SE4\'s Value
 

How much have you paid for SE products, and how long have you been playing?

1) Tally up the purchase price of your SE stuff.
2) Tally up the approximate number of hours you've been playing. (x hours a week, y weeks a year, z years)
Note: Only include hours actually spent on SE4, not time spent sleeping, working or eating. (Unless you were actually playing SE4 in your cubicle or while you ate)
3) Divide (1) by (2), and vote for the matching price range.

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

I came in at just over 0.04$ per hour. I estimated approximately 2850 hours over nearly 5 years, with $125 invested.

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

Um...A little to lots?

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

about 250 in, roughly 2400 hours. right in the 0.10 range. which suggests that its time for a donation to PBW.

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

Beta testing copies, combined with playing during class at University really drove my total down to the penny-an-hour mark.

I didn't count the copies I bought for other people, though.

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

OK so I accidently hit the wrong entry and put in >$1 and not <$0.01. What can I say, the use of a strange green coloured currency put me off.

That and I've just stumbled back from the pub and have started drunken interneteeteting. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

Well, IIRC it was $25 for SEIII, and $40 each for SEIV Gold and SE:SF (had beta copy of SEIV Classic). So that's $105...

Hours played, I couldn't really even begin to estimate. I've been playing for around 9 years now, but a lot of the time played is weighted to the earlier years. I guessed about 4000 hours total, so that puts me at about $0.026/hour. But if I broke it up into the games, then it would be:
SEII: 0/hour (never bought, only played shareware)
SEIII: $0.005/hour (played this a LOT)
SEIV Classic: 0/hour (see beta comment above)
SEIV Gold: $0.10/hour (only got it this past summer)
SE:SF: $0.75/hour (haven't really played it much...)

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

I said somewhere aroud 5 cents, but it could very easily be lower than that. I can't even guess how many hours I've spent playing.

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

The value of the game far exceeds the purchase price. In fact I feel like I have robbed Shrapnel and Malfador.... man I only paid $40.00 bucks for this game and have gotten five years of play out of it...... Laughing all the way to the key board.

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

As a follow up. I know that I have played the game well over 3000 hours, probably closer to 4,000 hours, but I have also donated at least five times that amount of time in modding, promoting, supporting, posting, ship set design, and running web sites.

If I added up all my time just working on and promoting SE4 and not playing it, I could honestly say that it was a 40 hour a week job for me for a couple of years. Factor in play time and well that shoots to 50 to 60 hours a week. *I am so pathetic.*

Invested so far:

SEIV - $40.00
SEIV Gold - $40.00
NASY Web Site - $200.00
AST Mod Web Site - $230.00
AE.net Web Site - $130.00
So between $600.00 and $800.00 over the last five years combined. This includes donations to PBW and other sites as well as having bought several copies of the game for people.

I think it has been money well spent though. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

In my opinion, you can't put a value on SEIV, since the enjoyment I've received and continue to receive is worth a lot more than money to me.

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

It's hard to estimate how many hours I've spent playing. I just know it's many many hours. I know I've started hundreds of games, almost all of which I've never finished but usually I spend at least a week playing, most of them more than that. Usually there's the 8-hour or longer continuous sessions over the weekend and somewhat shorter evening sessions every day while I'm playing. But there's also periods of time in the last few years that I didn't touch SEIV for weeks. That's when I'm either busy with work or I was playing some other game.

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

I think some people are over estimating their hours played... I mean so many have choosen 1 cent or less, I wonder if they realize that's an average of 2-3 hours per day over the last 4-5 years based on just spending $40 for the game alone...?

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

I am not sure how that is over-estimation?

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

I got it free, for christmas, so I'm already paid for it 100%.

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

Imperator Fyron said:I am not sure how that is over-estimation?

I didn't think the results were realistic and that people had overestimated their hours playing. And if you've been around 4-5 years playing SE:IV you've likely bought both classic and gold - at least 65$. So that means you'd need 6500 hours in that same time frame which is an average of 3-4 hr/day.

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

i did. and factored in PBW donation. do you know how much i'll cry if PBW goes offline? we need to keep supporting Geo.

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

I suspect people are challenged by the math, estimation, lack of data and/or willpower involved in seriously trying to estimate this.

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

For myself, compare the purchase price of SEIII and SEIV vs years of enjoyment? Don’t even have to do the math to figure out this equation; but I will add two more:

For the years that the SEIII kept me sane at work-priceless

Two summers ago, my son, who was 8 at the time, was enjoying my SEIV demo. “Dad, I want to get the full version”. Mostly, he wanted to be able to open and close warp points like we could on SEIII. “Alright,” I replied, “Figure out a way to earn some money and I’ll split the cost with you.” That summer, mostly by pulling weeds, he earned his money a little bit at a time by doing odd jobs. Even if we never touch the game again, the lesson he learned that summer in planning and working for what he wanted will be worth far more than any monetary “value” assigned to a game.

Re: SE4\'s Value
 

I took an average of 1 hour an day, and I think that's realistic. Because there are also days (that extremly pathetic days) that I played for 8 to 10 hours straight (And I know that I'm not the only one) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

And now I'm still only counted playing time, didn't even involve the time I ussed on: modding, searching/downloading mods and shipsets , created/hosted PBW games and offcourse all the hours spend on this forum !!!!!


Inti,

Costs more =P
 

Costs more where I live, have to get it shipped in =P

SE3 - $45
SE4 - $72
SE4 Gold - $80
SE5 - Whatever it takes =D

And I do it in binges, Sometimes I'll go a month with out playing, then invite some friends over and play for a weekend strait =) good ol' tcp/ip