TotalGaming.Net - What's Next?

Phase 1, Phase 2... Phase N

Published on February 24, 2005 By Zoomba In PC Gaming

This is a continuation of the "discussion" started in the "Still No November Game" thread.

From what I've gathered from Yarlen's post as well as the Stardock Communtiy Chat Brad held a few weeks back, the following is happening with TG.Net:

1. We missed out on a game for the 04 year based on promises of one game per month. This has been acknolwedged and has been apologized for.
2. We will soon be getting two new games: Nexagon and Hacker Elite.
3. TG.Net is undergoing a change in purchase model. It's shifting to a "Token" based system. We will pay for so many tokens and use them to "buy" games from the list. This is being called Phase 2. Nexagon and Hacker Elite will be released under Phase 1 (current model)
4. If you are a subscriber under Phase 1, you will retain all games released under the first Phase even after Phase 2 is implemented (so you won't have to rebuy any games).

I personally would like to hear some more concrete details on how Phase 2 is going to work, how we get tokens, how we redeem them, can we "sell back" games to get new tokens etc.

I'd also like to know what sorts of games are coming down the pipeline after Phase 2 comes in. I have TG.Net for the SD games primarily, but I'd also like to see some newer games make their way to the service. Is there a way we could vote for which game in the works we'd most like to see next?

Please add your own questions and comments. Hopefully we'll be able to keep this thread more civil than the last and Yarlen and Brad will jump in with some answers for us.

Comments

Frogboy

on Feb 24, 2005

I want to correct one thing that keeps being said: Stardock NEVER promised a game per month for the rest of the year.

Our exact words were:

"For the initial launch, Stardock has put together an impressive list of games that will be available on day one, such as Galactic Civilizations, Celtic Kings, Orb, The Corporate Machine, LightWeight Ninja, and a new compilation of Disciples II called Disciples II Ultimate Edition, which integrates all of the latest expansion packs for that popular game into a single entity. Stardock then plans to add a new game each month for the rest of the year starting with The Political Machine in August. "

That is, we planned to release an additional game each month for the rest of last year. And we released all but 2. Those 2 games will be coming out, we're just increasing our infrastructure and anyone who purchased TotalGaming.net based on that announcement will certainly get those other 2 games before the end.

I just want to point this out because it is not correct to say that Stardock "promised" a game per month. Like every other game company, we target games for release but there are sometimes delays.

With regards to your new questions:

Current TotalGaming.net subscribers will have their account extended so that it is 2 years from when they subscribed. In addition, they will receive 10 tokens to spend as they choose on new games that come out. Everything that is already out they will get automatically (That is, they don't have to spend any tokens for any existing games). So the people who make out the best on TotalGaming.net phase 2 will be the people who already have TotalGaming.net.

You redeem tokens by choosing the new games. New games will have by them a "download" link in TotalGaming.net. When you click on it, it will mention that it costs X tokens and ask you if you want to use X of your Y tokens to get this game. If you say yes, it will deduct those tokens.

You can't "sell back" games to get new tokens. We don't have Digital Rights Management on our games. We try to avoid any kind of copy protection in fact. But the trade-off is that the game you purchase is your game.

What kinds of games are coming out? We're in negotiations with a lot of companies right now for games. Certainly the Stardock games will be on there. The reason we switched to this new system was that third party developers wanted their royalty based on the number of people playing their game.

In the existing system, developers might get say 1% of each copy of TotalGaming.net (as an example). That was't very attractive to many game developers, especially ones who believe their game would be more used on TG.net than some other game. So with the token system, we can pay a set amount per token spent on their game to the particular developer. This enables us to find more developers to work with.

Mike C

on Feb 24, 2005

I asked this in the other thread, but how do I find out when my subscription ends?

Draginol

on Feb 24, 2005

In Stardock Central click on Tools->Register products and it'll tell you when a given subscription item expires.

Mike C

on Feb 24, 2005

got it thanks....

So will 1 token be useful? Seems likely people would end up with 1

Zoomba

on Feb 24, 2005

Brad-
Sorry for the misinformation on the game a month bit, it was a misinterpretation of what you guys said on my part.

Will there be a way to incrementally buy additional tokens aside from the $70 for 10 plan once you already have a subscription?

Peace Phoenix

on Feb 25, 2005

Will there be a way to incrementally buy additional tokens aside from the $70 for 10 plan once you already have a subscription?

well, in this thread http://totalgaming.stardock.com/forums.asp?MID=141&AID=65990, it is stated that you will be able to buy pack of 5 token for roughly 35$
And it seems that Galciv 2 will cost 5 token.
I see no spefic information on betas.

Zoomba

on Feb 25, 2005

Yeah, I noticed that thread after I created this one. It's taking care of my questions. THere will be booster packs for additional tokens.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!