The Value of a Video Game: Part 4 - Resale Value

Here's Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 if you haven't read them or need a refresher. Here's the most economically or financially interesting bit - second hand value of a game.

To me, this is among the most important source of value in a video game. Why? It makes buying a game non-permanent.Why is this important? It means that when you buy a game, you are essentially actually having in on really long term rent. Most stores have a return policy - if you can finish the game in 7 days, or don't like it - guess what? You can return it.

I can never finish games in 7 days, unless it was a short FPS. I'm still playing Disgaea 3 up to now. RPGs and realistic racing sims can last you forever - well, unless you get bored.

Game companies don't see it this way. They think that by locking you in once you've bought it, they can make more money. If your game is good, this is never a problem. Why? Ever see many copies of Final Fantasy XII second hand in a store? (Well, I don't know about other countries, but in Australia, good luck finding a 2nd hand copy of a good game.) Even if you see them - consider how many got sold - and then think about how many are being sold now.

If your games are awesome, most people will keep them. Companies who make good games should never worry about this. Of course, they'll whine about the (maybe) millions of dollars they'd supposedly make.

Bad games however pile up VERY VERY quickly on preowned shelves. Notice how there's somehow like tons of copies of a certain game on the preowned shelf? These are the people who would be losing money over resales. Why? Their games are getting recycled through the market at a super high rate.

This is good for us. This gives game companies a massive incentive to make good games - and a punishment for churning out bad ones.

I, for one, make it a rule to only buy games I intend to keep. But I have friends who buy games to try. They're more adventurous (and probably more loaded) than me. Would companies really earn more from locking them into their purchases?

They'd be punishing faithful buyers for their bad purchases. I can imagine people beginning to question their purchases a lot more for less reputable games. I think this is going to hurt the game industry in general - unless they give us something in return. And what is that something? Cheaper games.

Games with less resale value (or maybe even none) sells for less. A look on eBay easily confirms this. The market knows resale value counts towards the value of a video game - and it will be enforced. A lot of people saying they don't like recycling of games should take this into account - not many people will pay the same price they're paying now for a game that has no resale value - and you run the risk of your game doing even worse than it would otherwise (since people have to be more careful buying games they can't resell).

Would you make more money selling less copies that cycle through the market - or more copies at cheaper prices that don't? It's something to ponder and a topic to research - not something I can answer. But I love my physical copies. :D

Thoughts on Designing Games

I realise that besides my actuarial CT subjects, I've been thinking loads about designing games. Two games in particular come to mind: Fantasy of War (which I'm ill-equipped to build) and new cards for Hecatomb.

While thinking a lot about how to make new Hecatomb cards, I realised what has to be done. A lot of rules clarification. Since like Magic, Hecatomb is all about making cards which push, bend and break the rules of the game. You begin to have to define entire series of problems - every card you make can cause another card you made earlier to malfunction, have unclear consequences, or become downright broken. Every new mechanic has to be defined for just about every situation you can think of - especially for problem cards which in particular mess with this mechanic.

And that's before balancing. This is both the benefit and curse of trying to work with a game that didn't get very far. Just like law - you have to look at the intention when the card was orignally made, not just what the card says. The benefit? You get to define everything that wasn't defined. The curse? You have to define everything that needs to be defined - and that's not always the card with card games, as judges at official events will easily tell you.

On the other hand, I've got an advantage too: I'm starting with both a clean slate and a preset environment. While I don't have a playtesting team, I can errata cards with an update, and it won't be a pain to keep up to date (like with real physical cards where the official wording can occasionally drift very very far from the original). I've also got plenty of TCG playing experience to know how to choose rule text well - not to mention how to push the envelope - and even make new card types.

It doesn't matter to me if no one plays it at the end of the day - I'm not making a business out of it (well, unless server load becomes an issue), what matters is that I tried to make it.