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Budget icon?

Posted: January 16th, 2017, 12:10 pm
by VideoGameCritic
I have a review policy where I judge all games equal on a platform, regardless of its price. Considering I tend to favor pure gameplay over graphics, it tends to work out. Also, prices change drastically over time.

Still, I think it would be useful for the reader to know if a game was released as a budget title. For example, in my latest reviews Assault Suit Leynos would have this icon. It won't make the game any better but it would give the reader some more perspective.

The question is, how would you represent an icon like this? Looking for ideas!

Re: Budget icon?

Posted: January 16th, 2017, 12:18 pm
by matmico399
Luv this idea as I am always looking for a bargain, especially on a good game. How about a penny icon.

Re: Budget icon?

Posted: January 16th, 2017, 12:23 pm
by Rev
I think this would be an interesting icon. Question-would this be for games that were budget upon release or just cheap games as a whole. There are quite a few budget games that have become quite expensive due to their limited release... Not sure if you're planning on cheap games or budget upon release titles...

Re: Budget icon?

Posted: January 16th, 2017, 1:22 pm
by Stalvern
Rev wrote:Not sure if you're planning on cheap games or budget upon release titles...

VideoGameCritic wrote:I think it would be useful for the reader to know if a game was released as a budget title.

Re: Budget icon?

Posted: January 16th, 2017, 2:07 pm
by Rev
Stalvern wrote:
Rev wrote:Not sure if you're planning on cheap games or budget upon release titles...

VideoGameCritic wrote:I think it would be useful for the reader to know if a game was released as a budget title.


Well yes. I saw that but my question is more about the value of the icon being for titles that were budget titles back in the day versus games that are now considered a budget title for a console. I guess it's helpful to know that the reason the game has the limited features it does was because it wasn't a full price game. Is that what you were going for Dave?

Re: Budget icon?

Posted: January 16th, 2017, 4:28 pm
by VideoGameCritic
Yeah, I would not attempt to rate the cheap games overall, because you know how prices tend to fluctuate.

I really like the penny idea!! Where's my artist? Mark?

Re: Budget icon?

Posted: January 16th, 2017, 5:43 pm
by pacman000
I was thinking of a penny too; just a yellow/orange circle w/a cent sign would do it.

Re: Budget icon?

Posted: January 16th, 2017, 8:33 pm
by zetax
VideoGameCritic wrote:Yeah, I would not attempt to rate the cheap games overall, because you know how prices tend to fluctuate.

I really like the penny idea!! Where's my artist? Mark?


I'll see what I can do, boss. :)

Re: Budget icon?

Posted: January 18th, 2017, 1:48 pm
by Retro STrife
I usually enjoy the icons, and it looks like this one is happening either way, but I think it has a lot more cons than pros. IMO all it's going to do is cause confusion. Plus, are you going to go back through your thousands of current reviews and determine which were budget titles? That data probably isn't available. So I assume it would just apply to games going forward. And, the fact that a game is a budget title is meaningful for a few years but eventually not very useful. (If a PS1 game sold for $20 instead of $40, that means little to us now..the price levels out over time, so I will still evaluate it equally to other PS1 titles when deciding if I like it. In that sense, the icon is only good for a few years after release, but it will sit there forever.) Plus you have to decide the cutoff price for a budget title. At $20 upon release, definitely..but is $40 a budget title nowadays? $30? Personally, I think it would work better how you do it now, which is just with an offhand mention in your review that the game was a budget release.

Sorry, don't mean to be negative on the idea..just trying to play devil's advocate.

Re: Budget icon?

Posted: January 18th, 2017, 6:39 pm
by VideoGameCritic
I'm mainly planning on using this for the latest generation, where there seems to be many $20-$30 games being released on disc recently.

I'm not sure it would really apply to older generations.