Skip to content

Life and Interwebs

Menu
  • Blogs That Feed
  • Guilds & Clans
  • PRESENTS
  • About
  • Writers Resting in Paradise
Menu

time = money / money = pizza [therefore] time = pizza

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Isey

Callan hits an interesting point in the comment section over at Tesh’s musings about the value of his time.

I am in Tesh’s camp here, where my discretionary budget is at an all time high, and my time budget is at an all time low. Gamers often judge the value of a game based on how many hours it gives you, and that argument often supports ‘the reason why a subscription model works for me’. Take WoW, and remove the part of the game that annoys you the most that feels or is necessary (grinding for cash? getting locked out of an instance for a week? farming for mats? runnin the daily heroic for frosties?) figure out how much time you spend doing doing that activity every week you dislike, and realize what your sub fee is buying you.

It happens in all games. I just finished Mass Effect 2. I had great fun. I didn’t think it was too short, but there was a nagging part of it that drove me nuts. Go crazy with me after the break.

The game is based on conversation choices and blowing things up. You get to upgrade your character as they advance, and even discover new technologies to make your weapons and powers better.

Problem is, when you get those upgrades, you have to research them. And to afford to research them, you have to have different kinds of materials. There are two ways to get those materials – finding them while on missions (usally 500 to 1500 units) or flying your ship around, exploring planets, scanning them, and mining them.

Considering some upgrades cost as much as 25,000 units of given substance, if you want the upgrades then you have to mine. It isn’t as simple as clicking ‘scan planet’, etiher. you have to pinpoint an area with the mouse and click. It gives you a reading FOR THAT SPECIFIC SPOT. you move up 3 pixels, it might triple the amount you wil get. You move down 2, there might be nothing.

Planets make no sense, all 4 of the minerals needed seem to be available on all planets (you can’t fine a certain needed mineral heavy planet). A rich node might yield you 3000 units. You spend an awful lot of time mining. I should be able to click scan once, and the computer in my startship that lets me travel between systems at warp drive should tell me where all the rich nodes are on that planet.

Now, my playstyle isn’t like everyone elses. Some MAY acutally enjoy doing those tasks. So, I have 3 options.

1) don’t do the research to activate the upgrades (which has dire, game changing consequences – more on that in a second)
2) learn to love the scanning/mining mode
3) teach my 5 year old how to do it for me.

In a game that took me about 20 hours to complete (doing all side missions), almost 4 hours of that was mining/exploring. 20% of my game time was spent doing something I absolutely loathed (because I had no choice, because I wanted the upgrades, so I could blow stuff up better). Bioware did throw me a bone, as in my second play through they give you 50,000 units of EACH mineral so you don’t have to mine – as much. You still ‘have’ to. In fact, if you don’t, members of your squad will die during the Omega-4 relay run and subsequent missions. So, there is a choice. Kill off your team (which could have consequences into Mass Effect 3) or do something you may not like, all in the name of ‘stretching out the hours you get for your dollar’, aka, value.

Of course, the slap in the face is that Bioware knows this, which is why after they have made you do it once, the second time they shave off a few hours of the menial task.

Back to Callan’s point, ME2 for me would have been a much better experience if it was 16 hours long, and I didn’t have to do a task I hated just to enjoy the parts I liked more.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

3 thoughts on “time = money / money = pizza [therefore] time = pizza”

  1. GoKitty says:
    September 30, 2010 at 11:54 am

    I actually didn’t mind the mining. I would occassionally fall asleep while doing it though.

    Loading...
    Reply
  2. Tesh says:
    September 30, 2010 at 1:11 pm

    Then one has to wonder: Would you pay $50 for a 16-hour ME2 instead of a 20-hour version? Where is the inflection point that says “this just isn’t worth the price”?

    Not that I disagree, but gaming goodness concentration seems to run against the price/value curve somewhere around 10-15 hours from what I’ve seen. If a game (especially one of those RPG things) flirts with being shorter than that, somehow it seems to be not worth the $50, no matter if it’s concentrated awesomeness for the full 9 hours or whatever.

    I think this is why some devs have toyed with episodic content. Shorter games just seem to be worth less, so making it clear up front that they are shorter, and carry a smaller price tag, seems to skew that inflection point. It’s almost like the closer the purchase price is to the impulse barrier, the less important the time consideration becomes. A five episode game might wind up being $75 or so for the full game and a solid 50 hour epic, but when it’s sold in chunks of ten hours of gaming yumminess for $15 apiece, it goes down smoother.

    It’s less about actual game design quality (and yes, grinding SUCKS when it’s necessary for progress… though zen grinding for fun can be OK), and more about perception. Change the perception, and you can slip past some complaints.

    Loading...
    Reply
  3. Isey says:
    October 1, 2010 at 8:54 am

    Good Question, Tesh. Details (paid $39.99 for it) do not really matter. It is hard to judge – I was very satisfied with the gameplay (rant about mining aside) and felt satisfied at the end. Would 10 hours have been too little for what I spent? Probably – then again, I’m not sure if I can put a time limit on the value considering how much I enjoyed the journey. I played through twice, and now am going through a third (I am a Paragon player, going through it now making all the tough guy decisions as a Renegade). So, the replayability value itself naturally adds hours.

    I like the concept of episodic content a lot, if the barrier to entry is low. Trouble there is designing a game, story-boarding it out, hire staff, launch – and then keeping up with the content as consumers devour it.

    Loading...
    Reply

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Asmiroth on NHL PlayoffsMay 6, 2025

    Can't believe I missed this post for a week! While not a fan of this particular bracket system, there's so…

  2. Isey on Exploring HOH2: A Fun Roguelike ExperienceApril 29, 2025

    I am with you on meta progression. It's what makes it fun for me, at least. Even failing miserably typically…

  3. Naithin on Exploring HOH2: A Fun Roguelike ExperienceFebruary 16, 2025

    I've played some of the earlier titles in this series so HoH2 has definitely been on my radar, just haven't…

  4. Naithin on The Beginning Of the End : A Look BackFebruary 16, 2025

    Belated response, but yay! And as I think the comment section here has already demonstrated, pluralising 'reader' would not have…

  5. QUEST August, 2008 on I Has BlogFebruary 6, 2025

    […] In my introductory post I explained why I was going to blog (same reasons as everyone else) why I…

  • Dune Awakening players call out unfair Landsraad mechanics and ornithopters ‘goomba stomping’ in PvP
    Source: Massively Overpowered Published on 6 hours ago By Chris Neal
  • The Imperium is Moving East, Leaving Delve and Querious, with Goonswarm Moving into Insmother
    Source: The Ancient Gaming Noob Published on 10 hours ago By Wilhelm Arcturus
  • I'll Take Six To Go - Better Make Them Small Ones.
    Source: Inventory Full Published on 1 day ago By Bhagpuss
  • Age of Mythology: Heavenly Spear and More Grumping
    Source: Superior Realities Published on 1 day ago By Tyler F.M. Edwards
  • World of Warcraft: Into the jaws of aspiration
    Source: Bio Break Published on 1 day ago By Syp
  • Satisfactory – 1.1
    Source: Leo's Life Published on 2 days ago By Asmiroth
  • Accidental Morning Person
    Source: Tales of the Aggronaut Published on 2 days ago By Belghast
  • Rod Dreher’s Panic Piece: Gatekeeping, Grift, and the “Woke Right” Smear
    Source: Wolfshead Online Published on 3 days ago By Wolfshead
  • Eight years of blogging about (mostly) old games
    Source: MailValtar Published on 8 days ago By Mailvaltar
  • (GR) Wildlands: Pardon
    Source: Joseph Skyrim Published on 9 days ago By Joseph Skyrim
  • My PlayStation Plus Sub is Expiring and I Couldn’t Be Happier
    Source: Dragonchasers Published on 13 days ago By Nimgimli
  • Twenty five years tending this digital allotment
    Source: Welshtroll Published on 13 days ago
  • Time to Loot Journal: May 2025
    Source: Time to Loot Published on 14 days ago By Naithin
  • Some Video Games Are Better Watched Than Played
    Source: Contains Moderate Peril Published on 17 days ago By Roger Edwards
  • Everything's A Scam
    Source: Broken Toys Published on 29 days ago By Scott Jennings
  • The Great WelpSquadTV Twitch Highlight Migration
    Source: I'm Not Squishy Published on 1 month ago By Kluwes
  • Book Review: A Song of Legends Lost by M.H. Ayinde
    Source: Dragons and Whimsy Published on 2 months ago By Jaedia
  • My Pathfinder 2E Beginner Box improvements
    Source: Gaming SF Published on 2 months ago By Telwyn
  • Daily Ramble for March 10 2025
    Source: Beyond Tannhauser Gate Published on 3 months ago By Rambling Redshirt
  • Placeholders Placed
    Source: The Last Chapter Published on 3 months ago By atherne
  • One week of Stars Reach Kickstarter
    Source: Dr Raph Koster Published on 3 months ago By Raph Koster
  • A Tale of Three Dusts
    Source: Tish Tosh Tesh Published on 4 months ago By Tesh
  • Videogame Radio and Soundtrack Spotlight
    Source: MMO Gypsy Published on 5 months ago By Syl
  • Superior self-hosted music streaming without Spotify
    Source: Psy-Q's Brain Dump Published on 5 months ago
  • Real People
    Source: Kill Ten Rats Published on 6 months ago By Ethic
  • GW2: World Restructuring – The More Things Change
    Source: Why I Game Published on 7 months ago By Jeromai
  • Modern SWTOR Part II: the game in 2024
    Source: Yeebo Fernbottom Published on 8 months ago By Yeebo
  • Jackpot
    Source: A**holes Watching Movies Published on 9 months ago By Jay
  • Blaugust 2024: The End of a Journey and the Start of Something More
    Source: A Hobbits Journey Published on 9 months ago By Detached
  • Repetition is the Key
    Source: I Have Touched the Sky Published on 1 year ago By rowanblaze
  • Big List Of 100 Fantasy Side Quests
    Source: Kitty Kitty Boom Boom Published on 1 year ago By Silverangel
  • Why It’s Been Quiet Around Here
    Source: Aywren Published on 3 years ago By Aywren Sojourner
  • CMON's Rising Sun
    Source: Null Signifier Published on 3 years ago By Duke of O
  • And yet another minute…
    Source: Nomadic Gamers Published on 3 years ago By pkudude99
  • The 7th Hour
    Source: Me Vs. Myself and I Published on 3 years ago By Izlain
1
2
Next

Guilds and Clans

  • Ascension (GRIP) My WoW guild website… website is gone, guild is still there! (www.aguild.net) 0
  • Forward Line of Own Troops My FPS online clan 0
  • Mongbat (GRIP) WAR Guild 0
  • The Grove Message Boards – First EQ guild on Testserver cue nostalgia! 0

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
  • 2K Games
  • Activision
  • ALpha
  • Amazon
  • Anthem
  • Apple
  • Arenanet
  • Art
  • ArtCraft Entertainment
  • Battlefield
  • Beta
  • Bethesda
  • Bioware
  • Black Sand Studios
  • Blaugust
  • Blizzard
  • BlogNation
  • Broadsword (DAOC)
  • Bteam
  • Bungie
  • Carbine
  • Casual
  • CCP
  • CD Projekt
  • City State Entertainment
  • clash royale
  • Cloud Imperium Games
  • Codename Entertainment
  • Combat Testing
  • Comics
  • Commodore
  • Community
  • Creaky Corpse LTD
  • Critical Role
  • Cruising
  • Cyanide
  • Cyberpunk 2077
  • D&D
  • Dauntless
  • Daybreak (SOE)
  • DDO
  • Destiny
  • Developers
  • DICE
  • Digital Extremes
  • Disney
  • Draft Necromancy
  • Dungeons and Dragons
  • EA
  • Economist
  • Epic Games
  • EQ2
  • Everquest
  • Fallout
  • Fashionably Late
  • Firaxis
  • Fortnite
  • FPS
  • Freaky Friday
  • Funcom
  • Gazillion
  • General
  • Gong Show
  • Google
  • Hardware
  • Harebrained Schemes
  • Hearthstone
  • Heroes of Hammerwatch II
  • Hi-Rez Studios
  • Idle COTFR
  • iHasConsole
  • iHAShealth
  • IHASPC
  • Indy
  • Keen Games
  • Kickstarter
  • Life (and Interwebs)
  • Lore
  • LOTRO
  • Ludeon
  • Ludia
  • Magic The Gathering
  • Marvel
  • Microsoft
  • Minecraft
  • MMO
  • Mobile Games
  • Monte Crisco
  • Movies
  • MSDOS
  • Mythic
  • Naughty Dog
  • ncsoft
  • NetEase
  • NetherRealm
  • news
  • Nexon
  • Nintendo
  • Nodding Wistfully
  • Obsidian
  • P1999
  • pages
  • Paladins
  • Pantheon MMO
  • Personal
  • Politics (sorry!)
  • Project 1999
  • PS4
  • PVP
  • random thoughts
  • REading
  • Red Hook Studios
  • Respawn
  • Riot
  • Rocksteady
  • RogueLike
  • RPG
  • RTS
  • Sandbox
  • Sid Meier
  • Slay The Spire
  • Sony
  • Sports
  • Square Enix
  • Star Wars
  • Steam
  • Strategy
  • Super Heroes
  • SUPERCELL
  • SuperGiant
  • SWKOTORMMORPG
  • TellTale Games
  • The Indie Stone
  • Third Person Shooter
  • THQ
  • Tom CLancy
  • Torchlight
  • Turbine
  • TV
  • Twitter
  • Ubisoft
  • Uncategorized
  • Valve
  • Videos
  • Vindictus
  • Visionary Realms
  • Warriors of Waterdeep
  • WildStar
  • Wizards of the Coast
  • World of Warcraft
  • Year in Review
  • Zombie
©2025 | Built using WordPress and Responsive Blogily theme by Superb
%d