[geeks] Second Life is not a game?

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Tue, Jul 31, 2007 at 02:31:19PM -0500, Doug McLaren wrote:
> OK, but that's not what you said.  It sounds like you mean `certain
> families' not `the average family'.  Perhaps you meant `families who
> bought games on a regular basis?'

Ok, what I should of said was that we found that the average family
who bought newly released computer games bought two of them a month at  
around $50 each plus tax and/or postage.

Note that a single person counted as a "family".

> | They often bought more of the cheap ones too.
> 
> ... then that would drop the average down.

How? I never said that they did or did not buy anything else. I also
never said what the average price they paid for games was. 

> The math still doesn't add up.  (And note that most US Internet sales
> still don't include tax, though the governments are trying to fix
> that.)

It depends upon the price of the game and the retailer they buy it from.
How much does Amazon charge for shipping?

 
> i.e. most people who play games?  Most game players are not `on the
> leading edge of gaming', and I'm guessing that your casual gamers
> spend a lot more on games than the relatively few `hardcore gamers'.

IMHO a bad guess. They may buy more games, but they buy them from
discount bins, borrow them from friends, etc.

> Microsoft has a gaming edition of Vista?
> 
> The most expensive version I'm aware of is Vista Ultimate.  The only
> thing I'm aware of that makes it `special' for gamers is that it comes
> with a Texas Holdem poker game and a `Game Performance Tweaker'
> whatever that does.  I think that gamers are one of their targets, but
> it's hardly a gaming edition.

That's it. 

> 
> In spite of Microsofts intentions, the `Windows gaming edition' is
> still ... XP.

Says who? How long has it been since you could buy a PC with XP? Except
for this list everyone I know (or know of) who has bought a new computer
since VISTA's release date has bought it with VISTA. I know two people 
localy who have replaced their VISTA with XP. 


> | People who buy a $1500 PC are more likley to buy a new one in a year,
> | while $200 PC purchasers will use it until it dies. 

> Do you have any citations for these claims?

No it's just experience. The gamers I know are constantly upgrading 
their hardware, the people I know who use computers for email/web/etc
just keep using them. 


> Elder Scrolls Oblivion -- $30 PC, $60 360, $50 PS3.

Come on, this is positivley ancient as far as games go. It's been out
so long that there are massive (450meg) fan created "updates" that
are in their second version. There are also expansion packs, etc
for it.

> Get the idea?  Can you find me *any* examples of `hot' PC and console
> games coming out that come out at the same price?

I'll look.
> 
> The PS2 has sold 120 million units worldwide, and according to
> Wikipeda it sold 37 million units in the US as of the end of 2006.

That makes it old by console standards. The PS/2 has been around so
long that there was a Linux version for years that was developed
AFTER it came out.

Off topic, but as a dying gasp, YellowDog produced a PS/3 version that
came out almost at the same time. :-)



> Also note that you said `families' not `individuals'.  Not that you
> defined family, but there can't be 300 million families in the US.

No.

> Assuming that families average 4 members, everybody in the US is in a
> family, and no familiy has more than one (big, unwarranted
> assumptions, I know) that means that *half* of the families in the US
> have a PS2 -- and we're not even looking at other consoles, though
> they're far less popular.

Well, not really true. First single gamers count as families here.
Second, PS/2's are so old that many of the originals have problems
with their DVD drives. There was a second version that was much cheaper
than the first version (half the price here) and many broken ones were
sidelined or tossed out and replaced instead of repaired.

I don't have any numbers, but how many families only have one? With the
new cheap unit it's cheaper to buy one than to have the kids fight over
it. 

> In any event, console games are *not* rare in the US.

No they are not. 

> Yes, but he said `bigger than Hollywood' -- looking at only part of
> Hollywood is misleading.

True.

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 
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