villain of the story
Arcane
Well, if you really want to do this for a living, then getting on Steam should be your highest priority imho. Even at a lower price (if Steam should demand that). Something like $19 sounds perfect to me, and I fail to see the dickery in that. If someone who's preordered the game basically objects to a wider exposure and more sales (= more games like/sequels to AoD getting made), then fuck that loser. It's him being a dick and not you.
I don't know, browsing the prices of games on Steam, I don't think $25 is a bad starting price for AoD. There are a number of indie games around $25 right now. Eschalon Book II, a game that was released a couple of years ago with much lower production values, is going for $15. Spiderweb games are a lot cheaper, but their production values are also really low. If Steam's reasonable, they'll allow them on for $25. If not, they can be a GoG exclusive for a few months until the price drops. Steam's also going to have to be cautious about things like that, since GoG is already setting themselves up as a strong competitor.
GoG is a fucking nobody as far as exposure is concerned. Plus they don't offer the same level of dumb-proof management that Steam does.