301: Strapped for Cash
- Thread starter Art Axiv
- Start date
My personal experience of gaming in Poland is a bit different, though.
Hardware is clearly expensive (but that's not only with gaming, most high tech products have this problem).
Games, however, are often priced lower. This is true for PC games, at least.
Most pc games there have a more appropriate price. This is especially true for the ones which went between the hands of CD Projekt (which were already the main distributor/translator in Poland for games, before creating CD Prjekt RED and GOG.com).
Another thing I noted is that the "budget" market is much more present than in France, for example. You will easily find several categories of budget collections, of older games, in the shops, often for really ridiculous prices (I remember picking up a copy of Mafia, about 3 years ago, for like 10 pln (3 euros)).
But it's really a situation which depends on the game. I picked up Arkham Asylum for half the regular price or Chaos rising for 2/3, right after release, but Civ5 was priced fully on release.
Hardware is clearly expensive (but that's not only with gaming, most high tech products have this problem).
Games, however, are often priced lower. This is true for PC games, at least.
Most pc games there have a more appropriate price. This is especially true for the ones which went between the hands of CD Projekt (which were already the main distributor/translator in Poland for games, before creating CD Prjekt RED and GOG.com).
Another thing I noted is that the "budget" market is much more present than in France, for example. You will easily find several categories of budget collections, of older games, in the shops, often for really ridiculous prices (I remember picking up a copy of Mafia, about 3 years ago, for like 10 pln (3 euros)).
But it's really a situation which depends on the game. I picked up Arkham Asylum for half the regular price or Chaos rising for 2/3, right after release, but Civ5 was priced fully on release.
I have to admit I've got a limit of about £5-10 for PC games, depending on how much I want it, I've once or twice slipped over that price, paying £15 for Fallout 3 GOTY from my local Tesco, because it was so cheap, fairly recently after it's release, and I think I paid £13 for GTA IV on Steam. Then this week I bought GTA IV Complete for £5 on Direct 2 Drive, because the DLC was still around £15-20!
However, while I've bought all of 2 games over £10, my Steam list is up to about 160 games, most of them bought for £1-3. Hell I've bought games I already bloody well OWN, just to not have to go get the cd out, install, put in a cd key, etc.
In the end, do I pay £35 for Black Ops, or £5 for Modern Warfare one, and £30 on ten other great if slightly older games?
On top of all that, I've never once had to fear 'hardware requirements'.
There's also the time/money equation, for all the WOW bashing, I get a huge amount of pleasure from my £9 a month and about £1 a month on new expansions.
However, while I've bought all of 2 games over £10, my Steam list is up to about 160 games, most of them bought for £1-3. Hell I've bought games I already bloody well OWN, just to not have to go get the cd out, install, put in a cd key, etc.
In the end, do I pay £35 for Black Ops, or £5 for Modern Warfare one, and £30 on ten other great if slightly older games?
On top of all that, I've never once had to fear 'hardware requirements'.
There's also the time/money equation, for all the WOW bashing, I get a huge amount of pleasure from my £9 a month and about £1 a month on new expansions.
Knowing this just makes me respect CD Projekt that much more - As a relatively wealthy American gamer, I think GOG.com is great because of its library/selection (with the price being a nice bonus). It's great to see that they're also helping to alleviate regional disparities in pricing that might prevent some from enjoying our hobby.Gnoupi said:
I really enjoyed the article. I've got to agree on a few points from the Pegasus and Russian cartridges to low salary/game price ratio.
Game purchase decisions (or more to the point - a decision between pirating or waiting 5 years for the price to drop) got much easier thanks to Steam sales. It feels good save at least some of your monthly salary after a single game purchase, and at the same time giving at least a little amount of money back to the developers. Oh yeah, and the whole "not breaking the law" thing too.
About the free to play titles - with the current situation in Poland it's difficult to wonder why there's so many Poles playing League of Legends.
Game purchase decisions (or more to the point - a decision between pirating or waiting 5 years for the price to drop) got much easier thanks to Steam sales. It feels good save at least some of your monthly salary after a single game purchase, and at the same time giving at least a little amount of money back to the developers. Oh yeah, and the whole "not breaking the law" thing too.
About the free to play titles - with the current situation in Poland it's difficult to wonder why there's so many Poles playing League of Legends.
I think the only reason the price changes for you guys is because of currency exchange. It's still 60 USD here.DonTsetsi said:
Well said. I think far too much emphasis is put on sucking money out of people in this industry. I am glad to hear there are more gamers like myself out there who are willing to scrounge through bargain bins and wait months or even years for a game to drop in price before getting it.
It's funny how the author mentioned spending more time trying to get a pirated game to run than playing it. While that may have been true in the late 90's/early 2000's, I've had more memories of having to crack DRM out of my games to make them playable.
I'm also not entirely sure that the police figure into anything. Granted I grew up in Ukraine, which isn't quite Poland, but piracy is pretty much treated as a secondary market in the slavic bloc, in other words it's legitimate in every way but in writing.
I'm also not entirely sure that the police figure into anything. Granted I grew up in Ukraine, which isn't quite Poland, but piracy is pretty much treated as a secondary market in the slavic bloc, in other words it's legitimate in every way but in writing.