So I'm sittin' here at the computer, seaching around on=line game stores trying to field requests and seeing if certain games are oldwarez or not and such. It seems that the christmas game selection has hit, as most of the 'featured' games I saw, I have never heard of. And games that were common the last time I was in a computing store, weren't for sale at all(Only one of the multitude of things that the christmas 'rush' does to computer games). As I was browsing around, The Sims Online caught my eye. The well-selling, but obviously planned money whore from the beginning.

Looking back on the release of The Sims, they wowed everyone with a sort-of original concept. I remember my first time playing this game I was frustrated with how few items there were and how limited you were (had to stay in neighborhood, no pets, no real planned get togethers, a lot others). It felt more like a science experiment in high school where the teacher tells all the kids in class to bring a part in, but only a quater of the class does. The whole thing just felt really bare to me. (Really, it couldn't have been THAT hard to implement new jobs or items. I assume the core code building is what would have taken up most of the time) Not-so-surprisingly, EA started releasing a flurry of expansion packs, that added, in my opinion, quite little to the game every time, for almost the same price as the original game! (I bet there are going to be a lot more than one person retiring to a yacht after this series dies out).

So back to Sims Online. If someone is a die-hard 'Simmer' (Oh that sounds so dumb) and already has the game, and most of the expansion packs, can they get a small update to update to on-line capability (like a $10 CD-Rom)? Not that I'm aware of! The whole Sims online game costs 75$US!!! $30 higher than usual fresh releases! (with the exception of Wizard Works. some of their games are very good and are released at $20) I already think $50 is way too steep for a game, and won't buy them at that price, but $75?!? If this sells well, will other companies be encouraged to do this? (Now don't tell me this is to pay for their servers... many games have been released for heavy internet play at regular cost, and no monthly fee)

[edit] various spelling errors...

Tuss

Edited by Tuss at 16:08 on December, 11th 2002

I noticed the same, but this trend has been going on for some while now. It works both ways, though. The times when everything cost $50 are long over, and now you basically have 4 price categories:

1. $20 - budget titles, mainly board and tycoon games.
3. $40 - Titles of new publishers who want to break into the market. Games by Strategy First and JoWooD are good representatives of this segment.
3. $50 - Old publishers, unwilling to change their ways: Microsoft, Vivendi, EA
4. $50+ - Overhyped games. The trend was started with Warcraft III ($60) and Neverwinter Nights ($60), and now continues with The Sims On-Line. Oh, and don't forget that you will be paying a monthly fee to play the game as well .

There are monthly fees? Worse than I thought. The two wizard works games I have though, are far from performing like budget titles.

Tuss

Here in Belgium, PC-games have been expensive for as long as I can remember. An ordenary titla costs somewhere between 40 and 50? last time I checked. The mega-hyped games are also 50+? and budgettitles are something like 20 to 30? depending on the titles. If you look hard though, you can find some classics (eg battlechess 4000) for prizes around 5? but like I said, you don't find that often...

Oh, by the way, where did you check The Sims On-Line prices? Both EBGames and Amazon sell them for $49.99. There's a The Sims Online Charter Edition for $74.99, which includes three free months of playing.

So let's put it together: for an additional $25, you can play for three months for free. That would indicate that you'd pay $100 annually to play the game, in addition to the $50 price. If the game proves to be as addictive as The Sims, you get at least two years worth of fees ($200) from several million players.

I'm afraid that if this game proves successful, we'll see many more fee-based games in the future, at the expense of good, single player games...

Since I didn't put any hope into new game developments in the last few years anyway, I'm not disappointed by this (true) trend

Well, come on now. There are a few good new games from time to time. I can thing of three...actually, four, this year alone .

Dream on - there will never be a good commercial game again

I buy very few new games these days, due to these prices I mentioned, and reading a bunch of rave reviews about a game then plunking down $40 to buy it, only to find out the reviews just got a lot of cahoots about the graphics, and the gameplay is paper thin... about the same as pong. Disgusting!

Tuss

here, here and here. Three games, each of which shines on its own, and in the average year would become the Game of the Year. (Ironically, all three games were made by the French.)

Crappy RPG, poor clone of Sierra's old Mech-strategy game, Myst.

Best RPG since Ultima Underworld II, most original concept this century, best adventure game since Broken Sword. And the fact that you compare Syberia to Myst only shows your total ignorance .

What is "Syberia"?

The game you compared to a Myst clone

What is "Myst"? Isn't it called "Mist"?

Edited by Mr Creosote at 22:11 on December, 11th 2002

You all complain about game prices, almost every new game here at least $80 then the super games you would expect to pay $100+. To us this is alot but I spose to you Europeans and Americans, this alot to us is about 10 bucks to you , import your games from here that will save you money.

Actually, there's one more trend I have noticed. Buy the game for $50, and a year later buy the patch for $30. It's called the "Civilization III Play the World" marketing strategy, named after the first game to successfully use it .

I don't see what is original in those 3 tittles. If there is indeed some originality, your reviews failed to show them at all.

Never played NetStorm, NetDanzr?

That's the last (and maybe only) worthy thing Sierra has ever done for me. They completely revamped Red Baron II, and resold it as Red Baron 3D, but made a patch that enabled all Red Baron II users to upgrade to it for free.

Tuss

Huh? Has there ever be a Red Baron in 2D (or 1D)?