abbotsbury

abbotsbury, 10 days ago

“Compared to the rest of the industry” is damning with faint praise.

I’d say most games are maybe worth $20, more only for the ones filled with content that you can replay many times.

abbotsbury, 10 days ago

“Moderately budgeted” compared to what? Modern AAA game budgets have absolutely exploded and are not sustainable, turning game dev cycles into 5+ year marathons and giving it Hollywood Syndrome where every game needs to be a blockbuster to be considered a success and no risks are able to be taken because of the massive investment each project requires. Do you think that’s sustainable? Or do you think that perhaps things have gone out of control when a $90 price point is being floated, even in conjunction with money printing anti-consumer features like lootboxes?

abbotsbury, 9 days ago

8 full time 100k salaried employees is quite a bit more than “small team.” Doom was 6 people. That many people are simply not required to make the games that are being produced; they can choose to size down any time they want. If they want to go “all in” on making a “AAAA” game, then they need to deal with that reality and make a game that is actually worth $60.

Their games ranged from $30-$50 and had every sale, bundle, giveaway, and promotional opportunity you could think of.

Perhaps that’s part of the problem? Maybe they should have priced their works more fairly from the start and not rely on bundles and givaways which surely aren’t going to make them more money.

My point is, the “average” game is absolutely not worth $30. Most games should flop because they’re overproduced trash, and we should return to smaller, more artistic-focused development with a smaller scale, more consumer friendly pricing, and where the (few) devs get more slices of their pie.

abbotsbury, 9 days ago

I’d gladly pay $30 if they are worth it, most games are simply not worth it. Recently I’ve put over 75 hours into Atom RPG the last two weeks, and it’s $15 full price, and the developers have released a spinoff and announced a new project, so they seem to be doing fine.

Hopefully you can sit down with a calculator and figure out that things can be better.

abbotsbury, 8 days ago

That’s true, I’m using hours per dollar as a shorthand for value, but on the flip side if video games are going to be a couple hours of one-time fun, they gotta expect to have a price point similar to movie theaters which have a similar experience, which is like $10-$15

abbotsbury, 8 days ago

Video games are afraid to be only a couple hours because they are afraid of charging less than $10

If your game is short, doesn’t offer replayability, and doesn’t have any novel gameplay to truly set it apart, then youtube Lets Plays offer real competition of getting basically the whole package.

but if you multiplied a movie’s runtime by 2-3x for some extra production value in your game, you end up at that $35 price point easily for a game that’s 5-10 hours long

That’s making a couple assumptions though, that price point is for large studio releases and non-matinee prices. If I go see a movie on a Tuesday afternoon, it’s only $7, a perfect price for an average small game.

Even for a direct comparison to Atom RPG, I’d rather pay 2-3x as much for a Wasteland game to get what I’m looking for

Atom RPG isn’t exactly a Wasteland game, it leans pretty heavy on classic Fallout, which while inspired by Wasteland, have diverged noticeably in the end product. So if you wanted to get what you’re looking for in this case, Fallout 1 and 2 are $10 each, or you can get a bundle of 1/2 and Brotherhood of Steel for $20 (more like brotherhood of steal amirite).

abbotsbury, 8 days ago

That used to be the norm, and we were happy with that

Then you should be supportive of deflation in the video game industry, instead of making excuses for why we should pay more for less

abbotsbury, 8 days ago

I’m not talking about about adding hours, I’m talking about adding quality.

But at below AAA levels, I’m often served extremely well for $35.

yes, good games exist at that price point, but the average game is not good, and is not worth that.

You mention things like better resolutions, better frame rates, better voice acting, more modern, more better, etc, but none of those things are what makes games good or worth more money. AAA games with cutting edge graphics and star-studded voice acting are not automatically good games, and in fact it frequently has an inverse effect where focusing so much time and money on stuff other than the game leaves a shitty game that will be forgotten about in months; that would absolutely not be worth $30, despite having all your superfluous qualities

abbotsbury, 8 days ago

Choosing presentation over game quality is what caused the games industry to be bloated beyond belief.

abbotsbury, 14 days ago

ATOM RPG like other users said. A very faithful (sometimes too faithful tbh imo) spiritual successor to Fallout 1/2 except set in the USSR. I highly recommend it if you are into Fallout style CRPGs. As in, you can recruit followers but you don’t directly control them in combat, charisma/speech can have a huge impact on how some conflicts are solved, you get Action Points to use every turn, overworld traveling with random encounters, cultural references and silly bits even to a detriment (just like Fallout!), etc.

It’s the closest thing to a Fallout remake but in 3d and some (only some) modernizations.

abbotsbury, 15 days ago

If they think religion needs protection, they are easily manipulated.

abbotsbury, 14 days ago

none of that has anything to do with what I said, go seethe about democrats on your blog, I don’t care what your 5th grade teacher said because it has nothing to do with democratic policies

abbotsbury, 1 month ago

Any floor texture is perfectly tiled if your UV wrapping is fucked up enough

abbotsbury, 1 month ago

pirateproxylive.org/…/John_Patitucci_-_Bass_Guita…

abbotsbury, 1 month ago

It’s a DVD rip of an old instructional video lesson

abbotsbury, 1 month ago

raay

abbotsbury, 1 month ago

Biggotry

abbotsbury, 1 month ago

• Leaning too heavily into Israel and siding with genocide.
• Leaning too heavily against, and being accused of being pro-Hamas.

So the choices are siding with genocide, and merely being accused of being pro-Hamas?

Seems like a clear choice, since accusations of being pro-Hamas get flung around for merely wanting to genocide Palestinians just more slowly.

abbotsbury, 1 month ago

First time with a rhetorical question?

abbotsbury, 1 month ago

Killing people = homicide

abbotsbury, 1 month ago

Demonstrably untrue, splitting the vote always helps the other party despite casting no additional votes for their candidate.

abbotsbury, 1 month ago

a vote for any candidate is a vote against all other candidates.

That is simply not the political reality we find ourselves in.

abbotsbury, 2 months ago

Listen to the first 17 seconds of “A Day in the Life” by the Beatles

abbotsbury, 2 months ago

Listen to the first 17 seconds of “A Day in the Life” by the Beatles

abbotsbury, 2 months ago

You don’t like reading about so-and-so’s mujer every chapter?

abbotsbury, 2 months ago

fascists-in-leftist-clothing calling for an uncommitted vote in the general, tell them to “fuck off tankie”.

How is that person a tankie?

abbotsbury, 2 months ago

non-halal

Muslims are allowed to eat haram if they would otherwise starve, this kind of nitpicking is very elucidatory. Like, would you rather less food be delivered, or delivered with more delay, just to ensure it sticks to rules which are not even applicable to this scenario?

abbotsbury, 2 months ago

Except out of date food carries a risk, and non-halal does not.

abbotsbury, 2 months ago

Ay caramba

abbotsbury, 2 months ago

Groundhog’s Day is Buddhism for Americans

abbotsbury, 3 months ago

readcomiconline.li/Comic/…/Full?id=81870&s=&a…