13 replies to this topic

[GuardDogg]

From the time (80s) a game cartridge will cost about $80. Yeah, and that was it. No patches, updates, and that was it. They piled up and the thought, all that money, would have ended up on a new car (or vehicle), instead of games. I was 15 at the time. Then moved on to other things. Gave up gaming, and never will own a console again. The 90s came around, and PCs were starting to make it into homes. Now PC gaming was the thing, and consoles were starting to come to an end. PC gaming, on floppies, and about $60-$80 a game, and that was it. No updates patches until late 90s. The internet, and CDs (not DVDs) starting to make the game market. Same price of games ($60-$80), and then you can download updates, patches (Dial-up), and maybe the gaming mag has CDs with patches, game demos. About after the year 2000, you get a game and upates, but if you want expansion you have to pay (of course). I recall the mech packs for MW4 (Clan, IS), and they were about $60 each. Today, wow. You can download a game, and you will not how much you are paying. Found out that Star Citizen, you can buy the whole game for.....guess how much? $27,000. That is for everything, and the game (or what ever) is in beta still. And to see a video, is another $1000. Wow. Not only that. I downloaded a flight simulator.."DCS world". You get two aircrafts with the so called free sim, and if you want, you can add stuff (Buy other aircrafts, land, vehicles, and other). Guess how much for a aircraft? They just released a F-18 for $80. But have you seen the cockpits for these aircrafts? WOW!, From that, this is how it is going, for all games, sims, fps. If you buy everything, you will have spent $1000 for a game (sim). MWO especially. The stress, struggle and you can by mechpacks or a mech for about $20-$80, and it adds up. I see people have like 300-500+ mechs. I have spent about $100, and the thought of me spending more on a broken game, with negative attitudes from others, and etc, kinda makes me think, is it worth it. What is happening to the gaming world. EA is another (I refuse to buy) all about deadlines. After I saw you can buy the game for $27,000 and they want another $1000 to watch video, got me thinking about MWO, DCS world, then others. Can it be the end, or slow death? Of you want to improve your skills, you have to pay.

Edited by GuardDogg, 26 June 2018 - 05:40 AM.

[Kalimaster]

Yeah. You have to purchase additional ships in Xwing Miniatures, or cards for various games. yeah. Gaming is expensive.

[Tarl Cabot]

The 90s.. the cost of a computer (Intel) was 3-4K dollars, and you had a choice between the least expensive one without a math coprocesser You could always purchase one later which fitted ontop of the CPU...

http://www.relativel...uters-to-1995s/

Quote

Let me tell you about a computer advertisement from 1993.

One company was advertising 9,600-baud modems for as low as $500. Dell was selling a top-of-the-line 486 with a 66MHz processor, eight megabytes of RAM and a 320-megabyte hard drive for $4,400.

The single biggest difference is in the hard drive prices. Three hundred dollars got you 80 megabytes, and a one-gigabyte drive from IBM cost more than $3,000. Single speed CD-ROMs sold for $600. Today, if you could buy this hardware, it would cost between 10 and 25% of what it cost two years ago.

Lets not forget the memory optimizers. QEMM was the most popular one.

Quote

Memory optimizers, such as the ones that shipped with MS-DOS and QEMM allowed us to shuffle the free space around these memory areas so all these drivers and programs -- which we referred to as TSRs (Terminate and Stay Resident) would all fit correctly and not conflict with each other.

The problem was, if you configured your PC's memory a certain way to optimize it for Windows, it wasn't necessarily what Lotus or some game you liked needed to run. So many of us ended up with half a dozen (or more) boot floppies next to our desks that configured the memory a certain way so the programs we used would run correctly.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 26 June 2018 - 04:14 PM.

[LordNothing]

the late 90s early 00s were the golden era of gaming. then innovation stopped, people got greedy and games got worse. now they want you to pay for bits and pieces of a game for what an entire game used to cost. there are still a lot of good indie games out there on the classic buy once and never again business model.

Edited by LordNothing, 27 June 2018 - 11:06 PM.

[Spare Parts Bin]

If you think MWO is expensive try Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K no matter which faction I played it was like 1/16th to 1/8th of a crack problem.

[LordNothing]

Spare Parts Bin, on 02 July 2018 - 06:27 PM, said:

If you think MWO is expensive try Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K no matter which faction I played it was like 1/16th to 1/8th of a crack problem.

you know you got problems when a mech pack costs more than an 8 ball.

[MTier Slayed Up]

Business practices got progressively worst over time thanks to the unholy triumvirate. Ubi, EA and Activision.

Just look at Star Wars: Battlefront 2. That game was an unplayable mess, and despite what some nay sayers say about this game, that unholy abomination IS pay to win.

A lot of games out there that should have been great or outstanding are effectively killed by these practices, and these companies don't care because their target demograph are these whales that spend hundreds of thousands just to win or get that shiny new helmet. Player Unknown Battlegrounds, while it has none of the "P2W" mechanics behind it, or ties mentioned above, the cosmetic area is clearly meant to target these people willing to throw down hundreds of dollars just for a dumb ******* hoodie.

One more example of a game I ******* loathe that was outright awful in every imaginable way was Metal Gear: Phantom Pain.
Why do I have to spend real currency to speed up research on a gun?! What happened to the days of old like Snake Eater, where you can playthrough a 100 times over to find every gun imaginable, but now I have to research this stupid crap, and if I want it sooner, I have to pay for it? How about the bases? Oh gee, you have to connect online, and if you want more than a couple, pull out that wallet! I have many more issues with Phantom *** in general.
I know these few issues mentioned weren't game breaking, but it's ******* annoying when I practically have a part of a game locked out to me when I should have access to it after I already slammed down $59.99+tax.

I now simply refuse to preorder anything. I flatly refuse to buy anything that has ties to EA, Ubi or Activision.
What people should be doing and using as a Gold Standard for gaming now is CD Projekt Reds, The Witcher 3.
You don't have to like that game, but it was done the way it should have been done. The DLC were actually worthwhile, they actually felt like true expansions rather than just some ****** add on you could have slapped together on Microsoft Paint. Best of yet, it was reasonably priced. Hell, the Blood and Wine expansion was practically a steal for the amount of content and work put into that.

Maybe if gaming companies and publishers gave more a **** about their games and the consumer, they wouldn't be doing these practices, but unfortunately, the community is largely made up by mindless dolts that don't mind spending an extra $100 for a dumb hat, or 30 new lines of dialogue that doesn't add any complexity to the plot. So that's where we're at. We can scream and shout about how these companies suck and the games are going straight to the bin, but there's two parties to blame here, not just the companies/publishers, but the consumer that says "this is okay, I'm fine with this".

Vote with your wallet, folks. That's all I have to say.

[Anjian]

The more Free to Play a game is, the more expensive playing them in the long run will cost ya.

[Joanna Conners]

Clearly people aren't appreciating the creative, low-cost indies enough.

[LordNothing]

DrtyDshSoap, on 03 July 2018 - 12:38 AM, said:

Business practices got progressively worst over time thanks to the unholy triumvirate. Ubi, EA and Activision.

Just look at Star Wars: Battlefront 2. That game was an unplayable mess, and despite what some nay sayers say about this game, that unholy abomination IS pay to win.

A lot of games out there that should have been great or outstanding are effectively killed by these practices, and these companies don't care because their target demograph are these whales that spend hundreds of thousands just to win or get that shiny new helmet. Player Unknown Battlegrounds, while it has none of the "P2W" mechanics behind it, or ties mentioned above, the cosmetic area is clearly meant to target these people willing to throw down hundreds of dollars just for a dumb ******* hoodie.

One more example of a game I ******* loathe that was outright awful in every imaginable way was Metal Gear: Phantom Pain.
Why do I have to spend real currency to speed up research on a gun?! What happened to the days of old like Snake Eater, where you can playthrough a 100 times over to find every gun imaginable, but now I have to research this stupid crap, and if I want it sooner, I have to pay for it? How about the bases? Oh gee, you have to connect online, and if you want more than a couple, pull out that wallet! I have many more issues with Phantom *** in general.
I know these few issues mentioned weren't game breaking, but it's ******* annoying when I practically have a part of a game locked out to me when I should have access to it after I already slammed down $59.99+tax.

I now simply refuse to preorder anything. I flatly refuse to buy anything that has ties to EA, Ubi or Activision.
What people should be doing and using as a Gold Standard for gaming now is CD Projekt Reds, The Witcher 3.
You don't have to like that game, but it was done the way it should have been done. The DLC were actually worthwhile, they actually felt like true expansions rather than just some ****** add on you could have slapped together on Microsoft Paint. Best of yet, it was reasonably priced. Hell, the Blood and Wine expansion was practically a steal for the amount of content and work put into that.

Maybe if gaming companies and publishers gave more a **** about their games and the consumer, they wouldn't be doing these practices, but unfortunately, the community is largely made up by mindless dolts that don't mind spending an extra $100 for a dumb hat, or 30 new lines of dialogue that doesn't add any complexity to the plot. So that's where we're at. We can scream and shout about how these companies suck and the games are going straight to the bin, but there's two parties to blame here, not just the companies/publishers, but the consumer that says "this is okay, I'm fine with this".

Vote with your wallet, folks. That's all I have to say.

this is why ive gone from 10 games a year to about 2. last year i only bought one and ive yet to buy a game this year.

[MTier Slayed Up]

Joanna Conners, on 04 July 2018 - 03:06 AM, said:

Clearly people aren't appreciating the creative, low-cost indies enough.

I like my indie games because I know I'm not going to get rammed by a hard one.

But on Steam...There's like a pile of garbage with a few hidden gems waiting to be found. On one end, I have to waddle through a sea of garbo just to play something like Divinity: Original Sin 1/2, or I have to wait at least a week after a release of a big title to see if it's going to be a big steaming pile of crap.

I can't help but reminisce of the horror stories told when I was younger about the video game crash in the 80's(?).

[GuardDogg]

I recall going into a computer store, and it was like a playground for me. Even for car parts. Walk into a auto shop, my girl friend would have trouble getting me out of the store(s). Today, their is none of that. Everything is now online, Crappy stuff in store, and the best stuff online. Then these stores go under (layoffs), and they wonder why and do not know what happened. But if you buy a game/software in store, you may get that box, but only a code (serial number), and coupons. Everything is now online. The games are free, but that is just the starter kit. You want more, you have to pay the price and now it is truly expensive. A game now will cost you more than $600+ and you will never know, until later in the years. And the game/simulator is broken.

[General Solo]

Depends if you use your computer for other things or not.
If just for gaming its kind of expensive upfront but its a cheap form of entertainment compared to drinking and other pursuits

I use my system for moar than games, music, movies, tinkering and I build the best system I can afford
I build it so I can have a better system for the same price, pick and choose the parts wid the best bang for buck CPU/GPU.

Should give you at least 4-5 years that way, CPU speed hasnt changed that much in donkeys years and most apps still dont use all the cpu cores real guid. So a decent system will last a while.

If u spend 1000 dollars thats 250 a year over 4 years, thats moar than a console but you get PC graphics, bigger game library and flexabilty to do other things

PC arn't difficult to put together so long as u look out for static electricity, check the internet

[GuardDogg]

Yeah, PC are very cheap today. I recall my first PC, was about $4,000 and that was 8086, then adding a 286 card on a ISA slot. But when I turned on the 286 (Toggle switch), the PC would crash at boot. Found out it was the used card that was damaged. Today, you can build a top PC, for around $1000, but if you want to go further, you will have to spend more. Nvidia cards in today's market makes PCs more expensive. Say thank you to minors. I use my PC for CGI, music, MWO. But gaming is a finicky thing. Free game....but.....$$$