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[AVE]

Heh, i have to wonder about our (collective) idea about things worth spending time on, but not worth shelling out $1 to get. Are we valuing our time so much less than the money?

Almost anytime it is like 'oh, may be I'll play it if I have free time and nothing more to play'. And no, it will never be launched. Because there is no such thing as a free time always something more exciting to play or spend your time outside.

[Reelya]

Gift key available (Please PM):

- Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location

[LoSboccacc]

Heh, i have to wonder about our (collective) idea about things worth spending time on, but not worth shelling out $1 to get. Are we valuing our time so much less than the money?

ehe. waited for man of war to drop under 10$, then spent 46 hours fixing the robz mod ai before managing to play a couple matches with my brothers, that's like almost 400$ on minimum wage XD

[Sensei]

Heh, i have to wonder about our (collective) idea about things worth spending time on, but not worth shelling out $1 to get. Are we valuing our time so much less than the money?

It really comes down to whether you have a job. A lot of people here are students with a lot of free time and very little money.

[BigD145]

Heh, i have to wonder about our (collective) idea about things worth spending time on, but not worth shelling out $1 to get. Are we valuing our time so much less than the money?

It really comes down to whether you have a job. A lot of people here are students with a lot of free time and very little money.

Some of us work shit jobs for shit pay and have very little time to game. Time and money are precious.

[nenjin]

It's a bit like hoarding, when you think about it. Except instead of cluttering up your house, you just clutter up your steam library/hard drive.

I could probably take a month off of work and do nothing but game still not tap out my library.

[BigD145]

Try all the games for free or cheap and if they are crap you lose very little. But you can't throw them away.

[Retropunch]

It's an interesting state we're in really with this - I've got tons of games in my library that I'm almost 100% sure I'll never get round to playing but I'm sure I'd enjoy them (to some extent) if I did. Whilst in the past there were always more games than you could find time to play, most of them were games you weren't really interested in and the pool of games coming out that I was sure I wanted to play was pretty limited. The pool was kept small by age as well - there were games I would have thought were great in 2002 that by 2006 appealed a lot less - whereas now we get so many per year that you don't really get that same shrinking of pool size.

It keeps building up too - so many giveaways and extremely, extremely cheap deals means that it just builds up and builds up. As Nenjin says, it gets a bit like hoarding.

However, I do wonder if eventually there will be a bit of drop off - we'll have games that fit pretty much every niche, so if companies want us to spend actual money they'll have to try extra hard. I already get that a bit - I had the feeling I wanted to play an FPS, and rather than looking what was available I just looked in my steam library and there were 3-4 I had never gotten round to. A bit later I wanted a strategy game, and the same thing happened.

[SalmonGod]

Perhaps a certain category of game is reaching a leveling off point that will effect this situation.

There's games that are mostly the same thing re-released over and over with minor engine and gameplay tweaks to justify it.  Examples would be simulation type games or venerable franchises that stick to a tight gameplay formula.  Over time, we're seeing more games come out and manage to be successful long term that stick to one title, develop it forever, and find alternative ways to keep the revenue flowing.  Stuff like Team Fortress 2, Payday 2, League of Legends. 

There's also some that don't get the same sort of long term support from developers, but manage to dominate a niche long term in the same fashion through community development.  Games with strong mod communities that are decently permissive towards them.

Of course, we'll always need individual titles for games that are heavily story-based or indie-style experimentations.  But eventually, maybe we'll see a gaming industry where the norm for gaming niches that are more gameplay/multi-player focused will be domination by a handful of well-refined titles that endure perhaps for decades.  So to participate in those will involve less library clutter over time, and perhaps less required monetary investment.

[Retropunch]

Perhaps a certain category of game is reaching a leveling off point that will effect this situation.

There's games that are mostly the same thing re-released over and over with minor engine and gameplay tweaks to justify it.  Examples would be simulation type games or venerable franchises that stick to a tight gameplay formula.  Over time, we're seeing more games come out and manage to be successful long term that stick to one title, develop it forever, and find alternative ways to keep the revenue flowing.  Stuff like Team Fortress 2, Payday 2, League of Legends. 

There's also some that don't get the same sort of long term support from developers, but manage to dominate a niche long term in the same fashion through community development.  Games with strong mod communities that are decently permissive towards them.

Of course, we'll always need individual titles for games that are heavily story-based or indie-style experimentations.  But eventually, maybe we'll see a gaming industry where the norm for gaming niches that are more gameplay/multi-player focused will be domination by a handful of well-refined titles that endure perhaps for decades.  So to participate in those will involve less library clutter over time, and perhaps less required monetary investment.

Interesting thoughts and I definitely agree. Path of Exile for me is a good example - there's lots of games that have come out in that style (Diablo style) and whilst some have been fun, PoE still remains pretty much the standard for me. I have no wish to spend much money on many of the other games like that (even though I'm sure they're good) as if I want to play that sort of game I can go back to PoE and enjoy it without spending a penny/downloading 34501378410gb or anything. I'm sure there are bigger fans of the genre that will snap up everything like that, but as a casual fan of the genre I'm happy to go back to that every time I have the urge.

I'm sure in 5-10 years something will come out which will replace it but at the moment, if I want that sort of game I know where to go to, and have done for the last 2-3 years. As you say SalmonGod, I'm sure we'll get more and more games that become the 'standard' in each field as time goes on.

[nenjin]

Thing is, simulations that are all doing relatively the same thing eventually grow up; they stop looking like someone's first real game and start developing their aesthetic. That's where players get split between games in the same genre, is aesthetics. It's why there's 14.2 million indie platforming RPG-lite Metrodvania games out there I'll never play....Salt and Sanctuary captured my imagination with its look, while Dead Cells did not. Two souls-likes, more or less the same game, but with wildly different appeal based on how they look. As more indie devs mature and hone their craft, they will hone their style, look and message too, and I will still have way too many fucking games to play.

[SeriousConcentrate]

One major difference between Salt And Sanctuary and Dead Cells is that DC is a roguelite, not a metroidvania.

[Frumple]

... also the general gameplay is pretty hella' different insofar as 2D fighty-platformer goes, from what I've seen. DC's a lot, uh. Faster? Than S&S. I guess it'd be something like comparing... gods, I don't know, it's been probably over a decade since I've played a 3D brawler. Devil May Cry number whatever? With something from the souls franchise. They both share some persistence mechanics and some themes gameplay wise (dodgybits, mostly) with Souls games, but DC is very much not a souls style game in terms of pacing and whatnot, whereas S&S is notably closer to one. There's a lot more than one major difference, heh.

Any case, the time vs. money thing tends to be a matter of flexibility, for lack of a better word, for me. There's points during the day you have a great deal of difficulty expending time to obtain food, which can easily be spent on free!game instead. Can make free worth time whereas even a dollar wouldn't be if for some ungodly reason you're actually trying to hardcore minmax your gaming time.

No matter how much some people like to babble about time equaling money, not all time is made equal from the standpoint of time to money efficiency, which can distort how much a price tag influences your (lack of) spending habits. Also there's totally a whole pile of other shit to deal with spending money online you can just not with free stuff! Other considerations, too. Lots of little variables and junk, basically.

... also while you can't get rid of it (actually, I'd wager non-existent money you could contact steam support and ask them to get the thing out of your library outright, though a refund almost certainly wouldn't be involved), you totally can hide games you don't want to see in your library on at least steam, and probably other platforms. Though I forget the exact button pressy things at the mo'.

[SalmonGod]

I just make a category labeled 'Retired' for games I've finished and very likely will never touch again.

[n9103]

Hiding is the checkbox at the bottom of the "Set Category..." R-click menu.
Pretty sure they're hidden even if categorized, but I've got a Done, a Meh, a Crap, and a Broken category.
I find the only titles that often get hidden are ones that are direct downgrades from titles that got a re-release/update. For instance the CoH set prior to the Steam Edition, and the old version of UFO: Afterlight.
Only have one or two that were so bad they didn't even deserve to be categorized as Crap, and were forever stricken from all lists.
And probably one or two that I impulsively redeemed during their free window, but after taking an extra few seconds to look at pictures/video/reviews, I immediately regretted the click.