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General discussion (archive)Avoiding Digital Clutter and Purchasing Games Responsibily (52 posts)(52 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted July 08, 2011
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Magnitus: I don't think there is yet a software equivalent to a 2 millions bottle of wine
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Arkose: Not yet, but they are working on it. Check out the DLC total price--and note that this is with a temporary 50% discount. :)
If they want to make it pricey enough to appeal to the crazy rich, they have their work cut out for them.

Maybe if they start breaking the game down into even more add-ons... charge to be able to make the train red and then a separate fee for blue, etc. :P

But yeah, their pricing scheme is a bit crazy...

That is definitely one direction I do not wish the gaming industry to take.
Post edited July 08, 2011 by Magnitus
Posted July 08, 2011
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orcishgamer: Digital clutter doesn't bother me much. I can get a monster sized hard drive for next to nothing. Real clutter does bother me. I hate being owned by my stuff, I prefer everything digital now.
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Zolgar: This, so very much this.. Granted I do like stuff, too.. Stuff is fun, stuff is nifty.. the trick is to manage and control your stuff, which I don't.. (working on it)

For me, so far on this year's Steam Sale, I've spent .. maybe.. $60, and that netted me:
Fallout: New Vegas
Mount & Blade full collection
Elven Legacy full collection
Majesty 2 Collection
Majesty Gold
Magicka DLC
Terreria
Sanctum
Beat Hazard

Most expensive single thing? $15 for New Vegas. How much will I play them all? Who knows, but so far I've gotten my moneys worth out of Beat Hazard, Terraria and Sanctum, plus I already knew I liked Magicka, and I write a blog on cheap games.. so it's a win/win/win for me.

Things like GOG, Steam, etc. are not really digi-clutter, because the games are there, they're organized, they're neat and tidy and out of the way. If I don't get around to playing Majesty until sometime next year, meh, it's there waiting, and I paid like nothing for it.

If you think about it, spending .. say I spend a total of $100 on the digital game sales this summer. That's going to give me probably at least 20-30 games to play, if I get an average of 2 hours entertainment per game, that's 40-60 hours, so I'm spending between $1.50 and $2.50 per hour of entertainment. (I've personally for my 9 purchases logged about 19 hours.)
Bar: $2.50 will get you a beer.
Arcade: $2.50 will get you 6 tokens, an hour of game play at best.
Movies: $2.50 will get you a 2nd run show, if you're lucky.
Outdoor activities: $2.50 will get you 1 gallon of gas to get wherever you need to go.
Indoor: $2.50 will get you 2 Redbox rentals. (which you still need to drive to pick up and drop off)

So, from the entertainment budget standpoint, these sales are one of the best values for entertainment/hour.
Where do you live that you are spending only 2.50 for a beer at the bar WHEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! TELL MEEEEEEEE
Post edited July 08, 2011 by stoicsentry
Posted July 08, 2011
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tomimt: The best proof on the point would be FPS for me: I've bought Rainbow six 2 and Painkiller Black, but still haven't played them through, while both are installed. Playing them feels just mundane and not pleasurable. I bought because they both were in sale at the time and both games got good revies. Yet I still knew I haven't greatly liked an FPS game since Duke Nukem 3D.
Painkiller has some very nice level design, boss battles and shooting action.

Don't bother with the cards though, I find they defray from the enjoyment ("no, I don't care about finding every single secret area in the level").

It is worth finishing, though the story is crap and I've had some technical issues with it (besides the occasional hangup, a bunch of savegames got corrupted once and I had to redo an entire level).
Post edited July 08, 2011 by Magnitus
Posted July 08, 2011
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stoicsentry: Where do you live that you are spending only 2.50 for a beer at the bar WHEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! TELL MEEEEEEEE
Well, that's like a cheap beer at a scuzzy bar, and more of just a number pulled out of my ass, because I don't drink. ;)
Posted July 08, 2011
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stoicsentry: Where do you live that you are spending only 2.50 for a beer at the bar WHEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! TELL MEEEEEEEE
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Zolgar: Well, that's like a cheap beer at a scuzzy bar, and more of just a number pulled out of my ass, because I don't drink. ;)
Ok, I was gonna say! We pay $5 here. That's why a lot of people like to drink a bit before they go then walk or take a cab. Kinda sucks but whatever.
Posted July 08, 2011
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Kurina: Valve knows how to tap into that obsessive compulsive need many have, and is capitalizing on it.
This is only to be expected when Valve have an "Experimental Psychologist" on the payroll.
Posted July 08, 2011
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KavazovAngel: Sales are sale, they are happening now, and will be happening in future, so I'm not worried about that.
ObsCure.
Operation Flashpoint.
Toca Race Driver.
Colin McRae Rally.
Republic: the Revolution.
Hostile Waters Antaeus Rising.
Posted July 08, 2011
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Zolgar: Well, that's like a cheap beer at a scuzzy bar, and more of just a number pulled out of my ass, because I don't drink. ;)
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stoicsentry: Ok, I was gonna say! We pay $5 here. That's why a lot of people like to drink a bit before they go then walk or take a cab. Kinda sucks but whatever.
I think here in Tucson it starts at about $3, but I'm not sure.
Posted July 08, 2011
This is an interesting subject and one that I've been trying to get my head around pretty much since I started cataloging my games collection on The Backloggery. The way I've decided to approach it, for now, is to take the time to do some quick but thorough research* into any game that I might consider buying and then ask myself "does this look like a game I would finish?". And I've found that, once all other factors (ooh, pretty box! / ooh, cool graphics! / I like all [genre] games, so I must like this one too! / [game] was also made by [developer] so this must be cool, too! / [friend or website] said it was awesome, so it must be!, etc. etc.) are stripped away, I can usually answer that question pretty damn honestly and make an informed decision whether or not the game is worth my money.

My "ultimate goal", I guess you could say, is to end up with a collection of games that I all liked well enough to finish. And I am not one to waste time on finishing games just for the sake of finishing them -- my time is valuable. if I don't like a game I don't play it -- so, since I started using it, I have applied this method in reverse a few times as well, asking digital distributors to remove certain games from my library that I simply knew I would never finish. It may seem a bit rigid, but the method has worked well for me so far and I'm very happy with the purchases I've made during GOG'com Summer Staycation and Steam's Summer Camp Sale.


* The research usually consists of:
- looking at screenshots
- watching a couple of gameplay videos
- reading/watching a couple of reviews
- doing a quick scan of wiki's and/or forums to get a clear picture of mechanics
- playing a demo (if possible)
Posted July 08, 2011
Fact of the matter is that we only need around 30% of the stuff we own. Last time I moved flats, I threw out 18 large bags of rubbish, and 15 bags of recycling. Most of the stuff I had forgotten I had, so I figured I wouldn't miss it.

I have purchased enough games to keep me going for the next 5 years, by which point I will have forgotten the details of the start of the list, and I can work my way through them again :)

Capitalism and the way we have wired the world means that people buy things because of greed - not because they need things. If people only bought what they needed, then most of us would be out of a job!
Posted July 08, 2011
I don’t mind clutter, I’m a bit of a collector among things so it’s only natural I might start doing it with digital stuff to. I’ll start thinking about it when I start resenting it or it starts digging into my money management. In the meantime this is what I spend my spare money on along with books, DVD’s and such. Some people spend the money on nights out but that’s not really my thing so I do this.
Posted July 08, 2011
I mostly have been buying games that I have wanted to play or wanted to replay and has been in a good price. And there's not much left in my account, so when that last coin goes.. It's time to play what I've bought.
Well.. things has been pretty cheap lately and it piles up. And you can pretty much take a chance and try games you don't know much about.
Well, in my case if I hadn't bought games I would propably have gambled those euros (and propably lost). And it's a good thing that I don't have all of my money in a account.
But truly.. There's much to play.
And if we got too many games, we can find out that it's not an easy task to play just one game at the time. And I mostly think that you supposed to. Because if you play many games at same time there is a good chance that you won't finish anything. And that's a waste of money. Almost as bad as my drinking. =)
Posted July 08, 2011
I'm a bit of a collector too.

I've bought games I've pirated the heck out of them in the past. I've bought games I wanted to play in the future (sometimes it takes more than a year to get to play them, I've still got games I'm yet to play).

Overall, the only time I buy something at a higher price than 9,99 is when I want to play it imediately.

But, yes, I'm hugely overburden with games and still need to stop and play a lot of them. I've been buying less RTS and RPGs latelly, since I always feel like I need a lot of time to play them properly, so I end up rarely playing them.
Posted July 08, 2011
You all make it sound like a bad thing :D

I like having tons of games in my accounts, gives me variety on what to play next. If there's a game with low price and you're interested about it, then go for it. But only if you have the budget for it.

Don't let your finances spiral out of control.
Posted July 08, 2011
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KavazovAngel: Sales are sale, they are happening now, and will be happening in future, so I'm not worried about that.
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Starmaker: ObsCure.
Operation Flashpoint.
Toca Race Driver.
Colin McRae Rally.
Republic: the Revolution.
Hostile Waters Antaeus Rising.
So? 6 games less, from the millions released so far. Doesn't matter.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)Avoiding Digital Clutter and Purchasing Games Responsibily (52 posts)(52 posts)
(52 posts)