Comment on PC gamers spend 92% of their time on older games, oh and there are apparently 908 million of us now
GoumLeChat@jlai.lu 2 weeks agoFree is an important reason why. Also, these games run very well on old machines. If you mostly play that and get a new rig, you don’t have to spend a lot.
tal@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
I get free reducing the barrier-to-entry, but I kinda look at games in terms of “how much is the ratio of the cost to how many hours of fun gameplay that I get?”
I mean, I have some games that I briefly try, dislike, and never play again. Those are pretty expensive, almost regardless of the purchase price.
But the thing is, if it’s a game that you play a lot, the purchase price per hour of play becomes almost irrelevant in cost-per-hour of gameplay. I’ve played Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead — well, okay, you can download that for free, but I also bought it on Steam to throw the developers some money — and Caves of Qud a ton. The price on them is basically a rounding error. And the same is probably true for the top few games in my game library.
You could charge me probably $2000 for Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, and it’d still be cheaper per hour of gameplay than nearly all games that I’ve played, because I’ve spent so many hours in the thing.
If people are playing these like crazy, you’d think that the same would hold for them. That the cost for a game that you play like crazy for many years just…doesn’t matter all that much, because the difference in hours played is so huge that it overwhelms the difference in price.
fartsparkles@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Free means you can easily get any friends to dip in and play which is a big factor.
tal@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Hmm. That’s a thought. I guess that that’d mesh with them also all being multiplayer.
fartsparkles@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Also big up for Cataclysm: DDA. One of the greatest games ever made.
Takumidesh@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Free means a hell of a lot when you are a child with approximately $0 in expendable income.
GoumLeChat@jlai.lu 2 weeks ago
I’m old enough to have bought TF2. Played a little less than a thousand hours. Even counting a few in-game purchases, the cost per hour is very low.
But free means no barrier, you can join anytime,m and stay if you like it. Your friends can try it out too.
logan_hero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
3/5 games from that list also launched as paid games, but gained majority of its players after becoming f2p. Yeah people love free stuff ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
Orygin@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Which ones ? Apart from CSGO, the others have always been free (on the technicality that Fortnite BR is different from the original game)
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Soo… What I’m getting is that you kinda like a game called Catapult: Streets Ahead?
tetrachromacy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Love seeing another person with lots of hours in Caves of Qud. It’s rapidly climbing up my hours played list since 1.0 release. Bought it at 17.99, played for 220 hours so far. Math says that’s 9 cents an hour, and I’m still not done playing. Live and drink, friend!