The Some Like It HOT TAKES thread

Jonman wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

If you’re a subscription based consumer, the price per hour is massively lower than what you’ve listed there. Games subscription services are similar. Netflix, Audible, Kindle Prime, Apple Music, Spotify, and Game Pass are ridiculously lower in price per hour than a premium purchase would be.

Or it's massively higher, if you're not using it.

I paid $10 last month for my Game Pass sub, and didn't play a single game on that service, because I was busy with games on other platforms. So that was infinity dollars/hour. :)

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garion333 wrote:
staygold wrote:

A meal at a restaurant: $75/hr

That's a lot of wine and surf and turf!

Or a 5 minute scarfing of a MiccyD's burger.

Beaujolais Nouveau is the wine equivalent of putting green food coloring in cheap bear on St. Patrick's Day; it's not notably good and only special because people invented a marketing holiday to get people to drink crap.

It's not a GAMING Hot Takes thread.

Jonman wrote:

The entirety of the videogame economy stands at odds with this.

You know why I'm not willing to pay $50 for your Slay The Spires? Because I know full well that if I sit on my hands for a few months, I can pay $30 for it instead, or $15 a few months after that.

I mean, I went back and checked. I paid $16 for Slay The Spire, which launched at $25. And that purchase was BEFORE it launched (i.e. Early Access).

The videogame economy is bananas. You can get a game cheaper before AND after it launches. That $50 price tag only exists ephemerally, for a brief period of time. Sure, there's outliers to that model, like Factorio, but they're rarer than hen's teeth. With that in mind, is it any wonder that a lot of us are averse to a "full-price" purchase? Because we've been conditioned to know that that's the "chump-price" and the "savvy-price" is just around the corner.

Like this:

Star Wars Squadrons lauched at $40 six weeks ago. Today, it's on sale for $21.69

It's madness. HOT TAKE - Full price is chump price.

Jonman wrote:
garion333 wrote:
staygold wrote:

A meal at a restaurant: $75/hr

That's a lot of wine and surf and turf!

Or a 5 minute scarfing of a MiccyD's burger. :)

Or Tuesday night take out in San Francisco or New York.

Carlbear95 wrote:
Jonman wrote:
garion333 wrote:
staygold wrote:

A meal at a restaurant: $75/hr

That's a lot of wine and surf and turf!

Or a 5 minute scarfing of a MiccyD's burger. :)

Or Tuesday night take out in San Francisco or New York.

staygold is from Canada, so we all forgot to double our mental images of prices.

Also, I should've said that it's a lot of wine and poutine, natch.

garion333 wrote:

staygold is from Canada, so we all forgot to double our mental images of prices.

Also, I should've said that it's a lot of wine and poutine, natch.

BWAAAAHAAAAHAAA!!!! Yes!

I’ve never figured out a clear way to communicate it but for me a lot of my concerns with game price comes down to commitment. Time commitment is as important to me as dollar commitment. Maybe more.

The time commitment for a AAA 40+ hour open world game is so high. I know I stop playing most of them before I finish them. I dislike leaving a game unfinished unless I really hated it. I absolutely hate paying for a game I don’t finish regardless of whether I hated the game.

Trying a game I have on game pass (especially if it’s on xCloud) takes almost zero commitment so the risk of triggering my above conditions is very very low and it usually feels worth it to me. If I love it and play a ton of hours that’s awesome. If I don’t finish because I didn’t like it I don’t care because I didn’t pay extra for that game.

I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like Assassins Creed Odyssey so I waited until I got it on sale for really cheap. I only made it a couple hours in before stopping. My dollar commitment was low and my expected time commitment was low. I’m a little annoyed to have paid for a thing I don’t plan to finish but not hugely annoyed because the price was low. Had I paid full price I would be pissed right off.

Knowing this about myself i avoid ever allowing that to happen. I do not pay full price for long single player experiences (high time and dollar commitment) because the chances of me being angry are too high and the price will eventually come down to the point where my commitment is low.

The other bit that always comes into my “commitment” math is what other things I’ll miss out on because I’m committing time to this new game. If it’s a short game this is a non-issue but if it’s one of those big 40+ (or even 20+) hour games then it definitely impacts me.

Right now I’m looking at CoD BO Cold War and doing the commitment math. It’s a full price game and the price will not come down over time (historical evidence). There is a time pressure to get into multiplayer while my friends are playing it. There is a short low commitment campaign that does not justify the full asking price but at least I’d definitely finish it if I started so I wouldn’t trigger my frustration at not finishing things I pay for. There is a complicating factor on this one tho and that is that my CoD friends mostly play Warzone and I expect them to go back to Warzone quickly and only spend a little time playing Cold War. So is some occasional multiplayer and a short campaign worth the full price tag on this game? Still debating.

On the far other end of the spectrum is Rocket League. I bought Rocket League at full price when it came to Xbox. It’s a multiplayer focused game and my friends were getting into it so there was some pressure to buy right away. The dollar commitment wasn’t huge. The time commitment was near zero. It’s a game you can play for 7 minutes and have a complete unit of fun with an ending. You can continuously choose to spend 7 minute units of time on it in the future or stop at any time and be “finished”. There is no disappointment about not “finishing”. It’s been almost 5 years since I first bought it and in that time I’ve spent over $150 on Rocket League and played thousands of hours and felt immense value per dollar. I don’t know how I could have predicted that outcome at all because I didn’t know I’d like the game as much as I did (having zero previous experience with similar games).

Rocket League actually complicates all my decisions with other games because I have to say to myself “is this game worth the money AND better than just spending that time playing Rocket League instead?” I can keep making the easy decision of having fun 7 minutes at a time in Rocket League for $0 dollars. That’s a way lower commitment an way higher guaranteed chance of fun than pretty much everything else. Thankfully game pass has made this easier for me since I don’t pay for individual games anymore I don’t feel bad if I don’t finish them so I can sample a lot of stuff and see if it sticks and if it passes the “worth not playing Rocket League for a bit” test.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

putting green food coloring in cheap bear on St. Patrick's Day

You and I remember St. Patrick’s day very differently.

garion333 wrote:
staygold wrote:

A meal at a restaurant: $75/hr

That's a lot of wine and surf and turf!

Or dinner for a family of five at, like, Red Robin or something. I envy all y'all who get these hours-long meals as a couple that a $75 tab seems like Richie Rich.

Redherring wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:

putting green food coloring in cheap bear on St. Patrick's Day

You and I remember St. Patrick’s day very differently.

Drinking bad green beer is how people are "Irish" on St. Patrick's Day in the same way eating at a chain Mexican restaurant is how people celebrate Cinqo de Mayo. It's a U.S. thing, and throwing up green beer is one of those college traditions I think everybody regrets at some point.

Redherring wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:

putting green food coloring in cheap bear on St. Patrick's Day

You and I remember St. Patrick’s day very differently.

In the bear's defense, its 401k got wiped out during the initial stock market crash.

Assassin’s creed: Black flag is the ONLY top five assassin’s creed game.

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If your pineapple pizza does not have jalapeños on it, then you’re doing it wrong.

You have my pizza cutter Rawk.

DC Malleus wrote:

You have my pizza cutter Rawk.

Hot take: I AM your pizza cutter. I’ll put your pizza up on the ones and twos and cut it back-and-forth, back-and-forth!

ClockworkHouse wrote:
garion333 wrote:
staygold wrote:

A meal at a restaurant: $75/hr

That's a lot of wine and surf and turf!

Or dinner for a family of five at, like, Red Robin or something. I envy all y'all who get these hours-long meals as a couple that a $75 tab seems like Richie Rich. :P

At this point I don't even remember what the inside of a restaurant looks like.

Spoiler:

Fwiw, the rest of the items in the list appeared to be per individual costs, so assumed dinner was too.

Am I allowed to put my sons hot take here? It is very spicy! today he announced he prefers Gamera films to Star Wars. My kaiju appreciation course has clearly worked!

RawkGWJ wrote:

If your pineapple pizza does not have jalapeños on it, then you’re doing it wrong.

I will accept this; if you're going to commit the mortal sin of putting pineapple on pizza you might as well carom all the way to hell by throwing jalapenos on it as well.

bbk1980 wrote:

Am I allowed to put my sons hot take here? It is very spicy! today he announced he prefers Gamera films to Star Wars. My kaiju appreciation course has clearly worked!

Deeper story?

garion333 wrote:
bbk1980 wrote:

Am I allowed to put my sons hot take here? It is very spicy! today he announced he prefers Gamera films to Star Wars. My kaiju appreciation course has clearly worked!

Deeper story?

More rubber?

Mixolyde wrote:
garion333 wrote:
bbk1980 wrote:

Am I allowed to put my sons hot take here? It is very spicy! today he announced he prefers Gamera films to Star Wars. My kaiju appreciation course has clearly worked!

Deeper story?

More rubber?

More imaginative. Ooooh. Sick burn on Star Wars.

I'm sure Hades is every bit of amazing that everyone claims it to be. Attempted playing it multiple times and haven't made it past a handful of dungeons. The artwork, acting, writing is absolutely superb. I just... get bored and kinda want to go do something else whenever I try.

So yeah. I want to love it, but Hades is boring.

It's a roguelike, so of course it's boring.

RawkGWJ wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:
garion333 wrote:
bbk1980 wrote:

Am I allowed to put my sons hot take here? It is very spicy! today he announced he prefers Gamera films to Star Wars. My kaiju appreciation course has clearly worked!

Deeper story?

More rubber?

More imaginative. Ooooh. Sick burn on Star Wars.

All of the above eat that Star Wars To be fair how much more than fire breathing giant turtle attacks various other beasts does one need. He is starting to notice the stock footage being cut in from previous films he has watched and still doesn't care.

Wait until tomorrow when he gets to Gamera vs Guiron and Gamera does a twirl on some gymnastic bars.

IMAGE(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BogusIncomparableBluegill-max-1mb.gif)

Agathos wrote:

It's a roguelike, so of course it's boring.

I cackled, this is a hot-take that I appreciate as a general roguelike-enjoyer.

Amoebic wrote:
Agathos wrote:

It's a roguelike, so of course it's boring.

I cackled, this is a hot-take that I appreciate as a general roguelike-enjoyer.

I love the idea of roguelike games more than I like playing them.

That being said, Hades is the best roguelite I’ve played in a while. They put serious love into making that game.

DSGamer wrote:

IMAGE(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BogusIncomparableBluegill-max-1mb.gif)

Where are the MST3K goofs?

Mixolyde wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

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Where are the MST3K goofs?

Too easy. They like to be challenged.

RawkGWJ wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

IMAGE(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BogusIncomparableBluegill-max-1mb.gif)

Where are the MST3K goofs?

Too easy. They like to be challenged.

There is a MST3k for a Gamera film I am sure if it unless I am hallucinating and to be fair Gamera fils can be quite hallucinogenic.