New games ...

[tidbit]

I've been saying what this article basically says for years. http://www.baekdal.com/opinion/how-inap ... -industry/

games from the early 2000s and earlier:
Devs spend 5+ years making a fully featured awesome game with a crapload of content that takes 30+ hours to beat. Then every year or two for ~5 years they release an expansion pack which basically doubles the content, for 1/2 the original price (usually $20).

new games:
Devs work for a couple years on a game and release it for $60. It can usually be beat within 5-10 hours. Every couple months for a year or 2, release like 1 or 2 new missions/maps for $5-$10 extra. Or pay $20 for an awesome new shiny weapon or skill.

*note: not every game follows this lame pattern, but more than enough do.

Also I keep saying we should go back to Cartridges (specifically n64 size & style). and now that SSD's are becoming popular, maybe next nextgen will

[Zelio]

It is sad, but a player is just a product...
However, hold hope, some people try to do good thing for example:
- high diversity, everything is possible https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/ca ... _spotlight
- only pay for skins or cosmetics http://euw.leagueoflegends.com/
- low cost with fun and endless http://www.torchlight2game.com/
- rethink an old game with quality (total annihilation) http://www.uberent.com/pa/
- try to kill money bot (less pay to win, more merit) http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/the-g ... ess-model/
- simple and artistic concept http://www.apotheongame.com/ or free with touch control http://www.contrejour.ie/
- et cetera...
in other word, to don't look the mainstream industry, and android or touch pad transformed too much the video game world, also we have to ban facebook and candycrush-like or other classical pay to win who support too much the wrong "funeconomic" model...

[jNizM]

Some free (& old) games
- Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 1
- Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 2
- Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
- Teeworlds
- OpenArena
- America's Army
- Warmonger
- Hidden & Dangerous
- Doom 95
- Counter-Strike 2D
- Quake Live
- Battlefield 1942

More Free Games
- Gamefrabrique
- Softpedia - Freeware Games
- Chip - free2play

[strobo]

I agree with tidbit, just wanna append sth positive:
If one can wait some months after release, then often PC games are very low priced (not a solution for everyone/every game of course).
Also, there are many indie and/or crowdfunded games not necessarily targeting the AAA market (at least for PC), some of them are promising.
And, GfWL is gone.

[Zelio]

...and this problem have two faces, actual or young players look like locust, they switch and consume a game in one month (without start the end content, no fun go to voracity)... they prefer to follow trends and fashion, to restart new easy game than to hold a good stable game... So now industries don't follow those morons but create the trends to be followed, the loop of money is infinite...

[LinearSpoon]

I think that article is really talking about microtransactions, which is a system where you can pay for ingame benefits that aren't included in the price of the game itself. I would hope most people realize this is a waste, but if people weren't buying into it, developers wouldn't bother. Vote with your wallet.

As for the rest:
The 'big' games being sold at $60 cost a heck of a lot more to make than they used to, but are higher quality. I'm not talking about how "fun" it is, but rather the amount of code behind it and the graphical quality, etc. It's reasonable for the game to be more expensive. But on the other hand, you now have services like Steam offering incredible sales on games that you didn't see very often before.. As an example, I recently bought Borderlands 2 (2012) on sale for $7. So far I've put 42 hours in it, and am nowhere near completing everything. Each major DLC is $10 (regular price, not sale) and includes as much content as the main game storyline. Of course, this is only one game, value for your money will vary from developer to developer.

I really have to disagree with most games only having 5-10 hours of gameplay. Maybe on a speedrun, but certainly not true if you're just playing casually. The shortest game I've played recently was Tomb Raider (2013). I had 14 hours in it, but that was just completing the storyline. I didn't finish all of the optional tombs and objectives.

I don't believe cartridges will be making a comeback anytime soon. SSD's are still too expensive for the storage they provide just to put games on them. There's also a lot of talk that this will be the last generation of consoles (why spend $400 on a console when you can get a decent pc for just a little more?) Digital downloads on the other hand are swiftly taking over...

[tidbit]

it is, but rather the amount of code behind it and the graphical quality, etc.

I would have to saay otherwise.. on the code part. Older games were made in much harder languages, like ASM. Building a city or railroad simulator with roads, random city genereration, pedestrials, all sorts of stats, etc. in ASM seems 1000x more complex than an newer languages.
Even the graphics, though better, are at a point where some people (big companies) just 3D scan stuff into a computer, do some tweaking and done. Mimimal effort. Same with animations. Just put on a suit with a bunch of balls and lets the computer record your movements. WWhat's becoming popular for lighting is "IBL" image based lighting. No need fancy light setups.

really have to disagree with most games only having 5-10 hours of gameplay. Maybe on a speedrun, but certainly not true if you're just playing casually.

I guess people just play at different speeds. I RARELY ever play to get 100%, or the best gear, or to get 5-stars on all maps, etc. I play for the story. And when I do play a game, it's usually only 1-2h a day. But they go by in a week. N64 and PS2 games take like 15-50 hours (atleast the stuff I played).

(why spend $400 on a console when you can get a decent pc for just a little more?)

this has been going on for a very long time. I remember in highschool 7-8 years ago my friends said the same. Lots of people can't afford a good gaming PC for $1000+. And then you also need a good internet speed to download those 10-100GB games. Doubt many people will want to use 100% of their internet speed (and possibly limited bandwidth) for 30 hours non-stop. Buying a cheaper fully capable gaming machine for $400 (wait a couple years and it's even cheaper) and CD's that require no internet usage.

[vasili111]

Double post. Sorry

[vasili111]

Today game industry is malignant.
I divide game industry on 3 types:
Type 1. You pay once and play as many time as you wont, even playing online is free after you purchased game once.
Type 2. You pay every month only subscription fee and game has no other paid advancements (like faster leveling or paid ingame item).
Type 3. There is no fixed amount, you can pay as much as you want. That includes some kind of premium accounts and paid game advancements.

Lets look from developers point of view:
If he is making game Type 3 he is interested to make it free to play but hard to advance and to make you to buy as much advancement as possible.
If he is making game Type 2 he is interested to make you play every month, so advancement should be hard enough. Because if you get everything from game you will not pay next month subscription fee.
If he is making game Type 1 he is interested to make game as interested as possible and to give you as much pleasure as possible. Because he will have good response from users and they will buy more that game and maybe next series of game.

But not many people dont understand it. They think that Type 3 games are free, type 2 games are not free but fair, because there is fixed amount of fee for playing. Type 1 games cost more than monthly fee of Type 2 games, so people think they are expensive.

There are exceptions but not so much.

[tidbit]

Go compare both Dungeon Keeper videos in the link on the first post
that's comparing your #1 to #3. Wait 2 minutes for your enjoyment or wait 24 hours, unless you pay to speed it up?

[vasili111]

Go compare both Dungeon Keeper videos in the link on the first post
that's comparing your #1 to #3. Wait 2 minutes for your enjoyment or wait 24 hours, unless you pay to speed it up?

Yes, exactly.

I think there should be some kind of regulation for it.

[tidbit]

So you think that waiting 24 hours makes it more fun? Or that paying real $ to speed up that 24 hour wait is more fun?
The older one you get the action, building, fun stuff much faster. in ~2 minutes (with only the purchase of the game) that room is built.

[vasili111]

So you think that waiting 24 hours makes it more fun?
The older one you get the action, building, fun stuff much faster. in ~2 minutes that room is built.

No. Why? I totally agree with you. And both of my posts agrees with you.

[tidbit]

oh sorry. To me it sounded like you were in favor of #3, the slow, pay-for-extra-content stuff.

I misread your posts. oops.

[vasili111]

oh sorry. To me it sounded like you were in favor of #3, the slow, pay-for-extra-content stuff.

I misread your posts. oops.

No problem

[vasili111]

It's official: Puzzle & Dragons is the first mobile game to $1 billion in revenue
http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/Gun ... sp?c=57076

The Top F2P Monetization Tricks (Puzzle & Dragons are also criticized there)
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminSho ... Tricks.php

[nnnik]

vasilli you missed 2 game sorts:
Type 4: Ad Sponsored games:
These games are very addictive, since the creator wants to show them as much ads as possible.

Type 5: Free games:
They simply weren't created to gain money.
They were mostly created by a few developers after their daytime job.
This category also includes free mods for other games created the way described above.
Examples:
Battle For Wesnoth ;Best
Frontier2400 ; I'd like to make a remakeof this one
DayZ
Slender Man

[vasili111]

I agree with you nnnik.
I missed Type 4, because most of that type of games are browser games or phone games, which I don't play.
I forgot about Type 5, because I was only thinking about commercial games. I also want to add to your list OpenTTD http://www.openttd.org/en/

[joedf]

Red Eclipse

[lexikos]

I don't believe cartridges will be making a comeback anytime soon. SSD's are still too expensive for the storage they provide just to put games on them.

On the other hand, USB flash drives are quite cheap, can be much smaller and hold several times as much as a DVD, yet games are still released on multiple DVDs.