10-02-2003 20:14									#1
	Brad Wardell Interview, Part 3 Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Brad Wardell is the Project Lead on Galactic Civilizations. He is also the Founder and President of Stardock Systems, the company that has employed a dozen full-time staff for the past one-and-a-half years developing the follow-up to its original game release of the same name in 1994. This single-player, turn-based strategy game set in outer space is being published by Montreal-based Strategy First.

In the third and final installment of this interview with Apolyton CS, Wardell first touches upon different purchasing venues for the game. He then offers his views on Drengin.net's current status, Stardock' post-game release plans and obstacles to introducing alternative development and marketing models in the gaming industry. The final inquiry Wardell addresses is on his own recent foray into multiplayer gaming.

GalCiv becomes commercially available on March 25th. Comments are welcome in this thread.

--------------
Dan; Apolyton CS

Last edited by DanQ on 11-02-2003 at 02:44

	10-02-2003 21:01									#2
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Good article. I'll have to check out some of the other games on Drengin.net and see if I'd be better served with the subscription.

	11-02-2003 00:07									#3
	Suffering from ads?

--

Last edited by ammt603 on 11-02-2003 at 08:06

	11-02-2003 00:51									#4
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Brad seems a little... defensive about the whole Drengin.net thing. Understandable, if discouraging. It's not like this industry doesn't need new fresh revenue models, after all.

I think that a factor that may be easy to overlook in estimating the difficulties of internet sales being an American developer is payments. Americans are pretty unique in their unlimited willingness to part with their CC details online - we're a fair bit less casual about that in the old world.

	11-02-2003 01:46									#5
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Americans are pretty unique in their unlimited willingness to part with their CC details online

I'll admit I'm not too worried about it as long as proper precautions are taken. It would be nice if they set up an alternate method, though.

	11-02-2003 02:25									#6
	Suffering from ads?

They do. You can send a check/money order.

	11-02-2003 02:28									#7
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

I wonder if... I buy the game in the store so I can have the CD and whatever other materials come with it, can I still subscribe to Drengin.net to get the updates and be part of the meta-universe? Well, duh... sure, but do I get a break on the subscription?

How long does a subscription last, anyways?

	11-02-2003 02:39									#8
	Inflate your Upload Space

I'm pretty sure it works as follows:

When you get Galactic Civilizations at the store it will come with a serial #.

That serial # will be able to be pluggined into Stardock Central which will in turn let you download updates to GalCiv as they become available as well as provide you with demo access to other things on Drengin.net.

Example:
http://draginol.stardock.com/images/beta5/sc.jpg

	11-02-2003 02:51									#9
	Suffering from ads?

Demo access would be different from full access in which ways?

	11-02-2003 05:07									#10
	Increase Your PM Length

And, would we get a discount on the drengin.net subscription after purchasing GalCiv separately?

	11-02-2003 09:56									#11
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

Harry: Not sure, that's a sales decision which I'm not directly involved in.

Not: Demo access would mean demo versions of games.

	11-02-2003 16:10									#12
	Increase Your PM Length

hey Brad, how do you like your new avatar?

	11-02-2003 16:31									#13
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

i don't quite understand dregin.net... if i just buy a subscription(the $70 1 yr version) instead of purchasing galciv at the store, i then get to download all the games offered. i know that much, but i really need to know all the details. do the games stop working after my subscription runs out? do i get to download an iso to burn to a cd? would i still get all the patches/upgrades if i just bought galciv in the store? do i get an electronic manual(instead of a paper one i'd get from the store)? i looked on your websites for more information but couldn't find any. i'm confused.

	11-02-2003 16:50									#14
	Got spare money?

quote: What happens at the end of the year? Do I get to keep my games? Yes, you can keep whatever you have at the end of your subscription - you just can't download new versions or new games.

quote: So how does this work? When you subscribe you get access to the Drengin Component Manager which lists all the currently available games on the Drengin Network. Stardock.net's servers basically act as a gigantic virtual CD ROM drive and the Drengin Component Manager installs the games from the server onto your local hard disk drive. You can install, uninstall and add new features to your games from it.

http://www.stardock.com/products/dr...p?product=prod2


see also
https://store.stardock.com/sales_faq.html

	11-02-2003 17:19									#15
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

i'm still confused! drengin.net doesn't seem to have any advantages that i can see. unless, you don't get free patches/upgrades if you bought galciv in the store(this doesn't seem likely though)! if at least one game(that i'd want to play) came out a year, then i could imagine paying for the subscription but i don't see that happening.

	11-02-2003 18:07									#16
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

well curently you can get 5 games (http://www.stardock.com/products/dr....asp?page=games) and any updates on them for the next 12 months for $70

after the first year, you can get any new Stardock games and the updates to the existing ones

as for galciv, i'm not sure about it, but perhaps more important updates(stuff that could be in an expansion pack) will not be given away for free(as patches)....
Brad?

	11-02-2003 18:17									#17
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

I'd need to be able to download the games and install them myself. I have a POTS system and can't leave my machine connected for days at a time while the manager installs components. I have access to a high speed connection so if I can pull it down, burn it, and take it home it would be a great plus.

	12-02-2003 23:54									#18
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

We plan to have an expansion pack but it'll be free.

	13-02-2003 02:59									#19
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

You guys rock! If you keep providing all these wonderful services you may have cult worship on your hands.

	13-02-2003 03:38									#20
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

LOL. There's actually a business case to be made for a free expansion pack: Reduces piracy.

On our non-game software (Object Desktop, WindowBlinds, etc.) the piracy rate, while somewhat high at times, is much lower than other products of similar popularity because of all the updates.

There are two kinds of pirates:
1) People who pirate because it's convenient.
and
2) People who would never buy your game no matter what anyway.

The first category is probably the largest (based on our experience) so if you can keep updating your product where it requires a valid, non-pirated, serial # to get it, then you'll get a lot of those people who originally pirated the product to buy it.

I suspect I'm not the only one who doesn't feel a terrible amount of sympathy for game companies that release buggy games, then throw a patch out a month later and then abandon it. No wonder there's so much piracy in games.

	13-02-2003 05:23									#21
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

That's why I usually stick with consoles these days. I only spring for PC games when they're really good or a series I've followed for a while.

	27-02-2003 08:06									#22
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

Hey Brad, Glad to see a ex-Boneyards player. TA is still alive and kickin. The fans have built their own online server with Galactic Warz. Similar to BY, but much better, even down to the irritating drone. Play me there and lemme see ur mad TA skillz. Core still rules tho. www.gamingbattleleague.com Sorry to the Apolyton regulars, I'm a bit off topic

Last edited by TaGirl_Keri on 27-02-2003 at 13:24