Generally speaking, I don't do pre-orders. That just screams 'foul' to me - why pay in advance for something that is not only not finished, but without any sort of promise as to it's finality? To pre-order is to put your hands, or rather your money, in the hands of a money-grabbing company. Most companies don't care one whit for their customers - if they have the money, they're all set. How else can we look at so many failed products and understand that there are companies raking in the dough?
And then...I found Elemental. Sappy, yes. My point is this - I am immensely satisfied with Stardock. As a company, they have only ever produced sound games. I still play GalCiv II, and it's not uncommon for me to spend a lot of time building the perfect warships, transports, etc. Whenever I managed to nab the prison world, I would smile and design a dozen and a half cruisers, fighters, bombers and the like, discarding the ones that didn't please me, keeping the ones that did, and having a personal fleet to keep prisoners out. Hells, one of my fleets held my most magnificent flagship, a massive winged cruiser bristling with turrets and defenses, took me hours to make. And I was extremely proud of it, as the sheer representation of my galactic power.
I don't play with Sins much, because I like the customization aspect, but I still do enjoy it. How many RTS games along the vein of Sins can last for weeks on end? And how many of them actually require conscious thought, rather than just ZOMG MY FLEET IS AW3SOM3 URS IS NOT LOL!!!1!1!!ELEVENONE!!
My point is thus: I have never seen a company act like Stardock has. Potential players - not players, potential players - have managed to change a game that has spent years in production. Our opinions seemed to matter, 'cause time and again Brad has actually asked for our opinions.
Keep it up, Stardock. You're the one company I actually feel safe pre-ordering a product from.
