Unpopular opinions go here

[doctorbadwolf]

Optimists generally think everything will be awesome and they're constantly disappointed because things are almost always worse than they expect, yet they're overly happy people.

I’m rarely like…greatly disappointed by life. A thing may not go how I want it to go, but other things will. If it’s the bad of the world…well, I probably won’t be too worried about it!

Anyway I think pessimists are sad because something going well doesn’t turn off the “everything will end badly” voice in the back of their head.

I’ve overthought this haven’t I?

I think the explanation is pretty clear. I wasn’t making it up.

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[Edited: For the right quote!

Right. Basically, if what you’re doing makes sense….it’s not a fallacy.

If you think that's bad, with the thousands of hours of writing, coding, playtesting, creation of art assets, voice over work, creating a soundtrack, etc...wait until you hear about this other scam where an analog pen and paper game costs at least $50 per book...and you need at least three books to play it.

Hey now ya only need the PHB to play!

But yeah seriously we are getting this stuff basically for free compared to what it’s worth.

I certainly don't know enough about the video game industry as a whole. But I know this much: lots of studios manage to make awesome games for a fraction of that price, sell millions of copies, and still keep the lights on. They're doing something right.

Those studios are very rarely capable of soemthing like BG3 or a Dragon Age or Elder Scrolls, or Breath of The Wild. Yeah, they’re doing something right, it just isn’t the same thing as AAA studios, many of whom are also doing something right.

60 dollar video games are actually a bargain. Adjusted for inflation video games are some of the cheapest seemingly inflation proof commodities out there.

I wish necessities had prices as stable and slow to rise as video games…

 

[Parmandur]

I wish necessities had prices as stable and slow to rise as video games…

Well, a bug part of it is that video games used to be insanely profitable. Like, a new Atari 2600 game cost the equivalent of $100 in today's money...but did not take very many people very much time to make. Huge, huge profit margins. They are still very profitable, just the crazy gold mine of the 80's.

 

[CleverNickName]

You've heard the joke, "Optimists say the glass is half full, Pessimists say the glass is half empty, and Engineers say the glass is overdesigned."

But that's not the whole story.

A civil engineer would say the glass is properly designed with FS=2, which is appropriate for water storage vessels of a certain size.

 

[Aldarc]

I tend to think with an extra axis when it comes to Pessimism and Optimism, namely Positivism and Negativism. Half-glass empty or full is more of a Positivism/Negativism thing. But to showcase the difference, it may work better with a doctor who gives you a diet after your visit.

A Positivist doctor will give you a diet and emphasize what you can eat. However, they can then be optimistic or pessimistic about your ability to stick to the diet.

A Negativist doctor will give you a diet and emphasize what you can't eat. However, they can then be optimistic or pessimistic about your ability to stick to the diet.

 

[deganawida]

Fantasy RPG designers: I do not care how cool you feel your planes are, unless the setting is primarily about the planes, the energy that you spend developing a super-detailed cosmology would be better spent elsewhere. This goes double for alignment-based planes, which are super boring.

(Likely yet another unpopular opinion which I have.)

 

[James Gasik]

Fantasy RPG designers: I do not care how cool you feel your planes are, unless the setting is primarily about the planes, the energy that you spend developing a super-detailed cosmology would be better spent elsewhere. This goes double for alignment-based planes, which are super boring.

(Likely yet another unpopular opinion which I have.)

There are a few of the alignment-based planes that turned out cool eventually, but there's a lot that are just sort of...there. I really like Mechanus as this ultra orderly clockwork dimension, and just about anything can be found in the Abyss (all of it generally bad). But I don't get a lot of mileage out of Limbo, Acheron, Carceri/Tarterus, Hades. And the Upper Planes? You could mash them all up into one generic "Heaven" plane as far as I'm concerned. Sure, Greek inspired Heaven is different than Norse inspired Heaven, but I've rarely seen them used for anything interesting; at least the other planes are filled with antagonists or strange beings that require some interesting roleplay to interact with.

 

[Reynard]

You've heard the joke, "Optimists say the glass is half full, Pessimists say the glass is half empty, and Engineers say the glass is overdesigned."

But that's not the whole story.

A civil engineer would say the glass is properly designed with FS=2, which is appropriate for water storage vessels of a certain size.

As a civil engineer, I approve of this joke.

 

[Celebrim]

Here's where I'm coming from.

I get where you are coming from and in most situations that's perfectly valid, but I would still argue that there are times that a video game is worth $60.

And one of those situations is you have a large friend group that all wants to buy the game on release. At that point, the $30 or so you are paying for the game isn't really about the game but about all the lunch breaks and pre-RPG dinners where you talk about the game. You're spending $30 to not be clueless during those and to share in the excitement. And maybe you are spending $30 or so to game socially and play some multi-player for a dozen hours with people you actually know and like. That's why people want to buy a game on early release. It's not just bragging rights. Some nerds are actually social ("sick and demented, but social").

Another scenario where buying the game at full price makes sense is that you are heavily invested in the story, maybe because it is the sequel to a game you were invested in, and you want to get the game before the inevitable spoilers start leaking all around you because you know, gamers aren't just social at the level of friendships but as a whole community with our own media, celebrities, and memes.

 

[Velderan]

You see, one of the advantages of playing Nintendo games is that they barely ever give major discounts, so there's no analysis paralysis: Tears of the Kingdom ain't going on sale anytime soon, and we already got hundreds of hours out of it (hours of entertainment is the only useful comparison I can think of, frankly: I'm paid by the hour, so how much of my free time a game is worth divided by itcost is the value I got out of it). It wouldn't make any sense to wait on it.

They also don't tend to release 1st party games that are broken messes relying on a day 1 patch to fix something that should have been caught and fixed during the QA process. Sometimes I wait to buy a game not because of the price but because reviews generally agree it needs a patch to fix something.

 

[Reynard]

They also don't tend to release 1st party games that are broken messes relying on a day 1 patch to fix something that should have been caught and fixed during the QA process. Sometimes I wait to buy a game not because of the price but because reviews generally agree it needs a patch to fix something.

I like that BG3 dropped so close to Starfield so I have an excuse to give Starfield the 2 or 3 months it will need to be playable before I dive in.