Leveling Down

A friend sent me this the other day. It’s funny for a few reasons, but super funny to me because I didn’t even get the real joke at first because I’m such a beginning player. If you actually study the flowchart, you can come up with some pretty easy strategies to deal with beginning Ken players, who essentially follow this flowchart to the letter. For example, people love Shoryukening after they get up, so you can anticipate it and easily counter the move.

Anyway, I don’t use Ken but I wish I could say my internal flowchart is much more complicated than this. It’s not. You can find a full-sized version of the comic at the link below. Enjoy!

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/1470/kenflow.png

Is Left 4 Dead a $60 game? Or is it really only worth half that?

Recently, news hit the gaming industry that Valve’s Left 4 Dead half price sale ($24.99) on the PC was met with remarkable success. Gabe Newell, one of the co-founders at Valve, remarked that it was an experiment that surprised them: when Left 4 Dead went on sale for half price, it actually made more money for Valve than the initial launch window of the game when it sold for its full price. This is pretty unprecedented, because when you think about it, who ended up buying it for $24.99? Didn’t we all already buy it back in November? I’ve never taken an economics class, but I’ve heard people state that according to economics theory, if a game is selling ridiculously higher with a reduced price then perhaps the original price is too high.

Today’s discussion topic between cmfl3x and me revolve around the pricing of games and what we feel they are worth.

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Between now and Sunday 3/15/09, all Reward Zone members can print out a coupon to receive $20 off on any of the following titles:

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Premier Edition
Crysis
Crysis Warhead
EA Sports 08 Collection
FIFA Soccer 09
The Orange Box

Since all of the titles retail for $29.99 each, that makes them $9.99 after coupon. You only need one coupon and it is good for all of the games in one transaction, but not more than 3 of one title. Use the in-store locator to find games you’re looking for, as the deal is only good in-store and requires a Reward Zone membership and the coupon print out. Reward Zone membership is free and you can sign up right on the website.

For those worried about DRM on some games like Red Alert 3 and Crysis Warhead, EA released patches to allow you to deauthorize the DRM on the games so you can have your installs back. In short, the games are still worth picking up for $10 each if you are interested.

I picked up Crysis & Crysis Warhead last night myself (Crysis still even had the $49.99 sticker on it but rang up for $29.99). I was considering double dippping on the PC version of Red Alert 3 as well, but it wasn’t in stock at my local Best Buy.

$20 Off Select PC Games coupon [Best Buy Reward Zone]