I'm getting all $16.99 for the new Avernum? Damn! That's a LOT! I am not likely to drop 90 for a game that isn't even proven to work yet. :-)
Good for you, I feel dumb for not grabbing it the 28 dollar price point.
I will have you know sir that I am very careful with my participles and NEVER just leave them dangling about. ;)

Didn't pay $28 neither..

That's not cynicism, silly person. That's just good sense.

Saying that you'd have to be functionally braindead to purchase a 90 dollar version of a 40 dollar game for the sake of ultimately useless crap, a scheme seemingly devised so the developer can have a chance to openly display what naked greed and contempt for its potential audience looks like, an overpriced game that's been put out by a company that's kinda infamous for having their collective heads up their asses when it comes to little unimportant things like quality control, so even if you do lose your mind and spend that much coin, you've still condemned yourself to a multi-month wait for them to fix the broken crap they should have given enough of a damn about and had enough pride regarding to fix before putting it out for sale at ridiculously, insanely, stupidly high prices?

That might be considered cynical. ;)

Part of that 90 dollar price tag, I believe is the Strategy Guide, included in that new package deal, which retail for about 30 dollars (physical book).

I can understand such a price for a boxed package, where there is physical content that has to be produced, a disc, a manual, the Guide and printed maps, posters and other collectables. There is cost in production, shipping and shelving items.

To put such a price on a digital distribution package is unwarranted, as the cost to deliver a product to the consumer is greatly reduced to having servers available for downloading. :/

Q.How are they hangin'
A.Loose and full of juice

Okay, I get what you're saying, but strategy guides are unnecessary so long as the internet exists. -laughs-
Hell, I never spent 30 dollars on a strategy guide even before widespread net availability and I was stuck on some bastard NES game or another.
Issue of Nintendo Power. Five bucks. Done. And those had fold-out maps included.
(Still remember the one for Arcana. Screw you, ice dungeon. So much.)

Holy crap....just reread the Royal Edition page. It's a digital strategy guide? Geez, I thought I was turning up the cynicism, but it looks like I got it on the nose. (Which might be even more depressing...)

I liked old meatloaf,fair actor too..

I purchased Kings Bounty Dark Side yesterday,must make a note for myself to someday playing it..

A word of advice - never look at DriveThruRPG. Some of the prices there totally reinforce what you're saying regarding the absurdity of paying so much for .pdf's versus actual physical copies.

Example - new edition pen and paper RPG core rulebook.

PDF price? 29.99.
Softcover physical book with black and white rather than color artwork? 44.99.
Hardcover physical book with color artwork? 64.99.

It's insane.

I like Strategy Guides, they are like super detailed manuals, and after I read through them I don’t have to play the games... :P

I do like the insight into overall design, finding the hidden stuff that I might have missed, and having that reference offline, since I unplug from the internet when I’m using it. Though I do prefer to have a physical book and don’t buy the digital ones, but do I appreciate a PDF Game/Strategy Guide included with a game (not enough to pay 90 for it).

I'm torn here. I love the book laying out here for quick reference, but then some guides are shit and you never know which ones are until you buy it and then convenience of an online guide is nice but then some games don't allow to cntr-alt-delete in and out to look at doc files which means you can print them but ink cartridges are so damn expensive and you don't want to waste paper......I'm sorry, what were we talking about?

Funny, that's what I use Let's Plays for. Only so many hours in the day to play things I hate, after all.

You continue to make valid points. However, I'm now neck-deep in cynicism (possibly even more so than usual), so screw all that. They're just moneygrubbers. -laughs-
It doesn't really matter since it'll be half off somewhere within 3 to 4 months and 60 to 75 percent off after 6 or 7 months.
Ultimately, everything from the most beautiful, emotional, the best written, most engaging masterpiece you'll ever see, to the digital equivalent of rancid cow guts on the side of a road that some stray dog just attempted to eat but threw back up, something that was programmed by someone suffering from fresh head trauma and a lovely hate not only for themselves but all living things, it all ends up in the great big digital dumpster that we all get to dive through.

Bloody talking or Whinging??

The same thing we talk about every night, Pinky....koala bears with switchblades. ;)

What happened to the Brain??
And Kangeroo's have machine guns in their pouches..