The "$1 Per Hour" Logic is Stupid and Flawed

[ChrisPharmD]

So, if you're a gamer, you've heard the argument that if a game is worth $1 per hour and you get over 60 hours of gameplay, then the game was worth it. Right? Yeah, well that flawed logic should make any intelligent person facepalm.

First of all, there are many great games that are short and worth $60. Journey was an indie game that was $20 and it was amazing, IMO. It was about 2 hours long. That's $10 per hour. However, it is a game that should be played by every gamer ever. Portal and Portal 2 were both shy of their price tags in terms of this logic and they should also be owned by everyone. And many many many more games fall into this category.

Secondly, some games are purposefully lengthened by making the players grind out the entire game. No Man's Sky seems to be a perfect example. I haven't played it yet, but from what I understand, it seems to be a grindy game with little to no reward. That's what I've gathered from watching footage and reading reviews. Could I be 100% wrong? Sure, whatever. It doesn't change the fact that this logic is stupid.

Let's take this a step further. I think many people would argue that The Witcher 3 is worth $60. Well.... is it worth $70? How about $80? $100? $120? I know what you're thinking. Games are NOT those prices. Actually, they are. With DLC, CE, preorder bonuses, Season Passes, and other BS, games are running anywhere from $60 - $120 or even more. Back to the example! Would I pay $70 for TW3? Well, if you take into account the Season Pass, I put in about $85 I think. Would I pay $100? Hmmm...... now we're starting to get into some grey area.

I have about 400 hours in the Witcher 3, but I promise you that not all of those hours were worth $1 a piece. Collecting trash items, doing fetch side quests, tedious routing to other areas.... there was a lot of time that wasn't worth it.

TL;DR - Hourly rates do not define video game quality. Vice versa, length of in-game time does not warrant a higher price tag. Both of those are just plain stupid logic. When I want to know if NMS is a good game, I don't want to hear, "Well, you get to grind for a lot of time and that makes it worth it." That's stupid.

And I've heard this argument a lot lately about this game. That's a sign that buyers are trying to give rationale to their purchase.

[lPaladinl]

Yeah, I wish people would stop telling me that RPGs or Sandbox Games I bought for $5-60 should cost me $100-1,000 based on their flawed logic.

And while I do find it more difficult to buy shorter games, that doesn't mean I expect a $1/h ratio for games, ever.

[lefty1117]

The basic premise of the time-based value argument is that the time spent is enjoyable. That's the assumption. The case is then made as to whether it was a good investment compared to other games & forms of entertainment for the money spent. It's a clinical and objective look at an investment of time and money, nothing more. The conflict here is coming from players who didn't enjoy the time spent and that really obfuscates the discussion - in that case it becomes a different topic altogether.

[cRush]

You shouldn't be comparing video games to movies. They are completely different industries. You are comparing apples to oranges. Yes, they are both fruit, but they are not the same type of fruit.

If we are comparing video games to video games, then we have to compare a premium priced game to other premium priced games: Skyrim, Witcher, Fallout, FarCry, <insert AAA title>.

Those games set the bar for the $60 price tag by providing at least a 100 hours of quality gameplay.

But that's the other problem. Judging a game's worth on how much time you spent in the game. It really matters not how many hours you have in a game.

For example, I have almost 60 hours in NMS now. I stopped enjoying the game at around 17-20 hours. The rest of that time was spent getting completionist achievements, and I spent a lot of it idle at a trade outpost. I've got probably another 2 hours to go to finish the warp achievements, and I'm contemplating if I want to torture myself further for those last 2 achievements.

I wouldn't judge the worth of the game on those 60 hours. I'm going to judge it up until the point that I stopped having fun. However, I'm also not going to make the mistake of trying to make this some mathematical calculation to determine if it was worth my $60.

Instead, I'm going to take an introspective look at how I felt about that time spent, and decide if I personally feel like I got my money's worth out of the game based on my pleasant experiences with other games. That's how you should make a value assessment on this game's worth, and everyone is going to be different.

[JayOnSpeed]

I think i have 6 hours in Witcher 3 and i can't bring myself to play it again, its not really my cup of tea. I already played 50 hours of NMS making it cheaper than Witcher 3 and cheaper every day.

[cRush]

JayOnSpeed の投稿を引用：

I think i have 6 hours in Witcher 3 and i can't bring myself to play it again, its not really my cup of tea. I already played 50 hours of NMS making it cheaper than Witcher 3 and cheaper every day.

You missed the point of my post. Read that last paragraph.

[Doomerang]

You do have a good point. Witcher3 should be 400$!

[Madgamer13]

" I haven't played it yet, but from what I understand" - ChrisPharmD.

No, you don't understand. You wont know how you feel about wasting money on this game until you can convince yourself that you have. The most express way of wasting money on No Man's Sky is to buy it now before it goes on sale and play longer than the refund period allows. No amount of predictive mathematical calculations nor subjective forms of reasoning will determine for you how much enjoyment you achieved in a game you have not played.

Now, if your opinion was: 'I do not think this game is worth it.' Then sure, I accept that opinion and respect your decision not to buy, but if you are going to try and convince me that the time I've put into NMS is worthless because of your 'science' then I will take offense at the audacity of your faulty 'scientific reasoning'.

[Sally]

I bought "7Days to die" on sale for I think it was $12 AUD? 300-400hours of gameplay so far from Alpha 8 to now A14....... and thats an Alpha game....

This game is "Finished" costs around 6-7 times more and I can't see many people getting over the 100-150hr mark.

That is why people are angry, AAA price for a less than Alpha game... thats "Finished".

but each to their own....

[Marc]

I made a formula:

worktime = hours you worked to earn the money to pay the game.
playtime = hours you played the game.
price = what you spend on the game when you bought it.

worth = (worktime / playtime) * price

Now we have to compare that value to something... Because a free to play game could cost you, theoretically, nothing and you could have hundreds of hours of fun with, thoretically, it has the best value.

(0 / x amount of playtime) * 0 = 0

So if you have played, for example, No Man's Sky (or any other game) for 60 hours and you are earning 10 currency an hour and bought the game for 60 currency, worth would be equal to 6.

(6 / 60) * 60 = 6

Let's compare that to a game that did cost you 60 currency but you only played it for 6 hours.

(6 / 6) * 60 = 60

See how this game, compared to the other games, was worth less of the money you payed for it?

Okay this was all more or less a joke. But now you may understand why people say 1$ per hour and it was worth it.

[cRush]

Marc の投稿を引用：

I made a formula:

worktime = hours you worked to earn the money to pay the game.
playtime = hours you played the game.
price = what you spend on the game when you bought it.

worth = (worktime / playtime) * price

Now we have to compare that value to something... Because a free to play game could cost you, theoretically, nothing and you could have hundreds of hours of fun with, thoretically, it has the best value.

(0 / x amount of playtime) * 0 = 0

So if you have played, for example, No Man's Sky (or any other game) for 60 hours and you are earning 10 currency an hour and bought the game for 60 currency, worth would be equal to 6.

(6 / 60) * 60 = 6

Let's compare that to a game that did cost you 60 currency but you only played it for 6 hours.

(6 / 6) * 60 = 60

See how this game, compared to the other games, was worth less of the money you payed for it?

Okay this was all more or less a joke. But now you may understand why people say 1$ per hour and it was worth it.

Problem is I could spend 2 hours on a game that is $60 and absolutely love it and think its worth every penny. I could spend 100 hours on a game that is $60 and come to the conclusion that I didn't really like it and it didn't satisfy me.

It's like reading through a long book, and realizing that the ending just lets you down.

[aggressor27]

X41823T の投稿を引用：

Hey HEY! You can make 15 bucks an hour working as hired rioter for Soros in America, go get 'em libt*rdos!
Try physically asasult any of the secret service agents with the P90's PLEASE give them an excuse to resort gunning you animals down..!

Someone 'asasulted' yer engrish, bud!

[Marc]

cRush の投稿を引用：

Marc の投稿を引用：

I made a formula:

worktime = hours you worked to earn the money to pay the game.
playtime = hours you played the game.
price = what you spend on the game when you bought it.

worth = (worktime / playtime) * price

Now we have to compare that value to something... Because a free to play game could cost you, theoretically, nothing and you could have hundreds of hours of fun with, thoretically, it has the best value.

(0 / x amount of playtime) * 0 = 0

So if you have played, for example, No Man's Sky (or any other game) for 60 hours and you are earning 10 currency an hour and bought the game for 60 currency, worth would be equal to 6.

(6 / 60) * 60 = 6

Let's compare that to a game that did cost you 60 currency but you only played it for 6 hours.

(6 / 6) * 60 = 60

See how this game, compared to the other games, was worth less of the money you payed for it?

Okay this was all more or less a joke. But now you may understand why people say 1$ per hour and it was worth it.

Problem is I could spend 2 hours on a game that is $60 and absolutely love it and think its worth every penny. I could spend 100 hours on a game that is $60 and come to the conclusion that I didn't really like it and it didn't satisfy me.

It's like reading through a long book, and realizing that the ending just lets you down.

I guess you overlooked the part where I said that my formula is a joke?

My formula wouldn't work for food, for example. You could either go to a restaurant and spend hundreds of dollars on a meal that will statisfy you or you could cook with ingredients that you all just gathered from the nauture for free and could still be as statisfied with the meal you cook out of them.

However if someone says that 1$ per hour describes the worth of a videogame for them, that is totally fine, because it is just how they feel about it. You could have a totally different opinion and they could still agree, that your opinion works better for you.

One just has to accept that other people can have a different opinion about something and should respect that.

[cRush]

Marc の投稿を引用：

cRush の投稿を引用：

Problem is I could spend 2 hours on a game that is $60 and absolutely love it and think its worth every penny. I could spend 100 hours on a game that is $60 and come to the conclusion that I didn't really like it and it didn't satisfy me.

It's like reading through a long book, and realizing that the ending just lets you down.

I guess you overlooked the part where I said that my formula is a joke?

My formula wouldn't work for food, for example. You could either go to a restaurant and spend hundreds of dollars on a meal that will statisfy you or you could cook with ingredients that you all just gathered from the nauture for free and could still be as statisfied with the meal you cook out of them.

However if someone says that 1$ per hour describes the worth of a videogame for them, that is totally fine, because it is just how they feel about it. You could have a totally different opinion and they could still agree, that your opinion works better for you.

One just has to accept that other people can have a different opinion about something and should respect that.

My post is a continuation of yours and my earlier post. Why does everyone automatically assume any reply is contentious on the Internet?

At the end of the day, only you can determine if you feel a game is worth the money you spent on it. The problem with that is if you come to the conclusion that it wasn't worth it, you might have no avenue to refund like you do in other industries.

[Marc]

cRush の投稿を引用：

Marc の投稿を引用：

I guess you overlooked the part where I said that my formula is a joke?

My formula wouldn't work for food, for example. You could either go to a restaurant and spend hundreds of dollars on a meal that will statisfy you or you could cook with ingredients that you all just gathered from the nauture for free and could still be as statisfied with the meal you cook out of them.

However if someone says that 1$ per hour describes the worth of a videogame for them, that is totally fine, because it is just how they feel about it. You could have a totally different opinion and they could still agree, that your opinion works better for you.

One just has to accept that other people can have a different opinion about something and should respect that.

My post is a continuation of yours and my earlier post. Why does everyone automatically assume any reply is contentious on the Internet?

I didn't assume that.

I just felt like writing a long answer to make my view of it more clear to other people, that are reading this discussion. I could have wrote "I agree." as a reply to you.

[Belgarion]

Honestly OP, I pay 30$ for a good dinner, and I spend 2h there maybe, averaging out 15$ per hour of enjoyment. If you bought a game and played over one hour, I consider it money well spent.