itch.io

Ok, ok, I'll make the pastebin link to the conversation already!

We hashed a few ideas in a conversation on discord, i.i wanted it posted here for everyone.

Edit: orignal post edited, go read the pastebin link!

basically, it would be an "Autistic Simulator" No, it would not have that name.

If it did have that name, people would expect a parody of autistic stereotypes that go around the internet on occasion.

This would be the real deal.

I specifically recorded down that conversation into a notepad file for future reference.

I can't tackle it myself currently, but one day....maybe.

Lucky you, tesselode, your wishlist is under 5 games long.

I believe my wishlist is in excess of 100 games long, and i already own 100 games on steam. XP

Only game I really want to get this christmas though, is dungeon siege.

....and rainbow six seige. XP

Has there been any game that has attempted to show to non-autistics what being autitist is like?

I feel like a game could show it best, more then any other medium, *you* get to be in that position.

*EDIT*: Due to popular demand, I have a pastebin link to a conversation we had on discord after I posted this: http://pastebin.com/aD686dpu

I can't act on it currently, but one day maybe I will, that, or get me on as a consultant to help you with making it if someone wants to try making it themselves.

Perfect! :)

This is good, but I was hoping for one specific song, not an entire soundtrack.

Could you pick one specific track form there, and edit it in as such with an embed youtube link?

I'm going to try and lay some groundwork for this thread, I want it to be a thread where we share our favorite music, but I have a particular way i'd like to see it, so I'd like to put in some rules for how it will work.

This is only an experiment for the moment, as I feel like there might just be a lot of spamming by one person for all of the music, let's try and avoid that, please.

We could try a weekly thing, or something, but right now, let's try to limit to one post per person, and that one post can have one song that's your favorite.

I'd also like to make sure it's not just links, if we want to appreciate the music, you should also have a short post explaining why you like it a lot.

I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of AAA game music, so try and consider smaller, or indie games with their music, try for something that's your favorite, but that not many have heard of! (AAA game music is a-ok if most people forget about it! Halo 1's theme might be something everyone would know, but what about the song for the 3rd level, "Under Cover of Night", does everyone know that? maybe they don't because they didn't play the game, or just forget?)

You may also state your preference for certain music genres.

Basically, I want us to point out what we like about certain pieces of video game music, so that others reading might get some inspiration on what could make their music better. I feel sometimes a small reference pool is the only problem for inspiration for some people.

To start, let me try to give a good example of a post, (The format that will be obvious is appreciated, should you use it, but it's not set in stone.) I'd recommend Persona 3's "Wiping all Out." or 100% OJ's Track 28 (Alte's theme), but I suspect a lot of people know those (if you don't, send me a message, and I'll link them to you.), so I'm going to go for say....... :

The Sega CD version of Snatcher's "Pleasure of Tension"

Snatcher is one of 2 games made by Hideo Kojima he made before Metal gear Solid (1) on the Play Station, however, due to the platform not being very popular, and it being the only english version released (bear in mind, that makes it the first Hideo Kojima game to escape being radically changed for western release, as the NES metal gears are somewhat different from the original MSX2 versions. Even then, Snatcher apparently was heavily subject to censorship, or something, and the game was still one of those early "mature" rated games due to it's very graphic violence, even for pixels.), that despite having the famous name behind it, it's only a cult classic, not mainstream. (although that is changing thanks to the LPing community, thanks slowbeef.)

I like it because you get tension, mystery, discovery, and then this underlying "dawwrrggghhh" that permeates throughout that has this slight feeling of dread, all in one piece, and it encapsulates the entire feel of the game, honestly, it being a cyber-punk detective game, basically. Mechanics are very much point and click, though it uses a menu.

This is very telling of my music tastes, I like synthetically made music, and anything DOS, genesis, or other computer made stuff from that point between 1988-1996 is my jam. However, I do like orchestras, and other more "traditional" music, so my tastes are rather all over the place. Still, this track captures the nostalgia of that sort of music for me. The entire soundtrack of Snatcher is quite good, and I'd recommend looking into it and the game itself if you can.

Alright, what have the rest of you got for everyone to listen to?

My apologies.

I suppose all I can say is that making one sentence pitches isn't for me.

ah oh.

Um....have you heard of Sierra's game called by the same name?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantasmagoria_(video_game)

I have no idea how IP stuff applies in this case, I just want to make you aware.....

If it's only a single sentence one gets, screw them all. That premise is wrong.

That sentence is just as loaded with things for a person being required to know, as anything else.

Edit: None of these other pitches have remotely interested me, I need to know....more.......pictures, descriptions, something.

The only thing that felt off was just how slow it was to get aroubnd in the early levels, then I got better with the controls.

I did find the music control, thank you, but it's just that......when it's muted, the ambient sound is there too, and I wanted to tab out for a bit, so total mute needs to be an option.

It's too bad about the design of speed, I was concerned it was going to be that way, so I was a little bit hesitant to mention it....but.....it's the only thing that kept me from fully enjoying it, and it's not even totally a problem once you get to the later levels. The early levels are the proper difficultly, they just feel like a chore to go through. XP

I haven't tried starting it up again, as i assumed it would just restart everything, but hey, if it saves my progress, then I should be fine, I'll get back to it sometime then! I do admit, I wouldn't want to have to go through those levels again, as it would be such a chore to get to the good stuff. I'm really not sure what to say about those early levels either, no simple solution exists (since the speed thing is straight out.), just a lot of tweaking? idk......wish I could help you there more though.

Originality is....to a certain extent....a myth.

Do you really think most popular works are truly original?

No, all of them have inspirations from other works.

Even Shakespeare adapted his works from older, common stories, or so I'm told, and in turn, many works from derived from his ideas.

But I can assure you I haven't seen anyone really pull off this idea before, these two other games are quite simply the closet I've ever seen come close to that, and they certainly have a lot that could be learned from. Thus, there's still some originality, but with plenty of inspiration from good ideas.

And if doing this is so wrong, why is it hollywood makes so many sequels and such, and they sell....really well?

Execution by a good director is of course critical too (often what makes so many other movies fail.), but that's the point, it matters more how you do it, more then it matters what you do.....as long as it's not a half-baked idea. And I've thought out a lot more to this idea then your aware, it's not half-baked.

Does the game have to actually exist though?

Because if not.......(*clears throat*)

"The title of this project: "Freewill Platoon" is just a project name, what it is: It's Valkyria Chronicles meets the first Dungeon Seige."

Basically, as long as the pitcher knows what your referencing, X meets Y helps a lot, it creates a picture of what they know to be good already, without you having to say much more, it has the taste of familiarity, and it also kinda states, yeah, that thing was good, but what if we did that...but differently....hopefully better? All in one sentence.

Many a film has been pitched as "Diehard on an X." http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DieHard...

It works.

Now, I wanna unpack my idea a little......

I have no idea how I would make it, but basically, I started off with some thoughts on how valkyria chronicles could be improved, it's one of my most favorite games ever....but it has it's faults, nothing that gets in the way of me playing it, just, it could be even more awesome right?

But I wasn't sure how I'd go about addressing how it tends to function in turns until I say a video on dungeon siege, then I immediately recognized what it actually needed to be, an rpg/rts hybrid, where you only control a single platoon, no more, no less, of 20-25 people max, with, like VC, each character having significant back story and a long list of traits, much bugger then what VC did, and they wouldn't trigger in that anime flash frame kind of way, they'd just always be active when applicable. What Dungeon siege has to add is controlling many people at once in that RTS fashion, but each character having stats, and their own adjustable equipment, much like VC.

The game would ultimately be a WW2 or modern day esque RTS (I haven't quite decided setting, but I do want guns, including lots of automatics.) with all those specific character stats and possible perma-death (though, hopefully with VC's critical health state rescue mechanic so it doesn't veer into fire emblem save scummy territory again.)

Alright, I've played the first 8 levels and am pleased, I left a comment though, I do have some complaints, suprisingly, noine of them about the pacing, so far. (unless it gets really, really hard later on?)

Alright, I'm at level 9 now, and I felt there was someone off about it so far.

I have however come to the conclusion that the level design, and learning curve is fine, if maybe a little bit slow-paced, but that being said, that's going to be subjective, and I think it's fine, no one can say it doesn't force you to learn some advanced techniques early on.

What bugs me is the time you spend just.....walking.

I wouldn't want you to make the mazes smaller just for that, as it would compromise the navigation needed to figure out where you need to go.

All I can think of, is that everything, or at least the mouse and cats, could go faster, since if your mouse could run faster, the cats must be given more speedy caffeine to compensate/balance that out. That would cut down on the waiting, and how arbitrilly punishing it feels to lose progress when you have to start from a checkpoint....only to be walking for a full minute...again.

Maybe if there was an adjustable speed slider, it would help cater to everyone.

That's about the only "beta testing" thing I could say, otherwise, everything else feels fun, solid, and engaging, thus far, and it's only getting better as I play.

Edit: After posting my comment, the game had to reload, and I lost my progress, crap. Password system, please?!

Also, I wanted to take a break from it anyway, and I find the lack of a total mute button....disturbing.

Erp, that kinda got away from me, I went from "focused goal of the game" to "Minimizing features can help your game."

But, they can go hand in hand.

And beisdes, it's not like an indie game can out-do what AAA devs do anyway.

Use the strength of having only a few people working on something to focus your design, and avoid the kitchensink of features that don't always go together, leave the AAA industry to appeal to everyone, and grab your niche.

Although, that being said, maybe your focused design work might be appaudled by many people anyway if it's really good, who knows?

Of course the gameplay will make me play hundreds of hours, that's what I love so much and played so much of MineCraft, Stronghold Crusader, and Knights of the Old Republic.

But I remember them a lot more for how they used thier mechanics to fit an idea, or an aesthetic.

MineCraft: The imagination of players only got triggered after the game introduces enemies that justified making a strong fortress to protect yourself from them. Are they dangerous later on? Not really, but that initial difficultly in surviving was it it took to kick-start the creativity, and you just go on from there. (The creeper, is the most ingenious enemy ever devised in my mind, it is the counter to all the player's efforts, that allow other mobs to harm you.)

Stronghold Crusader: The whole idea is that it's a medievil castle simulator, all the mechanics serve that one goal, it has plenty of diversity, but it's not drowning in features either, it is just an RTS afterall, it doesn't do grand strategy.

Knights of the Old Republic: Honestly? Other then the battle system, it's not really the most mechanically inclined game, at least for what a video game could be. It's based off the D&D d20 system (most rpgs are based off D&D, even JRPGs, this one is just rather blatant.), but what Bioware did with this rpgs, likely thier earlier rpgs, and definitely with thier spiritual successor Mass Effect, was that they gave you a blank slate protagonist for you to affect to your preference: Light side/Dark side karma/morality meter (in keeping with the star wars licence.), and an intricate level up system featuring feats that can grant unique skills used in battle, to just stats upgrades, and of course base stat points, and skill points, all you allocate however you wish. But then gave you characters who had obvious roles they could serve, and you could just auto-level them up to serve that pre-existing role, especially if you felt it went with thier character better, or you could meta-game and change thier stuff on level up. (and they level up with you, even if they are new or not around, prepare to level up new characters 5-10 times when you get them.) But see, these characters aren't blank. They would in fact be right at home in many jrpgs. Bioware essentially married the 2 sub-genres together. Other then that, you have a plot set within the star wars universe, being a sci-fi universe with plenty of fantasy (you become a jedi, with a light saber, about 10-15 hours in.), and all the decisions you have to make, it would be an interesting game if it had no combat, but I feel the combat is there just to raise the stakes, even the combat is actually fun for glorified turn-based combat.

(and for some reason the bold got stuck there and refused to turn off, I only meant the italics part to be like that. BUG!)

So in otherwords, although I too, once thought it was only about the gameplay, I have recognized that I'm wrong, gameplay is NOT the only reason I play video games, it never was. Super Mario 64 was the first game I really got into, because it was magical that I could explore such interesting, yet strange fantasy 3D environments, that was what got me hooked.

Even some flash games I play for a number of hours have at least an ok to look at art style.

Even Dicewars uses plenty of colour, but is otherwise, perhaps purposefully, minimalistic: http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/dice/dice.html

You know all those steam shovelware games people hate so much? Some of them are actually ok games on thier own, but the problem is that they throw a bunch of pre-made assets together that clash when used together. None of them try to be unique, none of them try to differentiate from each other. Now, it's try it's just some people absuing the systems steam has, but I think that would give you a good glismpe of what happens when you only focus on gameplay, and check boxes for a list of features.

I mean.......look at many AAA sandbox games, they are based on a great base, but there's a reason a lot of them feel the same.

(Unless your assassin's Creed, which does do unique stuff.....but only the earlier titles, or so I'm told.)

But perhaps someone else can explain this better, so here, have a look at this video I watched just yesterday:

I keep finding, in creative endeavors, sometimes you just need to limit yourself, to make the best thing, instead of a bunch of decent things in one package.

That was the same thing me and a bunch of other people noted.

Something I put in my large post.

But hey, I understand, ain't no body got time to read that article. :P

Anyway, I refer to it as the Currency Value per hour (you can write it as X$/Hr), but, as we've noted down below, it can be sorely inaccurate if the nature of the game leads to differring play times.

You could only be sure with linear games, like jrpgs. 60 hour story-line? alright, $60 is a fine enough price then (well, it was for me and others, but man......people are cheap-@$$ sometimes. XP)

Is 1-2$/Hr fine for some people? It may certainly not be for others, some might wish for 50 cents all the way down to 10 cents.....

At least when your a kid with the one game they might get that year, it makes sense..........but anyone else?

...........my patience runs dry with those people sometimes, which is saying a lot. XP

Need a beta tester for that?

You've given ample reason to want one already.

If you plan on selling it, I am willing to sign a contract where the only compensation I am obligated to is acknowledgement. (you know, credits.), I just want to help, sure I could use money....but I'll get that with a real job, I just want to assist community members however I can, and the game sounds interesting.

After some thought, I have come to the conclusion it's definitely friends recommending stuff to me.

Here's a rather interesting chain of this happening for me:

(about 2000) Smash 64 recommended by my brother's friend for us, we loved it, and got it when we got an N64.

(somewhere between 2008-2011) Smash brothers brawl was very fun, since I missed melee (dont you dare say I missed out, or I will verbally bite your head off.), and it had snake, and due to many recommendations, as well as a few other things swinging me towards the series, I emulated the first solid game. I loved it.

(2013): After solid 1, I spent a tear finding the HD collection for 2+3, but it also had peace walker, and a friend of mine noted that my management of the motherbase soldiers would make me suited to Fire Emblem, so I emulated the 7th game (gba, first western release of the series.), and I loved it.

(2014-2015): A friend of mine demonstrated Valkyria Chronicles for me after I expressed interest in the steam port, due to my interest in fire emblem. It became my favorite game ever, until.......

(2015) Valkyria Chronicles showed me I could like anime-ish games, or just stuff from the eastern asia world in general. So when Eternal Senia showed up in steam, I checked it out, though, the end of this chain so far wasn't based on recommendation, though, that being said, the trailer for it, and the steam reveiws, and being free gave me enough encouragement to try it.

But as you can tell, I would have never gotten this far if it wasn't for people along the way noting my preferences suited these games, so I am very grateful to them.

Of course, I never did read reveiws, or trust the back of the box. Word of mouth influencers today are my go-to, and always have been.

Video reveiws are a thing I've only started watching in the last few years.

Bear in mind this is what gets me to consider buying a game.

If your question is more like:"which games do i like more then others? Once I've played them?What games will I continue to play?" Then I would definitely say music is the one common thing that makes games memorable for me, but it must be music that speaks to what sort of game it is, or else I'm just going to listen to it on my phone or youtube, and maybe not remember the game around it so much.

Standout examples of this, for me include: Halo, Banjo Kazooie, Super Mario 64, C&C: Red Alert (hell march FTW), Metal Gear Solid(1+2+3), Valkyria Chronicles (Succeeded Wish makes me cri, evertiem), MineCraft, Stronghold (Stix and Stones, best grand battle music), Persona 3+4, even Eternal Senia has something going for it in the music department. And no one will forget FF7's battle music, or the orignal SMB's level music.

Music affects us emotionally, and playing on our emotions is a surefire way to be memorable.

And, unfortunately, as an adult, good gameplay doesn't always cut it, not when, ultimately, I am used to so much more.

Good gameplay AND a good sense of theme, artstyle, etc, are crucial for large scale success.

As some have noted in video discussions, being "good" or "decent" isn't enough anymore, but, frankly, I would argue, it never has ever been enough.

Anyone could theoretically make a solid game (unless your someone like digital homecide, perhaps.).....but can everyone make a solid game that aims to state something about ourselves? Or have a coherent, lovely plot?

......yeah, even movies can't get that down for every production, it's just not common, that's why we value it so much.

I second that, reduced if not non-existent marginal cost is a big factor of why prices feel arbitrarily set in a consumer's eyes, as I was saying in my large post.

I did say until this year though.

I've changed how I look at my favorites now, such that at least I can nail down the top 10.

Which ones had the most profound impact on me in some way? since not many manage that.

And of course as I said before, Eternal Senia blew me away, so it was obviously #1, but that was only this year.

Maybe a thread on "what really sticks with me from games." might put a light on the matter.

Why, thank you! :)

"and even if these feelings don't match with the rest of the populace, i kinda wish it did."

I feel ya bro, that's me a lot too.

That image reminded me, or, rather, almost seems ripped off from (though I assume you've never heard of it before.) the Age of War series of flash games, here's the first: http://www.maxgames.com/play/age-of-war.html

So, in addition to turrets, and mooks you can send out, your suggesting you have a hero you can control?

Sounds like an awesome idea to me!

Something I just saw, made a post.

"You post has been posted."

I'm not sure if that's exactly how it reads, all I could remember was that it read "you post" instead of "your post"

Pls fix? pretty please? It's just a bit too weord. XP

Thank you for that.

Are you absolutely sure some games shouldn't be under $5 though, what if it's a neat little thing that only lasts for 2-5 hours? Those are being perfectly self-respecting, and being respectful and honest to the buyer.

(Unless your a shovelware developer, of course. XP)

Bear in mind the difference between Freeware titles, and free to play games, there can be a gap as wide as the grand canyon.

I can understand the serious dislike for free to play. But I hope oz2mura doesn't overlook guinuinely good Freeware titles, some of them used to be sold, and the devs of them decided:"these games are too old and/or historically iconic to have behind a paywall, just have it, take it."

A few of the more memorable titles for me I've played, including my absolute favorite, Eternal Senia, were free.

(Although Eternal Senia isn't technically free, the dev politely asks for donations, since he can't legally sell it, but, I doubt I would have tried it if it wasn't free.........I definitely intend to donate at least $30 to him though, when I can, his game helped me in a way you might have trouble imaginating, I should really donate in excess of $100 for what it did for me, although, for what amount and type of content you get, it's a 5-10 USD bucks kinda game for most people, likely upwards of 15 CDN for me, our currency price sucks right now. XP)

Oh. I just meant, I have missing stuff there, I wrote in some mistakes, and I was honestly expecting a "we get it" reaction, it felt nice having someone respect what I had to say for once.

(seriously, I'm going to do some serious re-writes if I actually approach this in a video, which I do want to do some day.)

Thank you, I feel your being very kind.

I think there was a lot of things I forgot to mention, but there's a 10K character limit, so i wouldn't have been able to say everything anyway.

I have heard, however, that some people making games are not as familiar with what it's like to buy games as we'd like to think, some devs are people who have played hundreds of games and have that experience show forth in thier titles, but it's possibly rare. There can be a clear line between people who make content....and those who consume it. The time commitment required has become enforced these days because there's so much of it; when it comes to youtube, many video makers including myself find that we could either watch a bunch of our favorite video makers, or work on making our own videos, and it's hard to balance between the two.

But despite all that, being someone who puts out questionable content games because they know nothing about the medium, or the market, and a consumer who just can't respect that a dev should make some money at the end of the day, are 2 extremes I cannot tolerate anymore.

So I'm hoping my split worlds perspective as a prospective critic can help everyone in this regard, generally.

The fact is, is that we have a **** of a lot we can learn from both sides, so look at some other games, learn from them, including their business model, and it kinda helps if you watch a lot of extra credits and/or video reviews of games out there. It has been noted there can be a clear relationship between the youtube indie "press" and indie devs these days, after all.

(fill in the asterics with your favorite 4 letter curse word, I didn't have one in mind, and if there's an auto-censor, I didn't trigger it, I put them in myself, and haven't an idea of which word I'd use, honestly.)

That all being said, I can understand not being able to watch hundreds of hours of video content, so leave that to me, and one day I'll hopefully have made a "Beginners guide to interactive video games and their various business models, for both Developers, Consumers, and especially For Dummies." video series.

Because I get that not everyone can get into this sort of stuff, the way I do. XP

The pink haired girl, just.....wow.

I thought it was just a good "on paper" drawing, and it would have deserved praise.

But then I noticed it was actually in 3D, and the job of making it, and how it's posed made it look like it was a 2D image.

That's awesome and amazing!!! XD

Maybe it's not good at telling you how to do it.

But once you've pressed enter afterwards, presumably to put a comment below it, wal-la!

It is otherwise fairly ingenious, to me anyway.

Until this very year, that had been my general attitude, I couldn't really classify games as being better then one another, as they did very different things, and I liked each of those different things, a lot. It was more of a case of "what cool thing am I playing this week? it feels like a new favorite!"

Tl;Dr: Unfortunately I'm a bit of a goodie two-shoes when it comes down to gulping down a price of a game, so my personal perspective is one that's highly sympathetic to devs, and I do not represent most customers it seems. However, hopefully I can shed some light on consumer behavior, because even I've come under some habits when buying games that do reflect what others think.

I'm no expert on the subject, I'm just someone who wants to be a critic. Development cost of course must be considered, I am only taking the "how does it compare on the market?" Or consumer's perspective.

But I am someone who has a large collection of games, and I have talked to a number of people on the subject of price for games, and I have a few things to say on this.

-Game prices are arbitrary: Before digital downloads became the norm (at least for the indie scene, AAA has to do shipping and retail costs, etc etc. And foreign countries, particularly japan importing to anywhere else have to consider localization, which has been talked about as being more expensive then we think, not to mention that the shipping is overseas in that case as well......I think? ....would they make discs locally I wonder....?)

But for our purposes online stores like steam or our very own itch.io take a fraction of all sales off for thier own owns, paying for the service/server upkeep, and profit.

It's obvious your only selling a piece of code...a program, a complex one yes, but that's only physically some electrons. You'd think it would be obvious, but the abstractness of it is very likely a contributing factor towards customer attitudes on price these days. I would even garner that it would be easier for someone to buy a $60-80 disc then a $6-10 ......file. that disc also features some cool cover art, an instruction manual (ok, so those were made to be fun to read 10 years ago as compared to now.), and the actual, physical thing we can assign value to in our minds, if you break it, all the value is lost and must be bought again if it doesn't fall under warranty. Meanwhile, your steam game could be the most corrupted file with whatever mods or accidentally deleting you did, and you can just restore all local files, easy, bam.

With no consequence for breaking it, as well, it's even harder for our primal minds to assign much value to it, it is easily replaceable......and even easily shareable...... (sure there's anti-authority, anarchist punks out there that crack stuff for the lulz, but there's a lot of regular joes who pirate stuff, that started out because of the idea they could easily share this great thing with a friend at no cost! Wouldn't you share all the bananas if you could make an infinite number of them instantaneously? that or you'd hoard them as a money source, either way, humans can be dicks and greedy, even when they don't feel that's what they are doing, we are all flawed like that. It's just a quirk in our minds no one bothers to address, how dum, sew dum.)

This is a problem that needs to be fixed, but since anti-piracy PSAs aren't working so well, I feel it's more a sign of a fear of not having enough, or greed, whatever you want to call it, imbedded in our brains as a survival instinct, it has reared it's ugly head as something we should all strive to be above, but it's not limited to gaming, it's a general problem of humanity, and it must be tackled by showing everyone how unhappy they continue to be when they pursue wealth first and foremost in and of itself, rather then approaching the issue in the opposite, backwards fashion we have.

sorry....I got carried away there. :P

Piracy is it's own topic entirely, and one I do not feel I have researched sufficiently yet to really talk about in depth, though once I have enough info and data, I do want to address it in some way. For now, we all know the idea, and I don't think we should bring it up too much here.

-Current Market: I only started paying less then full price for games when I noticed how many deals for used games, and steam sales there were, it was just simply a cause of "why am I not getting in on that?" and couldn't find a good reason. (Before I knew anything about how that goes to retailers, and not a dev's pocket.) Unfortunately, current markets have driven prices to a very low baseline, everyone sells rather low, and anyone who tries to move away from it gets kinda shouted down. It's kinda wierd in this way, that the console and pc markets are the exact opposite from each other in this area.

I'd be alright for paying 30-50 bucks on a game if it was worth it, but it's too bad I seem to be a rarity there. And why wouldn't someone buy a game that offers a similar idea, or amount of content for cheaper?

-Unique content hours: Amoungst some of the more reasonable people I know, however, it's starting to become common for us to feel that maybe a good price tag is the one that matches with how many hours we get out of it.

thankfully, as it currently stands, gaming beats movie going by a light year in this catagory. Film tickets can vary wildly by region, and what sort of film is being used. (what I mean is, seeing it in 3D, Imax, 3-D-Imax, or none of the above?), and if you buy thier somewhat over-priced snacks.

The closest gaming gets to movie going in this manner is if you buy into the mountain dew and Doritos XP bonuses stuff, and collectors editions (oh yeah, digital sales don't often come with additional collectors edition feelies, I forgot to note that above.), maybe DLC too and such, depending on who you ask.

But essentially, regardless of how much money you've pumped into extra stuff for a game, your still going to end up with a lower dollar per hour ratio then going to the cinema. because quite simply, a film is usually 2 hours long, and certainly never more then 4, while games with a price-tag on steam are expected to be able to be longer then that due to the refund policy being available for those first 2 hours, and many games often being much much longer. I think most of us knew that too, but it deserves to be repeated, over and over again, to be reminded of it.

The acceptable ratio will differ wildly between people, but I can safety say, even me, who's very accepting of prices as long as the game is good (because I think a game being better and lasting longer then eating a meal out that lasts only an hour actually deserves more then what that meal costs, unlike so many other people, sigh.), but even I feel like, to be responsible with my money, I should ensure a ratio of $1/hour (bear in mind, that's CDN for me.), and no more. this means I have for years have been very happy with bargain bin deals of a $20 AAA game in which I played it for 20 hours or more, or perhaps put down after only that time. However, this ratio should also consider another thing in there, because, you see, a lot of devs can exploit this sort of idea to have you feel like your getting your moneys worth, but for people with large collections like myself, we tend to be too discerning for this practice........

filler content.

-Quality time: This is the most subjective thing ever, I can't even begin to address any sort of quantifiable stuff here.

This depends entirely on the tastes of the person when it comes to what sort of gameplay the game has, the quality of it's writing and/or it's plot, the aesthetic used, etc, etc, etc.

It should be up to anyone wanting to be a games reviewer, in my mind, to figure out if a game does well what it aims for, and it's something I'm very interested in. But we have to go on a case by case basis for that.

But I'll talk about the filler thing.

Even I have a limit, if your game is nothing more then wandering around doing the same mindless thing for hundreds of hours..........I will hate your game more then a game with only 10 hours or less of content that at least tries to have some sort of focus, even if it's linear. And even if that game were a buggy mess. (although it helps I enjoy the glitchiness of sonic 06 and superman 64.)

And if that game has something going for it, even if it's a game everybody hates (Dick Marconko: Rogue Warrior comes to mind), I might enjoy that game, even if I can speed-run it in under an hour, playing it over and over again for how fun it can be.

Which can be what really breaks anything to do with measuring time....because replayablity.....and replayablity, at least to me, doesn't require you to add some kind of new game plus or something like that, or long drawn out unlocks. Replayablity is really just how interesting your game is that a person will want to experience it over, and over again, adding extra content is just an excuse for people like me to keep playing it, really. (Of particular note, the RTS genre is my comfort food of gaming, especially if I can make a neat little base. Stronghold Crusader is one of my favorite games for that. I've never beaten all of it's campaigns, they're a tad difficult for me, I just play random AI skirmishes all the time.)

All I really need, at least, is a game that blows my mind with how fun it is, that I just want to play it...over....and over....and over again. If your game does that, I do not care how small it is, and I do not care what price it is. (within reason, I've never payed more then $100 CDN for a game, I find those MMO fanatics to be...well...fanatics.)

Too bad everyone else is such a dick cheapskate that feels "meh" about most of what they play....huh?

(Ok, to be fair, most games tend to be just ok for me as well, but take a little hope in that some of my favorite games I'll play for hours on end are indie or flash games, at least for me, and a few others, you could make something I'll find amazing, so just give it your best shot, and just ensure it's memorable! good music will help a long way to start, at least for me!)

....yeah, that's all I got for now, I feel sorry for you devs sometimes.

Aura Kingdom, and advance wars.

A weapon to surpass metal gear? Kappa

So, I'm a Canadian.

No, no hate going to be coming from me, quite the opposite.

In fact, it sounds like: Canadians and some faction likely made of of japanese go team up on the US? Awesome

I don't think I'll even mind if they are maple syrup drinking lumberjacks with pet beavers they sic on you.

In fact,m this game looks so over the top, I think I'll be expecting that sort of thing. XD

I don't say "sick!" ever, but...this is sick, dude.

Yeah, I kinda had tetris come to mind when I saw this, and I was thinking of some way that you had to fill a particularly sized spot with the right bricks attached to yourself.

But I was thinking of it more in a puzzle sesne, where you had to say.....fill a chasm with a bridge for someone else to cross.

This idea just seems to be a more pure version of that mechanically.

Well.....that's a rather curious....and cute little thing. XD

Also:

Hey, Listen, Pick your battles, Trust your instincts.

Do a barrel roll!!!

and of course...question authority.

...Get a load of this.