this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I, and the vast majority of the gaming community, will play a game once and never pick it up again. Most don't even finish.

For the one of two games I might actually want to play again, I'm happy to toss an additional $10 at the 10 year discounted rate.

I'm still $55 ahead of you purchasing on release.

Same with gamefly. $15 a month and I've saved thousands and thousands of dollars renting for 2 weeks and sending it back.

Doing some napkin math:

I spend $210 annually on gamefly + gamepass. I have played no less than 30 games this year (it's higher but I'm not keeping track). That's $1800 USD I've saved. I'm more than happy to eat into that and purchase a game if need be.

Ownership of video games, is VASTLY over rated and valve has you by the genitals.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm very skeptical that you're describing the majority, let alone vast.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

That "only worth playing once" thing only applies to story heavy, fixed map, pure single-player games, which are mainly a sub-set of AAA games, typically on consoles.

(Or multiplayer games when somebody only plays those games were their friends are, so the game stops being fun if most of their friends aren't there anymore, so naturally such people never get back to those)

Further, even amongst that kind of game, some are so good that they're fun again to play after some time (though it usually takes a couple of years to forget enough of the details for it to be fun again). For example, Fallout 3.

Methinks you're a very young gamer, who is mainly fad driven hence buys the same AAA games as his friends and doesn't buy indie games (which is where you'll find the most replayable games of all, as indies often have generated maps since they can't afford to spend millions of dollars on people doing level design) so yeah, all you've ever seen is games that are only fun once or for a very limited time period.

Youthfullness would also explain why you confuse your own behaviour with "the vast majority of the gaming community". (Which is extra funny because the average age of gamers nowadays is somewhere in the mid 30s).

I would be seriously surprised if you were an older gamer as they're more likely to buy games for their fun factor - not fashionability amongst peers or last gen graphics - hence sooner or later end up playing some indie game or other with generated maps, plus are much more likely to have picked up again some game they played and finished years ago and still fondly remember, just to discover it's actually fun again.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Let's not gatekeep "real gamers".

You should also read his comment again. He is not saying that a game is only worth playing once because the story or game is linear. Although no sources are cited, he is probably right that a fair percentage of people pick up a game and drop it soon after because it wasn't what they thought it would be or any number of other reasons.

Even if you are an indie gamer, the sheer number of indie games that come out each year is overwhelming, and again a lot are not super polished so you can probably also see people picking it up, playing it, not being impressed and then dropping the game.

So why spend $10 a pop per game when you can pay for one month and enjoy many of them?

There is no need to be materialistic. Yes there are games you will want to go back to in a few years or take your time with, but there are many many games that you may never touch again. If you think this is a minority opinion, check out some Steam stats. I think they support OPs argument.

There are also reasons subscription based models can and do suck, there is a reason they are popular.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, ok.

That is indeed a different view of that post which makes sense.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

yeah personally I dont like the subscription model and wished more people setup their own server at home to stream their own plex and stream their own steam-headless or virtual machines but that just isnt realistic and people love thier streamed content more and more. Just look at me Im talking through you from a virtual machine on my server VPN'd from my phone connected to a monitor and keyboard. I dont carry a laptop anymore I just plug my phone in at work or at home and just use parsec

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What a fun story.

My NES came with Mario 3, I raided before plains of power made EQ easy, and I spent hours chopping wood by hand in ultima because I refused to get a paperweight to hold down the hot key.

They are certainly games out there that have a longer shelf life. It's not all of them nor should it be and it's not how most people play games unless heavily multiplayer focused.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well, somebody else provided a different take on what you meant (which is that people try and ditch lots of games which are shit, only settling down with some good ones) that makes sense.

Personally that's not how I do it (I would rather not waste time and trying tons of games if free), but that's me and I'm not going to claim that's how most people go about consuming games (I doubt it is, to be fair).