I don’t buy many PC games, partly because I don’t have any spare cash to pay with and partly because I run this website and play all the mods I can. That lifestyle choice got me thinking.
Do you buy less PC games because you play mods?
Now, I am different from you in that most of my free time is spent on the site in one form or another. I don’t have that much free time and if I didn’t run the site then my vote may have been different. I would probably play more demos of games but experience has shown me that I don’t really enjoy them enough to buy them.
I would probably play only the bigger HL2 mods, rather than searching for the little maps. Of course if somebody else ran a PlanetPhillip then I probably play the smaller maps too.
Anyway, the point is that running a website or building a mod doesn’t leave you much time to just play.
I am guessing now, but I believe that most players who play lots of mods don’t play or buy as many games as other non-mod players do. In fact, if I were a developer part of me would be pretty angry with Valve and other developers for including editors in their games because on an individual basis I may be losing customers. Sure, as a whole it does gaming a lot of good to have a community that builds maps and mods but not for everybody.
Do you think playing mods has reduced the number of games you buy?
Yes.
Yes, I buy less PC games because most of them don’t have the wonderful modding capabilities of the Half-Life games.
PC games that don’t allow custom content are not worthy.
Within the realm of PC games, yes, I buy fewer games. Not just because I’d rather be building maps, but also because my machine can’t handle the latest games. For example, I just bought F.E.A.R. yesterday!
The ability for a PC game to facilitate the creation of mods is big consideration for me. If a PC game doesn’t offer that, I’ll typically wind up buying the console version if it exists or simply not buy it. BioShock was an excellent example of this.
I do buy fewer games because of the availablity of mods. However, I did make a conscious decsiion a while back to not spend much money on PC games, so I’d say the presence of mods costs new game makers a mere $100-$200 per year of my hard-earned $$$. I may also be unusual in that it’s rare for me to go out and get a brand-new game instead of waiting for the inevitable price drop after x months. The last game I ran out an bought at full price was Half-Life 2.
I think you should have added “I don’t buy many games anyway” to the list of options.
I have a few, but tend to focus on a series (Half-life) and may wait a few years to buy one that is proven to be very good.
I loathe Halo, due to it’s transferred-for-the-console roots, and hype never appeals to me as it seems to turn everyone into sheep, with the game as the shepherd, and it looks rather pitiful.
Modding is great, but I only look after I’ve played a game to death.
Lately, I haven’t had any really compelling games to play, outside DOOM3, HL2, and CaesarIV. I do buy the occasional game from Half Price Books (yeah, i’m cheap), but typically I’m disappointed with them (last one I installed was Pariah–just a meh game). So, unless it’s a truly compelling game like DOOM3 or HL2, I don’t bother, and the mods available for both keep me going, so far.
Maybe. I technically should say yes, cause mods have totally been satisfying my gaming jones for the past year, but that’s also been balanced out by the incredible steam deals that have been running. I’ve bought a lot of games through steam, though the highest I’ve ever paid has been about $5
I buy games because of the mods actually. Can’t really vote on that one.