Spiderweb Games - Glorious October Carnage Sale

Dhruin

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Seems Jeff is starting to see sales in a different light, with Spiderweb's traditional October sale offering the lowest prices they've done (direct from their site - Avadon will still be cheaper on Steam etc):
We're Having a Sale! - In celebration of a fantastic year (releasing Avadon and putting out our first titles on Steam and the iPad), we are permanently lowering the prices of everything we sell by 20% or more! Even better, for the entire month of October, all of our products for Windows and Mac will be 10% off! We hope you have a great holiday season, and we hope you pick up some awesome Indie adventures on the cheap. Go to our store.
More information.
 
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Oh my, won't Jeff have a heart attack with Avadon selling at €3.5? :)

On the other hand it is a little bit like those Groupon offers that don't generate you much profit but give your business/bar/restaurant a huge promotion by bringing your enterprise into the spotlight.
 
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Well, everyone who would buy it at $20 has already bought it by now and everyone who would buy it at $10 and/or would buy it once it ended up on Steam has bought it by now.

I figured they would go down to $5 at some point once they saturated their sales at the $10 price point so I waited. ;) That, and I played the demo and was just kind of 'eh' on it, but maybe if I muddle through it it will get better and if not at $5 I can live with 'eh'.
 
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I've never played previous Spiderweb gamed and wasn't really blown away by the demo. But at this price point I figured what the hell. If I ever get to play it is an entirely different question.
 
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I think it's worth a play through but it's worth noting this is far from his best. It seems a shame more people will buy one of his "worst" titles than the real classics, which are among the best in the genre.
 
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Well I think spiderweb has come out with far worse games then Avadon. I wouldn't consider this to be their best game, but it's a pretty solid one. The mechanics and balance are better designed then most of their games, but there some issues that really don't work that well in practice. But I'd much rather that they try new things and keep evolving their games then just release the same thing over and over.
 
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I'm not suggesting Jeff shouldn't evolve, though I'm not sure I agree they have "far worse" games. I still think it's a shame a zillion more people with play this than Geneforge or GF4 or Nethergate or Avernum 6.
 
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It seems a shame more people will buy one of his "worst" titles than the real classics, which are among the best in the genre.

The best among indies? Nothing against Jeff, but I can't imagine you're placing his games among the best of crpgs in general.
 
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I don't know, I've played all of Jeff's games (the originals and the remakes) and many of them had boring/unchallenging combats, awful game balance, and game mechanics that looked good on paper but didn't really work. And that's not even getting into issues with telling the same story over and over. There have been great titles too, but Avadon is nowhere nearly as bad as the mediocre titles. Personally I though Avadon was a very strong game, and consider most of the mechanics to be a strong step forward even if they are flawed (but most of his games have flawed mechanics). There are only a few of his titles I consider stronger.

I personally consider Avadon to be stronger then netergate (especially the original nethergate). I'd put geneforge 1 over it, but none of the others because they are basically the same game. I'd definitely put avernum 5 over it, and probably 6 too, though I liked 5 better. It's way better then 4 though.
 
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The best among indies? Nothing against Jeff, but I can't imagine you're placing his games among the best of crpgs in general.

I consider Jeff's best games some of the best in the CRPG genre in general. I don't mean "an all-time classic like Fallout or PS:T" (or whatever) but I do think they stand with the best of the next tier. When you take the entirety of the genre, I think they are very good games, despite the flaws.

I don't know, I've played all of Jeff's games (the originals and the remakes) and many of them had boring/unchallenging combats, awful game balance, and game mechanics that looked good on paper but didn't really work. And that's not even getting into issues with telling the same story over and over. There have been great titles too, but Avadon is nowhere nearly as bad as the mediocre titles. Personally I though Avadon was a very strong game, and consider most of the mechanics to be a strong step forward even if they are flawed (but most of his games have flawed mechanics). There are only a few of his titles I consider stronger.

I personally consider Avadon to be stronger then netergate (especially the original nethergate). I'd put geneforge 1 over it, but none of the others because they are basically the same game. I'd definitely put avernum 5 over it, and probably 6 too, though I liked 5 better. It's way better then 4 though.

Well, you obviously find his games easier than I in general. I loved Nethergate (missed the original) and, yes, A5 was excellent but I liked A6 better. Still, all that means Avadon is in the middle of the pack for me.
 
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Nethergate is my favorite out of all his games even Geneforge. I was sad to hear that it was one of the worst sellers.

The mix of real history and fantasy appealed to me. Plus, I got 2 games in one. Play as the Celts or the Romans. I played both.
 
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The original nethergate had the same interesting story as the remake but it had some of the worst pacing and balance of any Spiderweb title. It was mildly challenging in the early game but after that combat was mostly a boring mindless slog that took forever but never challenged you. The remake fixed this and was a much better game though personally I still enjoyed Avadon more. Though having already played through the story in the original may have contributed a bit to this.

Avernum 5 was kind of Jeff's turning point game that showed he was still capable of making great games and telling good stories. Most everything he released between Geneforge 1 and Avernum 5 was playable but not that exciting and a lot of people lost faith in him during that time. It doesn't take a lot to be much better then one of the games from this era.

I think the key things that made Avernum 5 and 6 beter then Avadon (for me at least) were the world and encounter designs. If I were to judge purely based on gameplay mechanics I'd probably give Avadon higher marks, other then the pointless energy/fatigue system.
 
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"Adventuring" in general - exploring, encounters, questing, NPC interaction - are more important to me than "mechanics". I can certainly see (some) improvements with Avadon but the more linear design takes that down compared to A6, for me.
 
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Yeah that's certainly fair and a big part of why I consider avernum 5 superior. Avernum 5 also had some of the most memorable encounter designs, I particularly remember fighting my way down that giant bridge.
 
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Most important aspect to any of Vogel's games are talking spiders. It's just doesn't feel like a Vogel game without them in there. ;)

Seriously though does he have them in every game? I can't recall. Avernum has them and so does Nethergate, but I'm totally blanking on Geneforge.
 
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I don't think think that geneforge or avadon had talking spiders. I can't remember about the most recent avernums. I have to admit that the very first time I encountered a town full of intelligent talking spiders I thought it was incredibly clever. By the 8th time I was kind of sick of exploring spider town over and over again.
 
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