Anyone that is upset at Game Developers and Publishers selling DLCs or for adding microtransactions have no business sense whatsoever. When was the last time the box price on a video game changed?
Box price has increased somewhat in the last decade, however that whole argument isn't looking at the whole picture and is tossing aside the hugely important principle of economies of scale, in which prices should be going down, not up. Even more so when you take into account that all games needed to be on physical media along with an actual box that needed to be shipped and stocked at a retail outlet, the cost of so is incredibly higher that most seem to assume.
Coupled with a decade ago if a game sold 100,000 copies it was considered a successful title. A game today that sold 100,000 copies is considered a resounding failure, leading to a hugely different consumer market reception and that's not even considering the impact of company stock price, another hugely important factor. Eg. A game a decade ago sells 100k copies and gets rave reviews, one could expect consumer demand to increase for the studios next title, 150k would be a conservative outlook. If a game today sold 100k, it would get slammed in the media and the studio could expect consumer backlash on their next title even if it was a marked improvement and could potentially sell even less, such an outlook would be represented in stock price.
TLDR; You're getting ripped off, and if you defend such practices you are a fool.
Anyone that is upset at Game Developers and Publishers selling DLCs or for adding microtransactions have no business sense whatsoever. When was the last time the box price on a video game changed?
Box price has increased somewhat in the last decade, however that whole argument isn't looking at the whole picture and is tossing aside the hugely important principle of economies of scale, in which prices should be going down, not up. Even more so when you take into account that all games needed to be on physical media along with an actual box that needed to be shipped and stocked at a retail outlet, the cost of so is incredibly higher that most seem to assume.
Coupled with a decade ago if a game sold 100,000 copies it was considered a successful title. A game today that sold 100,000 copies is considered a resounding failure, leading to a hugely different consumer market reception and that's not even considering the impact of company stock price, another hugely important factor. Eg. A game a decade ago sells 100k copies and gets rave reviews, one could expect consumer demand to increase for the studios next title, 150k would be a conservative outlook. If a game today sold 100k, it would get slammed in the media and the studio could expect consumer backlash on their next title even if it was a marked improvement and could potentially sell even less, such an outlook would be represented in stock price.
TLDR; You're getting ripped off, and if you defend such practices you are a fool.
As with "sales", "discounts", "Black Friday specials" etc. what you get varies; how good the deals are varies. And you should check.
Back in the day you could have posted: "Discussion: I am so old, what is a subscription."
And the answer would have been what? EQ1 - connection only; you had to buy the twice yearly expansions available as DownLoadable Content!); AC, CoH - connection and "guaranteed" content - monthly story with AC, quarterly drop with CoH; WoW, DAoC - connection and maybe some content patches (lots at first with WoW, of late content holidays etc.)
No one definition. It varied. And the same goes for Season Passes.
To put things in sharp relief:
EA launched a "Season Pass" for BF3. I think it got you 6 DLCs for the price of 4. OK you had to take a chance on would they be good - same as any pre-order. They delivered though and have built on their success of delivering. Even when BF4 had a bad launch the DLC was produced by a dedicated team.
Contrast this with Activision's season pass for CoD: no content drops - a special map but not sure - a leaderboard (gosh) and a special communication channel (gosh again) .... basically it looked like they were trying to turn CoD into a sub based game like WoW.
EA's "season pass" approach has continued. Activision Blizzard's awful CoD season pass folded.
So no single definition. Just treat it like a sign in a store and read the small print.
They're to future content what loot boxes are to loot: you pay ahead and hope the DLC will be worth it
Season pass isn't about future vague content. You can get the season pass after all the DLCs are released. And developers do release a dlc plan in advance. I'm not sure how the element of luck is involved here more than for pre-ordering a game, if anything, it is less.
Constantine, The Console Poster
"One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games and it cannot be done by men out of touch with their instinctive selves." - Carl Jung
It means D own L oadable C ontent. Expansions, extra area's, cosmetic's just what ever extra that comes out after the original game you buy and then download. Kind of a catch all term.
I keep hearing that game developers are now charging extra for something called a season pass. What does this mean, exactly?
For DDO and LotRO it means: "It combines the convenience of VIP access with the joy of ownership. During the two-year season, you get VIP access, permanent ownership of new VIP access content, and more benefits!"
Both only sold 1000 so it was a limited access item and both sold out.
Anyone that is upset at Game Developers and Publishers selling DLCs or for adding microtransactions have no business sense whatsoever. When was the last time the box price on a video game changed?
Box price has increased somewhat in the last decade, however that whole argument isn't looking at the whole picture and is tossing aside the hugely important principle of economies of scale, in which prices should be going down, not up. Even more so when you take into account that all games needed to be on physical media along with an actual box that needed to be shipped and stocked at a retail outlet, the cost of so is incredibly higher that most seem to assume.
Coupled with a decade ago if a game sold 100,000 copies it was considered a successful title. A game today that sold 100,000 copies is considered a resounding failure, leading to a hugely different consumer market reception and that's not even considering the impact of company stock price, another hugely important factor. Eg. A game a decade ago sells 100k copies and gets rave reviews, one could expect consumer demand to increase for the studios next title, 150k would be a conservative outlook. If a game today sold 100k, it would get slammed in the media and the studio could expect consumer backlash on their next title even if it was a marked improvement and could potentially sell even less, such an outlook would be represented in stock price.
TLDR; You're getting ripped off, and if you defend such practices you are a fool.
While pc games no longer come in boxes and are stocked in game stores (which did cost money for hard media and box and shipping) because of this, pc games no longer have a storefront for customers to see their games.
Walking into a game store and perusing what was there, dependent on how the store presented those games, was a way of putting games in the faces of customers.
Because this avenue of advertisement is no longer there, companies need to rely MORE on online advertisements, making sure there is a social media presence, putting their games in front of influencers, etc.
So there is still a cost and from what we know, simple advertising costs a lot. If you want to look at the whole picture you have to take that into account.
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...companies need to rely MORE on online advertisements, making sure there is a social media presence, putting their games in front of influencers, etc.
So there is still a cost and from what we know, simple advertising costs a lot. If you want to look at the whole picture you have to take that into account.
One (free) honest good review is worth more than ten $1,000,000 advertisements. All that other fluff is just hype. Its bribery, imo. To me, it shows a lack of confidence in their work.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
...companies need to rely MORE on online advertisements, making sure there is a social media presence, putting their games in front of influencers, etc.
So there is still a cost and from what we know, simple advertising costs a lot. If you want to look at the whole picture you have to take that into account.
One (free) honest good review is worth more than ten $1,000,000 advertisements. All that other fluff is just hype. Its bribery, imo.
One good review where? The problem is the market is spread out and to eyes on your product you need to be in a lot more places than just one.
Anyone that is upset at Game Developers and Publishers selling DLCs or for adding microtransactions have no business sense whatsoever. When was the last time the box price on a video game changed?
Box price has increased somewhat in the last decade, however that whole argument isn't looking at the whole picture and is tossing aside the hugely important principle of economies of scale, in which prices should be going down, not up. Even more so when you take into account that all games needed to be on physical media along with an actual box that needed to be shipped and stocked at a retail outlet, the cost of so is incredibly higher that most seem to assume.
Coupled with a decade ago if a game sold 100,000 copies it was considered a successful title. A game today that sold 100,000 copies is considered a resounding failure, leading to a hugely different consumer market reception and that's not even considering the impact of company stock price, another hugely important factor. Eg. A game a decade ago sells 100k copies and gets rave reviews, one could expect consumer demand to increase for the studios next title, 150k would be a conservative outlook. If a game today sold 100k, it would get slammed in the media and the studio could expect consumer backlash on their next title even if it was a marked improvement and could potentially sell even less, such an outlook would be represented in stock price.
TLDR; You're getting ripped off, and if you defend such practices you are a fool.
A lot of assumption that game development is not more expensive than it was.....
One good review where? The problem is the market is spread out and to eyes on your product you need to be in a lot more places than just one.
Gamerankings.com has lists of most known reviews of most released games. No game is going to get multiple outstanding reviews and be ignored because of no commercials or other fluff like season passes or early-access, imo.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
One good review where? The problem is the market is spread out and to eyes on your product you need to be in a lot more places than just one.
Gamerankings.com has lists of most known reviews of most released games. No game is going to get multiple outstanding reviews and be ignored because of no commercials or other fluff like season passes or early-access, imo.
I play games. Never been or heard of Gamerankings.com...so again how is one review going to get more eyes than say a mass media blitz?
I'm still playing Minecraft/modded Minecraft/LOTRO Lifer/Humble Monthly subber, and have so many games on backlog it makes me constipated just thinking about it....
With that said, it's very easy for me to wait for "Ultimate GOTY" editions or remastered editions with all previously released content, and usually only from a sale.
Sometimes it's a good idea to not get the season pass. It allowed me to pick the dlc I liked and not the ones I never would have used or cared little for, it ended up being cheaper then buying season pass, even when it was discounted.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
One good review where? The problem is the market is spread out and to eyes on your product you need to be in a lot more places than just one.
Gamerankings.com has lists of most known reviews of most released games. No game is going to get multiple outstanding reviews and be ignored because of no commercials or other fluff like season passes or early-access, imo.
I play games. Never been or heard of Gamerankings.com...so again how is one review going to get more eyes than say a mass media blitz?
Well some people buy games to play them and some buy them to add to their collection. Most people who do not just buy whatever the commercials say is cool, read reviews. Im sure you’ve heard of metacritic, pcgamer, steam, or amazon, yes? Whether or not you find value in reviews is irrelevant. Good games get good reviews regardless of paid advertisement. That was my point: good reviews (as well as word of mouth) are free advertisement.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
I think that it is not strange that you and I feel old. I continue playing retro Gameboy Color games downloading ROMs from https://killerroms.com/roms/gameboy-color and I can't play modern games because I do not understand them. I see only hi-tech graphics and effects.
Comments
As with "sales", "discounts", "Black Friday specials" etc. what you get varies; how good the deals are varies. And you should check.
Back in the day you could have posted:
"Discussion: I am so old, what is a subscription."
And the answer would have been what? EQ1 - connection only; you had to buy the twice yearly expansions available as DownLoadable Content!); AC, CoH - connection and "guaranteed" content - monthly story with AC, quarterly drop with CoH; WoW, DAoC - connection and maybe some content patches (lots at first with WoW, of late content holidays etc.)
No one definition. It varied. And the same goes for Season Passes.
To put things in sharp relief:
EA launched a "Season Pass" for BF3. I think it got you 6 DLCs for the price of 4. OK you had to take a chance on would they be good - same as any pre-order. They delivered though and have built on their success of delivering. Even when BF4 had a bad launch the DLC was produced by a dedicated team.
Contrast this with Activision's season pass for CoD: no content drops - a special map but not sure - a leaderboard (gosh) and a special communication channel (gosh again) .... basically it looked like they were trying to turn CoD into a sub based game like WoW.
EA's "season pass" approach has continued. Activision Blizzard's awful CoD season pass folded.
So no single definition. Just treat it like a sign in a store and read the small print.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Both only sold 1000 so it was a limited access item and both sold out.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Walking into a game store and perusing what was there, dependent on how the store presented those games, was a way of putting games in the faces of customers.
Because this avenue of advertisement is no longer there, companies need to rely MORE on online advertisements, making sure there is a social media presence, putting their games in front of influencers, etc.
So there is still a cost and from what we know, simple advertising costs a lot. If you want to look at the whole picture you have to take that into account.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
One (free) honest good review is worth more than ten $1,000,000 advertisements. All that other fluff is just hype. Its bribery, imo. To me, it shows a lack of confidence in their work.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Gamerankings.com has lists of most known reviews of most released games. No game is going to get multiple outstanding reviews and be ignored because of no commercials or other fluff like season passes or early-access, imo.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
With that said, it's very easy for me to wait for "Ultimate GOTY" editions or remastered editions with all previously released content, and usually only from a sale.
Who knew procrastination could pay off?!
Gut Out!
What, me worry?
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.