Are games too expensive?

[rainless]

GET Women? As in plural? I've got a woman, and she's better than most WOMEN, and she buys me games on occasion. So your first point is lost on me.

If you had "women" instead of "woman" you wouldn't be worried about the price of games.

Secondly, the vocal amongst us have changed some things. And its this attitude that causes a group of persons to lose thier control, so your second point is also lost on me.

The vocal among you haven't changed a damned thing (as far as prices go). The buying habits of the masses have changed things.

Third, I don't need a sandwich, I just had noodles.

You'll be hungry again in ten minutes. (Shoulda got that sandwich...)

And fourth, simple answers work for simple situations that are clear and easily defined. This is an issue relating to personal opinion, so simple answers don't do just fine.

Once you've defined what "expensive" means... it ceases to be a matter of personal opinion and becomes a quantifiable matter of fact. You can see how much games (especially PC games) cost even two years ago, and compare that to how much they cost today. (The only PC game, whether a new release or not, that I've paid $49.99 for in recent history was Bioshock.)

You seem to be losing a lot of points... maybe you should bring some of your guys off the bench.

 

[rallyfan1986]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aynjell View Post
GET Women? As in plural? I've got a woman, and she's better than most WOMEN, and she buys me games on occasion. So your first point is lost on me.
If you had "women" instead of "woman" you wouldn't be worried about the price of games.

I think you would be more worried about the price of games if you had more than one woman! My girlfriend costs loads to keep happy... clothes...shoes!

Third, I don't need a sandwich, I just had noodles.
You'll be hungry again in ten minutes. (Shoulda got that sandwich...)

Lets come to a compromise on this one - how about a noodle sandwich?

 

[Aynjell]

If you had "women" instead of "woman" you wouldn't be worried about the price of games.



The vocal among you haven't changed a damned thing (as far as prices go). The buying habits of the masses have changed things.



You'll be hungry again in ten minutes. (Shoulda got that sandwich...)



Once you've defined what "expensive" means... it ceases to be a matter of personal opinion and becomes a quantifiable matter of fact. You can see how much games (especially PC games) cost even two years ago, and compare that to how much they cost today. (The only PC game, whether a new release or not, that I've paid $49.99 for in recent history was Bioshock.)

You seem to be losing a lot of points... maybe you should bring some of your guys off the bench.

I don't see how. You seem to think I should be seeing women on the side, so as far as I'm concerned you're not even worth having a conversation with. I can't lose to somebody I don't wish to engage.

I think you would be more worried about the price of games if you had more than one woman! My girlfriend costs loads to keep happy... clothes...shoes!



Lets come to a compromise on this one - how about a noodle sandwich?

With a GOOD woman, the expenses actually even out. I buy her stuff, she buys me stuff. We both have things we wanted taht we would have never paid for ourselves.

 

[rallyfan1986]

With a GOOD woman, the expenses actually even out. I buy her stuff, she buys me stuff. We both have things we wanted taht we would have never paid for ourselves.

Sounds like you've got a keeper there!

Now i think its time that i go fix myself a noodle sandwich

 

[mxthunder]

Oh the drama! LOL

I think 40-50 bucks isnt too bad for a game that you really want, as long as its a GOOD game that you can enjoy for hours, is well written, works on a variety of hardware and OS's. And if you cant afford it, as mentioned, there is always the used option, which I have been doing a lot lately. Gotta love amazon.com.

As for me, I like the prettied up graphics and eye candy in the game. That is why i try to have my system run the best that it can. I get just as much, if not more enjoyment out of simply "watching" the game than playing it. I suppose that is not a "true" gamer attitude though. However, if the story or the gameplay sucks, that does bring its rating down in my book somewhat.

I think most of us are pretty well blessed and to complain that a game is say, $15 overpriced; well, there are worse things that could happen in life.

 

[Aynjell]

Oh the drama! LOL

I think 40-50 bucks isnt too bad for a game that you really want, as long as its a GOOD game that you can enjoy for hours, is well written, works on a variety of hardware and OS's. And if you cant afford it, as mentioned, there is always the used option, which I have been doing a lot lately. Gotta love amazon.com.

As for me, I like the prettied up graphics and eye candy in the game. That is why i try to have my system run the best that it can. I get just as much, if not more enjoyment out of simply "watching" the game than playing it. I suppose that is not a "true" gamer attitude though. However, if the story or the gameplay sucks, that does bring its rating down in my book somewhat.

I think most of us are pretty well blessed and to complain that a game is say, $15 overpriced; well, there are worse things that could happen in life.

I'm right there with you. I get every last mhz that my **** poor OC skill can wrench out of my tiny little PC, so I can crank up the AA. Nothing worse than a pretty game reduced to nothing but jaggies. Can't see **** then.

 

[ozzlo]

If you compare the price of a game to say the price of a movie, I'd say games are actually pretty cheap, But since most movie prices are too expensive then I'd have to say that game prices are about right.

 

[Tumnus]

I was going to buy Mass Effect last night, but felt the 20$ asking price was a bit steep.

 

[rainless]

I don't see how. You seem to think I should be seeing women on the side, so as far as I'm concerned you're not even worth having a conversation with. I can't lose to somebody I don't wish to engage.

Aren't you sweet.

I was going to buy Mass Effect last night, but felt the 20$ asking price was a bit steep.

I paid 26 for it at one of those Circuit City going out of business things.

So are games too expensive... or are gamers just cheaper now?

My problem is I've bought so many games lately I haven't even opened them. With all the sales on Steam and circuit city going out of business I must have at least a dozen games unopened. If I bought Lost Planet that would just be one more.

 

[Zurvan]

So what you're saying is, you pirate the games first, and then buy them?

Only if I like them. Else Shift+Del
And I think thats a common practice. Its illegal only if you dont buy in the end. But its more illegal if you dont get what you thought you would.

 

[rallyfan1986]

Only if I like them. Else Shift+Del
And I think thats a common practice. Its illegal only if you dont buy in the end. But its more illegal if you dont get what you thought you would.

I dont think this is legal at all.

But it does seem like a good way of ensuring that your hard earned money goes towards a good game.

Maybe game developers should offer a 7 day trial of the game on their website... a sort of try before you buy scheme

 

[Tumnus]

Dude....Of course its not legal to pirate games, even if you buy them later. What are you talking about?

 

[ozzlo]

Hey guys,

Just a reminder before things get out of hand that discussion of pirated copyrighted material is not permitted on the forums.

There are a few gray areas as to what can and can not be discussed, I believe the current discussion to be descending into one of those gray areas. Once the topic has descended into a gray area it is very simple to incur the wrath of a moderator.

-oz

 

[Tsnowflake]

I think the biggest issue for me when deciding whether to buy a game is its replay value. Usually this replay value comes in the form of good multiplayer. If I can derive months (and in the really good games years) of enjoyment from a game then I feel that the price was more than fair. Some examples of good multiplayer games imo; PC - l4d, warcraft III, CS:S, TF2, starcraft, Diablo II; Console - smash bros brawl, guitar hero series, rockband series, Soul Calibur series, Tekken series, Street Fighter series (i'll admit im biased towards fighting games on the console).

Not to say that single player games can't accomplish the same thing it just seems to be rarer, perhaps because of the difficulty involved in creating an immersive world to suck the player in, which really isn't a requirement for games that have great multi player options. I've had great fun with FF7, which I've played through at least 7-8 times on the PS1 and another three times on the PC version.

TLDR version: if game has good replay value, purchase was justified.

 

[Theocnoob]

How old are most of you? Because I have to tell you I remember NES games were $70.

Considering a top of the line super hot title today is $70, and an inflation rate between then and now totals approximately 400%... you're paying like $18 in 1988 dollars for games. I just want to point that out to everyone who doesn't understand inflation.

Its the same reason your Big Mac tastes like a shoe not like a Big Mac anymore but its still $7 for the combo instead of $2.50 like when you were a kid and that $7 today is STILL worth less than that $2.50 was. Hence cheaper ingredients.

Games are practically given away these days. The only reason they can do this is comparatively gargantuan install bases and the fact that the game industry now makes more than the music and movie industries combined.

 

[Theocnoob]

Originally Posted by Zurvan View Post
Only if I like them. Else Shift+Del
And I think thats a common practice. Its illegal only if you dont buy in the end. But its more illegal if you dont get what you thought you would.

Yes...

Similarly if I steal a guy's car and give it back that's illegal, but if I steal it, give it back, thank him then buy one just like it, its all good.

 

[freakdiablo]

Are games too expensive? No, not the right ones at least. I figure a movie is ~$20 when it first comes out on DVD, and it's usually 90-120 minutes in length. A decent game with a decent single player campaign will last 5-10 times that, then sometimes there's multiplayer. And before anyone says "A lot of the times they charge that for bad games also", cloverfield is $15 on Amazon so it must have been $20 also when it came out.

What I'm getting at is that in $$$ per hour, I see games as not very expensive at all.

 

[Theocnoob]

Are games too expensive? No, not the right ones at least. I figure a movie is ~$20 when it first comes out on DVD, and it's usually 90-120 minutes in length. A decent game with a decent single player campaign will last 5-10 times that, then sometimes there's multiplayer. And before anyone says "A lot of the times they charge that for bad games also", cloverfield is $15 on Amazon so it must have been $20 also when it came out.

What I'm getting at is that in $$$ per hour, I see games as not very expensive at all.

Along those same lines- would you find the first 1 1/2 hours of, say, Oblivion an acceptable movie?

No.

Other considerations must be made.

 

[freakdiablo]

Along those same lines- would you find the first 1 1/2 hours of, say, Oblivion an acceptable movie?

Way to miss the point of my post.

Would I consider Borat a good game? No, and I know this. Like I said they are both forms of entertainment, they are both designed with entertainment in mind, and with my money I would rather spend a few dollars extra and get a good game that last a long time than get a good movie that lasts 2 hours.

 

[Theocnoob]

Way to miss the point of my post.

Would I consider Borat a good game? No, and I know this. Like I said they are both forms of entertainment, they are both designed with entertainment in mind, and with my money I would rather spend a few dollars extra and get a good game that last a long time than get a good movie that lasts 2 hours.

Borat would be the best game ever