Expansion Pack: Which Would You Rather Lose, a $60 Videogame Or a Save File?

re: Expansion Pack: Which Would You Rather Lose, a $60 Videogame Or a Save File?

supergg2k — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:29:19 GMT

This seems like a non-issue to me. I don't value game saves as much value as wedding pictures, pictures of my kids and digital video of family get togethers. When my original Xbox hard drive died I was infinitely more upset that I couldn't just replace the drive than I was that I lost my 85% complete NFL2k5 VIP save. If my 360 hard drive fails, I'll get upset for a minute and then go out and get a new drive. The idea of having my game saves stored on a server would be sweet; I wouldn't have the clutter of drives and memory cards. However I wouldn't pay for that privilege. If I had 8GB of game save data, then charging me would make sense. Most game saves I think are less than 1MB, smaller than the videos on YouTube. For something that small, the service should be free.

re: Expansion Pack: Which Would You Rather Lose, a $60 Videogame Or a Save File?

Pistolaero — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:35:37 GMT

I think your question belongs to games individually. For example, I'd be more upset if I lost my FF7 save file than the game itself. But, not so much if I lost the save file for Black by Criterion.

I always try to have a few backups of important files. For this reason, I bought the unit that lets me transfer old PS2 games to my PS3 HD. Just in case something should happen to the memory units. You've just refreshed my urge to back up my games.

re: Expansion Pack: Which Would You Rather Lose, a $60 Videogame Or a Save File?

SpaceShot — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:43:33 GMT

Your thinking out loud is my action. I do buy many games on release but I don't possibly have the time to play them all. So games that I think I will get more online value from (either due to large community of players to play or large contingent of friends will have so we can play together) get bought at release.

Everything else? Wait for the bargain bin. I will enjoy Bioshock eventually.

Heck, my friends and I are scouring the bargain bin for games we can play together from a few years ago.

re: Expansion Pack: Which Would You Rather Lose, a $60 Videogame Or a Save File?

hidannik — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:13:55 GMT

I do backup my game saves, every time I finish playing...

...when I'm permitted to.

There are quite a few games that don't permit saves to be copied, or in some cases even moved. There are several reasons why developers would choose to lock saves, and my theory is that it has to do with online cheating, piracy, homebrew, and directorial anal-retentiveness.

I won't repeat my article on the subject here, but you can read it at http://hansonvideogaming.blogspot.com/2006/11/making-unsafe-saves-safer.html

re: Expansion Pack: Which Would You Rather Lose, a $60 Videogame Or a Save File?

Jomolungma — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:38:25 GMT

As a future lawyer, I can say with confidence that merely thinking about playing a game would be more valuable than the game itself. That being said, I think my natural reaction would be to just never play that game again. I wouldn't want to buy it again, and I certainly wouldn't want to spend the time to get back to where my save point was, so I'd probably just forget it. This might change if I had just started the game, in which case I *might* think about buying the game again.

re: Expansion Pack: Which Would You Rather Lose, a $60 Videogame Or a Save File?

alttf_jeff — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:36:28 GMT

While I agree that "time is money", the problem is that "gaming" time doesn't equate to "work time" for most people. If we lived in a binary state where we were either making money or playing games, then yeah, this would make sense... but I'm guessing most of us don't do this. Many of us are salaried, so it doesn't matter if we put in 5 hours of our free time, 10 hours of our free time, or 50 hours of our free time into a game. The end result is that we're paid the same amount for that time.

I will agree though that, depending on the game save and how much time you've put into it, it would probably be far more frustrating to lose a game save than a game. That said, my reaction to losing a saved game that I had put a lot of time into would probably be to put it down for a few months or more, and come back to it at a later time when it felt "fresh" again.

-Jeff

http://alinktothefuture.com

re: Expansion Pack: Which Would You Rather Lose, a $60 Videogame Or a Save File?

lostalaska — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 23:51:27 GMT

I used to back up my PS2 and PS1 memory cards, but that was more out of need for space on those small memory cards then it was about protecting my save games. On the modern systems with a massive hard drive I have yet to back up any of my save games. I have backed up my PSP data a few times, but that was when I was messing around with homebrew software for emulators and fully expected to wind up corrupting my memory stick.

I do back up my, "My Documents" folder. I picked up one of those 500GB Western Digital MyBook Pro's (awesome drives) and I use that to back up my data. I also loaded it up with all my MP3's since the drive is FAT32 formatted I can leave it plugged into my 360 so I've got all my tunes available to listen to in the family room and kitchen.

re: Expansion Pack: Which Would You Rather Lose, a $60 Videogame Or a Save File?

10rd Ben — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 06:29:23 GMT

Hey N'gai.

While I think that this is an interesting take on an issue that's not really been looked at in much detail, I totally disagree with you. You are treating the game like we are only ever expecting to play the game through once! Who does that?! Why would anyone even BUY a game if you expected to put it to pasture as soon as the 12 hours of original gameplay is over? So when it comes to backing up save files, I can't say I'm all that worried (honestly, how often does it happen? I can't recall a single time it's happened to me, but perhaps I'm just lucky) and even if I DO lose my save file - okay, i'll just get to replay the game again, no real loss - in fact I'll probably play better for having done it already!

That said, I guess this really only applies to games that do have some level of replayability - like RPG's, etc. If it's a racing game, or a fighting game, then OK, I see your point in not wanting to lose progress. But couldn't that also be turned into a compelling argument for a change in those types of games - that you really only do want to play it through once?

Cheers,

- Ben.

re: Expansion Pack: Which Would You Rather Lose, a $60 Videogame Or a Save File?

ScottHillis — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:01:00 GMT

I agree with Jeff in that I'm not sure that the cost should be measured as foregone wages. Gaming comes out of my leisure time budget, and it competes with many other activities such as reading a book, spending time with my family, or playing other games. If I lose a game-save I either have to reduce my time doing other activities in order to play back to the point I was at, but more likely I will have to delay trying out other games that are competing for the same narrow slice of gaming time.

Interestingly, I think that means the time cost I'm willing to spend to replay a game is pretty fixed, in my case at around 5 hours. If I've already played more than 5 hours of a game and I lose the save, the time cost is too great to replay it to get back to where I was. Under 5 hours, and I'm probably willing to start again.

Then again, that might just be a function of the huge number of highly desirable games I want to get through this year. I'm less likely to bother replaying a game if I have six others competing for my attention. That would probably change if it was mid-summer and there were no other games I was trying to get to.

re: Expansion Pack: Which Would You Rather Lose, a $60 Videogame Or a Save File?

panpeter — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:49:02 GMT

Another aspect on this issue is that the value of save files changes over time, directly related to a player's interest in a game. If someone plays a game halfway through, and loses interest in the game that he never visits it again for a long time, that savefile is worthless to him/her. The lost time and progress will not be missed as even if the player comes back to the game, he may want to start from the start.

On the other hand, someone with busy schedule may put in small time at a time, over a long period of time to clear, let's just say, a RPG game. Then that save file will be invaluable later on, since that person will not be able to easily go back to the same point once the file is gone.

So.. in short, I think the save files are valuable only up to a certain point. After that, they become just junks.