Buying fullprice or second hand? What will it take to change.
- Thread starter SonOfVoorhees
- Start date
It doesn't bother me at all that digital games cost just as much. Hell, I'd pay more to be able to download the game from the comfort of my home and avoid dealing with the hassle of physical media.
And that's ignoring the fact that the cost of the physical materials going into something have almost nothing to do with the value of the object in cases like this. The value of a game is not a function of the materials required to press it, it's a function of the cost of making a game and of how much demand there is for said game.
And that's ignoring the fact that the cost of the physical materials going into something have almost nothing to do with the value of the object in cases like this. The value of a game is not a function of the materials required to press it, it's a function of the cost of making a game and of how much demand there is for said game.
ZeroMachine said:THAT is BULLSHIT. I would have refused to buy that CD on principalmysecondlife said:
EDIT: Huh, wow, ok, probably a little hypocritical on my part... but I feel like in that case the band could have easily prevented that. It's bad PR.
Considering the band doesn't make much from the album sales, I pointed my fingers at the record label.
The album is called "The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me" by Brand new just so you know what to avoid.
I do encourage a listen or two though. Fantastic album.
well.. they have the basics like controller layout within the game.SonOfVoorhees said:
..or they should at least..
But honestly I don't know why game manual has empty pages labeled 'notes' as if we're going to write something on it. That seems unnecessary.
Yeah, why not?SonOfVoorhees said:
Paying "full price for nothing" makes no sense to me. You're getting the game, you know, the thing you were paying for?
What's the point of having a manual anymore, really? It's nice if a manual can explain some lore, sure, but isn't it better to explore that lore than having to read it?
Manuals waste the publisher's money. Almost no one reads them, and almost no one reacts to the lack of them. They're just a waste of paper.
Honestly, why should the price change? The product you were paying for then was the game, the product you're paying for now is the game.SonOfVoorhees said:
....Why is it that people get so upset whenever they have to DO something to get what they want? "I have to go online for a manual?! How horrible! Even if the game does have an in-game tutorial!"
I can actually understand and be in support of why games don't have manuals as much as they used to. With all the online strategy guides, youtube walkthroughs and playthroughs, and general word of mouth, there's not that much need for them. Just about all games have in game tutorials which is the most anybody uses anyway so the manual ends up being redundant. They're saving money and paper when they don't make manuals.
EDIT: Oh and another thing, when a product becomes the "norm" it ends up costing less. When DVD players came onto the market they were especially expensive. Then as DVDs took over from VHS they became much cheaper. Same with MP3 players. And mp3 downloads don't cost much less than the actual CD because you're getting the same thing, just not without a disc, so the only thing you're not paying for...is the disc...and discs are cheap.
I can actually understand and be in support of why games don't have manuals as much as they used to. With all the online strategy guides, youtube walkthroughs and playthroughs, and general word of mouth, there's not that much need for them. Just about all games have in game tutorials which is the most anybody uses anyway so the manual ends up being redundant. They're saving money and paper when they don't make manuals.
EDIT: Oh and another thing, when a product becomes the "norm" it ends up costing less. When DVD players came onto the market they were especially expensive. Then as DVDs took over from VHS they became much cheaper. Same with MP3 players. And mp3 downloads don't cost much less than the actual CD because you're getting the same thing, just not without a disc, so the only thing you're not paying for...is the disc...and discs are cheap.
I know what you mean; I was gaming back when this was the standard of PC game packaging.
an A4 sized box about 1.5 inch think box that came with the game in a CD case and a instruction manual that doubled as a Lore book for a game. Not only that but some of the games came with Posters, stickers or even collectable items (my Army men 3: Toys in Space came with two plastic soldiers, one green the other tan) all for the basic retail price that we pay today for less.
an A4 sized box about 1.5 inch think box that came with the game in a CD case and a instruction manual that doubled as a Lore book for a game. Not only that but some of the games came with Posters, stickers or even collectable items (my Army men 3: Toys in Space came with two plastic soldiers, one green the other tan) all for the basic retail price that we pay today for less.
I personally think that there are worse problems plaguing games now a days but that is really weird.
I think that if they're going to be pinching there pennies like that, they should stop with that other crap like online passes.
I think that if they're going to be pinching there pennies like that, they should stop with that other crap like online passes.
brand new,cause 9/10 people that trade in games,didn't take vary good care of the disk,and half the time GS does not have the correct case for said game,i have ocd about my games to i like both of those things to be in order.
More to the point, considering most artists have little-to-no input regarding the release itself in terms of formatmysecondlife said:
This for me is the deciding point rather I buy new or used; If a game has something like Dark Souls where the first run or all pre order's get a whole bunch of swag added on for free it's a no brainer to get it new day one just for the extra items.karloss01 said:
However, if it's just a bare bones disk I can always wait to just buy used. I wish more developers went back to the days of adding in a ton of items in box to encourage new sales.
Haha, it's almost as bad as the "I'm losing faith in humanity" threads. Really, this the most petty criticism I've ever heard. Yes, it's even more petty than Yahtzee complaining about Batman: AA's cover art. You're complaining about having to go to an outside source to learn about a game, when that's exactly what a game manual is anyway. Why read about a game when you just, I don't know, maybe play it?ZeroMachine said:
Either I'm lucky here, but when I buy games retail, it is almost always one of two reasons:
Pre-order for a gaming I've been waiting for
Or a game for my playstation.
And say what you want about gamestop, but I've bought all but MK9 and MW2 pre-owned, and I never had a problem with them, Every game has had manuel and online pass if needed.
For my BFBC there was even a piece of paper for some in-game weapon unlocks.
So, What will make me change, is the price, I've never had any bad experiance paying for pre-owned, So I don't see the need to demonise it, yet.
Pre-order for a gaming I've been waiting for
Or a game for my playstation.
And say what you want about gamestop, but I've bought all but MK9 and MW2 pre-owned, and I never had a problem with them, Every game has had manuel and online pass if needed.
For my BFBC there was even a piece of paper for some in-game weapon unlocks.
So, What will make me change, is the price, I've never had any bad experiance paying for pre-owned, So I don't see the need to demonise it, yet.
what about those poor, poor bastards who do not have access to the internet?Screamarie said:
what about when they get a game with a shitty tutorial and no manual.
they cannot get the information that they need to control their brand-spanking-new game.
go to nesforever(dot)com and play one of those early Final Fantasy's and don't go to gamefaqs to simulate the frustration that the aforementioned "poor, poor bastards" go through ;-)
and while we're at it, let's say i'm on play through number 5 of "supremely awesome awesomeness", why the fuck should i have to sit through that damn tutorial AGAIN!?!?!?!?!? the leading cause of Me not replaying otherwise great games.
I agree. And I don't understand what the logic is to this anymore. EDF Insect Armeggedon I bought from Wal-Mart open it up and no manual (but an enviromentally friendly case). Not a slip of paper. Nothing. I honestly thought there was a factory fuck up but that is how it shipped. Then I open Fear 3 and the manual is 1 page (and 1 french because I live in Canada). But it also has another page of ads to rent WB movies on zune and a huge cardboard thing for a 25 digit online pass. And it isn't one of those less plastic cases!!! WTF??? At least Batman AC kept their 3 ridiculous codes on tiny slips of paper.SonOfVoorhees said:
If you wanna cheap out on the manuals at least have the decency to try and fake some enviromental friendly BS. Don't do it cuz you are just to fuckin lazy and/or cheap.
And hey NEWSFLASH you can't pirate a physical manual. It is called incentive people.
Whenever I buy a PC game, I look at the keybindings in the menu.That's my manual, and it works well.
It's a valid point. One of the benefits of buying a game is to have a referance book handy while your playing it. It's been that way forever. Right now game companies are demanding top dollar while giving us less for what we pay.ZeroMachine said:
We see less included in the packages, I mean we're not even getting real manuals as is pointed out here, never mind the goodies we used to get, nowadays if you want a map of the game world or whatever they expect you to pay $20 extra for perks like that, when that kind of thing was expected when it came go games like "Ultima" or "Might and Magic". Heck, you don't even nessicarly get the full game as you might have to pay extra to unlock things on the disc, and increasingly games are kept as short and bare boness as possible in of themselves so they can sell as much material as possible as additional DLC.
To you it might not seem like a big deal, and I can get it if your not used to it to begin with, but it's a legitimate point. The gaming industry is cutting literally every corner they can to make a buck at our expense, and it gets worse every year.
Manuals are a remnant of earlier (much earlier) days when some explanation was actually required. I'm sure publishers would love to eliminate them, and that dev teams have to scratch their heads quite a bit to find something to put in it these days. They do put a lot of effort into embedding all you need to know in the actual game.
Having said that, there's still the expectation that you should get something else than the disk, specially from the "I prefer physical to download" crowd (which I'm part of, mind you).
Manuals will probably disapear eventually I'm afraid, like liner notes disapeared from CDs and DVDs.
I sincerely hope they find another way of making the "opening the box" a nice experience. Great packaging perhaps?
Having said that, there's still the expectation that you should get something else than the disk, specially from the "I prefer physical to download" crowd (which I'm part of, mind you).
Manuals will probably disapear eventually I'm afraid, like liner notes disapeared from CDs and DVDs.
I sincerely hope they find another way of making the "opening the box" a nice experience. Great packaging perhaps?