Have any of them massively appreciated in value like some shooters?
Are we just stupid for being willing to pay insanely high prices for them?
Or is the FPS genre still relatively young to have its veteran nostalgic geezers craving for a taste of their early days? But there are fairly recent shmups that have gone up in value...
Is it because shmups are better? But not every $100+ shmup is a good game...
Is it because shmups are rarer? But some FPS games may not have had very large print runs either...
WHY??
A thought about FPS games....
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TWITCHDOCTOR
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Its called "rarity" dude. PLus, the munber of FPS are far more greater and common, whereas "Shmups" are released in smaller numbers. However, they did rule back in the mid to early 90's.
Give everyone and their grandma a chance to get sick of FPS...maybe ten years after that, Halo will sell for $200.00!!! Nah, it ain't going to happen, sorry. There are more copies of Halo sitting on store shelves(still sealed) than there are Radiant Silvergun's period.
Small market, small amount of games.
Maybe if one day, "hip trendy" people advocate the play of shooting games, then there will be more of an interest...but I don't see MTV and famous Rappers playing and shmups.
No "Cribs" episode has shown Snoop Doggie Boy playing DodonPachi, so expect these types of games to remain obscure. GameFag magazine ain't helping either.
Hell, I'll even bet that most teenagers can't even point out on the map where Japan is!!!
Give everyone and their grandma a chance to get sick of FPS...maybe ten years after that, Halo will sell for $200.00!!! Nah, it ain't going to happen, sorry. There are more copies of Halo sitting on store shelves(still sealed) than there are Radiant Silvergun's period.
Small market, small amount of games.
Maybe if one day, "hip trendy" people advocate the play of shooting games, then there will be more of an interest...but I don't see MTV and famous Rappers playing and shmups.
No "Cribs" episode has shown Snoop Doggie Boy playing DodonPachi, so expect these types of games to remain obscure. GameFag magazine ain't helping either.
Hell, I'll even bet that most teenagers can't even point out on the map where Japan is!!!
Because
1) The genre has made absolutely MASSIVE strides since its inception, so while a 15 year old shmup can still be just as enjoyable as the newest Cave game, it's much more unlikely with FPS (I'd argue that Quake was the first one to really be timeless... I still love Doom and play it religiously, but I'm in the minority even though the Doom community is still going strong).
2) PC games are extremely easy to pirate, and there are no emulation woes that keep purists wondering if they're getting the "full experience." Furthermore, many "classic" FPS were released via the shareware system so they never really had packaging worth noting.
3) The best FPS, in general, were the highest profile ones.
4) Running older PC games can be a bitch on modern machines.
5) Multiplayer-oriented FPS with no community have no real value, so they sink into obscurity and nobody bothers to pay money for it because, well... why? There's nobody to play with.
6) The PC market generally isn't as collection-oriented as the console market can be. The people who do obsess over having absolutely everything are usually far more concerned about hardware. Thus, there really isn't much of a "collector's market" for PC games. And obviously, there have been precious few FPS on consoles until recently (if you're going to find people charging an arm and a leg, it'll most likely be there).
7) The most hardcore FPS fans generally don't collect tons of games. Rather, they stick to one FPS, master it, mod the hell out of it, and stick with it for years. Like I said above, there's still a Doom community that pays attention almost exclusively to the first two Doom games.
Take your pick.
1) The genre has made absolutely MASSIVE strides since its inception, so while a 15 year old shmup can still be just as enjoyable as the newest Cave game, it's much more unlikely with FPS (I'd argue that Quake was the first one to really be timeless... I still love Doom and play it religiously, but I'm in the minority even though the Doom community is still going strong).
2) PC games are extremely easy to pirate, and there are no emulation woes that keep purists wondering if they're getting the "full experience." Furthermore, many "classic" FPS were released via the shareware system so they never really had packaging worth noting.
3) The best FPS, in general, were the highest profile ones.
4) Running older PC games can be a bitch on modern machines.
5) Multiplayer-oriented FPS with no community have no real value, so they sink into obscurity and nobody bothers to pay money for it because, well... why? There's nobody to play with.
6) The PC market generally isn't as collection-oriented as the console market can be. The people who do obsess over having absolutely everything are usually far more concerned about hardware. Thus, there really isn't much of a "collector's market" for PC games. And obviously, there have been precious few FPS on consoles until recently (if you're going to find people charging an arm and a leg, it'll most likely be there).
7) The most hardcore FPS fans generally don't collect tons of games. Rather, they stick to one FPS, master it, mod the hell out of it, and stick with it for years. Like I said above, there's still a Doom community that pays attention almost exclusively to the first two Doom games.
Take your pick.

I think that's the main one. PC games just aren't collectable. It's hard to run old games, sure, but overcoming hurdles like that has never been that hard for collectors (emulation software or an old machine). The problem is that nobody really wants em.sethsez wrote: 6) The PC market generally isn't as collection-oriented as the console market can be. The people who do obsess over having absolutely everything are usually far more concerned about hardware. Thus, there really isn't much of a "collector's market" for PC games. And obviously, there have been precious few FPS on consoles until recently (if you're going to find people charging an arm and a leg, it'll most likely be there).
Oh yeah, there are plenty of FPS with low print runs. Thing is, they aren't any good. 
You don't really get many indie FPS worth talking about. The last one I can think of is Serious Sam, which came out of nowhere as a budget release, but that's gained quite a following and isn't hard to find at all. Most indie or aspiring FPS creators generally make mods or map sets for existing FPS. If you want to find diamonds in the rough, your best bet would probably be to pick up Half-Life and get looking for obscure mods.

You don't really get many indie FPS worth talking about. The last one I can think of is Serious Sam, which came out of nowhere as a budget release, but that's gained quite a following and isn't hard to find at all. Most indie or aspiring FPS creators generally make mods or map sets for existing FPS. If you want to find diamonds in the rough, your best bet would probably be to pick up Half-Life and get looking for obscure mods.
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SheSaidDutch
- Posts: 1092
- Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:46 am
Almost all PC games drop on price
You see a new game released for £30 wait afew months and the price would have dropped by maybe £5-£10, wait 1 year and the same game could be had for £10
Most of my PC games are between £5-£20, I've only bought maybe 3 titles at
the full retail price.
Thats the difficult part of coming back into the console market, well for me atleast is that console games keep their price, due mostly to the fact that consoles rely on the software, unlike the PC.
You see a new game released for £30 wait afew months and the price would have dropped by maybe £5-£10, wait 1 year and the same game could be had for £10

Most of my PC games are between £5-£20, I've only bought maybe 3 titles at
the full retail price.
Thats the difficult part of coming back into the console market, well for me atleast is that console games keep their price, due mostly to the fact that consoles rely on the software, unlike the PC.
My Trying Not To
Console game makers are also generally more reluctant to do extra production runs of their games, while PC game makers happily churn out extra copies whenever needed (or unneeded, as the case sometimes is). I'm not exactly sure why this is, but I've got a feeling that console game makers have to pay a premium to the console manufacturer for each run, whereas PC games and be produced more cheaply. That's pure speculation though.
Some console games do get extra production runs later, and not just in the form of budget line releases (greatest hits and the like) - Xenosaga, Lunar (not just the "fan art version," the real one) and some other PS games got runs like this... so there are exceptions.
Some console games do get extra production runs later, and not just in the form of budget line releases (greatest hits and the like) - Xenosaga, Lunar (not just the "fan art version," the real one) and some other PS games got runs like this... so there are exceptions.
It's also exactly right.Cthulhu wrote:Console game makers are also generally more reluctant to do extra production runs of their games, while PC game makers happily churn out extra copies whenever needed (or unneeded, as the case sometimes is). I'm not exactly sure why this is, but I've got a feeling that console game makers have to pay a premium to the console manufacturer for each run, whereas PC games and be produced more cheaply. That's pure speculation though.
