LONG BLOG
Play Time Vs Budget: How Much Should a Game Cost?
I am broke. I have always been broke and I will always be broke. Brokeassitude for me is a state of mind. I hate spending money. But I have a problem. I have an expensive hobby, Videogames. So how have I rationalized buying these expensive virtual experiences?
The first thing I did was try and find a base form of entertainment. basically if we can put a dollar amount on a time increment of entertainment we have a baseline. Books are no good because everyone reads at a different speed. Things like sports are hard to quantify in a dollar amount as you'll spend money to join a league or something, but you may not attend every time you have available to you. We need something everyone who buys in uses at the same rate. Movies are the answer. Every one who goes to see a movie spends around 12 dollars and gets 2 hours of entertainment. Now that's without 3d, pop corn, or dbox seats. 12 divide by 2 gives us 6 bucks an hour.
Being the thrifty individual that I am I hate overpaying for my entertainment. I can get a non special edition on the cheap I'm all for it.
Lets apply our calculation to a video game. If we apply it to something like lets say Fire Emblem Fates Birthright, how long to beat says 24 hours to beat, times 6 gives us 144 bucks. and that's for 24 hours game. this is intrinsically why I love RPG they have legs I can play them for a long long time and I always feel I get my most bang for my buck.
So that's an RPG what about a shooter? quantum break clocks in at about 10 hours. at ten hours paying anything above $60 seems very steep. I have the same problem justifying most action games. if I can sit down and burn through a game in an evening, I better have bought it used at my local Microplay.
On the balance I would rather err on the side of a too long RPG then a too short action game. Thing is I grew up a twitch gamer. I have to scratch that itch, so once every few months I buy a twitch game. beat it within 72 hours, time permitting, then wonder how people can justify 80 bucks on a 10 hour game.
I'm sure at this point you wonder why I am so zealous about this. sit down grab some tissues and cuddle your favorite bonus plushy (I suggest Raiho).
the year was my childhood. back then my family didn't have much money. my parents gave me a dollar a week to spend on anything I wanted but if I asked for anything else they told me to "save my money". video games were and largely still are expensive things. I only had a Gameboy at the time from a sale when costco shuttered its video game section. I owned all of 4 games. Battle toads, Zelda links awakening, Operation C and Kirby's dreamland 2. we were going to Disney world and that meant a long plane ride. I had beaten Zelda but hated the ending. Battle toads I couldn't get past the second stage, operation C I had just gotten for Christmas and my best game was Kirby, that I had gotten new. all of my other games were used. but Microplay had Megaman II. My best friend had Megaman IV and I loved it. I was good at it too I got farther then he ever did mostly because I figured out how to assemble Beat. I wanted the game to play on the plane so I found out that I could trade in games to get the game I wanted. Knowing that I had some good ones I went over with Zelda and Battle toads. I traded them in and knowing that I would likely have to pay a little money brought along all of my worldly wealth. the guy takes my games I excitedly tell him that I want Megaman and he looks over at me and says ok with your trade in its 20$. I protested! i had trade 2 games and he only had one I wanted. he said that's what my games are worth. my dad asks me if I was sure. I was never so sure of anything. Megaman was all I could think about and I didn't want it to disappear on me. so I pull out all of my quarters and pennies and start counting. all told I had 17$ 3$ short. my dad paid the remainder. So here we are on a plane for the 6 hour ride. and i start playing. 3 hours later the credits roll. I traded 2 games and all my money for little more then a movies worth of entertainment. man was I upset. I swore never again to trade in my games. you may dry you tears and put away your plushy. and that is why I developed the calculation.
LOOK WHO CAME:
