When Isotropic was released to the public, it didn’t even receive a full topic on BoardGameGeek. dougz introduced it in a reply to another thread.
Who could have known that it would go on to host a staggering 12,051,301 games over the next two and a half years before finally closing its doors. Championships were claimed, epic ragequits were had, but most importantly, Isotropic introduced thousands of people to Dominion and showed them just how fun it could be.
The final leaderboard:
The final leaderboard
Of course, online Dominion has not ended. Goko’s PlayDominion.com is alive and well, and though it’s a very different experience, it’s able to offer features that Isotropic never could support (single-player, tutorials, card art).
Nevertheless, we are all indebted to Dougz for his work in designing, hosting, and maintaining such a fantastic site. So if you wish to express your gratitude, we encourage you to show him your appreciation via PayPal (to dougz@isotropic.org).
And if you’re interested in learning a new game, we already have a forum for Isotropic’s Innovation …
Dominion Strategy 
Ohhh right… I forgot to check my stats before the site went down… Well, I presume winning 1 out of 4 games so far (one 3p game won, one 3p game in 2nd place, and two 2p game losses) won’t be enough to get you past level 0.
As all of my games on Isotropic can be counted with just 1 han, I didn’t play much on there. I preferred the speed and casual-ness of vs. AI games, but I’m still gonna miss Isotropic.
Isoptropic and Donald X’s attitude towards it are what made me shell out for each expansion (and made me a bit too good to play 1v1 vs. my friends, alas, and I was only level 30). I just wish that goko were even half as fast, bug-free, graphically adjustable, or well-logged as this amazing free site. Thanks dougz. I just wish I’d saved on the physical sets and donated it to you instead.
Curious, are your Goko comments based on recent play through, or from almost a year ago? Actually, this question applies to any1 who has the same thought’s on Goko’s version of Dominion.
The chrome goko log always on extension moves goko a bit towards iso. Some people have said it makes the experience a lot better for them. Maybe you should give it a try.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/goko-log-viewer/kaignighoceeemhinbbophdeogpnedjn
The log helps, but could use a few more adjustments to bring it up to what Iso was. The biggest problem I have is finding a game and playing it as quick as Iso. I turned my animation speed up, but most people have not it seems, or they just play slower than those on Iso. Once/If those get fixed I can see dropping money on it.
Goku requires you to pay for expansions. So, why bother?
Because they are providing a product and its worth the money to you? I mean its like $40 for everything. Not nothing, but I’ve also spent more than that on a single RL board game.
I have the real life decks, which I guess is where my why bother comes from.
It’s a matter of perspective… Some folks have said the same thing about Isotropic [shrug].
Isotropic gave me free access to sets I’d never tried, which convinced me to go out and buy some of them to add to my home set. Goko locks access to sets I already own in real life, which just drives me to other sites. If they had a “free set of the day” or something, they might manage to bridge the gap and get me interested in new cards again I guess.
Yeah, Goko’s a miserable waste of resources. It’s a completely different (and entirely inferior) experience. Even excluding the price range it’s at. I’ve moved on to other things.
I wish there was a Dominion app for iPhone 😦
I dont like the upgradable starting hands. Also, we need a new app. The current one works, but it only has base, and the AI’s are very bad
I can’t see paying for Goko unless it implements features such that it is fully as good as Isotropic was. Frankly, the flashy graphics do little to nothing for me…I care about the game and the strategy. Although the game log is nice, I liked how Isotropic fed into CouncilRoom, allowing for interesting statistical analysis. I’m a statistician by education, so this stuff really draws me in.
Isotropic seemed to be designed around the abstract strategy elements of the game; Goko seems to be designed around graphics. I really care about the strategy.
I also feel like Goko is missing a huge opportunity to teach about the strategy elements through the Dominion Adventures part of the site. Instead of the concocted storyline, why not teach people about engines vs. big money? They have some interesting boards in the adventures section, but the AI’s are generally quite bad (although a few of them gave me a run for my money on some boards). But it’s like, they’re not emphasizing the strategy element. I would like to see the boards tied into things like the Dominion Wiki and stats about game win rates.
Dominion is such a rich and complex game, and I felt like Isotropic brought that out in a way that Goko doesn’t. I got really into the game because of the strategy elements and its complexity. It pains me to see so much effort put into the graphics at the expense of strategy, and see a resource that emphasized the stuff I liked, strategy, shut down. I would pay for Isotropic and currently, I haven’t paid anything for Goko.
I believe this would be the better way to go with the adventure/campaign mode…. I’d imagine one reason people don’t play online vs. regular players is they’re not THAT big into the strategy… they have no desire to go up against elite/veteran players who can score twice as much as your typical average player. They just want to have fun, and the adv./camp. mode is a refreshing spin to thinking outside the box without being super competitive, memorizing 3 to 4-card combos, and knowing the stats of them. While I’ve read almost every article here, and jump on articles for new cards, I skipped some of the most complex cards that do infinite turns, or becoming “auto-win” situations simply b/c those have gotten too much than I’d care for.