General Discussion

In the grander scheme of things gamer hobbyist isn't that bad on the wallet.

Originally posted by BuzWeaver

In the grander scheme of things gamer hobbyist isn't that bad on the wallet.

so, you accept a crappy game because it's comparitively cheap to your other forms of entertainment?  like, $15/month as opposed to $50-100/month for cable/satellite?

but, you do get a hell of a lot more content and ofttimes better in the "technical" arena for that $35-85/month extra.

 Still gnawing away at this old bone, are you Damian7...

 It seems no matter what reason we give you, you just can't seem to accept ppl are willing to pay for subpar games because at that particular time, they have little else to try, and so want to experiment with the hopes the game will improve.

 Keep bringing up your tv/cable/phone analogies...they'll still tell you the same over and over...and you'll be asking the same question over and over. Maybe you should do more 'listening' and less vituperation and try to understand what we're saying...

I don't mind discussing, but if every time we state an opinion, you just repeat "So you'd be willing to pay for a subpar service/good" jargon, we just see you trying to sound right, and not trying to debate the issue.

nuff said for me on this thread

You might consider a game sub-par for a whole range or reasons, but if someone enjoys it and is happy to pay for it, then to their tastes it's not 'sub-par' and they almost certainly wouldn't describe it as such. So essentially, it's down to an individuals perceptions of what is acceptable to them with regards to spending their money on entertainment.

Different tastes, subjective values. There really is no other answer to the question you are asking *shrug*.

The good news, damian7, is that while there are a few people who don't mind wasting their money out of some weird idealistic loyalty, the majority of gamers won't put up with it.  Games that suck tend to fail.  Period.  And this is becoming more true as the industry matures.

The trick is in being able to weed out the opinions of idealistic fanbois when you are making your own purchasing decision, but it's not all that hard as their arguments are invariably taken directly from the companies' own PR machines.

Originally posted by damian7
....

 

i'm also curious, people of those opinions, do you accept that from cable, cell phone, or any other monthly service you have?  would it be ok with you if your satellite/cable crashed and had to be rebooted a couple of times a day?  or if you had laggy (perhaps static-filled) television programs and/or phone calls?

....

Just thinking of someone working all day, getting home at about six a clock and then his internetconnection is broken and he can't play his lovely game.

And then he is calling the internet provider and they say: "Oh, sorry, but we have some problems, as there are so many people using internet between 6 and 12pm, it may be possible that you will have no internetconnection for some time. But we promise that, if you pay us the next 6 month, you will have internet even at those times....... .......maybe!"

Usually it is possible to play past the bugs..While I see what you are getting at, people just want to play the game they have waited X amount of time for.  You cannot really blame them for getting all hyped up, and then not being patient to purchase the game. 

People buy games to enjoy themselves.  Why should these people look forward to games, and then finally near release, not buy it because it has some bugs?  They are just looking for a good game to play, and, especially if they have been waiting a while, they are not willing to take others' words on it.  If they are in a guild, who is to say that just because the game doesn;t have a great release, that they should not enjoy themselves while playing with their guild.

Do not think we can say anything to satisfy your question. People pay for sub par stuff all the time, 50 bucks for a meal at a resturant and its horrid, Cable that is constantly going out, a graphics card that becomes obsolete in a few months, windows operations system...Need I say more? Humans want we want want want everything, its the nature of the beast. We throw money away on so many other things why not games?

Hehe, the irony in damian7's use of the term subpar in his arguments is amusing.  If the majority of MMO's are released playable but with bugs and lack of polish, that means the par is playable with bugs and lack of polish.

Either way, there are so many aspects of an MMO (genre, content, client performance, network performance, customer service, etc.) that subpar ends up being completely relative, as a couple of other posters have said.  For me, WoW is a subpar game despite its amount of content and polish, simply because it was boring to me.  If the reason I play a game is to have fun, and I'm having fun despite whatever bugs I encounter, then that game has already surpassed WoW in terms of what I'm willing to spend money on.

 Edit:  Just using WoW as an example because that's usually what people point to as the epitome of polished MMO's.