think my diatribe above is rubbish. Well, hey, hopefully they’ll be my enemy in the next MEPBM game so I can squash them… <grin>
As to US soccer (futbol) being rubbish, this too is changing, though I’ll admit that we don’t have the best players & teams today. We are getting better and based on the rising popularity and participation in soccer, you’re going to see the US as a world-cup champion within your lifetimes. We are already a serious competitor. I actually spend a lot of weekend time refereeing youth soccer games and my 16yr old son is a very skilled halfback with aspirations to be a soccer player as a career. It’s a tough road, but it’s his passion, so I support him in it.
Good because I was finished talking about it three posts ago. Now, I apologize for being rude to Brad. However I tend to treat people they way I’m treated when they get rude. That is over, I’m done with it, it wasn’t nice and I’m sorry. However, if my points seem so odd to you, perhaps that is why “…Brits seem to pay more for everything.” I’ve never understood why there are people out there who cannot appreciate someone having an opinion different from their own. /shrug