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During the most recent MobCast the crew talks about how they’ve changed their game buying ways. Shoe talks about how often games are released and how difficult it is to purchase all of them. Crispin talks about how he’s a freelance journalist, and the time spent playing games is money lost by not working. Then Michael talks about a food processor, recipes … and Bed Bath Beyond.
The common thread: Money
These times are tough, and they just getting’ tuffa.
That’s right Bruce, money is tight and times are tough. There are so many good releases throughout the year, it would be nearly impossible to buy all of them without feeling any financial burden. What do we do? Well…we could wait for the price to drop?.. After all, patience IS a virtue. Shop for used games from our local retailers, or visit websites such as www.craigslist.com or www.ebay.com looking for a deal. Either way, saving a buck is crucial.
For Crispin and Michael, time is money.
Very rarely do games come out underneath the normal $60 price tag, so how do we measure the value of a video game? Fun-factor? Length? Crispin might agree that it’s replay value. For Cripsin time is valuable, and the more time a game provides the more it’s worth. The longest Japanese RPG couldn’t measure up to the hours a great online game can deliver. Should single-player games be marked down in price? Why does this paragraph have so many question marks?
Michael’s decision to buy a game is also related to time consumption. Mike will more likely borrow a game from a friend before buying it himself; because what’s the point in paying $60 bucks for a one-time-play video game, when you could buy a perfectly good brand new Villaware Krumkake Baker? Mike goes on to compare the price of video games to a food processor he purchased, and defends the cooking tool with replay value. Suggesting the food processor will be used many times more then a video game.
No matter how we buy our video games; rather it brand-spanking-new, or used via store, or website. We as gamers can agree it’s more about quality then quantity, and companies are taking notice. Replay value or not, at this point we want to make sure one thing is certain: We’re getting our money’s worth.