Why are RPGs so expensive?
As I'm nearing in on completing my set, I'm finding a lot of the games I avoided buying till now were RPGs, I've noticed something else...they are really expensive! Even the games that I would say are far from rare, still sell for 4-5 times what most other games of equal rarity sell for. The exceptionally annoying part about this is that I find these games to be basically unplayable pieces of crap.
I don't understand the appeal...they are text based, and super boring. Maybe I just don't get it? I mostly prefer side-scrollers, and puzzle games. There are a few games I really enjoy though that from what I understand contain RPG like elements such as Maniac Mansion and Simon's Quest. Those are two of my favorite NES games, but because I guess they aren't classified as true RPGs they don't seem to fall under the pricing insanity that others do. It almost seems like the gold label on the back spells doom when it comes to price.
Does anyone have any idea why these games are so expensive, and secondly if you enjoy any of them what exactly is fun about them. In all honesty I haven't given them much of a chance, but what I have I haven't enjoyed in the slightest, maybe I'm missing something.
Comments
My favorite games are gun games, puzzle games, and side scrollers
It is crazy the prices on most of them though perhaps lower print runs?
1. They are usually produced in smaller numbers, so become more rare. There are a lot less copies of DW4 than SMB3 in this world. Of course, there are millions of FF7, but that's popularity, not scarcity.
2. There is usually more ephemera (maps, guides, charts, soundtracks, etc) than in your typical Crash Bandicoot game.
3. They are worth more to gamers because they represent hours and hours of gameplay (you can stretch it out as long as you want with grinding, sidequests, etc). I would pay $75 for Lunar because if I played it, I would get a lot of playing-time out of it. Mary Kate and Ashley go to the mall - I can finish in 5 minutes
4. Expensive RPGs are often parts of a series, which means they have fans and followings, driving the price up.
5. RPGs have high replay value in that in many games, you can play them again in a different way and get a different experience. Even early one's like DW1 have replay value even if the gameplay is the same - the game is so long, there is more you are likely to have forgotten when you play it 5 years later. As for SMB1, I know every coin and secret by heart, so I rarely play it again.
Just my thouhts, sorry for the article!
To answer the question I'd guess that someone who's invested 100 hours in a game is more likely to spend big bucks on acquiring that title than someone that had 2 hours of casual fun with a sports title. More nostalgia/memories. And the people that like them seem to really like them.
For my money they are boring as hell 99% of the time.
For NES, they are usually expensive because they are uncommon games with high demand due to popularity. That I do understand, but when it comes to other systems such as the PS1 I am baffled by the crazy high prices some extreemly mass produced RPGs fetch! Honestly, some of the rpgs that reach higher prices arent even the best out there IMO. There are plenty of fantastic games (such as Final Fantasy IX, which I think is 10 x better than VII) that only sell in the $15 range.
That being said, I like RPG's a lot, but I cannot play them back to back. I have so many games that I want to play that I find it a lot more enjoyable to play through an RPG and then play several other games of any random genre for a couple months before I tackle another RPG.
RPGs are awesome.
Don't try playing RPGs if you have the patience/attention span of a 5 year old.
I like RPGs but it is annoying that they are a bit expensive.
I mean... the entire time ps2 games were being pumped out, EVERY rpg had a initial price tag of like $39.99 or more, and there were so many of them...
There were so many $20 budget games put out, why can't there be a poor man's RPG that isn't crap?
Guess with all the writing and story development team's salaries it sort of makes sense, but STILL!
becuse RPG's usually aren't $20 shovelware.
They're expensive because there is a following for them, but they really don't appeal to the masses. The publishers know this and usually don't overproduce the titles. thus they don't hit the bargain bin very often or if they do, they're gobbled up quickly.
Now , after they're out of print, some new people decide, "wow , I like this and want to buy it" they have to go to the second hand market which isn't very big because the original owners tend to hold on to these games and there wasn't an overproduction. over time the demand tends to be bigger than the supply.
Also, there are quite a few RPG only collectors out there. Even more RPG focused collectors (see the post above this one).
Quoted for truth. In fact, when I started collecting video games in general back at the end of July '02, RPGs were what I collected. As a matter of fact, I'm getting back into them lately now that I've kinda reached a plateau with my NES collection (I don't believe that I've bought any new games for my set since the Campout...just been sorting and organizing, finding out that I have CIB Volleyball variants, finding out that I'm 36 boxes away from 300 and probably sitting right on 400 manuals, finding out that I need to order another huge stack of box protectors from justabum...I get paid today with my bonus...maybe I should do that o_O ). I also lucked into a couple "sources" that can get me Japanese RPG limited boxes for significantly cheaper than most auctions I've seen...and those limited boxes were almost always a weakness of mine.
(I didn't get much sleep last night...I hope you will pardon the rambling
I like RPGs but it is annoying that they are a bit expensive.
I mean... the entire time ps2 games were being pumped out, EVERY rpg had a initial price tag of like $39.99 or more, and there were so many of them...
There were so many $20 budget games put out, why can't there be a poor man's RPG that isn't crap?
Guess with all the writing and story development team's salaries it sort of makes sense, but STILL!
Considering new games are $60, and last gen games were nearly always $50, $40 for a new collector's edition isn't exactly what I'd consider expensive. As for the $20 release, they've done that too. Odin's Sphere released at $20 and was considered awesome by many.
Because they're awesome.
That is so sexy.
Having an NES obsession sucks sometimes.
- they are only populair with a group of people and not the general public,
- they often sold very poorly which makes them rare
- because of the low popularity they had low printruns which makes them rare
- they often have great replay value, so people want to keep playing them
- there are many people looking for them, which ups the price
- they are often lengthy games with immense stories.. you're not done with the average rpg in 10 hours.. which you are with the average mainstream game