Unpopular Opinions about Video Games

[The Ugly One]

The economy during the 80s, 90s and 2000s were vastly different compared to the late-2000s/early-2010s recession onward

If you're trying to imply that to the average person, $35 was no big deal, you could not be more wrong. We were a middle-class family in a middle-class neighborhood, and I would estimate no more than half the kids on the street had Nintendos, and they didn't have that many games. Typical was to get one, maybe two games at Christmas and on your birthday, and the rest were rented from Blockbuster.

Median wage in 1987 was just under seven bucks an hour, so a $35 video game was 5.2 hours work. Median wage today is closer to $20, so yeah, $35 then was like $100 is now.

 

[#lurker]

People are bitches about how much games cost nowadays.

There's complaints about Contra: Operation Galuga costing 36 bucks. Yes, I get it, in theory you could get much longer games for the same price if not cheaper, but I am pretty certain that the original Contra was more expensive.

The complaining about costs stems from companies nickel and diming consumers with endless microtransactions and DLC's over the last decade. Instead of raising upfront prices or reducing development costs initially, they decided to sell games piecemeal for increased profit. People are rightfully skeptical now that prices are being raised again, because the piecemeal strategy hasn't changed, so you're being fucked both ways.
I can't speak to Contra though.

 

[XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG]

Personally I strongly disagree with this idea of simply taking a past dollar price, applying some official inflation statistics onto it, and then arguing that it is converted to "today's price"
That doesn't really paint an accurate picture on value, especially considering changes in the set of things that money can buy
For instance, smartphones and cheaper high end consumer electronics, or electric cars, or whatever have you would be irrelevant to someone purchasing a video game in the 90s
If a number is to be adjusted, it makes more sense to use something else as a deflator, like the price of gold, or average household wealth, or average fast food prices

 

[Anime=Tranime]

The Dreamcast Controller is good.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

I can't speak to Contra though.

Just to give a little perspective on this, there are SOME people online bitching about the microtransactions in the new Contra...and there aren't even microtransactions in the new Contra.

The "credits" that they read in a description are earned entirely in game from challenges and are used to unlock characters, abilities and music tracks.

It's another example in the annoying trend in gaming of people just bitching to hear themselves bitch, often without knowing WTF they're talking about that, while not the worst trend in gaming, is quickly becoming the most annoying.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

With the exception of OG handhelds because of their big-arse batteries, a handheld isn't a handheld unless it fits in your pocket.

 

[X Prime]

It's another example in the annoying trend in gaming of people just bitching to hear themselves bitch, often without knowing WTF they're talking about that, while not the worst trend in gaming, is quickly becoming the most annoying.

See also: people who watch YouTubers play a game and now think they qualify as fans who know things about the franchise.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

Bloons TD is such pay to win.

Most of the bosses/later levels are more about using powers/buying powerups, than relying on your own towers and learning their abilities.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Personally I strongly disagree with this idea of simply taking a past dollar price, applying some official inflation statistics onto it, and then arguing that it is converted to "today's price"
That doesn't really paint an accurate picture on value, especially considering changes in the set of things that money can buy
For instance, smartphones and cheaper high end consumer electronics, or electric cars, or whatever have you would be irrelevant to someone purchasing a video game in the 90s
If a number is to be adjusted, it makes more sense to use something else as a deflator, like the price of gold, or average household wealth, or average fast food prices

Yeah. Look at stuff like apartment rentals, how much people were paid for skilled and unskilled labor (big one, or the ease of getting those jobs) or stuff that's the same product. For example, this is how much a certain regional grocery store was charging for soft drinks in 1996.

The same chain charges $2.97 for a 2L Dr Pepper in the same market. A 12 pack of 12 ounce cans has spiraled up to $9.11. The inflation rate since 1996 is 97.8% but these items have tripled in cost.

I don't know if the "but games are cheaper" simps are either developers trying to justify paying for wokeslop with DLC, retards, or a bigger organization trying to gaslight people that this is all perfectly normal.

 

[FILTH Tourist]

Personally I strongly disagree with this idea of simply taking a past dollar price, applying some official inflation statistics onto it, and then arguing that it is converted to "today's price"
That doesn't really paint an accurate picture on value, especially considering changes in the set of things that money can buy
For instance, smartphones and cheaper high end consumer electronics, or electric cars, or whatever have you would be irrelevant to someone purchasing a video game in the 90s
If a number is to be adjusted, it makes more sense to use something else as a deflator, like the price of gold, or average household wealth, or average fast food prices

The gaming market has grown so much since then that there are so much more customers to sell to. A viral indy darling like vampire survivors would blow any single SNES game out of the water in terms of profit dispite charging far less for it due to the sheer volume of sales. Also digital stores have made distribution almost a non-factor in capitalizing on said large customer base.

 

[Pissmaster]

If you're trying to imply that to the average person, $35 was no big deal, you could not be more wrong. We were a middle-class family in a middle-class neighborhood, and I would estimate no more than half the kids on the street had Nintendos, and they didn't have that many games. Typical was to get one, maybe two games at Christmas and on your birthday, and the rest were rented from Blockbuster.

Median wage in 1987 was just under seven bucks an hour, so a $35 video game was 5.2 hours work. Median wage today is closer to $20, so yeah, $35 then was like $100 is now.

Almost no one I ever met throughout elementary school had a home video game console. The whole concept of schoolyard rumors about video games was a complete myth. Half the kids didn't even have cable. I remember a lot of the kids just being really into sports. Classmates having consoles didn't really kick up much until late PlayStation. You know, when $20 racks were starting to be common.

I also remember getting NES & SNES games at the pawn shop, since they were considerably cheaper there. They never came with manuals, and any Nintendo Power magazines that covered them were long gone, so that kept a whole lot of games very cryptic for me, until the internet came along.

The selection was narrow, but the pawn shop was great when you could just own a game for the price of a few rentals.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Almost no one I ever met throughout elementary school had a home video game console.

Not even old ones? Everyone seemed to have an SNES by the time PS1 rolled out. I'd imagine it was similar with NES during the SNES' lifespan, it was pretty cheap and supported for a long time.

I guess I was lucky to have at least one current console per generation as a kid.

 

[Pissmaster]

Not even old ones? Everyone seemed to have an SNES by the time PS1 rolled out. I'd imagine it was similar with NES during the SNES' lifespan, it was pretty cheap and supported for a long time.

I guess I was lucky to have at least one current console per generation as a kid.

Nope. I made friends with one other guy in elementary because he had a SNES, so we could talk about a few games we both played, since no one else ever had.

And even the PS1, there were only like, three. I remember one black kid all passionately telling about how much he loved playing NBA Live 99 with his older brother. I was so happy to talk about any games at all that I was engaged and remember that clearly. Almost made me wanna buy it. (I didn't)

 

[The Hardest R]

I too wound up getting most of my games at the pawn shop. NES cartridges were $5 and SNES and Genesis ones were $8-10. But yeah, it was just the cartridge so you had no idea of what you were getting was good unless it was word of mouth. Eventually my parents got a 486 PC and I discovered emulation.

Not even old ones? Everyone seemed to have an SNES by the time PS1 rolled out. I'd imagine it was similar with NES during the SNES' lifespan, it was pretty cheap and supported for a long time.

I grew up broke and got an NES in the early-mid 90s. I had a neighbor who had a Genesis and that was about it. I wasn’t able to start participating in “modern” gaming until I had to work for it. I was able to get a Dreamcast on day one by picking sweet corn the summer prior. Too bad I wasted money on Blue Stinger.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Nope. I made friends with one other guy in elementary because he had a SNES, so we could talk about a few games we both played, since no one else ever had.

And even the PS1, there were only like, three. I remember one black kid all passionately telling about how much he loved playing NBA Live 99 with his older brother. I was so happy to talk about any games at all that I was engaged and remember that clearly. Almost made me wanna buy it. (I didn't)

The thing for me was none of us were playing the same games, even though lots of people had systems. That NBA story is funny, I remember one kid trying to talk to me about Ghouls & Ghosts but I never even heard of it, but it was still fun to talk about it.

Once Pokemon came out that was the one thing that united everybody because even if we didn't have the games then we had the cards or the anime to talk about. That was the most fun I ever had at school. I didn't have a Game Boy but I had a ton of cards.

I grew up broke and got an NES in the early-mid 90s. I had a neighbor who had a Genesis and that was about it. I wasn’t able to start participating in “modern” gaming until I had to work for it. I was able to get a Dreamcast on day one by picking sweet corn the summer prior. Too bad I wasted money on Blue Stinger.

I don't know if I've ever gotten a system day 1 even as an adult, though sometimes very early. 3DS was the closest to launch, I think it was like within the first week. I did try to get a Steam Deck day 1 but that was flooded with orders so I had to wait nearly a year.

Is Blue Stinger bad? I hear mixed things about it but I've always thought it seemed pretty cool.

 

[The Ugly One]

If a number is to be adjusted, it makes more sense to use something else as a deflator, like the price of gold, or average household wealth, or average fast food prices

I use the median wage or the price of gas.

In 1988, a $35 video game took 5.2 hours of median labor to buy.
In 2023, a $60 video game takes 3 hours of median labor to buy.

I don't know if the "but games are cheaper" simps are either developers trying to justify paying for wokeslop with DLC, retards, or a bigger organization trying to gaslight people that this is all perfectly normal.

They're old people who remember how $59.99 used to be a lot of money. This was 1993:



That was like six lawns back then.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Almost no one I ever met throughout elementary school had a home video game console. The whole concept of schoolyard rumors about video games was a complete myth. Half the kids didn't even have cable. I remember a lot of the kids just being really into sports. Classmates having consoles didn't really kick up much until late PlayStation. You know, when $20 racks were starting to be common.

The schoolyard rumors about video games I remember with Pokémon but not other games. (Amazing how almost all Mario 64 "lore" bullshit is invented by zoomers 15+ years after the fact).

 

[Lt. H. DuBois]

I prefer the Starship Troopers Extermination game, opposed to Helldivers. I think it's mainly the base building and 16 player team.
It saddens me that Helldivers is getting so much love for basically ripping off ST. The franchise not specifically the game those are different enough, but the whole ironic neo militarist society and propaganda vids come straight from the ST movie

 

[PaleTay]

Most Indie games suck even if I like the concept I end up underwhelmed to super disappointed with what I bought.

 

[TheHarbinger]

It saddens me that Helldivers is getting so much love for basically ripping off ST.

You honestly will not find a single sci-fi property that isn't liberally borrowing from Starship Troopers. It's bigger than Lord of the Rings in its influence. The power armor from Halo is from Starship Troopers. Warhammer 40K and Starcraft are remakes. The entire inspiration for Gundam was from Starship Troopers. The list of things taken from Starship Troopers is massive. Just power armor alone created dozens of massive franchises and iconic redesigns.

At this point stuff like 'power armor' is like using 'orcs' or 'elves' in your story. I would bet that Heinlein would be flattered that literally everyone in science fiction is still obsessing over his ideas and creations.