• rumba@lemmy.zip
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    7 hours ago

    $10 in q-bert days is like 50-60 now :)

    Can any of the leading games in the last decade do that?

    Satisfactory, Dyson Sphere project, Factorio, Minecraft, Dreamlight Valley

    Arcade games were great because it’s what we had. Sit a kid in front a Q-Bert now and try to get 1000 hours out of it.

    Stuff is getting too big, there’s too much emphasis on making it pretty to sell it rather than making it fun, but I don’t know that we could go back to arcade games. I fear our nostalgia is a half-dose of Stockholm’s syndrome.

    • wellheh@lemmy.sdf.org
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      5 hours ago

      $50-60 based on what? Adjusted for inflation in 1982, it’s more like $33 and distribution costs are way lower than back then. Truth is you just need to find a compelling gameplay loop but companies don’t like taking risks- not every game needs to be a massive endeavor like skyrim. Look at games like slay the spire and see how a cheap game can be compelling without having to be a AAA behemoth. And at that note, is there even anything wrong if a game only takes your attention for a hundred hours? I don’t see the need to extend the player’s attention with poor side quest grinding. These things add unnecessary cost

      • rumba@lemmy.zip
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        4 hours ago

        The $10 games were trash in 1982. You’re going to spend 30 on something like Q-bert https://www.polygon.com/2014/6/4/5779048/atari-et-ads-commercials-videos-1982

        https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

        in 2025 Money, that’s $99, assuming you got it used I gave you 50-60

        is there even anything wrong if a game only takes your attention for a hundred hours

        I don’t think so, but you’re the one who mentioned it :)

        but I got hundreds if not thousands of hours of gameplay out of Qbert. Can any of the leading games in the last decade do that?

        • wellheh@lemmy.sdf.org
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          2 hours ago

          Wow, shift goalposts much? You said “$10 in qbert days” which was the 80s and now it’s not $10 it’s $30. You can just admit you got it wrong and it was never $10 (though I do think prices right now are actually well aligned at $60 because of the far lower costs in distribution and marketing). Also I’m NOT the OP who played thousands of hours on qbert. Great job quoting someone else.