Hmm, for me, I totally understand and appreciate why the costs are going up, but I bought Tin Star for $1.99 – I double-checked my google purchase history, even. Tin Star is, by far, the longest CoG/HG that has been released (unless there has been a change-up I haven’t yet heard of); unfortunately, this means that I subconsciously compare everything to the cost I paid for TS.
Is this 80,000 word novel, with an estimated play-count of about 40,000 words going to be worth more than the $2 I spent on TS? Generally speaking, no.
I love HG and CoG, and, if I could, I would buy every single game multiple times, just to support the very talented authors we have here.
The thing is, however, that most of us got into this on a happy accident, after seeing how low the prices were. Yes, they’re still low, but they’re on the higher end of prices for the app store, these days. $6.99 for a game with 100,000 words, including code? That was mind-boggling for me to see the other day – and that wasn’t even on Steam (I don’t buy any of these games on steam; they’re far too difficult for me to read on the computer, versus on my phone)!
I understand that we’re potentially buying hours of replayable content, but, being realistic, we’re only putting a ton of time in on the first playthrough. After that, most of us are spamming different options to see the different endings or different romance scenes. That first playthrough is the most important, and if it is short and subpar, $6.99 suddenly feels like a giant waste of money – especially on a mobile game.
I think the best route for CoG/HG to take, with this, is to give a warning before price changes are going to increase, sitewide. I’d love to know more of the reasons – is it due to tax, is it because the companies you’re working with are demanding more money, are authors asking for more royalties, etc.
I’m not against paying more, but it is definitely requiring me to be more discerning; I mean, I bought most of these games when the most expensive one was $3. It’s hard to justify paying more than twice that for games that, on average, have been of somewhat…lower quality (in terms of length or even just garnering interest).