Development Update Request

[JunkDealer]

It's been almost 3 months since the last set of release Notes.  Any update on development?

09 November 2018, 02:56:20 PM
by Stef

[Moat_Man]

I hate to break it to you but I don't think Shuffle iT is getting the licence renewed beyond 2019. A big indication is that the longest subscription you can purchase right now is for 9 months. Prior to the calendar rolling over on January 1st, 2019 the longest you could subscribe was 1 year. You'll see the longest available subscription period shrink as their deadline gets closer.

Having said that, the licence hasn't been yanked so I believe they've fulfilled the minimum obligations in their contract. I think this had to do with releasing the digital expansions (Nocturne & Renaissance) concurrent with the physical release date.

Beyond that, one of the two developers left last year and they never recovered. I believe they are in maintenance mode only. As evidence, here is link to the development priorities in 2017. How many are unfulfilled? These are things that a development shop should have made serious progress on now that it's 2019.
http://forum.shuffleit.nl/index.php?topic=512.0

I know Donald X. said that if this version didn't work out he might just pull the plug altogether on digital Dominion but I hope that isn't the case. He just needs a team up to the task.

[JunkDealer]

I fear you may be correct in your assessment.  It's never a good sign when a company goes silent.

Now comes the question of have they met their requirements (ie. an offline version was promised to those who had previous owned the MF versions) or have they set themselves up for claims of false advertising and failing to meet their promises.

*sigh*  To quote the X-Files "I want to believe".  I've been renewing my subscription over and over with the idea that the offline version would eventually come along.  Perhaps it's time I cut my losses and stopped feeding the beast.  Find another game to sink my time into or pull the boxes off the shelf. 

[dane]

Hopefully someone with knowledge will eventually reply, but in the meantime I'll point out more optimistic interpretations:

• The last time Stef went very quiet, he working on a major update that included making Renaissance available for the previews.  His silence now might be an indication that he is tackling one of the major improvements that he has identified in the past as being desirable.
• The inability to renew beyond the end of the year might simply indicate that no decision on the license has yet been taken.  Indeed the matter might not yet even have been discussed.

I've no idea whether it was true, but I did once see a suggestion that one of the major problems that Donald and RGG had with the previous online versions of Dominion was that they received very little financial benefit.  Hopefully Shuffle iT's subscription model should have avoided that being the case with this online version, in which case I doubt that Donald and RGG would see any need to pull the plug on Shuffle iT.  There are, after all, a lot of people very happy with what has been achieved (I never used either of the previous online versions so I'm not qualified to pass comment on their relative merits), though it must be very frustrating for those people whose primary interest was in an offline version.

[Cave-O-Sapien]

Hopefully someone with knowledge will eventually reply, but in the meantime I'll point out more optimistic interpretations:

• The last time Stef went very quiet, he working on a major update that included making Renaissance available for the previews.  His silence now might be an indication that he is tackling one of the major improvements that he has identified in the past as being desirable.

This reminds me of those A Song of Ice and Fire fans who interpret George R.R. Martin's silence/mood/travel itinerary as a sign that the book(s) will be done soon.

[Moat_Man]

You'll see the longest available subscription period shrink as their deadline gets closer.

Now it's six months.

[katie_mi]

Are there any news about the future of Dominion? As the maximal subcription period is only until the end of the year I wonder why there hasn't been any information about the renewal of the license or what will happens if it isn't. Will there be an online version of Dominion next year?

[Bbl]

Speculation mode:
The last few expansions all got announced at the beginning of August. I assume, Rio Grande Games will combine this reveal with some kind of statement about the future of online Dominion. Given the current radio silence from ShuffleIT, the lack of progress, the unhappy comments of Donald X himself, I am expecting a transfer of the license to a new company. If RGG would want to shut down online Dominion as a whole, they would surely have said it by now. I guess, they are waiting in order to bundle the bitter pill (service shutdown) with some sweet news (new shiny expansion in new shiny client). Additionally, if there is really a new company working on Dominion already, this company needs some time until their client looks nice enough to show it to the public. Until then, all sides remain silent.

[JunkDealer]

Until then, all sides remain silent.

Which has always been my complaint.  While I understand the need to "control the message" it shows a complete and utter lack of understanding that without the customer you have nothing.  Leaving your customers in the dark is never a good move, unless of course there will be no dominion next year in which case you leave them in the dark so that they don't get complete disillusioned and walk away from the product earlier.

I've seen this move over and over again with different products and have never understood why silence is considered a good move.  It's not like you need banners and balloons to announce stuff, even the smallest of updates will at least partially satisfy those who want to know.  Bad news is still news.  No news leads to people making up their own news which, in my opinion, is never good because of how it makes some customers feel.

[meathead40]

It does seem to be the case that this implementation will be going away at the end of the year.  That's too bad if its the case, I've enjoyed this version quite a bit!

[Seprix]

It does seem to be the case that this implementation will be going away at the end of the year.  That's too bad if its the case, I've enjoyed this version quite a bit!

It's not, so don't worry. All this talk is a load of nonsense.

[JunkDealer]

It's not, so don't worry. All this talk is a load of nonsense.

Sounds like you might be able to provide the long awaited update.  It sure would be nice if after 8 months from the last release we had some kind of update.

[scrfix]

It's not, so don't worry. All this talk is a load of nonsense.

Please explain.  I thought it was kind of weird when the website said I could purchase a subscription for a year and then it would only let me purchase for 6 months.  Now I read this and now that makes sense.  I will still enjoy playing this for the next 6 months but I won't offer any more feature requests.

[jsh]

It's not, so don't worry. All this talk is a load of nonsense.

Please explain.  I thought it was kind of weird when the website said I could purchase a subscription for a year and then it would only let me purchase for 6 months.  Now I read this and now that makes sense.  I will still enjoy playing this for the next 6 months but I won't offer any more feature requests.

I don't know everything that's going to happen, but this was posted in Discord today:

"StefToday at 11:54 AM
I just signed a new contract with RGG!
dominion.games will continue in 2020 and 2021."

[Titandrake]

It's not, so don't worry. All this talk is a load of nonsense.

Please explain.  I thought it was kind of weird when the website said I could purchase a subscription for a year and then it would only let me purchase for 6 months.  Now I read this and now that makes sense.  I will still enjoy playing this for the next 6 months but I won't offer any more feature requests.

I don't know everything that's going to happen, but this was posted in Discord today:

"StefToday at 11:54 AM
I just signed a new contract with RGG!
dominion.games will continue in 2020 and 2021."

It's possible that ShuffleIT didn't want to let people subscribe past 2019 until they officially signed a contract ensuring it would last past 2019.