buying used games is stupid
- Thread starter segataDC
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Well basically not much I can add that hasnt been said already but I will leave this little gem.
The "Gaming industry" exceeds well beyond that of the developer and the publisher which make up hundreds out of the tens of thousands that make up the industry as a whole. Its stupid to think that anything good or even right could possibly come from getting more money to already obscenely profitable publishers.
I wish people would quit trying to throw themselves under a bus to defend a corporation that has no appreciation for what their customers do for them.
The "Gaming industry" exceeds well beyond that of the developer and the publisher which make up hundreds out of the tens of thousands that make up the industry as a whole. Its stupid to think that anything good or even right could possibly come from getting more money to already obscenely profitable publishers.
I wish people would quit trying to throw themselves under a bus to defend a corporation that has no appreciation for what their customers do for them.
i actually never sell my games, one reason is i like my collection, second reason there is no game stop here or any company that deals with used games for that matter. But i only have collection attachment to my J-RPGs and Bioware games, i wouldn't mind to sell everything else, i don't play.
I try to buy new whenever I can, I'll look on eBay and such before I go to EB. Only time I buy pre-owned is if the game is rare, old, or I'm just in a somewhat spontaneous mood and REALLY want the game NAOW. However I do trade in old games if they have one of those 'bonus trade-in credit' things since my local EB is really good to me.
I used to buy used only if the price was significantly different. If it's within £10 I don't bother, but as of this week I am never selling a game again to those scumbags. I am an oldschool, hardcore gamer of 13 years (at 5 years old I used to watch my father play Rainbow Six and control the keys, I still play his copies of Rollercoaster tycoon & Doom I) and I have played almost every AAA title released for the past decade. My Top 10 games are 50/50 with games from the 90's.
Yesterday I fancied playing something different. I stood up, walked over to my games shelf - 360 titles ; and my jaw dropped.
[sub]I'd sold all but two of my console games. Only a few straggling PC games remain.[/sub]
I was appalled, I had sold most of my games to buy a few second hand, then sell them to buy a fewer amount more... the cycle repeated until I had just a couple of pounds of credit, which I'd thrown into a pre-order of BF3. I have to go there now on Friday to collect it and I feel like I've committed a crime against myself. I was caught out by this new idea of trade-in a few years ago; now I will never do it again.
I have decided to start my games collection all over again. I now own Halo Reach, GoW3 and I've got BF3 & Skyrim on pre-order. I am a reformed gamer.
Yesterday I fancied playing something different. I stood up, walked over to my games shelf - 360 titles ; and my jaw dropped.
[sub]I'd sold all but two of my console games. Only a few straggling PC games remain.[/sub]
I was appalled, I had sold most of my games to buy a few second hand, then sell them to buy a fewer amount more... the cycle repeated until I had just a couple of pounds of credit, which I'd thrown into a pre-order of BF3. I have to go there now on Friday to collect it and I feel like I've committed a crime against myself. I was caught out by this new idea of trade-in a few years ago; now I will never do it again.
I have decided to start my games collection all over again. I now own Halo Reach, GoW3 and I've got BF3 & Skyrim on pre-order. I am a reformed gamer.
I will never sell my games, I can give away/sell duplicates but I'll never get rid of my collection.
I have about 150 games. Yea, that's how nerd I am. Though most of them are somewhere in the basement...
I have about 150 games. Yea, that's how nerd I am. Though most of them are somewhere in the basement...
See here's the thing champ, when money is tight and people have real things to spend money on like mortgages, basic family needs such as food and bills for their utilities then the used game market (or used anything market) becames your best fucking friend. Wanna play MW3 but can't afford the price new, display some patience and buy it used. Cheap internet importing is also an option, obviously, but sometimes we like to support the local businesses that employ our fellows as well as the developers of our favourite games.segataDC said:
Games I'm a fan of, Mass Effect for instance, basically became new only purchases after I test ran ME1 on a mate's Xbox, not only did I buy Mass Effect, brand new, but also a brand spanking new Xbox 360 Elite to play it on. Mass Effect 2, brand new one week after launch. Mass Effect 3 has been preordered as the most obscenely expensive edition I could find. It's basically my spending, pre done.
We all do our part for the developers, but they're not the only ones who want to make a living, and until someone tells me what Games or EB do is against the law or somehow leading to the onset of the Caliphate, Communism or becoming a member of the Greens Party, then I'll keep being a favoured customer or theirs.
Not so, some modern cars (luxury brands such as BMW particularly) require specialist equipment and training to work on them. Also I find while most folks will buy any brand from almost any dealer, they tend to take them to manufacturers service centres for their repairs and upkeep. So no they make no money off the sale of the car a second time (unless its sold or traded back to them for a newer model) but will make money of parts, and servicing fees.Dr Jones said:
I have 10 games in my "library" so far and I've paid less than £100 for them. If I were to buy them new, the cost would be around £300. The only new game I have is Mortal Kombat, but only because it came as a bonus with my xbox.segataDC said:
I also buy mainly used clothes instead of new ones because I don't want to spend £20 on a t-shirt and £80 on a jacket. I don't mind the fact that someone else was wearing it before me. 90 minutes in the washing machine and it's all good
Thanks to that, I've managed to save up £2000 over the last 5 months.
In short, used things are awesome and you have no idea what you're talking about.
By that kind of dodgy accounting they could also claim that it costs them money when people lend games for friends to play. Or have their friends around and let them play the game. A friend lent my brother Assassin's Creed II just recently; both my brother and I played it. Did we just cost Ubisoft two purchases?NorthernStar said:
Oh yeah and don't forget there is no way to judge how many used copies were actually sold so that x number of millions is just a number that David Cage pulled out of his arse, of topic Cage is such a pretentious twat half the things he says is pure bullshit.CM156 said:
Where in God's name do you pay that much? Wherever you are, it's a bad, evil place.MorphingDragon said:
OT: I don't give a rat's ass about the developer when it comes to paying for something. I buy a game new if I really, really want it. If not, there is no compelling reason for me to not buy it used for cheaper.
Case in point: I bought Heavy Rain, Dragon Age: Origins, and the Sims 3 new. I bought Medal of Honor, Modern Warfare 2, and Resident Evil 5 used. I wanted the first three. I wanted the second three for cheap.
There is no reason why I should have to pay full price for those second three, no matter how much the developers want me to.
NZ, and Australia pay nearly the same amount.StarCecil said:
We are not bad places, the publishers can go fuck themselves. They want to start having more new purchases from me? Make the games cheaper. Though interestingly BF3 is only around $80 at most retailers, which is nice.
Though look at the RRP of some games and tell me the companies aren't greedy bastards:
http://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/PS3/Ratchet-and-Clank-All-4-One/10514496/?nt=1
I have a local game stop that have about 20 copies of DNF used, and about 15 of fable 3 used to prove the contrary.MolotoK said:
I have , not going back there again ever.RedEyesBlackGamer said:
OT: OP is right , imo, but it wont change anything. People will by used because they can.
As the son of a small business owner and a former small business owner myself I see things from a slightly different point of view. When I make a purchase I think about where my money is going. I like to help out the right people and help them thrive.
When It comes to video games, I know how brutal the VG industry is, and I realize that with the current status quo, it is difficult to make money, which is why samey games keep getting made. Maybe I cant change things by myself, but Id rather still do what I think is the right thing. I don't pirate games, and I don't buy used games. We like to think of the publishers as monstrous greedy companies with a license to print money, but that's just human pathology we use to excuse our actions. In reality, if they could make their money back on games that weren't shooters, we would see a much more diverse market.
Also, in the U.S. we put the dollar sign in front of the number.
When It comes to video games, I know how brutal the VG industry is, and I realize that with the current status quo, it is difficult to make money, which is why samey games keep getting made. Maybe I cant change things by myself, but Id rather still do what I think is the right thing. I don't pirate games, and I don't buy used games. We like to think of the publishers as monstrous greedy companies with a license to print money, but that's just human pathology we use to excuse our actions. In reality, if they could make their money back on games that weren't shooters, we would see a much more diverse market.
Also, in the U.S. we put the dollar sign in front of the number.
You think that people with big collections of games, they paid full price for, arent stupid?
The only way to collect games is to buy both new and second hand games. In case you haven't noticed, not every game ever released is sitting on a shelf waiting for your hard earned cash - some games have to be bought second hand otherwise you get shafted.
Why shouldn't I go to Gamestation and buy 3 or 4 games for £20? - these games are outwith the full price life cycle. I can understand why publishers get all pissy when people buy pre-owned, but put it this way - does the publisher deserve another £50 after the first customer didn't like it?, should that game be worth £50 to whoever buys it after that? Just how far over are we expected to bend for these asshats?. Consider if you pay £50 for a game you hate, or a game that doesn't meet expectations, you play it once or twice, then decide you made the wrong choice - at what point is that experience ever worth £50? - poor sod has already paid for it, and they'll use that to trade in for a game they might actually enjoy.
Games should deminish in cost after a few months, and maybe games should only be legal to sell pre-owned after a few months, say after 3 months people are legally allowed to trade the game in, otherwise people have to buy full price. I could live with that. But a whole new buying framework needs to be introduced. If I buy Skyrim, then say 3 DLC packs, I probably end up paying £80 or more. Is a game ever worth £80, is it worth someone youngsters weekly wage, is it more valuable than a weeks worth of food?
It's upto publishers to develop a new buying system, not us - we can only buy and support with the options that are available. What if games that last < 10 hours only cost £10 - what if we paid £1 per gameplay hour, so a 40+hour game might cost £40. The truth is that if I buy a game and play it for 40 hours, then I really appreciate the work that went in, I don't mind paying that. If I pay £40 for 6 hours gameplay, I want to carve the face of everyone who worked on it. It's a joke to pay so much for a handful of hours entertainment. They should set the cost according to the hours you'll get out of it - charge £10 for 10 hours of DLC, then people would be willing to try games at £10 a pop - if they don't like, they stop playing, and it hasn't cost them the same as it costs to bloody eat for a week.
Imagine if popular games just kept on going, because thats what could happen. A game is snapped up for £10, and the people who like it don't mind buying DLC then, because they know exactly what they're getting, the publisher would keep pumping out the DLC like 10 hour long episodes of gameplay. DLC will stop being about pointless customisation and hats, and start being about keeping the good games alive and dynamic. That's the sort of changes publishers need to make, because pissing off gamers is not a good idea, we kitties have claws, and torrents, and we could make a publisher disappear if we wanted - we decide which games are hits, we decide if the price is fair, and publishers like EA need to watch their attitude.
The only way to collect games is to buy both new and second hand games. In case you haven't noticed, not every game ever released is sitting on a shelf waiting for your hard earned cash - some games have to be bought second hand otherwise you get shafted.
Why shouldn't I go to Gamestation and buy 3 or 4 games for £20? - these games are outwith the full price life cycle. I can understand why publishers get all pissy when people buy pre-owned, but put it this way - does the publisher deserve another £50 after the first customer didn't like it?, should that game be worth £50 to whoever buys it after that? Just how far over are we expected to bend for these asshats?. Consider if you pay £50 for a game you hate, or a game that doesn't meet expectations, you play it once or twice, then decide you made the wrong choice - at what point is that experience ever worth £50? - poor sod has already paid for it, and they'll use that to trade in for a game they might actually enjoy.
Games should deminish in cost after a few months, and maybe games should only be legal to sell pre-owned after a few months, say after 3 months people are legally allowed to trade the game in, otherwise people have to buy full price. I could live with that. But a whole new buying framework needs to be introduced. If I buy Skyrim, then say 3 DLC packs, I probably end up paying £80 or more. Is a game ever worth £80, is it worth someone youngsters weekly wage, is it more valuable than a weeks worth of food?
It's upto publishers to develop a new buying system, not us - we can only buy and support with the options that are available. What if games that last < 10 hours only cost £10 - what if we paid £1 per gameplay hour, so a 40+hour game might cost £40. The truth is that if I buy a game and play it for 40 hours, then I really appreciate the work that went in, I don't mind paying that. If I pay £40 for 6 hours gameplay, I want to carve the face of everyone who worked on it. It's a joke to pay so much for a handful of hours entertainment. They should set the cost according to the hours you'll get out of it - charge £10 for 10 hours of DLC, then people would be willing to try games at £10 a pop - if they don't like, they stop playing, and it hasn't cost them the same as it costs to bloody eat for a week.
Imagine if popular games just kept on going, because thats what could happen. A game is snapped up for £10, and the people who like it don't mind buying DLC then, because they know exactly what they're getting, the publisher would keep pumping out the DLC like 10 hour long episodes of gameplay. DLC will stop being about pointless customisation and hats, and start being about keeping the good games alive and dynamic. That's the sort of changes publishers need to make, because pissing off gamers is not a good idea, we kitties have claws, and torrents, and we could make a publisher disappear if we wanted - we decide which games are hits, we decide if the price is fair, and publishers like EA need to watch their attitude.
Let's see: I have a collection of over 2500 game softwares (not including there digital downloads such as Steam or GOG). Those are physical copies of games I enjoy since the dawn of gaming.
I bought probably 1500 as new items. However, I purchased, over the years, about 1000 of them in flea markets, used stores and such.
And people want to tell me, an avid consumer who spent an inordinate amount of money on games throughout the years and always supported this industry, that I am a bad person? That this is an evil thing to do?
Faces cannot be palmed enough.
I bought probably 1500 as new items. However, I purchased, over the years, about 1000 of them in flea markets, used stores and such.
And people want to tell me, an avid consumer who spent an inordinate amount of money on games throughout the years and always supported this industry, that I am a bad person? That this is an evil thing to do?
Faces cannot be palmed enough.
I, personally, don't buy used games as I prefer to get them brand new and sealed. My concern is that they're usually not well looked after; some of the pre-owned titles I've bought have been damaged (scratched)! However, when it comes to old classics that are out of print, then yeah, I will; usually on eBay and if the condition is good.
But I have no problems with the 'used game market'. I can understand why people buy them, especially if they're on a tight budget. My opinion on the developer's side of the issue is split: I'm all for supporting the developers by buying the games new, which helps them make more (and hopefully better) games, but so what if they're losing out on potential customers. I mean, come on, the game industry is one ridiculously expensive business! Surely these AAA games/developers are making plenty of profit!? They're just greedy! The music industry was (and probably still is) the same - bands/groups bitching about people downloading songs instead of buying their albums. Granted, that issue concerned piracy, but buying used games isn't! And removing certain parts of a game that must be downloaded separately for a price when buying games used? That's just spiteful and petty!
But I have no problems with the 'used game market'. I can understand why people buy them, especially if they're on a tight budget. My opinion on the developer's side of the issue is split: I'm all for supporting the developers by buying the games new, which helps them make more (and hopefully better) games, but so what if they're losing out on potential customers. I mean, come on, the game industry is one ridiculously expensive business! Surely these AAA games/developers are making plenty of profit!? They're just greedy! The music industry was (and probably still is) the same - bands/groups bitching about people downloading songs instead of buying their albums. Granted, that issue concerned piracy, but buying used games isn't! And removing certain parts of a game that must be downloaded separately for a price when buying games used? That's just spiteful and petty!
Well, used games chains often have old games that you can't usually buy anymore.
And the nail in the coffin is that it's cheaper... And that's all it takes for about 90% of the people that buy them.
Tbh, I'd rather trek into town and come home with a stack of cheap, yet good games I've bought. Rather than a single new game that cost £60... Especially when I can get 12 perfectly good games for that amount of cash... And that is a lot.
And the nail in the coffin is that it's cheaper... And that's all it takes for about 90% of the people that buy them.
Tbh, I'd rather trek into town and come home with a stack of cheap, yet good games I've bought. Rather than a single new game that cost £60... Especially when I can get 12 perfectly good games for that amount of cash... And that is a lot.