SynapticRewrite

SynapticRewrite , 2 months ago

@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon This is interesting, but my immediate question would be: how is the revenue for video games being measured?

Generally one only buys, or borrows, a book once and that’s it.

In contrast a modern video game often has multiple revenue streams: initial purchase of the game, purchase of expansion packs/DLC/add-on content, subscriptions for online play, etc.

Not every game has all of these, but most seem to have at least a couple. Many games, especially phone games, will sell digital goods, like new clothes/skins for characters, weapon upgrades, loot boxes, or even in-game currency, for real world cash. It’s low effort for companies to create, virtually free to maintain, and every one they offer creates a small but continual new revenue stream. This makes for a shitty player experience but lots of potential company profit.

So I’d argue that the revenue alone is a murky measure for the allocation of the world’s creativity. There certainly are some amazing games out there that are absolutely worth the time and money either due to an amazing story, art, music, puzzles, the gameplay itself, or combinations of the above, but also plenty that are blatantly designed to milk wallets through cheap hits of dopamine.

SynapticRewrite , 2 months ago

@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon I’m also curious if they included audiobooks in the data as well. I know a number of folks (myself included) that will go to physical books for serious and/or non-fiction texts, but will almost continually consume fiction via audiobook when driving or while doing physical tasks like cleaning and organizing.