Video games not worth the expensive price tag

[mick_aka]

Bullshit.

lol it was an intentional exaggeration

seriously though have you explored some of the more pricey titles from the JP catalogue? there's some real stinkers in there, I'll whack in some examples later, I'm working away at the moment using tethering on my phone and the signal is dire, this is 4th time I've tried to post this reply.

[Curryman123]

please don't

Okkkk....................

[bultje112]

No game worth more than $50 in my book.

how can you ever put an experience into money? I paid 50$ for shenmue 2 and the experience was worth far more. gaming is the greatets hobby there is and also one of the cheapest compared to what you get in return.

[mick_aka]

Have to agree with bultje112, on that one. In terms of enjoyment value there are are games that would be worth buying even if they ran into the thousands.

I have games that cost me £40, got completed in a week and never played again, so a game that's cost me $100+ that's provided consistent enjoyment and replay value for over 5 or 10 years is an absolute bargain.

[Barone]

how can you ever put an experience into money?

I said nothing about experience. Please, don't use your narrow view to put words in my mouth.

It's just that I usually don't mix money with feelings. I'll never price a game based on my feelings for it.
No game copy worth more than $50, no matter what format you're talking about. That's my opinion (I thought I wrote "in my book").
I can compare the experience that some games gave me to other sorts of experiences that would cost me $2000 or more. But when my pocket is involved, I usually price things using my brain and not my heart. I know that the industry probably didn't invested more than $10 or even $20 per copy to produce and distribute that game (I'm not talking about companies like WM, of course), so I would never pay $200 for such product; no matter how much hype exists about it.

That's my approach to collect/buy my stuff. I'm not saying that everybody should do it like I do or something, I just said how I see it.
I have a very limited budget for games and it usually came from exchanging/selling games, controllers and other stuff to people. If I'd price things based on my feelings I'd be broken now and probably with much less than I actually have in terms of games, consoles and accessories.

I hope people can live with that as I live with their opinions...

[Thunderblaze16]

To sum up what Barone is saying. He doesn't like spending to much in games.

[j_factor]

I agree with Barone to an extent. I have never spent $100 on a game. I won't say I never will, but it's tough to justify. Even though I have a large collection (1600+), there are still lots of cheap and moderately-priced games on my want lists. I could buy Snatcher for $160 (or whatever it goes for these days), or I could buy 12 other games. I will take the latter every time. So I won't be getting Snatcher unless I get a sweet deal on it, or the price comes down, or until some day in the far future where I have almost everything I want.

[Barone]

I agree with Barone to an extent. I have never spent $100 on a game. I won't say I never will, but it's tough to justify. Even though I have a large collection (1600+), there are still lots of cheap and moderately-priced games on my want lists. I could buy Snatcher for $160 (or whatever it goes for these days), or I could buy 12 other games. I will take the latter every time. So I won't be getting Snatcher unless I get a sweet deal on it, or the price comes down, or until some day in the far future where I have almost everything I want.

This is a much better way to put almost exactly what I think (this board denied my rep gift to you). Except that I really don't own an 1600+ games collection, you bastard!

For several reasons, my focus is much more on hardware. Still regarding the "experience" argument, proper controllers, TV, sound equipment and even some modding work helped me a lot to improve my gaming experience. It's not that I don't care about the experience thing, but I have a different approach for the matter.

[Zz Badnusty]

15 years of steady collecting for the Saturn has afforded me a comprehensive library of titles to choose from. I fondly recall back to my first online purchase of a Saturn import game: brand new Strikers 1945 Part II for $39 from NCSX, and then Power Drift from VG Depot for $29, and then Silhouette Mirage was maybe my 2nd or 3rd eBay purchase (Lunar II EB, and Burning Rangers being the other two) ...and it steadily ramped up from there.

Back then, $30-50 was the upper limit of what I could see spending on a used game. I'd already purchased most all of the big US releases new at retail clearanced at $20-30, Heck, JPN Daytona CE and Thunder Force V were marked down to $19.99 when I purchased them new at Electronics Boutique. Radiant Silvergun was one of the only game I paid full price for at release (the other being Dragon Force iirc)

As the years of building a Saturn library continued I eventually found myself having already explored all the Technosoft games, or all the sidescrollers, or all the shoot em ups, well, except for those one or two odd men out, the cursory games which never entirely seemed my style. Some of these fringe games happen to also be some of the more expensive titles - perhaps because indeed they were the odd ones; side projects; small companies; late releases; small print runs...whatever the case, these were the outliers.

Dungeon & Dragons Collection was the first game that I had to have which made me face the prospect of spending $100 to acquire it. Then later on I got to a point in my shmup appreciation where I started looking for bargains on games like Battle Garegga -where as the going price was $100-120+, I eventually got a copy for $80, and then maybe next was something like Hyper Duel which I paid $90, and so on until I'd owned and played all the games which interested me. By today’s standards it might be said that I got a bargain on some of those. Like Panzer Dragoon Saga for $30 new. No, those were just plainly the lower ends of the available prices for those games at those particular times.

So now in the past year I’m playing a lot of Saturn again. There still remained a few outliers like Super Tempo and Stellar Assault SS. Eventually the oddity of Super Tempo piqued my interest enough coupled with a growing perception that Super Tempo belongs in a comprehensive Saturn library, so I started keeping an eye on going prices. Over 2+ years I saw the eBay and PlayAsia and other used prices average around $150 and spike at over $300. That was beyond justification by my finances. At one point an auction sold for $80 and then a BIN soon after was around $100, and PlayAsia sold one <$100 iirc. I thought the price was staring to come down so I set $80 as a target price to buy a copy. Nothing came close ever again afaik, and I eventually set my target at $100. Months go by and perhaps I’m fiending for some new Saturn action. I ask on a forum to a member who posted about buying Super Tempo in Japan, he reiterates the price is high. Something spikes my interest again, I think just lots of Mizubaku Adventure and yearning for more unique colorful Saturn platform action, so I’m more focused following online sources for a reasonably priced copy – note that my perception of reasonably has shifted over time. Eventually one day I end up buying a copy of Super Tempo for $117 shipped.

When I finally play it, it is like I have just turned on my Saturn for the very first time. Booting up a game which is almost entirely unknown to me other than cursory knowledge about its developer/publisher, the fact that it is a colorful platform game, and maybe 2 minutes of not-quite-impressive youtube footage – Super Tempo provided an entirely new experience on my Saturn which no game prior had created. In this whole long-winded ramble, that is the whole point - after owning and playing all the other games of interest to me Super Tempo was refreshing and enjoyable and surprising in a way I did not expect, and for that very experience of enjoyment my money was well spent. Super Tempo quite justifiably does belong in every comprehensive Saturn collection as one of the most unique platformers of the generation.

[DarkDragon]

Resident Evil III $149.99 new on Amazon.
Parasite Eve $299.99 new on Amazon.

[j_factor]

It's so weird to see these games go up in value. I mean, Super Tempo? I paid $40 for it, and that was the going rate at the time (maybe slightly on the low end), and I remembered that it was even cheaper before. This was some years ago but I'm not talking about 1999 or anything. Same thing with Tryrush Deppy, except I didn't have the foresight to pick it up while it was still cheap. But I clearly remember it. I passed on it for $35.

[Zz Badnusty]

Yes, my very first visit to NCSX, Liquid Kids was featured on their front page with a price of $39.99. I laughed at the thought of even buying another platform game. I was so over them by that point. Then a decade later after delving into the Arcade Gears releases, and the Ving Elevator Action Returns release, and games like Prikura Diasakusen, I began to take a specific interest in niche arcade conversions to Saturn ...and Liquid Kids came back into my awareness. "What a cute and charming game! By acclaimed developer Taito, no less!" is what I was then thinking ...and good golly the price was then $150+!!! "Why oh why didn't I buy it for $40 back then?!!" ...well because I was buying and enjoying other stuff back then.
When ever I finally purchased it I lucked out with a $100 copy while the going rate was still well over that. The memories and experiences associated with my purchase of that game (and most others) are just as integral to the enjoyment and value as any other aspect of the game. The years that it took to become fully aware of and appreciate Liquid Kids, the research about the different versions, various issues with other ports, the times I played it in an arcade on a multicade cabinet, and then eventually actually deciding it was worth a purchase and then shelling out the money for it, playing it and being utterly delighted by the classic game design, and especially the rock-solid no-frills direct-play no-nonsense presentation on the Saturn...all of that is entirely worth it to me.

[Curryman123]

Resident Evil III $149.99 new on Amazon.
Parasite Eve $299.99 new on Amazon.

You can find these games for 1/10 of the price on Ebay.

[DarkDragon]

Yet Chono Cross NEW on Amazon is only like 19.99. Weird.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

You can find these games for 1/10 of the price on Ebay.

They're that expensive I would assume because they are new and still sealed. Also it really depends on which versions. I know the GC ports of RE 2 and RE 3 have gone up quite a bit recently. I would never pay more than $25 for RE 3 though.