Cents On The Hour - #11

the long dark

At least I have something to play on my switch now

So instead of talking about the the biggest prize pool in esports history ($24+mil).  you focused in on a minor announcement at their convention of a project probably 2% of the company worked on?  What exactly is the point of the know if not talking about history in the gaming world as its being made?

Games have never been so cheap, almost half the price of 20 years ago when you take inflation into account. The big difference is the market has become so much larger and you're not producing physical items. But as you mentioned at the start of the podcast, companies are there to make money, not to make a good game, we can only hope that both happen to go hand in hand. Also cost per hour is so relative, a 1 dollar plastic ball is probably the best investment my parents ever made. 

My best value games: Minecraft, Kerbal Space Program, Crusader Kings II

so Ryan is basically suggesting a digital tip jar?

games are definitely subjective i think the £38 i payed for ff15 was £28 wasted but the £28 i paid for horizon zero dawn i almost feel i underpaid for it i got so much fun out of that game but i thought it was more of a risk so wasnt willing to pay £60 for it without playing it.  Same with persona 5 i was iffy about it ummed and ahed about getting it but the £30 something i paid for it was money well spend almost 200 hours later but to me it was an unknown value id never played any other persona but i was hearing such good things about it and liked tokyo mirage sessions#fe from the same developer so i risked it but i probably wouldnt at £60.  

Which is why i think demos need to come back you can effectively now play a game for <2 hours and refund it on xbox or steam but there has to be a better way of trying a game esp digital as its license based so it shouldnt be hard to assign your account a 2 hour license say to try it

interesting nobody really mentioned Tacoma vs hellblade considering they are both walking simulators more or less and hellblade being only 30 bucks

A big part of game development is cost efficiency, innovating development tools and optimizing the production pipeline.
Comparing Tacoma and Hellblade; One is a three hour walking simulator with wireframe character models.

The other is a seven hour walking simulator with combat and literally award winning performance capture.
Hellblade costs ten bucks more, but writing and personal preference aside, I think it offers much more bang for your buck. At least from a technical standpoint, considering that it's an indie game that looks like a AAA title.

If you play a game and you think it cost too much, it might just be that the developers weren't experienced enough or their development pipeline could've been more efficient.

Part of consumers' expectations are subjective for sure and depends a lot on the type of the content, personal preference and how you value your time, but a lot of it also comes from prior experience from similar titles and sometimes titles that are completely different, as mentioned in the podcast.

As it stands, my opinion is that the value of a game is subjective to the person playing it and "B-but development cost" has no footing in this argument.

E: Personally, I don't think about specifically the cost of games that much. After I've bought and played it, if the game was bad, the milk's already been spilled. I spend more time thinking about the specifics of what about the game was bad.
Cost usually only comes into play when asked for an opinion that could affect a buying decision, AKA someone just straight up asking if a game is worth the price.

just watched on YouTube but wanted to comment here. I think Ryan has the more compelling argument for the price of games as largely a lot of smaller development teams are going to be considering their break even point and how much they need to support themselves with their product. Some are better at this statistical analysis and their forecasted sales. In most product based industries you must always consider development cost but the conflict of price, at least on a consumer perspective, may come from the fact they don't see a physical copy. Needs to be understood that there are ongoing costs of patches, servers, etc... however.

Good topic

On the subject of amiibo locked content in Metroid:SR, while I don't believe that an entire game mode should be locked behind an amiibo paywall, how many people would have played Fusion Mode in the first place? Extra hard mode isn't going to be appealing to everyone and in the long run the 2-pack likely won't be that hard to get, save for right at launch. 

Traditionally, non-SSB amiibo haven't been that hard to acquire as they tend to have a much longer shelf life. Hell, what are the amiibo that you see most often; Mario series (which unlock additional levels in Mario Party 10) and Animal Crossing series (which are used as game pieces in Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival). 

The only amiibo that have been difficult to get a hold of recently have been the retailer exclusive Zelda series ones. I'd bet it won't be that long until the exclusivity period ends and we'll see those three available again. If an amiibo is popular enough, it will likely be reissued. Look at the Female Corrin SSB, one of the most desired exclusives which is now back in stock on Amazon.

As for the Samus/Metroid 2-pack, I wouldn't be surprised to see Nintendo break it up for a reissue or just reissue the Metroid singly. This has been done for the Splatoon multi-packs in the past.

I don't agree with the principle of the whole matter, but I feel like it's really being blown out of proportion. If worse comes to worse you could always buy an NFC chip for the Metroid on eBay.

Game that would be worse:

ARTIFACT: THE DOTA DATING SIMULATOR

Extra Credits did a great episode on shorter games.

https://youtu.be/zpp6spOs2EU

Good episode. I totally fangirled when Adam mentioned What Remains of Edith Finch? That game is beautiful, intuitive and ridiculously well written. I was pulled in by each story, they were varied and the way each was presented was different. I will say this about that game though, it can be incredibly emotional. At the end of the day, the storytelling in Edith Finch is better than much of what's on television. I'll have to wait on Tacoma, based on their input but I'll still give it a go. 

Great discussion on production v. cost. Good things are worth it, but when you want to play everything, (and that in addition to anime and comic hobbies), it gets pretty 'spensive. 

Love the show!