Preach it, Urk (Destiny)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Friday, June 07, 2019, 12:04 (2014 days ago) @ Cody Miller

Then again, I believe that when capitalism is functioning properly money is a fair representation of the value you get when you spend it.

There are issues with this idea. The first is that everyone values money differently. I might have no problem paying $60 for a game, but for someone else that's a full day's wage after taxes. I'll happily pay $18 to go to a movie but to some it's madness. The idea of money representing value is false because money does not itself have a set value.

Of course. I wasn't talking about everyone at once, I was talking about the people who choose to spend money. And if the "functioning properly" part is true, they choose to spend primarily because they view it as a fair exchange of value. And the value of their money is always affected by how much money they have.

Likewise people value different things differently. So paying for a movie ticket to see a comedy might be a better 'value' than paying to see an action movie. The tickets could cost the same, but maybe the comedy is 85 minutes and the action movie is 120. Even though you get 'less' by seeing the comedy, you may value that more.

Yes. Judging a movie's value solely by length is dumb, but really, isn't this paragraph basically expressing the same idea as your first?

Remember when you'd spend $10 on an album? Now you spend $10 a month and get infinity albums. Do you think the person paying 10 dollars for spotify listens to one album per month?

This is complicated, because I don't think people listen to albums start to finish (purposely sitting down in a room) like they used to. I suspect that for most people, listening to music is a more fragmented and secondary activity than it used to be. It is for me.

Do you think this has changed the perceived 'value' of music?

No, the cost of access has changed because of technology. That has reduced the worth of the physical item (for some people).

Has the worth of the album actually changed?

Not necessarily, but I do think the number of artists who view and create albums as a cohesive artistic unit is lower, so fewer albums are created to be listened to based on, for example, there being two sides (as in a LP). Music is conceived now to be "stickier" on the song level. There are now computer models that measure this. A while back I remember reading an article about this, and at that time "Hey Ya!" was the "stickiest" yet tested.

Does music recording no longer make much money? >

Not as much, and not for as many (there is less support structure).

What do you make of this chart?

I worked in the industry for a big chunk of that time, man.

Do you think shifting to the service model is going to make people value games less, versus paying a large lump sum?

Depends on what individuals want. Most may no longer want what I want.

Do you think this is going to impact the ability to make cool games, when everything about making cool games these days is costing more and more?

Cool as defined by me, maybe, but again, I might be in the minority. The question about increased expense and increased expectation is something I've been worried about for a while. I don't have the answer.

Do you think games should actually cost more than they do now?

Maybe if the BS gets too deep and people want to pay not to have it.

I tend to buy deluxe versions if I trust the studio, so I guess I have to say yes. The perceived value has to be there, though. For a few studios, it is for me. So far Bungie has delivered for me (not that the contents of collector's editions and so on have been worth it in themselves), but even though I've spent extra money, the value of fun I've gotten in return has been a more than fair exchange.

Do you think the games industry is shooting itself and the foot and not knowing it?

Perhaps. I'm not trying to be a wet blanket on Urk's focus on creative vision--that's what's most important to me, too. I've always been particularly impressed when something is an artistic and a financial success. And whatever disruptions and constraints exist in these creative industries, somebody always seems able to surprise us with an unlikely hit that's creative and not like anything else, and the money men come running after. Here's hoping Bungie can be that special. I don't think anyone has an idea what the new hotness in gaming will be five years from now. I might not like it, but fortunately there is much more to life than video games.