Pricing and reimbursement

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Kailen

When I purchased the expansions, I PURCHASED the expansions.  I did not purchase a subscription for the expansions.  Features have been removed, and what I'm seeing in this thread is that they might be adding some of those features back, but given the nature of subscriptions, we may have what we paid for taken away before we get back to them.

Now, some of you have been making a comparison to purchasing a car.  Guess what?  If I buy a car from Joe Schmoe's dealership, and something breaks, I can take it to Todd Schmodd's dealership assuming they're the same make (Buick, Toyota, etc.), and they DO honor the warranty, previous contracts made on the car, etc.

Just to make it absolutely clear, as long as my PURCHASES are on a time limit here, this site will never see a dime of my money.  Period.

JunkDealer

Quote from: Kailen on 10 January 2017, 12:22:45 AM
When I purchased the expansions, I PURCHASED the expansions.  I did not purchase a subscription for the expansions. 

This thread is a bit beaten, but I'll add my voice to it in hopes that maybe another perspective will help.  The reality is that you didn't buy "Dominion" from ShuffleIt, RioGrande, or Donald X.  You bought it from either Goko or MakingFun.  I did too.  As a parallel, I also bought a copy of Ticket To Ride when they released it as a CD a lonnnnng time ago.  It did not give me the rights to TTR when the same company released it on Steam, or iOS, or Android.  In fact I liked that game so much I bought it on all 3 of those platforms as well (usually waiting for a sale).  Software doesn't last forever and you can't expect a company to assume the liabilities of a previous company's customers.  It isn't how it works.  Another parallel would be I bought Day of the Tentacle back when it first came out.  It didn't give me the rights to the digitally remastered version that came out a few years ago, but I liked the game enough to buy that version of it too.

I personally think it was a mistake for Donald X. and RGG to dump MF and switch to an unknown group when from this users perspective it was working well and met my needs.  But they did it, it was within their rights to do it, and nothing anyone will say will undo it.  The problem with any online based game is that servers are not maintained forever.  There have been numerous examples of online games that have ceased to be.  Despite this being the same "game" (being Dominion).  It isn't the same program at all.  The code isn't the same, the layout isn't the same, the owners aren't the same, and most importantly the online servers are not the same.

As much as you feel like you bought the product forever, you didn't.  You bought access to an online game that lived on Goko's servers which was then sold in a fire sale to Making Fun who maintained it.  At the end of their contract those servers were shut down and your product essentially became useless since no offline version was ever delivered.  If they had delivered an offline version you would still have it and it would probably still work (much like some of the old CD games from the 90s I have in my basement).

Fortunately we've been given a free offline version of what we owned (when it becomes available) and in the meantime a subscription to the online product.  I recognize that they didn't have to do either of these things and from what I understand these "throw a dog a bone" benefits are essentially gifts from RGG and Donald X. that came out of their share of any sales and was negotiated into ShuffleIt's contract.

I'm still cheesed by it all and think it was all a mistake.  I still wish the contract negotiations would have enabled MF to continue until an equivalent functionality was available with ShuffleIt, but ultimately those aren't my decisions to make.  Out of all of the companies involved I think this whole fiasco from day one speaks most poorly of RGG and Donald X.  but I don't know any of the backstory and/or contract negotiations that have taken place except what has been revealed on this and the MF forums. 

I guess for those of you who still feel you're owed something try and put yourself in the other shoes and think about what it means from their end. 

Finally....

Quote from: Kailen on 10 January 2017, 12:22:45 AM
Just to make it absolutely clear, as long as my PURCHASES are on a time limit here, this site will never see a dime of my money.  Period.

When the offline version is available your purchases made for that will not have a time limit, but will be more in line with other traditional software.  As long as you have a machine that can run it you'll be able to run it.  I personally dislike subscriptions and try to avoid them whenever possible.  That's my personal choice.

I'm not sure if I've succeeded in my goal of providing an alternative view to this.  I'm typically the person who can see both sides of an argument.  Either way the decisions have been made and we all will live with them or walk away from this software as is our consumer choice.

kspargo

I purchased expansions at MF, so I received an email saying that I have a year subscription here. I'm more interested in the permanent offline version which I understand is still in the works. It was originally stated that there would be a choice between a year's subscription online or permanent usage of the offline version.

My question is this:

If I go ahead and play online now (since that's the only format available), will I still be eligible to receive the offline version for free when it is released?

LibraryAdventurer

Quote from: kspargo on 10 January 2017, 04:14:43 AM
If I go ahead and play online now (since that's the only format available), will I still be eligible to receive the offline version for free when it is released?
Yes.

See the FAQ under the label "Where is the mobile / offline version?":
http://forum.shuffleit.nl/index.php?topic=1100.0

kspargo