[MUD-Dev2] [REPOST] Value

[Matt Chatterley]

On 29/08/06, Brian Ayavaron Ross <ayavaron at gmail.com> wrote:

>     A topic that always came to mind to me when I played games was
>     value.  I don't like it when I pay $50 for a game only to find that
>     I couldn't get more than an hour into it due to insurmountable
>     difficulty. When I pay full price for a game, I expect to be allowed
>     to see all of the game regardless of my skill. It seems unfair that
>     when I pay $50 for a game, I am only privy to 10% of the game.

I'm going to chip in here.

You've got a good point (or possibly several) - mainstream games are probably more expensive now than ever (most likely reflecting the ever increasing cost of making them), although there are a number of games from smaller developers ( e.g. ShadowGrounds, lots of the IncrediGames, offerings such as Uplink and Darwinia and so on), which are half the price in many cases - and quite often better, because they are generally labours of love as well as profit-making vehicles.

I took hate it when I fork out for a game and don't get to play the whole thing, but don't get me wrong - I don't like it if they're too easy either - it has to be just right - Max Payne was a great example of this. Just right. If you did well, it got harder. If it had gotten too hard, it eased up a little.

With online games, I'm normally put off by the subscription fee in the first place - I don't want to be playing regularly for a game when the time I have to play them is limited (as with most people who are neither students nor hardcore game addicts), and I am put off further by the thought that I may be paying for content which I am unlikely to see.

That said, I find that Yohoho Puzzle Pirates is fantastic - it's good fun, and easy to pick up and put down. So perhaps there are rays of hope still out there.. it's also very cheap to subscribe to, which I have done.

I'm sort of looking into this area, as I have a concept I am considering marketing (online only), for a strategy-come-build-your-own-kingdom game; although before worrying about this, I need to figure out if it'll be fully turn based, or not!!


Cheers,

Matt