Are gamers penny-pinchers?
friend of mine recently asked for advice as to whether he should go ahead and buy The Orange Box, or wait for it to go on sale. As several friends appealed blithely to frugality, I couldn't help but shake my head. Here are five complete games for the price of one — and people are looking for discounts?
As an undergraduate liberal arts student, I understand that cash isn't always at the ready. But after a 20% rise in Xbox Live annual subscription costs, and with blood already boiling over the threat (or is it a promise?) of more expensive online gaming and costly DLC packages, the question is in order: are gamers just exceptionally stingy?
Too often I hear people referring to an XBLA or PSN title, saying, "Oh, yeah, I loved the demo! When the price comes down, I'm definitely gonna buy it." Have we missed the point? Genius, when and where it strikes, needs to be rewarded; moreover, it needs to be afforded. The less money a game makes — particularly in the initial few months of release — the less willing or able developers will be to take creative risks. These people have bills to pay like anyone else; basic operation costs may put a small company out of business between the time you play that demo and the time you finally decide to scrape the game off the bottom of the discount rack.
Obvious price-gouging notwithstanding, we as a community have received sometimes excessively gracious benefits from the gaming industry. And while it might be worth second-guessing a company's release of premium, expensive content within mere months of launch, the fact remains that production of any content — especially great content — requires heavy capital, labor, and (particularly in terms of online games) maintenance. As the economy languishes and production costs rise to meet consumer expectations, games are going to have to start costing more; complaining about it isn't going to change that.
What do you think? Is the industry to blame for exploiting our willingness to buy into the DLC model? Or is the gaming community made up of a whole lot of penny-pinchers?
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