Any word on this? I don't even see it listed on the Codito website.

So I saw this on the iTunes store today. Anyone play it yet?

I wasn't excusing the behavior, just clarifying the issue. There is no theft here. There may be copyright or trademark infringement, but not theft. I am neither the designer nor publisher, but I am a software developer and I have no problem with calling things by their correct terms.

Personally, my feelings are thus: If there was an official Dominion app already, the issue would be moot as BoG would clearly be infringing on it. However, where the designer/publisher of a game has been unable or unwilling to provide an official app, I have no compunction against another developer stepping up to the plate and establishing the market, even if it is by means of a blatant clone.

Greg

In the interest of clarifying the issue, I note that copyright and trademark infringement have relatively narrow legal definitions, and as yet no one has alleged that BoG has infringed either. "Theft" or "steal" may have narrow legal definitions, but also a common usage definition. There's no question that BoG is using Dominion's mechanics, completely unchanged, and many people think that "theft" is an appropriate word for it.

When "steal an idea" conveys a clear meaning, then the proposition that you *can't* steal an idea is setting a technical definition against common usage.

For those who say "If there was an official app, I would buy it, but since there isn't I bought this." Don't you think the existence of BoG would be a deterrent for any app developer looking for board game licenses to develop?

How hard would it be to sell a $4-$5 official app when there is already a $2 clone in the app store.

Actually it looks terrible (see Carcassonne and Small World for how it's done). The bar has been set pretty high, and Codito hasn't come close to hitting it.

Graphically Carcassonne surpasses Medici (Small World was designed for iPad only), but the gameplay of both games are implemented equally well. Also, graphically, Medici is not ugly in any way...I think Carcassonne has the best graphics of any board game on iphone/itouch, but Medici is on par with Samurai and a few others and surpasses many of the other Knizia games. Within 3 weeks of release, Medici has been updated and the bugs have, seemingly, been completely fixed.

Personally, I'm excited about a company that A) clearly has an interest in developing games for iphone/itouch that we would all be interested in; B) has already produced an excellent implementation of a board game; and, C) followed up their release with an update in a timely manner.

Would I like to see better graphics? Of course! But, in no way am I upset that Codito is developing these games.

Still no word from Codito nearly a month into Q3... I do hope this isn't vaporware.

Like bombing his own partner out of the lead (who said Tichu and has 2 cards left) and then start the next trick with a single "2", so it can be absolutely sure that the opponent playing next gets rid of his one last card...

Ok, but otherwise the program is fantastic. And I haven't seen something like that with the new version yet.

Steve, I have a question about multiplayer. A buddy and I like to play against each other, each with a computer partner. Do both devices need to have all players set to the same AI difficulty to ensure we're getting equally skilled partners? If not, how does the game determine the skill settings of the computer players when multiple devices are being used?

Believe it or not, in a couple of popup dialogs the word "Yes" is translated as "No". That's right, the English word "No".

Anyway, do you know when the german translation of 1.2 hits the appstore?

Same time as the English one... Whenever Apple gets around to approving it. It was submitted Wednesday. At this point all we can do is wait.