If you’re concerned about DRM, just use GOG or Itch. If you’re concerned about shitty games, do research before you buy something and just avoid studios like EA.
Avoiding a title is simply not a consideration for a lot of people—especially if it’s shitty. They’re important context for meme and conversation material.
Did “all digital” kill renting? Back in my day we had Blockbuster and gamefly, and we could buy used disks from gamestop and play 'em for a bit and return them within 7 days to “rent” them as well. I’m glad I’m all ROMs and flashcarts these days.
It won’t change anything until people stop preordering games and actually wait for them to come out before shelling out a hundred bucks.
Pre-order and dlc is what has made gaming so awful lately. Game companies realized they can make a half-assed game and fill it with microtransactions and still make shit loads of money
The biggest issue with pre-ordering is the gaming community itself tbh. Even if an individual knows better intellectually, companies have people specialized to make advertising as engaging as possible. Most of us (I used to be one of them) simply do not have the tools, nor the idea, of how to mentally combat “hype trains” and thus get our expectations up praying that the game will come out good and satisfy us for a bit.
Pre-ordering makes zero sense for a digitally downloadable product, since it isn’t scarce like physical products can be. Unless the company invents advantages that didn’t need to be there, there’s no benefit of being in the front of the queue, since eventually everybody can get a copy. Consumers are dumb…
Pre-ordering has the illusion of value. When you pre-order chances are it gets you into the game before others and with extra stuff to boot. That could be an advantage that could snowball. Or atleast that is one of the rationalizations that can be made. Saldy, even assuming that is true, it wouldn’t matter since the game tends to be shit/unplayable at launch.
The pre-orders that technically are worth anything are those that give physical baubles/items that could contain value to some individuals. But right now? yeah pre-orders are scams.
But speaking personally now, the feelings can be so damn strong that you create “logical” reasons to pre-order and then end up lamenting at the idiocy or full commit to sunk cost fallacy.
Good old inability to delay gratification (google it, it’s an actual behavioural trait) in the face of the pretty clear logic that almost all games (except some multiplayer ones) are actually better a year later than at launch day.
Mind you, the world around us pretty much tries to train us every single day to be like that: it makes for wonderful profit-maximizing mindless consumers.
Exactly. Companies know how to manipulate our dopamine high and keep on repeating the cycle of pre-orders and post-launch disappointment; while the game developers are laughing their way to the banks.
I’d rather invest my time figuring a smart purchase, than spend my minuscule available money padding some rich fuck wallet. I don’t have much money or time, so I’d rather spend it on quality products and services than waste it on moneygrubbers.
No one’s disputing that. The discussion is about how awful it is that we have to do that. It sucks that our miniscule time is even smaller because we have to now sift through the garbage first.
i really want to use gog but they don’t offer regional pricing.
like for example factorio is 8$ for me on steam but 36$ on gog. Skyrim is 40$ on gog and 17$ on steam.
If you’re concerned about DRM, just use GOG or Itch. If you’re concerned about shitty games, do research before you buy something and just avoid studios like EA.
Don’t underestimate the FOMO factor.
Avoiding a title is simply not a consideration for a lot of people—especially if it’s shitty. They’re important context for meme and conversation material.
I genuinely wish this was a joke.
Did “all digital” kill renting? Back in my day we had Blockbuster and gamefly, and we could buy used disks from gamestop and play 'em for a bit and return them within 7 days to “rent” them as well. I’m glad I’m all ROMs and flashcarts these days.
I’m pretty picky about what I get, so that idea didn’t really come to me…
It won’t change anything until people stop preordering games and actually wait for them to come out before shelling out a hundred bucks.
Pre-order and dlc is what has made gaming so awful lately. Game companies realized they can make a half-assed game and fill it with microtransactions and still make shit loads of money
The biggest issue with pre-ordering is the gaming community itself tbh. Even if an individual knows better intellectually, companies have people specialized to make advertising as engaging as possible. Most of us (I used to be one of them) simply do not have the tools, nor the idea, of how to mentally combat “hype trains” and thus get our expectations up praying that the game will come out good and satisfy us for a bit.
Pre-ordering makes zero sense for a digitally downloadable product, since it isn’t scarce like physical products can be. Unless the company invents advantages that didn’t need to be there, there’s no benefit of being in the front of the queue, since eventually everybody can get a copy. Consumers are dumb…
Pre-ordering has the illusion of value. When you pre-order chances are it gets you into the game before others and with extra stuff to boot. That could be an advantage that could snowball. Or atleast that is one of the rationalizations that can be made. Saldy, even assuming that is true, it wouldn’t matter since the game tends to be shit/unplayable at launch.
The pre-orders that technically are worth anything are those that give physical baubles/items that could contain value to some individuals. But right now? yeah pre-orders are scams.
But speaking personally now, the feelings can be so damn strong that you create “logical” reasons to pre-order and then end up lamenting at the idiocy or full commit to sunk cost fallacy.
Good old inability to delay gratification (google it, it’s an actual behavioural trait) in the face of the pretty clear logic that almost all games (except some multiplayer ones) are actually better a year later than at launch day.
Mind you, the world around us pretty much tries to train us every single day to be like that: it makes for wonderful profit-maximizing mindless consumers.
You can look up delayed gratification all you want but the majority of American consumers will never actually understand it.
Exactly. Companies know how to manipulate our dopamine high and keep on repeating the cycle of pre-orders and post-launch disappointment; while the game developers are laughing their way to the banks.
So instead of playing, I now have to do work to figure how to spend my miniscule available time on what to play to get the most out of said time.
I’m not mocking what you said. I’m just lamenting the state of gaming.
I’d rather invest my time figuring a smart purchase, than spend my minuscule available money padding some rich fuck wallet. I don’t have much money or time, so I’d rather spend it on quality products and services than waste it on moneygrubbers.
No one’s disputing that. The discussion is about how awful it is that we have to do that. It sucks that our miniscule time is even smaller because we have to now sift through the garbage first.
Imma get downvoted for that but even Epic has loads of DRM free games… there’s plenty of choice to buy DRM free games these days…
Yup, Steam too
i really want to use gog but they don’t offer regional pricing.
like for example factorio is 8$ for me on steam but 36$ on gog. Skyrim is 40$ on gog and 17$ on steam.