Me--a cheapskate?
May. 30th, 2003 12:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanjuNo, not really. Claims by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snippy that I suffer from sticker shock when confronted with the price of good furniture or the size of her mortgage payments are greatly exaggerated. Well, a little exaggerated. And I've gotten better about it in the last four years--I swear!
But I do confess to being a cheapskate when it comes to computer games. I tend to buy games only after they've been out for a couple of years and the price has dropped from ~$50 to something more reasonable, like $20. Or less. That this also gives me plenty of time to find out whether it's really worth owning is an important part of the buying decision as well.
I'm not a good computer game customer. I hate Real Time Strategy games, which are all the rage. I'll never be as coordinated or fast at giving orders as the computer and I hate that kind of game. Flight simulators are no fun, and I hate single-vessel "space combat" games (though I'd love a game of grand strategy like the Honor Harrington universe...I think). Very few games hold my interest for long, and so I know I'm not likely to get my money's worth unless the game comes cheaply. There are exceptions, of course. I still enjoy playing the original X-Com: UFO Defense, which is old as the hills in computer years. I also enjoy Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I recently finished Max Payne and enjoyed that one. I like Combat Mission.
On the other hand, the list of games I've bought and discovered I don't really play much (if at all) includes Rainbox Six, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, No One Lives Forever, Battlecruiser 3000, Soldiers at War and Black and White (easily the most disappointing--snippy and I bought it expecting great things. It turned out be a damn electronic pet; we had zero interest in training the damn critter and sending it to fight other critters, but that was what the game focused on.
My most recent acquisitions are Commando ($5 baby!) and Half-Life. I haven't even loaded Commando on the computer yet, but I've played around with Half-Life a little. It looks like fun. And as it was both critically acclaimed and popular when it came out (and still is popular), it probably will remain fun. Right now I'm at the very beginning stage, where I have to figure out how to get around in the wrecked base, try to collect weapons more effective than the crowbar I'm carrying, and work out what to do next.
snippy that I suffer from sticker shock when confronted with the price of good furniture or the size of her mortgage payments are greatly exaggerated. Well, a little exaggerated. And I've gotten better about it in the last four years--I swear!But I do confess to being a cheapskate when it comes to computer games. I tend to buy games only after they've been out for a couple of years and the price has dropped from ~$50 to something more reasonable, like $20. Or less. That this also gives me plenty of time to find out whether it's really worth owning is an important part of the buying decision as well.
I'm not a good computer game customer. I hate Real Time Strategy games, which are all the rage. I'll never be as coordinated or fast at giving orders as the computer and I hate that kind of game. Flight simulators are no fun, and I hate single-vessel "space combat" games (though I'd love a game of grand strategy like the Honor Harrington universe...I think). Very few games hold my interest for long, and so I know I'm not likely to get my money's worth unless the game comes cheaply. There are exceptions, of course. I still enjoy playing the original X-Com: UFO Defense, which is old as the hills in computer years. I also enjoy Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I recently finished Max Payne and enjoyed that one. I like Combat Mission.
On the other hand, the list of games I've bought and discovered I don't really play much (if at all) includes Rainbox Six, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, No One Lives Forever, Battlecruiser 3000, Soldiers at War and Black and White (easily the most disappointing--
snippy and I bought it expecting great things. It turned out be a damn electronic pet; we had zero interest in training the damn critter and sending it to fight other critters, but that was what the game focused on.My most recent acquisitions are Commando ($5 baby!) and Half-Life. I haven't even loaded Commando on the computer yet, but I've played around with Half-Life a little. It looks like fun. And as it was both critically acclaimed and popular when it came out (and still is popular), it probably will remain fun. Right now I'm at the very beginning stage, where I have to figure out how to get around in the wrecked base, try to collect weapons more effective than the crowbar I'm carrying, and work out what to do next.