Gaming Free gaming luring gamers during crisis?

[ar81]

Video game sales plunge in April: NPD
Sales of video game hardware and software plunged 26 percent in April, industry tracker NPD said on Thursday, one of the largest declines over the past decade.

Gameworld: Free games lure new players including women, elderly
The video game industry has weathered the economic slowdown better than most industries, but there could be a reason -- free games with new figures showing up to a third of gamers don't pay to play.

A plunge in gaming is a big surprise to me.

Has freeware games reached a level of excellence that competes with commercial games? Or is it that crisis is making people to prefer free games? Or are commercial games going crappy and "more of the same" while freeware games are becoming innovative?

What do you think?

 

[No Life]

lets just say, more people prefer free games (i mean WoW, LoTro? really? $15 a month lmfao), and yes those games are crappy and free.

 

[CigDriver]

I think their headline is misleading. It isn't freeware games, it is free to play games. There are quite a few MMOs that follow the micro-transaction model. Navy Field is one I play, I believe D&D online went free to play, and there are tons of others.

Instead of making their money through monthly fees, ala WoW, they do it by offering items for sale through their store. Things like special equipment, experience boosters, etc. There are some that are free to play up to a certain level, like Warhammer Online, then you are stuck at that level or must pay the monthly subscription fee to advance.

It is a good model in my opinion, it keeps lots of gamers in the game world, gives an advantage to those who want to spend the $, and keeps the company in business.

 

[Izack]

Has freeware games reached a level of excellence that competes with commercial games?

Take a look at the XR-2 development thread...

 

[Keatah]

I don't do much PC gaming anymore for many reasons 1 being that everytime you go buy a game, it seems you need to do a major cpu/ram/gpu/mobo hardware upgrade or otherwise settle for a mediocre gaming experience.

I also don't like all the copy-protection involved, and even some games require a CONSTANT internet connection while they are being played; like a dongle!

2nd, most of the games are really all the same, racing or shooting. Really just clones of every other game out there.

And yes, Orbiter and many add-ons are significantly better than many commercial offerings.

I prefer the likes of:

X-Plane
Orbiter
smaller shareware/freeware games
Apple //e
Atari 2600
Colecovision
Intellivision
Commodore-64 & Vic-20
Trs-80
Atari 400/800
M.A.M.E.

 

[Hielor]

lets just say, more people prefer free games (i mean WoW, LoTro? really? $15 a month lmfao), and yes those games are crappy and free.

$15 a month is nothing when you look at what you get out of it. You can spend hundreds of hours a month in WoW, and the game is constantly being updated. You could easily play WoW for over a thousand hours and never see the same content twice.

Other games, especially single-player ones--$50 for a ten-hour single-player campaign? Now that's lmfao.

$15 a month for one's entire entertainment budget is nothing.

I think their headline is misleading. It isn't freeware games, it is free to play games. There are quite a few MMOs that follow the micro-transaction model. Navy Field is one I play, I believe D&D online went free to play, and there are tons of others.

D&D Online actually started making more money after switching to a free-to-play model, because they were attracting more players who would then spend money on microtransactions. Personally, I dislike the microtransactions model, because it directly equates in-game success to how much money you have to spend on the game. Compare to something like WoW, where everyone's spending $15 a month, and there's no way (within the terms of the EULA) to give yourself an in-game advantage just because you're rich in real life.

 

[CigDriver]

I meant that more for xp boosts. I'm not a fan of paying for items that aren't available in a game for free.

I've got no problem if someone wants to drop $5 on an item instead of spending a weekend questing for it, as long as I can spend that weekend and keep my $5

Same goes for xp boosts, you want to spend money to level faster great, but I play games to play and enjoy them so I take my time.

 

[Hielor]

I meant that more for xp boosts. I'm not a fan of paying for items that aren't available in a game for free.

I've got no problem if someone wants to drop $5 on an item instead of spending a weekend questing for it, as long as I can spend that weekend and keep my $5

Same goes for xp boosts, you want to spend money to level faster great, but I play games to play and enjoy them so I take my time.

See, that's the problem though--even if the stuff that they can buy is also available through other means, the game is favoring people who have the means IRL to buy stuff like that rather than needing to spend the time playing for it, since they can spend their playtime doing other things instead.

 

[Enjo]

Video game sales plunge in April: NPD
Sales of video game hardware and software plunged 26 percent in April, industry tracker NPD said on Thursday, one of the largest declines over the past decade.

A plunge in gaming is a big surprise to me.

Has freeware games reached a level of excellence that competes with commercial games? Or is it that crisis is making people to prefer free games? Or are commercial games going crappy and "more of the same" while freeware games are becoming innovative?

What do you think?

My personal opinion is that commercial games are getting boring, but for the same reason (among others) I've stopped playing them, so I can't tell much. Other reason is that I like to have my mind in a free state - I don't want to be obliged to play something because I've already payed for it. Get it? Also I rather sending a donation for a free project, even if I pay the same money that I would for a commercial one. At least then I know that my cash makes a change. (although I normally donate development tools - they're the source of all products)

I don't do much PC gaming anymore for many reasons 1 being that everytime you go buy a game, it seems you need to do a major cpu/ram/gpu/mobo hardware upgrade or otherwise settle for a mediocre gaming experience.

This is also a good point.

Regarding the Ar81's hypothesis that free games are more interesting - they are, as much as the authors have time to implement those ideas for free, but I'd also like to mention Indie Games (Independent Games) ie. games not related to any big distributor. Their authors charge little money for the games, and for one thing - they're somehow innovative. To show you that people are willing to pay big sums for them, check out these links:

a summary of an interesting experiment:
http://happypenguin.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5981
and the source:
http://www.wolfire.com/humble

The Humble Indie Bundle experiment has been a massive success beyond our craziest expectations. So far, 136,543 generous contributors have put down an incredible $1,252,337. Of this, contributors chose to allocate 30.87% to charity: $386,540 for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play Charity. I have made a page for the full breakdown including the merchant fees in a JSON format here (json).

and most importantly:

Now it's our turn to give back. As of 5/11/10, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD, and Penumbra Overture pledge to go open source. We are preparing the sources right now and will be releasing them ASAP. We spent last night preparing Lugaru and it is available now. Update: The source to Penumbra Overture has been released!

The entire experiment was perfectly community-driven. To me it looks like all that a mature society (or rather mature individuals in it) needs is Internet. No distributors, no marketing campaigns (did I mention how I hate marketing? ) and no other media.

[EDIT]
This was of course just an experiment, so a non-statistical event, therefore it doesn't mean that if you start an Indie company, you'll become a millionaire.

 

[Blacklight]

I think the main problem is that gaming has gotten more expensive and we have this economy that's in a state of disaster. Also, considering that all the game companies are playing to the lowest common denominator and are just coming out with shooters, real time strategy, or racing games as stated above. Also, more people switched to consoles and don't use their PC for gaming. Heck. I don't know anyone aside from me who still uses a PC for games. Everyone I know changed into a console fanboy/girl.

Also, less and less games are coming out for the PC and those that do are blatant copies of each other. No one is willing to invest in designing anything innovative or something that hasn't been done to death anymore and they're shooting for the non-gaming, casualgaming, teenage kid, crowd where as back in the day, there were games for pretty much everyone (except maybe girls).

 

[Izack]

I think the main problem is that gaming has gotten more expensive and we have this economy that's in a state of disaster. Also, considering that all the game companies are playing to the lowest common denominator and are just coming out with shooters, real time strategy, or racing games as stated above. Also, more people switched to consoles and don't use their PC for gaming. Heck. I don't know anyone aside from me who still uses a PC for games. Everyone I know changed into a console fanboy/girl.

Also, less and less games are coming out for the PC and those that do are blatant copies of each other. No one is willing to invest in designing anything innovative or something that hasn't been done to death anymore and they're shooting for the non-gaming, casualgaming, teenage kid, crowd where as back in the day, there were games for pretty much everyone (except maybe girls).

You may be pleased to know that I can't stand consoles anymore, because they are far too expensive for what you get, and there are no good sims for them.
Everyone I know who still uses consoles are all RPG fans, which is about all I think consoles are good for, what with having only 6-8 buttons and a couple of analogues. PCs have a full QWERTY, numpad, mouse, and whatever you can plug into it. In essence, consoles are too restrictive.
Also, PCs outstrip them within months every time a new one comes out.

 

[No Life]

$15 a month is nothing when you look at what you get out of it. You can spend hundreds of hours a month in WoW, and the game is constantly being updated. You could easily play WoW for over a thousand hours and never see the same content twice.

Other games, especially single-player ones--$50 for a ten-hour single-player campaign? Now that's lmfao.

Please explain WoW and Cod for me.

cod is $50 and more people like it.
WoW is $15 but more people like cod.

 

[Unstung]

Please explain WoW and Cod for me.

cod is $50 and more people like it.
WoW is $15 but more people like cod.

That's very supported. You may prefer Call of Duty, but many people play each game. This is not a fanboy thread for CoD vs. WoW.
Hielor was saying that people get hours and hours out of World of Warcraft for only $15 a month. They don't need any other video games, it is enough for them with constantly changing content.
As for consoles, the system is about $300 without anything extra (another controller which is like $50, etc.). Then each new game is $60. Though there are games that I've been waiting for and thus have a PS3, such as Gran Turismo and Fallout, which I play for a long time.
I always go back to certain computer games, though, such as SimCity and RollerCoasterTycoon. They are more entertaining and cheaper in the long run.
Anyways, my PC cannot handle computer games. Despite being more expensive, the console is made specifically for games and I don't have to worry about them crashing my system and slowing it down. But, my computer was $350, more money would need to be poured into a computer for gaming, which may outweigh the price of a console. Games are about the same price and now PCs are lacking games.

Along with Enjo, many console games are getting boring and repetitive, especially the shooters. I've purchased Bad Company 2 and it isn't that exciting or new even from a much older game, Call of Duty 2. It's not worth it to constantly buy every game in the series, honestly a waste of money.

 

[Hielor]

Please explain WoW and Cod for me.

cod is $50 and more people like it.
WoW is $15 but more people like cod.

Shooters appeal to more people than MMORPGs do. This isn't news to anyone.

 

[No Life]

That's very supported. You may prefer Call of Duty, but many people play each game. This is not a fanboy thread for CoD vs. WoW.
Hielor was saying that people get hours and hours out of World of Warcraft for only $15 a month. They don't need any other video games, it is enough for them with constantly changing content.
As for consoles, the system is about $300 without anything extra (another controller which is like $50, etc.). Then each new game is $60. Though there are games that I've been waiting for and thus have a PS3, such as Gran Turismo and Fallout, which I play for a long time.
I always go back to certain computer games, though, such as SimCity and RollerCoasterTycoon. They are more entertaining and cheaper in the long run.
Anyways, my PC cannot handle computer games. Despite being more expensive, the console is made specifically for games and I don't have to worry about them crashing my system and slowing it down. But, my computer was $350, more money would need to be poured into a computer for gaming, which may outweigh the price of a console. Games are about the same price and now PCs are lacking games.

Along with Enjo, many console games are getting boring and repetitive, especially the shooters. I've purchased Bad Company 2 and it isn't that exciting or new even from a much older game, Call of Duty 2. It's not worth it to constantly buy every game in the series, honestly a waste of money.

so what ur suggesting is buying a game that you can play forever, constant updates(never get boring) and is cheaper than the others.

 

[tl8]

Just Cause 2

I have played it for 60 hours so far, and I have only got 65% through

 

[ar81]

Every time I go to the PC store I find FPS games. I go back again and there are more FPS games... For some reason I do like something more complicated like Mechwarrior 2 or Battlezone where it actually qualifies as a simulator with plenty of controls, not just a guy with a gun. It is just boring for me.

Space combat sims? None at the store. Probably because those are third world stores. There are some games people talk about but there is no way to get them.

And then people wonder why piracy is so successful. Company losses due to copyright infringement? It seems companies consider a loss when people sell copies in a country they are not even servicing. I have bought copies, waiting for the original to come. I prefer originals. I must be a weird customer because I recall that I bought Starsiege years ago, just because it had a very artistic compendium manual. For those living in countries where getting originals is easy, you may feel shocked, but truth is that where I live it is like being in a jungle where there are no games, because companies are not interested in selling anything to Tarzan.

Interesting games? Well I recall that in the past there were more interesting games. My first racing simulator was Hi-Octane, a sim where you pilot a hover racer with guns. It is very intense and futuristic, not very complex as a concept. I have not seen things that catch my attention anymore.

 

[Unstung]

Every time I go to the PC store I find FPS games. I go back again and there are more FPS games... For some reason I do like something more complicated like Mechwarrior 2 or Battlezone where it actually qualifies as a simulator with plenty of controls, not just a guy with a gun. It is just boring for me.

Space combat sims? None at the store. Probably because those are third world stores. There are some games people talk about but there is no way to get them.

And then people wonder why piracy is so successful. Company losses due to copyright infringement? It seems companies consider a loss when people sell copies in a country they are not even servicing. I have bought copies, waiting for the original to come. I prefer originals. I must be a weird customer because I recall that I bought Starsiege years ago, just because it had a very artistic compendium manual. For those living in countries where getting originals is easy, you may feel shocked, but truth is that where I live it is like being in a jungle where there are no games, because companies are not interested in selling anything to Tarzan.

Interesting games? Well I recall that in the past there were more interesting games. My first racing simulator was Hi-Octane, a sim where you pilot a hover racer with guns. It is very intense and futuristic, not very complex as a concept. I have not seen things that catch my attention anymore.

Maybe FPS games are also easier to develop.

 

[Enjo]

.... Also, more people switched to consoles and don't use their PC for gaming. Heck. I don't know anyone aside from me who still uses a PC for games. Everyone I know changed into a console fanboy/girl.
Also, less and less games are coming out for the PC and those that do are blatant copies of each other.

What a great reason to switch to Linux! ( ) BTW, there are also games for Linux, but you need to make some little effort to find them and run them at the beginning, and they have lesser budget (which doesn't necessarily mean that they suck).

From my IT-wise point of view, they day when every boy and girl switches to console is the day when after 10 years from that day they will wake up jobless. These days you have to know how to use computers, not only for programming. We're not gonna find jobs for them. They have to find them by themselves and be of some use to others.

 

[ar81]

Yes, if you learn linux to play games, you may get a job supporting Linux.
In a not so distant past Linux Redhat was used.
Nowadays many companies use Linux SUSE.
It also has the advantage that Linux belongs to the Unix family, so you may find not so much problem in learning MPE, HP-UX, Tru64 or any other flavor of Unix.

But if you use a console...

Not only it seems there will be a future with more users and less programmers, but also less people who use a computer and more console dummies.