Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Manny Pacquiao’s amazing victory over Miguel Cotto, if you can throw more interceptions than Jay Cutler, or helping me find a new coffee company, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
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Gaming is more expensive than ever. Consoles cost more. Games cost more. The addition of downloadable content adds to a game’s total cost of ownership. With a languishing economy, it’s no wonder that software sales are down.
As someone that has been writing about games for more than a decade, it’s sometimes hard for me to maintain a “real person’s” perspective on gaming economics. While I no longer receive most game releases automatically, it’s usually not a problem for me to call a publisher to get a game that I want to play.
With all that in mind, I wanted to see what your game purchasing was like in 2009. Be sure to add your choice in today’s poll and give an estimate of how many titles you’ll end up buying this year. Did you buy less than usual due to economic conditions? Are you renting more than buying? Or is your gaming budget immune to an economic downturn?
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@ Sandrock – I have never paid a monthly fee for one game and I don't know that I will. geez, and people give me a hard time for paying 4 dollars for Xbox live.
First MMO I'll try is probably the Old Republic. I'd personally much rather have a true sequel to Kotor though
@Larcenous;
Would you like to join my "Fire Ted Ginn" club? I pretty much have 90% of the Dol-fans on board with me in spirit.
You know what the saddest part about all of this is? We gave up Wes Welker and we used Ginn (later) as his replacement. How messed up is that? (*Note; to be fair, they were under different managers, but still, it hurts*).
Not one to stray off the main topic: I will probably buy the same amout of games next year as I did this year, but for me, it is not a matter of money, it is a matter of time. I can really afford all the games I could ever want to play, but I simply do not have the time to play all of them in a resonable amount of time. I am looking forward to retirement in about 30 years or so. That way, I can finally catch up on all of the games I have been missing out on.
-M
@Smartguy: I got it from EA's online store with a coupon code, so I got it for about that same amount anyway.
Cross-platform support might be worth a $5 price if it didn't require a Gold Live account. Other than that, (Ricky)Bobby can go jerk off to his bank statement. (If that is to descriptive, say so and I'll refrain from now on. It's just that that man just pisses me off every time he speaks.)
@Sandrock
You would pay $60 per year to play an FPS and only that FPS it were to work on a silver account?
Omg, I really don't know how many I've bought this year…it's got to be passed the 16 mark, not counting PSN games too.
@Smartguy
It would bolster the amount of users you could play with significantly. Through in dedicated servers that don't suck, ie less than 60ms ping, and you have a good service worth trying at least. WoW is like $15 a month, so 5 is a steal in comparison to what they are currently offering monthly wise.
@sandrock
Not at all. WoW offers way more for the value. That doesn't matter whether you like WoW or not. Sixty dollars per year to play their shooter is ridiculous. The game would have to retail pretty cheap or be free initially. Besides, the users who aren't gold members, won't pay more per month just to play ONE game.
@Iceman – I don't know if he needs to be fired as much as he just needs to catch the damn ball. Stick'em, staples, actual practice, anything to get some real production. It kills me the few times that the Fins actual try to go down field and throw to him, that Chad hits him in the hands and he muffs the catch.
@WoW – there is an awful lot of content for $15 a month. Especially if you get really deep into the end game/raids. Now, the worth of that content depends on how much time you want to spend chasing those carrots, and the fact that no matter what you accomplish, the moment you stop paying, you stop having access to your toons. But overall, they really pack in the content to keep people paying.
@Smartguy
Then what does WoW offer that makes it have a higher value? It is still one game and you are paying $180 a year for it. Not hating, just curious what makes it better value as it might point at things that could go for MW as well.
@sandrock
Read Larcenous comment right above yours. End game raiding, professions, battlegrounds, arenas, all kinds of quests for festivals, world events, etc. There is more content in vanilla wow than what an FPS could hope for. I understand in the end that both games have relative value.
You can't assume more people would play CoD if it were sub based. If they won't pay the equivalent to $4 per month, then they won't pay $5 per month.
@LarcenousLaugh
MW has just as much depth and content. Why is it that WoW's content is worth more?
For the record, I played Guild Wars for good period of time and it only cost me $50. I really don't see value in paid subscriptions, only a necessary evil in order to play.
woah… $180 per year? holy crap
@Smartguy
Also, I was not implying more people would play if it cost $5 a month. I was implying that the entire community could play together instead of having to play in three separate groups, ie PC, 360, and PS3.
@Sandrock – I don't think it does have as much content. Both have cooperative and PVP elements, but I think that is where the simularities end. Imagine MW multiplayer seperated into two games, one for the soldiers, the other for the terrorists. Instead of customizing load outs, you had to purchase/earn/create your weapons/grenades/armor from a changing player based economy.
Then take the area you are playing in. If we were to seperate dungeons into multiplayer maps, there would be more then 20 main maps that could be then seperated into at least 5 different variations on a theme. Then count the Major Raid maps, and again, 15+ with multiple rooms that could easily be designed to serve those purposes.
Is it worth $15 a month? Value is in the eyes of the consumer. But to say that MW2 has as much depth and content is not accurate at all.
@Shockwave – I played WoW pretty seriously for about 4 years. During that time, I did little to no console gaming, as my free time was spent online developing what was there. That $180 a year equates to 3 console games. The hours spent playing those three games compared to one game with a tremendous amount of content was actually pretty cheap.
So far this year, having stopped in May, I have purchased probably close to $300ish worth of games, and the year isn't finished yet. Do I enjoy it just the same, absolutely, but I actually look at the time spent in WoW as saving money on other gaming goods.
@larccenous – well when the Old Republic comes out I'll be willing to give it a shot but if it's $15 a month I doubt I'll give it more than 1-3 months. I just can't put all my console gaming on the back burner for one game.
it's an awesome business model to make a game and then live off residuals of millions of gamers paying subscription. Personally I don't really like what MMOs are doing to the game industry but that's my opinion
@Shockwave – that is the allure and ultimate grab of the vicious MMO my friend. It consumes you, especially in the way that you constantly have little things to keep working for.
What BioWare is doing is extremely ambitious, and if what they are planning comes out the way they are planning it, then there are going to be an awful lot of people who are trying to choose between TOR and WoW. I can't wait for the Old Republic, and I will gladly sink my teeth in for a while, cause as I found out on my return to the consoles this year, chasing games on opening day is expensive… it's much easier/cheaper when you are playing catchup if they are used.
@larcenous – many good points. probably the reason I haven't really tried an MMO yet.
playing catch up would be pretty nice. I'll give you that. maybe if I do play TOR for a year I could go back and pick up the games for cheap but I'm so bad about that. I hate it when there's a game out there that I'm not playing yet. especially if it's good
@Shockwave – Completely understand. I really like to get all I can from a game, which is one of the reasons I pushed so hard with WoW. What really struck me was that success in the type of venue is so fleeting because there is always something else to do, that if you constantly push and push and push, the enjoyment quickly fades and you end up doing it more as a chore then as a game. That's when I stopped. I log on a few times a week to hang out with some of the friends that I made on our Vent server, but I refuse to push myself anymore like that. I love the game, but the moment it tries to become more, which it inherently will, I have to draw the line now. I refuse to spend another night eating at my computer desk when I can sit at our table, watch a movie, and have dinner with my wife.
@LarcenousLaugh
I'm not stupid, I know what WoW is. More maps is about the only thing WoW has going for it as most of what you said don't equate to more than grinding and/or can be said the same about MW. All I'm saying is that for the 2 years I spent playing MW1 I only spent ~$70 on it. To each his own, but I want to know what "services" WoW has that warrant a higher price tag. Gameplay can be argued all day.
@Sandrock – If I implied you were stupid, I apologize. Many have an idea of what WoW is, but most are wrong as they have never played it. In reality, both games equate to the same thing – you do something over and over again until you earn something else. MW1 uses it's robust multiplayer to do that.
I can't convince you that WoW is worth $15 a month and MW isn't. I'm not the one footing your bill. I suck at FPSs, so I can tell you that not only would I not pay to play MW2, I haven't and I won't. It's not my kind of game. Value is in the eye of the consumer, and arguing one person's value over another is the only thing here that's stupid.
@LarcenousLaugh
I just want to know the services as those are things that "could" be applied to other games and might hint at what exactly they, Activision-Blizzard, think we are willing to pay extra for that they could offer.
Nobody enjoyed the Ted DiBiase picture? Come on!!!