Adjust Production Technology v. Raw Material for Computers

[Cozar]

The importance of production technology and raw materials for computers was much more realistic in Cap 2 compared to Cap Labs. The first question you ask when evaluating a computer is what processor it uses. Then you analyze the various electronic components (motherboard, RAM, GPU, hard drive, etc...). Thus, these goods should place more importance on the raw materials than the production technology.

[Esoteric Rogue]

The importance of production technology and raw materials for computers was much more realistic in Cap 2 compared to Cap Labs. The first question you ask when evaluating a computer is what processor it uses. Then you analyze the various electronic components (motherboard, RAM, GPU, hard drive, etc...). Thus, these goods should place more importance on the raw materials than the production technology.

Not raw materials but semi-products. This suggestion needs to be more specific, to me.

My interpretation based on reality:
Desktop: CPU Quality is Very Important (5/5)
Desktop: Electronics Quality is Import (4/5)
Desktop: Steel Quality is not Important (1/5)

So, for starters, I'm just saying I can't agree that the desktop steel should matter very much.

[Cozar]

The importance of production technology and raw materials for computers was much more realistic in Cap 2 compared to Cap Labs. The first question you ask when evaluating a computer is what processor it uses. Then you analyze the various electronic components (motherboard, RAM, GPU, hard drive, etc...). Thus, these goods should place more importance on the raw materials than the production technology.

Not raw materials but semi-products. This suggestion needs to be more specific, to me.

My interpretation based on reality:
Desktop: CPU Quality is Very Important (5/5)
Desktop: Electronics Quality is Import (4/5)
Desktop: Steel Quality is not Important (1/5)

So, for starters, I'm just saying I can't agree that the desktop steel should matter very much.

Pretty much. In Cap 2, Desktop computers were 40% production/60% Raw Materials, distributed as 40% CPU, 15% EC and 5% Steel. Even that is probably giving too much credit to the production technology. I'd go with something like:

Production: 25%
CPU: 40%
EC: 30%
Steel: 5%

[Esoteric Rogue]

Currently it's: Desktop 68, (20, 10, 2)
Cap2 was: Desktop 40, (40, 15, 5,)
You propose: Desktop 25, (40, 30, 5)

Let me think about this. I hear ya, but what the Product Tech percent actually accounts for is "how much do other things besides these parts" matter.

Look at Cola: 80, (10, 10). Nobody cares if that's a premium aluminum can, nor the origins of your sweetener. What they actually care about I wont get into, but it's certainly not the aluminum or syrup.

Looking at the tablets, which IRL is something I first did only recently to help a friend, I can see that hardware components actually entered my mind zero percent. While trying to avoid marketing and price concerns because that's comes later, most people are going to be looking at the apps, the o.s., the size, and the connections. Long story short, I'm am or was a computer geek, but I have no idea what processor is the Google Nexus 7 which I researched and recommended to my friend. I can tell you it is an Android with a microUSB port, which fits my friend's requirement.

So, for tablet I can see very low component concern, and for phones I imagine very very low concern, and that leads me to be able to understand a low desktop component concern. The software is far more concern than the hardware, is it a Mac or Windows? Can I plug my camera into it? We use Office 2007 at work, will this run Office 2007? Does it have Internet?

Most of my friends treat desktops like their disposable. They know going in that no matter what they buy, they're going to buy a replacement in 2 or 3 years. They're not going to consider the best hardware available, they're just going to buy something better than the last one they bought... which would be probably be anything in the current market.

A friend on Facebook just said she's going to have to buy a new laptop with USB ports on the right-hand side. That is her requirement. Not A TX2000Hyperchannel processor, but some other design feature. I personally tend to over-value the keyboard design on laptops.

Well, I can't imagine going much lower than say 50% for desktops. To the average consumer, the other stuff does matter as much or more than the having the best components. I'd probably imagine it to be higher than 68% for Tablets.

So, I guess we disagree this far.

[Cozar]

The way it is set up right now, the quality of the aluminum can in making Cola is as important as the quality of a motherboard. The quality of the rubber used to make flip-flops (35%) is more important than the quality of the CPU in an electronic device. That's so unrealistic it is absurd.

There is definitely an argument for some value from production technology. Apple has certainly capitalized by making slim computers and there are boutique companies like Alienware that definitely earn customers through their production tech. However, the internal parts of a computer/phone are probably more important for the computer/phone than any of the component parts in any other product in this game.

You might not know what processor is in the Nexus 7, but I guarantee you wouldn't have recommended it if it had a crappy processor. When your friends buy a new desktop computer in 2-3 years, they are paying mostly for the technological advances in the hardware. The fact that R&D has produced better CPU and EC is exactly why desktops get outdated, not because somebody researched a better way to make them. In fact, the way this game represents computers, your friends would not only be considering the best hardware available, they would be buying top-of-the-line hardware every time they purchase a new computer, because the hardware is insignificant compared to the production tech. A $500 computer and a $1,000 computer are running the same software. The difference in their value derives from the difference in the CPU and EC.