majstor1 wrote: I've bough all the Zen Pinball tables because I want to support the game developers, but in my own opinion, guys from Farsight are charging a bit way over the top. I know it's licenses and everything, but then again... free and pro options, one pack 5 dollars, and if youw want pro you nee to pay almost 8...
Thanks for your thanks my friend it's highly appreciated.
One can't honestly compare the uglies-full-of-fancy-stuff Zen Pinball tables with the true wonders that TPA tables recreations really are. Except that in both case we speak about pinball, everything else is totally different behind the scene. Think it through: ZP guys think about creating a new table, get on their computers and a fair amount of time later tadaaaa: a table gets done from thin air. For Farsight guys the work is much more arduous, it takes a much longer time to get done and includes more people (programmer, artists, technicians). Of course employing specialized people for an amount of time already costs a nice amount of money, even before the fruit of their hard work gets released. I don't know if you've ever tried to take a pinball machine apart so you could recreate a virtual version, I haven't, but I imagine quite well the huge task that is needed just to get it apart. Then you've got to scan everyting, recreate in 3d a lot of elements and so on... Then you reconstruct everyting in your editor and you still have a lot of beta testing to do before even thinking about releasing it. And think about the licenses, the weed budget and all those kinds of thing. Well all that has a price when it gets added up. 5$ a pack is actually a ridiculous price. I can't afford it right now, yet it's still a low price to play such amazing recreations and I can't expect them to live in poverty cause I'm poor. With some luck I will get a job this month and will have all my tables paid by the next one. And I'll be more than happy to pay: it's worth the price asked, period.
Of course they could lower the price. To what end? If someone who has the money is cheap enough to consider that 5$ is too much of an amount, then the guy won't pay for 3$ neither. So it won't change a thing for Farsight except lowering an already low margin. If they lower the price by a x2 factor it doesn't mean they would mechanically get x2 more sales, it just doesn't work that way in that price range. Imagine your boss explaining you that you'll be paid twice less but won't loose any money cause you'll work twice more. The amount of money you earn by the end of the month is a thing, the amount of effort spent to get that amount is another. You'll quickly consider both factor and you'll tell your boss to go fuck himself, yet you'll be happy if Farsight was willing to get less for more. I totally get that you just express an opinion and that you're willing to pay the full price but I can't help myself getting the nipple clamps out when someone says TPA tables are too expensive, so don't get it the wrong way.