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Are too many people reviewing retro games--is it ruining the market?


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The audio aspect of YT does make me smile sometimes.

 

If the person is doing a commentary on a book or magazine they've purchased, it's the only audio present and when it sounds like the camera is in the living room, whilst they themselves are commenting on item in question, from the toolshed, 3 houses down, with a bag over their head...it does make me chuckle.

 

Also people have been caught out in the past by using YT videos as research material for articles, praising the in-game music of a game, without realising actual game had no music other than the title screen, the YT poster who put up the video, simply put music of his/her own choice over the rolling video footage....it just showcases how sloppy the research on behalf of the game/system was.

 

That's excusable if it's content for free, but when i see YT being used in publications i've paid for, i tend to stop buying the publications.

 

I swear blind at least 1 major UK publication used YT for it's comparison/face off feature more than once, that and emulators as reports bore little/no resemblance to reality.

Edited by Lost Dragon
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Yeah the camera mics are typically not very good but one other note with microphones is determining if you want a stereo mic or a mono mic. That can make a difference in pricing for sure.

 

Still I like videos that show gameplay even something recorded for a couple of hours that I can fast forward though to get a good idea what a game might be like. I don't like videos that show near nothing or are just rips of others folks recordings rehashed.

 

Yeah. It's a pet peeve of mine as well, I see a video named "This video game" and when I load it, it's not gameplay footave, it's a let's play. I'm okay with Let's Plays, but damn, if you do a let's play or you test/show a game, put a hint in the video title.

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There's definitely a correlation between the rise of retro-focused YouTube personalities and the cost of games. But step back and think why some of these people are even talking about them at all. Retro games have hit that sweet spot of nostalgic value, and people want to go back and enjoy the things of their past that made them happy. Yeah, there are a lot of us who collected all along, but many people are rediscovering their past, and a new generation of people want to see what all the fuss is about, and some of them get hooked.

 

Retro games aren't the only thing that have shot up in value lately. I'm a car guy, and I have a 1979 Pontiac Trans Am. I bought it back in 2002 for around $2k, and used it as an everyday car for a while until I retired it to restore it. Now, that $2k won't even buy you a running example! People are nostalgic for them, and the more demand, the more value is put on them. Just like old games, the growing interest has made accessories and even restoration parts available that I couldn't possibly imagine 14 years ago when I bought this thing. You can almost build a car out of a catalog! Just like games, there are YouTube and TV shows that cater to my car. Just this week on the History channel, I saw a show where a guy bought a nearly identical car to mine over many other classics for $25k. Another example, a 10th Anniversary model with 7 miles on it, sold at auction for $187,000 earlier this year! That's basically the equivalent of a sealed Little Samson for these cars.

 

Yeah, it sucks being able to find cheap deals, but at least they make all sorts of cool stuff that they never made before. I could never imagine being able to have one cartridge for any of my systems that plays the entire library of games like a flash cart does. That's pretty cool.

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Or even play the exact original game code without the original hardware - through emulation!

 

As far as too many reviews, I don't give a shit. I don't watch them that much, if at all. It is ruining the market? Doubt it. All the activity might cause dilution and noise. But you you can filter it out by picking and choosing what you want.

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Some of my loosely related thoughts on this matter:

-It saddens me that retrogaming is about the "market" now.

-I enjoy AVGN with the understanding that it's a character who highlights and exaggerate the worst aspects of games. Often, it's pretty funny. I think the character has mellowed out a bit lately to be closer to the real James Rolfe, I think, and that's cool too. I actually really like the "James & Mike" videos where it's just him and Mike--as themselves--just hanging out and talking about the game they're playing. Not necessarily reviewing it, just giving thoughts on it.

-My favorites are CGR, Cinemassacre (AVGN, J&M), and Metal Jesus. I especially enjoy Metal Jesus because his videos often deal with stuff I don't know a lot about, so it's cool to learn about games I probably wouldn't have thought about otherwise. Also, and this will sound creepy, but watching his videos, you almost get the feeling like you're hanging out in his gameroom with him, which is neat. Bonus if Reggie's in it; that guy's the shit.

-Aside from the guys mentioned above, and a few other top-notch, pro-quality shows, there are too many damn reviewers out there reviewing the same games and saying the same things that have been said ad infinitum for 30 years. And many times, they review them poorly. It's amazing how, with so much information so readily available now, people still get so much wrong.

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The amount of incorrect information that appears online today still astounds me...

If your doing an article and/or a YT video, on a series of games based around a popular TV series or film or comic book etc and your presenting the write up as factual, just double check the facts, please.
It bugs me to read game X only appeared on, when it misses out key formats like Amiga or Atari 8 bit range....
Or it classes 2 versions of a game in the same camp, quality wise, ohh it came out on SNES and MD and was fantastic, no, not if the SNES version sucked in comparison.
Plus..comments like:There were not many home versions based on.....
What except the NES, GB, PC, Amiga games, canned C64 version, then years later the PS2/Xbox game, followed by the PS3 PSN game.
How so much slips through/goes unchallenged is beyond me.
Content can be factual and entertaining, if decent amount of work goes into it.
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Has YouTube caused an inflation in prices? Absolutely. I'd even argue that it was because of YouTube and online retro gaming videos in general that the jump in prices has occurred. Asides from truly rare titles and systems, prices stayed relatively constant until retro gaming videos became a frequent thing on video sites (with YouTube being the biggest). As that scene grew, so did the prices. Retro game collecting wasn't nearly as popular before online streaming video was popular.

 

Are too many people reviewing? I don't know, I'm not one to tell who should be doing what with their own free time. If they are enjoying doing what they are doing, and if people are enjoying watching, then that's what counts.

 

One thing I do appreciate about the gaming video phenomenon is the fact that it has helped legitimize collecting and playing these classic games. Prior to the gaming video boom, retro game playing and collecting was reserved for individuals that would be considered.. well, "weird". More people than ever have re-integrated even just a little bit of classic gaming into their everyday lives, and they are completely OK with it. I think that's awesome.

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One thing I do appreciate about the gaming video phenomenon is the fact that it has helped legitimize collecting and playing these classic games. Prior to the gaming video boom, retro game playing and collecting was reserved for individuals that would be considered.. well, "weird".

 

Those were the good times. We need classic games to go out of fashion again.

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Well no thanks.

I mean now I can say "I play old video games " even to my boss (it's on my CV even) without people looking at me funny and ask "old old are you already? Isn't that stuff for kids?" Out of fashion, yes. But good times? Hell no.

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Well no thanks.

I mean now I can say "I play old video games " even to my boss (it's on my CV even) without people looking at me funny and ask "old old are you already? Isn't that stuff for kids?" Out of fashion, yes. But good times? Hell no.

 

Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

 

- C. S. Lewis

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Nostalgia tends to drive prices and demand more than other factors. So in a sense the argument could be made that YouTube "assists" this by giving games exposure, thus increasing nostalgia, thus indirectly driving the price up.

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Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

 

- C. S. Lewis

 

Lewis might be true, but when you're in an interview and that you're being argued that it's kid stuff, then you just slide on that :D

I don't feel ashamed about it, and I can shed a positive light on it, but you have to be careful about that.

There might be a slight difference in that in Europe, at least France, when you say Retrogaming, you say NES/SMS. The computer era before that is generally ignored or treated as negligtible by the mass medias.

So unless you find someone who was exposed to video games, it's likely that people over 40 in France where not exposed to video games during their childhood, aside from a Pong console, and so will regard NES and SMS as kid stuff and be stuck on that mindset.

I do'nt care about the exposure, but I have to care about what people think about it.

Tho, nice example on the fairytales. I'll keep it as an argument if needed.

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Hmmm. When I first ran across the AVGN years ago, I took his content too seriously (first video I ever saw, I don't recall the comedy disclaimer), but I really enjoy the silliness of his videos. I also enjoy the James and Mike Mondays, and even Mike Mattei's videos themselves. I also like watching Metal Jesus', and John Riggs' videos too. Lots of good info there. However, these are all folks who seem involved in the hobby. Old enough to have been there, while maybe not having adopted every piece of equipment back in the day. This lends a bit of credibility to their content, in my eyes. If you are younger than me, and prattling on about the NES, or SNES...I'll probably look at you a little sideways. Lol.

 

Anyway, aside from the bad games that get comedy reviewed, I have seen prices jump a bit on games that are featured in the "hidden gem" type videos. I'm not faulting the video makers for this. What was a $5-10 game becomes a $15-35 dollar game, and then it evens out a bit. I like the greater level of exposure that good titles get, though I dislike the spike in prices. Can't win them all. What I don't agree with is the "made of gold" concept some sellers have about items. Just because it is old, or "retro" is in, or whatever, does not make every old game worth a premium. Hell, plenty of rare games are *trash*. Though, the counter to that is that there are lots of hard to find titles that came out near the end of a system's life...and those tend to be pretty good (maximized hardware potential). Those tend to always be tough to come by because the numbers just aren't there. There are always going to be oddball rares that are stupid expensive.

 

Is the market artificially inflated? To some degree. Any collectibles market is. Any time that it is seen as a way to make a buck, I expect prices to climb. I'm not sure if it is the bandwagon effect, or that there are more people interested in playing older games (some of which may not have been present when this stuff was much, much cheaper), or people just willing to spend more money on things they enjoy? There's plenty of older gaming hardware, and software that I'm willing to throw money towards. Some of the stuff I am after I have to import, so the costs are a little higher to start with.

Not the easiest market situation to ferret out.

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I'll never understand the mentality of "All Youtube reviews are bad."

 

Anyways, I both love and hate that there are so many reviews of games on older systems. I love it when someone shows off an old game that I didn't know about, or maybe an import game that never got a NA release. The thing I don't like is that it has increased demand for some of these older titles, and inflated the prices.

 

Audio is definitely one of the most important things that many don't seem to get on Youtube. You can get away with using your camera mic at times, I sometimes use it in mine just to mix up the sound a bit, but if you're going to use it, don't bury that echoey voice under loud-ass 8-bit music! Adjusting audio levels is important as well. I've seen quite a few with really quiet intro commentary, then the intro theme comes on and everyone in the neighborhood can hear it. Even that sound out!

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Has YouTube caused an inflation in prices? Absolutely. I'd even argue that it was because of YouTube and online retro gaming videos in general that the jump in prices has occurred. Asides from truly rare titles and systems, prices stayed relatively constant until retro gaming videos became a frequent thing on video sites (with YouTube being the biggest). As that scene grew, so did the prices. Retro game collecting wasn't nearly as popular before online streaming video was popular.

 

 

This is correlation without proof of causation. Other reasons for increases in retro game prices include:

 

- Old games are becoming increasingly rare;

- Kids who were fans of previous generations of games now making enough money to buy the stuff they wanted before;

- Online auctions are more convenient than going to thrift stores and garage sales; and

- Online auctions have a near-infinite potential audience, and a limitless ceiling for "value." Something is worth exactly what the market will bear, and not a penny less.

 

In my experience, seeing videos of old games has the opposite effect. When I was younger, prior to YouTube, I'd hear about a game in print or even online, but would be curious about how it looked/played/sounded. Now I can just fire up YouTube and see someone else play it. For most retro games, that's plenty for me. Curiosity satisfied, money stays in pocket.

 

Correlation-versus-causation-1.png

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No doubt YT is driving up prices. I have friends who buy their kids retro gaming consoles/games because their kid(s) saw it in a video while searching for Playstation and XBOX content. Additionally, it has given resellers more knowledge about retro gaming and has made it more difficult to find anything out in the wild thus allowing them to set the market price.

Edited by thadsilverfox
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There's definitely a correlation between the rise of retro-focused YouTube personalities and the cost of games. But step back and think why some of these people are even talking about them at all. Retro games have hit that sweet spot of nostalgic value, and people want to go back and enjoy the things of their past that made them happy. Yeah, there are a lot of us who collected all along, but many people are rediscovering their past, and a new generation of people want to see what all the fuss is about, and some of them get hooked.

 

For myself, I started making YouTube videos because there were personal favorites I wanted to talk about that just didn't seem to be appreciated much by others. I think that's how a lot of people got into making videos, they naturally want to spread the good word about their favorite things. It's so easy to have a voice on YouTube and it doesn't require a lot of effort. All it takes is for one person to watch someone's videos and realize, "Hey, I can do that too! There are other games I want to talk about that could use more attention."

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This is correlation without proof of causation. Other reasons for increases in retro game prices include:

 

- Old games are becoming increasingly rare;

- Kids who were fans of previous generations of games now making enough money to buy the stuff they wanted before;

- Online auctions are more convenient than going to thrift stores and garage sales; and

- Online auctions have a near-infinite potential audience, and a limitless ceiling for "value." Something is worth exactly what the market will bear, and not a penny less.

Correlation without proof of causation, a bit. You make valid points as well and no doubt there are many reasons for the spike in game prices. Some likely have much more subtle effects on the market than others.

 

All I can say with confidence is what I have dealt with personally, and that is I have had dozens of people directly tell me, "I just bought such-and-such game because of watching your video of it." That's not taking into account what I may have unknowingly sold (i.e., people that have bought a game because of my video, without indicating such or telling me). My channel is small, yet I know I am causing games to change hands in the world. For large/popular channels on YouTube (Metal Jesus, Game Sack, Cinemassacre), I can only imagine the effect is multiplied ten-fold.

 

In my experience, seeing videos of old games has the opposite effect. When I was younger, prior to YouTube, I'd hear about a game in print or even online, but would be curious about how it looked/played/sounded. Now I can just fire up YouTube and see someone else play it. For most retro games, that's plenty for me. Curiosity satisfied, money stays in pocket.

 

Based on the popularity of Let's Play and gameplay videos on YouTube, I can see this being the case for many. Myself personally, I've rarely been satisfied watching someone else play a game and I for the most part have to try it myself. So, while I have no doubt there are many that are OK with simply watching a game, I also think there are a lot of people like me that want to have their own go with it, and thus end up tracking down an actual copy to experience it first-hand.

 

Anyways, I both love and hate that there are so many reviews of games on older systems. I love it when someone shows off an old game that I didn't know about, or maybe an import game that never got a NA release. The thing I don't like is that it has increased demand for some of these older titles, and inflated the prices.

Same here. You are a perfect example as well because you talk about genres that I am not that familiar with and it gets me to try things I normally wouldn't. For instance, I am planning on picking up a copy of Disgaea soon because of watching your review on it last week.

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I like some of those larger channels. Back in the day, you bought what looked good off the shelf, because that's what you had (or you talked your parents into buying it off the shelf). I wasn't living in the US when I got my NES for example... you found out about new games via store ads, or it showing up on shelf, talking to friends, and borrowing what they had. I don't recall having access to things like Nintendo Power back then. Word of mouth counted a lot. Add in that most consoles have a pretty healthy library, and you have a lot of variables. You also have a lot of games you might not have heard of. I still find new titles to look into by watching these videos. I have a physical collection, and a digital collection...and sorting through the some odd thousands of ROMs is just a bullshit task. Lol. I will never, ever play the entire library for anything. But, I can research recommended titles easily enough, and occasionally pull a few out myself. I also like hearing what other people think of a given title, set of titles, series etc. Even better if there is some decent thought and production put into the video.

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All I can say with confidence is what I have dealt with personally, and that is I have had dozens of people directly tell me, "I just bought such-and-such game because of watching your video of it." That's not taking into account what I may have unknowingly sold (i.e., people that have bought a game because of my video, without indicating such or telling me). My channel is small, yet I know I am causing games to change hands in the world. For large/popular channels on YouTube (Metal Jesus, Game Sack, Cinemassacre), I can only imagine the effect is multiplied ten-fold.

 

Same here. You are a perfect example as well because you talk about genres that I am not that familiar with and it gets me to try things I normally wouldn't. For instance, I am planning on picking up a copy of Disgaea soon because of watching your review on it last week.

Thanks! This has happened to me dozens of times as well, so I am probably affecting game prices a little bit.

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