What I find amazing is that generally everyone sees gaming differently than they see other forms of entertainment media. While I will admit that there are radically different formats for say music versus games, the fact that they are both entertainment media ties them together. When I pay to go see a movie, I expect it to occur once. I pay my $8 (cause I live in Minnesota where movies are still less than $10 a hit) and see it once. If I really need to, I pay $8 to see it again, or I wait until the DVD release, pay $20 and then own it. I find it suprizing that more gamers fail to take advantage of the rental industry for exactly the same reason, especially with netflix-like renters for games which let you keep them as long as you want. I mean, really, how many games do you want to own permanently? Carrying forward, those you do want extended time with to unlock all the super-secret-sacrifice-a-goat-to-find ballerina costumes may very well be worth the full price, and once you hit this kind of time commitment you easily get to the "less than $1 per hour" range, which is very reasonable, especially when looking at the cost of film ($4-$5 per hour) or live shows ($5-$20 per hour).
10 cents about voice acting. Generally I agree that using voice actors as opposed to movie stars is a great idea. However Occasionally, hiring the celeb voice actor makes it all right. My example here is Patrick Stewart hired for the X-men legends games. None of the other characters had their movie counterparts voiced in the game, but Mr Stewart has such a recognizable voice that it really fits. Now, what made those games awesome was the gameplay, which had little to do with any voice acting. However the game definately had more resonance by having a coherant storyline, and a figure with the "proper voice" at the head of it (granted this is all MY opinion).
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What I find amazing is that generally everyone sees gaming differently than they see other forms of entertainment media. While I will admit that there are radically different formats for say music versus games, the fact that they are both entertainment media ties them together. When I pay to go see a movie, I expect it to occur once. I pay my $8 (cause I live in Minnesota where movies are still less than $10 a hit) and see it once. If I really need to, I pay $8 to see it again, or I wait until the DVD release, pay $20 and then own it. I find it suprizing that more gamers fail to take advantage of the rental industry for exactly the same reason, especially with netflix-like renters for games which let you keep them as long as you want. I mean, really, how many games do you want to own permanently? Carrying forward, those you do want extended time with to unlock all the super-secret-sacrifice-a-goat-to-find ballerina costumes may very well be worth the full price, and once you hit this kind of time commitment you easily get to the "less than $1 per hour" range, which is very reasonable, especially when looking at the cost of film ($4-$5 per hour) or live shows ($5-$20 per hour).
10 cents about voice acting. Generally I agree that using voice actors as opposed to movie stars is a great idea. However Occasionally, hiring the celeb voice actor makes it all right. My example here is Patrick Stewart hired for the X-men legends games. None of the other characters had their movie counterparts voiced in the game, but Mr Stewart has such a recognizable voice that it really fits. Now, what made those games awesome was the gameplay, which had little to do with any voice acting. However the game definately had more resonance by having a coherant storyline, and a figure with the "proper voice" at the head of it (granted this is all MY opinion).