The value of videogames (or, why I think Untitled Goose Game was a rip-off)
I have a limited amount of time on this planet. I also have a limited amount of money to spend. Therefore, like any Homo Economicus, I have a rational desire to get the most value for money for my time-wasting distractions.
So, after months of memes, I bought Untitled Goose Game on the Nintendo Switch to play over the Xmas break. I baulked at the price - £18 - but figured since everyone else on Twitter enjoyed it, I would as well.
I settled down to play it one afternoon, picked it up the next morning, and was staggered to discover I'd completed it! I am not good at video games. I didn't look up any walkthroughs. The game is short, and pretty crappy value for money.
Goose is fun while it lasts. It's not-quite innovative, the puzzles mostly consist of move Thing A to Place B. It's charming and silly. I did enjoy it while I was playing. I suppose the best thing I can say about it is that the whole thing is too short to be repetitive.
(If you think you've read this blog post before, you're right. 5 years ago, after seeing the Internet fawn over a cutesy puzzle game, I wrote "Is Monument Valley Overpriced? Yes." I don't learn my lesson, do I?)
So, does the Goose experience represent value for money?
£/minute
£18 for 5 hours' of entertainment is about the same price-per-minute as a couple of cinema tickets to see the latest Star Wars movie. It's cheaper than going out for cocktails, or a fancy meal.
But it's vastly more expensive than reading a book. The average book I read tends to have a value of about £0.50-per-hour.
OK, but videogames are a different experience to other forms of entertainment.
Goose's £3.60/hour pales into comparison to any of the thousands of free games available on mobile. Many of them are just as fun and innovative. And, did I mention, much cheaper.
My wife plays a lot of open-world games on the PlayStation 4. A second-hand copy of The Witcher, Spider-Man, or any other recent AAA game costs around £20 and offers literally hundreds of hours of gameplay.
Novelty as value
There's another aspect - how much do you value original experiences.
I'd rather go to a new restaurant than eat in the same place twice. As my Untappd data shows, I've never met a new beer that I didn't want to try!
Goose is novel. I've never played as a mischievous bird before. So, reluctantly, I accept the Ludic Value argument.
Shared experience as value
The real gameplay was the memes we made along the way? @GothyTim
And, I guess this is the real reason I see the new Star Wars movies on their opening day. I want to share the experiences with my friends. I don't want to have to dodge spoilers, I want to understand the cryptic memes,
So, this is the future. I can go and read "Moby Dick" for free, and maybe I'll be able to find some dusty social-network where people endlessly discuss Herman Melville. Or I can have a moment of zeitgeist which relies on a mass of people simultaneously experiencing novelty. That's (part of) the reason people buy new books, watch new films, and play new games - even when there's an infinite amount of better, cheaper entertainment.
It's football, isn't it?
I've never understood the sorts of sports fan who say "We won against Melchester!" - obviously they had nothing to do with it.
But they had a shared experience. One which evoked feelings of tribal loyalty, the drama of success and failure, and the soap-opera of personalities. The value isn't in the winning or losing - it's in the discussing with friends, reliving the good times, and feeling part of a community.
I guess I don't have that gene, so will go back to playing obscure, single-player games, with no community, for free.
Aleks Zglińska said on twitter.com:
Enjoyed it, but already have Game Pass on Xbox where I’m playing multiple games and it came up on there…
Fauz Ghauri said on twitter.com:
Try @subsetgames title FTL. Worth every penny and put over 200 hours into it. Replayable. Drm and drm free versions. Great team and runs on really modest hardware.
Fauz Ghauri said on twitter.com:
But yeah, I couldn't justify buying it at that price tag. Will wait a few years.
Alex B says:
I was tempted by it being £15.49-£10=£5.49 on Epic over the holidays, but I balked at that because reviews indicated that it was good, but very short. Like you, I remain excited to role-play as a mischievous goose, however.
On the other hand, I played Fallout 4 obsessively over a free weekend, and committed to buy it when it fell below £10. When it did, I bought it, and installed it... then didn't play it for months. Eventually, the GOTY edition came out, and I resolved to wait until it, or the DLC I was missing fell below £10. The GOTY edition hit that point first, so I bought that too... and still haven't played out since that free weekend! Meanwhile, of course, the GOTY edition has occasionally been even cheaper.
On the other hand, a pint of beer in a pub costs £4-5, and lasts me 30-60 minutes. I don't agonize at all about the relative value when I want a pint...
ocdtrekkie said on twitter.com:
I honestly enjoy shorter games more. The “good” of the experience is concentrated, not spread out over an artificially long period of time.
One of my all-time favorite game purchases: Portal 2, which is like a six hour experience.
Terence Eden said on twitter.com:
Ha! I think I should have taken that approach 🤔
James Whatley says:
I think I picked it up for about £13 on Switch and I thought that was an absolute steal. Yes it's short but a) it's fun, b) it's cheaper than a night out (per your comparison), and c) I like supporting indie developers who come up with fantastic original ideas.
On a similar note, I picked up the REALLY SHORT Sayonara Wild Hearts the other night. Finished it in all of about 2hrs. The game was under a tenner in the sale. I felt it was short once it was through but I didn't experience any buyer's remorse after the fact. Again, I felt happy that my money had gone to an(other) indie developer making awesome original games.
ALSO: Check out Sayonara Wild Hearts 😉
sillypunk said on twitter.com:
I got so much joy from that game and I didn’t even play it.
Chris Emerson said on twitter.com:
Agree – I was disappointed with the length of the game once I bought it myself
Andrew Seward said on twitter.com:
I got a Switch at Christmas, bought the Goose, and completed it quickly. It was also a hit at family gatherings and it made me laugh a lot.
Definitely quality over quantity, it finished with a laugh and did so before the joke outstayed its welcome 🙂