Bioware knows

So many games that come out these days try to squeeze more money from customers with a Limited Edition or Collector’s Edition or Digital Deluxe Edition blah, blah.

Most of them are a joke.

Obviously, I will speak for the entirety of this post from the side of the consumer. Game development companies can go on and on all day about development costs and what little profit margin they have, et al, ad nauseum. I’m not buying that. A solid title that’s released somewhere near the projected date with little to no bugs on release and decent developer community support after launch will do well. That’s a pretty simplified equation for success, but a decent one (in my own mind). Game devs hire accountants and project leads to stay on track and on budget. Make them do their job; don’t cry to the community about profit margins.

Notwithstanding all Xbox 360 and PS3 titles are $60 at launch now, with many PC titles following suit (simply because they can, not due to any extra PC features … unless you consider custom stuff like “mouse support” worth an extra $10 in the case of MW2). So when publishers and devs ask for an extra $10 on top of the retail price for a “special” edition, I expect there to be a minimum of $10 worth of goodies thrown in. I don’t consider a metal tin around my disc said goodie.

But once in a while, you get a company like Bioware that knows what makes a limited edition. I speak specifically of Mass Effect 2, and it’s Digital Deluxe edition for the PC. For my extra $10, I got a few extra in-game features (armor, weapons) as well as the soundtrack in .mp3 format, a .pdf digital artbook of concept drawings, a .pdf digital comic book of their series with Dark Horse comics, as well as a digital format documentary video. Two digital books (not including a manual), a behind-the-scenes video and a soundtrack, plus some in-game perks for $10. That, to me, is value for my $10.

And value, not price or cost, is the crux of the issue at hand. Video games, like all electronic entertainment, is a discretionary expense in my household budget. They aren’t essentials. They don’t cover the bills. We can’t eat them or use them to stay warm at night. And in this recession, we watch our discretionary expenses carefully. So when I spend any discretionary funds, especially extra funds for a deluxe edition, I want to feel like I got a lot of value for the cost. Consider it my “emotional” profit margin.

Does the value of my deluxe edition exceed the cost (to me) of the extra $10. With Bioware, I feel very strongly it does.

Then, there’s a company like DICE that’s doing the “limited edition” of BF:BC2 for the same (what we consider “normal”) price of $50 simply if you preorder the title.

Kudos to the both of you. More companies should take note. Especially if they want to take my money.

How do you feel about special editions of games?

A new wind in my virtual sails

I have always loved sailing. As a child, my father took me out on his Ranger 26 sailboat and his various Hobie Cat and Sunfish sailboats. But time constraints, as well as financial, have kept me from owning my own sailboat.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that owning digital boats has stemmed my pining — at least temporarily.

In Second Life, I have *several* boats — from the smaller Flying Tako and Flying Fizz to the ACC 2.0 and ACA32 racers (modeled after the Americas Cup racing boats) to much larger craft by the now-defunked (unfortunately) Kokakola. Kokakola was an Italian designer, and I am very fortunate to own 4 of his vessels — of which my favorite is the Puma racer (a red and white 40-footer with the large Puma shoes logo along the side, mainsail and spinnaker). I was very sad indeed to see Kokakola drop off the grid in Second Life. But I have his boats to enjoy, nonetheless.

As fun as sailing in SL can be (at times), it can also be equally frustrating. Sim crossings can get squirrely, or lag you out altogether. So after a very quick Internet search, I came across a title called Virtual Skipper 5. VSK5, as it’s known, features the Americas Cup racers predominantly, with three other classes of boats to race both online and off. The very passionate community also designs add-on boats, as well.

It was a bit curious to me that I’d not previously discovered VSK5, especially since the publisher also makes a title I do already own — Pro Cycling Manager 2008 (a road bike and Tour de France sim game). After spending a day with the simulator, I must admit I’m thoroughly enjoying it. The graphics (most notably of the seas) aren’t quite as earth-shattering as I had hoped — Ubisoft does a better job, IMHO, with the Silent Hunter 4 submarine simulation title — but are certainly respectable. The true fun is in the ability to create your own races (and seas), as well as the wholly scalable difficulty of simulation. Novices can just point the boat in a decent angle to the wind and let the AI handle sail trimming and optimal navigation lines. Diehard experts can commandeer everything manually with the assistance only of a compass and a wind direction vane. Those of us left can fall happily in the middle somewhere.

So, don’t be surprised if you find me out on the digital seas with ones and zeroes flipping through my hair. It may not be exactly the real thing, but I don’t have to worry with stretched sails and hours spent on teak wood maintenance…