Do the prices of video games today contribute to why we've become so much snobs?

*such snobs*

If anyone is unhappy with any product they have bought, they should absolutely complain about it. I don't see that as snobbery. Though 'gamers' in general are among the most entitled of consumer demographics.

It also has very little to do with the price as it hasn't really changed much in a long, long time. Especially on PC where if you know how to internet it's not hard to get brand new games dirt cheap. The most I've spent on a new game, this year, is GTAV and that was £31 pre-order

To put it simple, people think they are entitled to everything and when they aren't being entitled they think the world wants to know their opinion on something, like how they think a game is and how it should be.

I swear gamers spend more time ******* and whining than actually playing video games now and days.

The average gamer(not on these forums) does not demand much and will play annual titles like COD and Assassins Creed every year quite happily.

Its the enthusiast gamer, or hardcore, what ever we call our selves who demand more.

What prices?

A 40 dollar game back in 1996 costs just as much as a 60 dollar game today.

Standards have risen due to competition, not a bigger number on the price tag.

If developers are ripping off their customers by overcharging and not delivering enough content then it's OK to complain. And stable frame rates should be standard in every game. However, I've noticed that modern gaming culture is also full of whiny kids, who complain about every thing. "But teh Characterzzzz... But teh bad controlszzz teh narrative experiencezzz"

@GarGx1: Games prices have changed... Games cost 80 bucks for Canadian, and it's been 80 for me for quite a while now. I bought GW2 for 80 dollars from their store. Games have become increasingly pricey, with cut content, expansion passes, pre-order "bonuses," and on-disk DLC. Gaming has become disgustingly expensive hobby, even more so than it was.

Gamers are like the opposite of snobs.

So then, how do developers separate the warranted complaints from the snobby ones?

Pretty much. If they were snobs they'd have higher standards as opposed to buying the latest Shootbang Dude: Deathkill Omega sequel.

If you're going to write a story and have it take up so much of the games time, yeah the narrative and characters absolutely are a valid complaint for someone. And controls? Um it's a video game, the controls better make sense.

It always bugs me when people bring up game prices. In the 16-bit Era games where anywhere between $59.99 and $99.99. Prices dropped a little in the PS1 days but have been pretty steady since in the U.S.

THIS. There are tons of reasons to complain about games but price is not one of them. In the NES Days games were $50-$60 new...same as today

A game today should cost eighty or a hundred dollars. The reason they haven't raised prices is because they know consumers would lose their minds. Instead they release DLC, microtransactions, and season passes to make up the cost.

Are we snobs for expecting more out of games for charging us 60 dollars plus the DLC and microtransactions? No because if they are going to make us shell out lots of money then I expect certain thing. I expect my games honestly at most to run 60FPS, have a decent story, and have good game play. It's not like I'm asking for much just essentially the bare minimums if that. Matter of fact my bare minimums are probably lower than the real bare minimums no the real answer is a hell no me and others aren't snobs for expecting more.

No, game prices are pretty low and now with indie games coming out at $20 ro lower, you cant really say much about price.

It's OK to complain but some people want perfect game. Good luck with that.

So, is there a connection between the most common complaints and the financial/cost aspects of game production?

This is true.....

Prices are low but the gaming demographic consists mainly of youth, who are minimum wage jobs and have other vital expenses to cover, so the price itself becomes a bigger deal because money spent on games means sacrificing other things, but this applies to other products as well. But, it also might be what leads people to become so demanding.

What's wrong with wanting a perfect game? Who would want to play a shitty game with no narrative, bad controls, and bad visuals? **** that!

>Having a modicum of self-respect

>Being a snob

Hello, shill.

With the amount of subjectivity involved in "the perfect game", it'll be a tedious goal to pursue. Yet devs pursue it nonetheless.

Indeed, no dev that's worth their salt doesn't want to make their game as close to perfection as possible, they know it's impossible. But what matters is how hard they work.

I think the common mistakes made is what we're seeing with CoD and Assassing's Creed or other franchises with yearly entries. Devs observe the paradigmatic elements present within games that do well, and they use such observation to create templates, which they then use to create games. These templates appear to already have taken the consumer demand, popular elements, and even sales performance of successful games into consideration, and this is what devs refer to as doing their homework.

But, CoD and Assassin's Creed are selling less than their predecessors. AW took longer to sell copies than Ghost did, and Syndicate sold less than Unity. People remember bad taste games leave in their mouths.

Exactly. And that's why I say devs are making a mistake with that strategy of using templates

I always managed to game when I younger. Its all about balance and what's important to you. Of course these days I can afford games more easily, but if you decide you want something you can work towards it.

Games have always been a luxury.

lol right?

Poor values sure, but what you go to a game for is what you go to a game for, and it's up to the dev to deliver. The things they try, they better actually do well on some level. Gamers argue over asanine shit, but lets not get carried away, the residents of Mt. Pious on the flip side will act like anyone with valid gripes, criticisms, or just good ol fashioned ranting is somehow incorrect for expressing themselves in anything other than shameless praise. That's just as bad.

Very good points. But, how reliable are gamers in telling devs what we want? What if we get what we want and still complain? Can devs actually count on us and say, "This is what they want, if we give it to them, they will like it and the game will succeed"? Can that actually happen?

Snob, why is that???

Games are not more expensive than like 20 years ago!!! I think they are far less expensive now if you take into account inflation!!!

I recall well paying ( 500 frs ) , which is now 76€ ( roughly 82$ ), way back in early 90 for games such as USNF, A10 or Chuck Yeager's AC...

Did not feel snob way back then, and less reason to feel so today!!!

Edit : This bring me to think that all the major industry today orientations are due to the facts that cost of game dev has gone over the roof while selling price stagnates.

This explain the blooming of dlcs, p2w crap and all sort of shit.

Because we are not ready to pay 100 buck a game, and pc players even less.

Good point, but the quality of games and the amount of time and labor needed has increased significantly since back then, so shouldn't that factor be taken into consideration?

There is no such thing as "Perfect game".

That's the annoying thing about any piece of entertainment, your audience doesn't know how to articulate their complaints with any real nuance, but instead just go with easy shit like "**** this is garbage, bullshit ass game". Or what have you, but, that doesn't mean the dev isn't

A: capable of doing the work necessary to find criticisms that are valid and work.
B: incapable of weeding out some of the flavor text to the real meat of the issue.

For instance Obsidian added a home base in the dlc, because they saw a lot of mods for New Vegas were adding a home base. Not the same type of scenario, but in that instance they were able to see something their community wanted, and made an effort to make it. Bioware to their credit at least understood people wanted more exposition, so they added exposition. People want the ending changed wholesale, but I would argue that's ridiculous. While I think shitty endings are absolutely game killers for a story driven game because yes the ending matters in a story, not the fucking the journey, I'm also not fond of the idea of the community changing a devs **** up with fiction through sheer rage. The story is the story, if the story fucks up, I rather people learn to accept it.

That and there are reasonable complaints and unreasonable complaints.

I want 1080p, 60 frames, mods, high res textures, top of the line production values, and open world, and I want a hollywood script...on a console game- okay, please **** off.

But things like I want a smooth framerate? Yeah polish your game
I want the content I used to get day 1 to still be there day 1? Yeah, why should I lower my standards?
I want a story driven game to be well written and have good characters? Yeah, I don't have a low enough standard to pretend video game stories aren't dog shit. So fix these please.
I don't want cinematic walking? No seriously **** that shit.

Are any one of those "game killers" necessarily? No, but that's all game by game, doesn't mean even great ones can't be better. For instance I think Bayonetta 2 is terrific, but they really couldn't come up with a final boss sequence that wasn't the fight from Bayo 1, but not as good? Because for a studio that actually usually nails their endings, that was weak by their standards. That's valid, that's fair, that's a reasonable expectation, and it didn't stop me from thinking the game was still worth the price of admission.

If that's the best attempt you've got at deflecting criticism, then you're a simple-minded corporate shill. People don't criticize games because they're not perfect, but because those games can be better.

@complicating_ev

There was quality, actors, cinematics even then : USNF or W commander for instance!!!:

But it's only gotten worse (from a Dev pov ), more of all this, means costs rise.

That's the very reason we are having dlcs and all the crap, because no one is ready to pay 100 or 120 bucks for a single complete game!!!

So then do you think we're asking for too much for what we are willing to pay for?

As I said complaining about stuff that you think needs improvement is fine but there will never be a "perfect game". You are living in a dreamland. How do you define a "perfect game"? Even if some title is the best game of all time, there will always be people who will complain about it. If for you it is "perfect" then for someone else it won't be.

Either due to different preference or because you failed to see some flaws or the flaws in the game don't bother you but for him those are deal breakers. So, in my original post I was saying that instead of nitpicking, enjoy the game for what it is. Bad game is a bad game, and good game is a good game. There will always be minor flaws in good games and in bad games most people agree that number Cons are way more than number of Pros.

Good point. Yes, it does seem like Devs are shooting for too much nowadays? Are we to blame for that? I like what you said about a polished, story driven game. I think it's possible that the gaming industry hasn't formed an identity yet and is still trying to get to know itself. Gaming became more popular last gen and this gen inherited a boom. People began to really pay attention last gen so I think a lot of the issue is that there's a lot of trial and error going on. Only a few games present the element that feels like the devs actually sat down and said I want to make this game with this story, and this characters, and I don't want to leave anything open. I want to make a game and know exactly the kind of experience I want to provide, instead of the too many games nowadays that can't seem to decide what it is they want to be. There has been a considerable amount of genre breach where it seems like devs are trying to attract as much demographics as possible by making a broad-spectrum game..."casting a wide net", I should say. Maybe the key is to leave each genre to its own? Can devs trust that gamers want to play a racing game they would BUY a racing game? Or do the devs of let's say MGSV have to worry about putting a half-baked speedometer and the ability to shift and choose between manual and automatic transmission in a stealth game where cars are made available, just not to lose ratings for not having good driving mechanics in something that's not a racing game to begin with?

@complicating_ev

Exactly, for me, and just taking into account inflation, without even counting the extras costs ( includes all the nowadays graphics candy ):

The price of a video game should be around 100 bucks!!!

So to recoup the costs, the industry comes up with clever screws up such as dlc, f2p or w2p models etc...

There are psychological price points that are hard to suppress, that's one of them and we are paying the price in a different way...At least some of us, in this case do, look at the last reports from EA or the likes.

:

What exactly is wrong with you? It's funny how many lines you write to pretty much say nothing. You're obsessed with repeating how there are no perfect games, and no one is arguing with you, but you still keep on parroting yourself regardless. Are you a broken record?

Just like how good design elicits good feedback, terrible-bad design elicits a negative feedback. Get used to it.

No, because all those years of "look at how much more content our game has than that other game" to sell their games, that's on them. They created this expectation for this stuff, now when that's become more expensive to do, instead of adjusting to the time, they want to take stuff away as if no one would notice. They'll make every excuse about it in the book too, love the "sometimes less is more", and it's like nah asshole, sometimes less is just less.

Personally I'm not gameplay per square inch guy, I'd rather have a 5 hour game that is certified excellence vs a 60 hour game that is only good for 60 hours with a high point or two. But, I'm not blaming solely the gamers for that one, their poor values aside, that specific desire for judging games by how long they are is on the pubs and devs for when they used to pimp out how lengthy their games are.

But sure, some of the game design short comings in modern games has been a product of devs tackling needless bullshit that their game didn't need, meanwhile the core thing that is meant to be the meat of the game is too half baked to be all that special.

Well the price of games nowadays should have fans expecting more from developers. Many games now cost well over $200+ for the actual full complete game. Microtransactions, DLC's, Season Passes and all that shit try to hide the fact that devs purposefully release half games for full price then charge you money for the rest of it down the road.

That sort of mentality is a good business practice but a bullshit consumer practice. If customers are paying $200 for video games then they have a right to demand more. If video game prices were capped at $59.99 USD for the ENTIRE game including all the DLC and shit then I don't think people would complain as much.

Calm down sweat heart, you are the one who started this whole "who doesn't want a perfect game" discussion.

@Cloud_imperium: The first mention of perfection is yours, but it doesn't seem like you wanna own up to it. Well good to know you had nothing of use to say.

I said, it's OK to complain but some people want perfect game and that's not gonna happen. Then you came in and said "what's wrong with wanting a perfect game"?. Then I explained that there won't be a perfect game because everyone has difference preference. Since then you are repeating same thing over and over again. BTW, wake me up when you find your perfect game.

@Cloud_imperium: You're the last person to accuse anyone, with 10 mentions of the word "perfect", 4 times in a single post, parrot. I was right, you really had nothing to say.

More like the amount of games that are available is what caused it. People want that one game that will take away their time. If something isn't of their liking, they will just look elsewhere, another game.

Why are you upset? Must be frustrating to wait for the perfect game I guess.

@Cloud_imperium: 11.