Review: Heroes of Normandie

[Mysterio]

Another pricing debate?

It's pretty simple: the appropriate price for anything is what the market will bear. Period.

[Blackfyre]

Back to multiplayer issues

I had played Legions of Steel on iOS in a tournament which was quite fun and worked good with Slitherines PBEM system (that's what it was called as far as I remember)....

..until I figured out that it was so easy to cheat with that system: load the game, make your turn, if you didn't like the outcome (dice rolls) just terminate the game (quit the app) before you send your turn and try again (load your multiplayer game again). Repeat until you like the outcome....

I addressed this issue on the Slitherine website month ago, but got no reply.

So I'm not sure if this is true for all their games, as they all seem to use the same system (PBEM).

The possibility to cheat that easy is too tempting (being pretty honest there guys). And as this is a multiplayer focused game, I'd rather not buy it if that is still an issue.

[skoptic]

Back to multiplayer issues

I had played Legions of Steel on iOS in a tournament which was quite fun and worked good with Slitherines PBEM system (that's what it was called as far as I remember)....

..until I figured out that it was so easy to cheat with that system: load the game, make your turn, if you didn't like the outcome (dice rolls) just terminate the game (quit the app) before you send your turn and try again (load your multiplayer game again). Repeat until you like the outcome....

I addressed this issue on the Slitherine website month ago, but got no reply.

So I'm not sure if this is true for all their games, as they all seem to use the same system (PBEM).

The possibility to cheat that easy is too tempting (being pretty honest there guys). And as this is a multiplayer focused game, I'd rather not buy it if that is still an issue.

I've seen responses on the Slitherine forum from mods / devs that they can see and monitor for that kind of behaviour. Not sure if it was your thread. I think someone replied that they would prefer a more robust way of dealing with it, and devs responded that they had 'banned' (forget if that it the correct word) a couple of people just that week.

[smallmargin]

ChaosRandom wrote:Jesus, 14.99? Just saw the price. You'd think Square Enix made it.

Seriously people that is not a big deal price wise when you are talking about a quality translation to digital of a board game costing many times more. I prefer quality supported products than free to play ad and pay as you go type games. My time and the pleasure of it is more important than if it is free. I actually refuse to play any free to play games , period!

Heroes of Normandie is $46 on CSI and $15 on the app store.
Twilight Struggle is $42 on CSI and $10 on the app store. It launched at $8.

That's 50% more now, and almost double the difference at launch. It's not a small difference, and to say that the price is not out of line with the market is to be willfully ignorant.

[Trigati]

Level editor is game specific and the only title i could think of that would benefit this solution is Battlelore Command (even FFG priced it "only" 10 and people were saying its too much). The rest is just rubbish - quality is on par with titles mentioned above. Tell me please where HoN is 2 and sometimes 3 times better developed than others boardgames for ios (i should add there Twilight Struggle for 8,Castles of Mad King for 7 and some others recently published). Finally the game itself is ranked 598 on boardgemegeek when others are mostly top 100.

It is overpriced. I will wait for sale and if there were none I can live with that.

And it's rated 84th in the Wargames Category. It's not a Eurogame, it's a wargame, and therefore has more complex interactions and rules than the typical Eurogame. Not only do all the rules interactions need to be coded for accuracy in a two player game, but the AI has to be coded with all those rules in mind. Much more difficult, IMO, than the 'cheaper' Eurogames. Plus, it's fully compatible, IIRC, with people playing the computer version. None of the games you've listed have that.

You don't think its worth it. Great. Others do.

Also, Twilight Struggle is 10 dollars, not 8.

[dgd79]

Twilight Struggle was 8 at launch and we are now at launch of HoN

Ranking was mentioned to point, that higher ranked titles are probably harder/more expensive to obtain, not to show that this or that boardgame is better - its a matter of personal taste

Funny to see, that when i ask, where HoN is so much better developed than other boardgames for ios the response is:
"miriad of interactions from smaller 'insignificant' transitions"
or
"many design flourishes and little extras which are not required"
Its hard to comment.

To be fair 2 things were mentioned:
1. multiplayer - like no others boardgames have one. Guess what - they do (and to point out pass&play is a multiplayer mode too, sometimes more desirable than others modes)
2. manual/tutorial - same as above, most games have one and if one make game 2 or 3 times more expensive, i could live without it (seeing how many people are playing the above-mentioned Elder Signs im not alone here)

[ImInnocent]

The fact is some will bitch about how expensive any digital game is and I don't have a problem with that as it is an individual choice. I however have an issue with people cutting on a game they have never played and saying it isn't worth the money. Those are two different things.

[dgd79]

If its about me then ive played HoN, i just dont own it on ios.

Fun fact for today - even Xcom Enemy Within is priced 10

[Triggercut]

Yep, this price is ridiculous for a cartoon lite "wargame". There is no exposure anywhere on this title, not on the boardgaming websites or the other usual places. The only talk about this title is in regards to the pricing scheme, which is deliberate to get "some" discussion brewing. At half the current price it may get curious customers to impulse buy, otherwise it will continue to fail.

[EICJoe]

Yep, this price is ridiculous for a cartoon lite "wargame". There is no exposure anywhere on this title, not on the boardgaming websites or the other usual places. The only talk about this title is in regards to the pricing scheme, which is deliberate to get "some" discussion brewing. At half the current price it may get curious customers to impulse buy, otherwise it will continue to fail.

Except it's not failing, from what I've heard (and I'm not saying my sources are infallible here).

The thing to bear in mind, other than Slitherine's recent descent into madness, is that they've ALWAYS been like this.

They've always held firm to their RRP in the past, they've never believed in heavy discounting (until recently), and there is a wider issue here of expectations on mobile pricing that's not unique to HoN, they're just on the higher end of the spectrum.

XCOM was a fantastic game, and I imagine it took some work to make sure it ran properly on mobile devices - I'd have said it was worth more than 10, but then that's not what people want to see is it? Just because a game is available on mobile shouldn't automatically mean it needs to be priced lower, but F2P has warped expectations somewhat.