The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Playing games at launch
CygnusZ
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've noticed that every time a major game gets released, the gaming world suddenly goes abuzz and it seems that everybody feels compelled to play the new hot game immediately. I never really understood this compulsion though. After all, it's not like the game is going to be more fun because you played it earlier. Furthermore, games cost more at launch. I'm sure on a forum like this that a lot of people have a backlog of games that they have not yet finished playing, yet they go out and buy new games.
So, I really want to know. Are the games actually more fun to play at launch? What is the merit to making yourself suspectable to corporate greed by giving in to silly hype? In the long term, don't you usually regret spending all of that hard earned money on video games?
So, I really want to know. Are the games actually more fun to play at launch? What is the merit to making yourself suspectable to corporate greed by giving in to silly hype? In the long term, don't you usually regret spending all of that hard earned money on video games?
CygnusZ on
0
Posts
Wii U NNID: MegaSpooky
On the other hand, if the MP is really good, people will be playing it for a long time, so I don't know.
steam
If you don't have friends, there's no need to buy games at launch. Though if you don't have friends, you probably will.
So this thread is now more like you asking why we like playing games, since you seem to think they'Re awkward hobbies that you won't partake in unless you have no other options.
You probably spend more money on alcohol in one night out than an average gamer does on one new game.
Though I think I know what you're getting at. Paying around $100, (let's say $60 for a nice dinner and $40 to see a concert), wouldn't bother me at all because I consider the time I spend with my friends and family to be much more important and valuable than a video game. I'll gladly pay the money if there's something that I think we'd enjoy doing together.
You do realize that just because someone plays video games does not mean that his only activity during freetime is playing these games?
And that, just like you said, a large amount of gamers actually do like to spend a lot of time with friends/family and also cherish that time as "more valuable". But that doesn't keep them from enjoying a game from time to time.
Just because somewhere in your house there is a video game console doesn't mean you are a loner who wastes his time.
Even if you only play 5 minutes a month, these 5 minutes are not wasted, because you are enjoying them.
Oh, and what defines a "hobby" for you? A hobby is officially defined as "An activity or interest pursued outside one's regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure". Are you telling me a video game doesn't fit that?
What's this "friends" and "families" and "hobbies" that you speak of? My gamer mind is too busy spending time with videogames videogames videogame videogamesvideoGAMES VIDEOGAMESVIDEOGAMESVIDEOGAMES kshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhk......
You know, I didn't actually say any of those things. I'm here posting on this forum. At least to some extent, I clearly play video games. The reason I was talking about that is Karrmer started talking about how much money I spend on booze.
That's a pretty bad definition of hobby though. Under that definition watching TV, taking a shower and masturbation would all be hobbies. In the very least, I believe that a hobby is something that is intellectually stimulating.
edit- I mean, apart from looking down your nose at people, stroking your own ego and assuring yourself that your life is superior to those gamer losers.
I find masturbation to be very intellectually stimulating.
Taking showers, watching TV and masturbating are activities people assume you partake in anyway. They do not expect you to play video games.
Hence while TV is designated "pasttime", video games gets "hobby".
Edit: Hobbies don't have to be intellectually stimulating. I don't know about you but I've never thought of collecting stamps or building models being more intellectually stimulating than a video game.
Stamp collecting is fairly intellectual, since you need to become familiar with the bajillion or so stamps that the various governments of the world have put out and then actually be shrewd enough to figure out where you can get your hands on them. I consider building things, not only models but also stuff like carpentry, to be hobby. With plastic models you have to follow the directions very carefully and put all the little pieces together correctly. It also takes great skill to do a good job painting a model. At least when I play a video game, my brain basically shuts off.
I'm pretty the GREAT national pasttime of Americans is Baseball. I'd considered playing on a baseball team a hobby. There is no relationship between a "pasttime" and a "hobby".
For me that phrase means "I am concentrating on this game and I'm not thinking about any other stuff that might bother me".
I still use my brain though,because games demand you use it,otherwise you will run into that first goomba for all eternity.
I generally don't get games at launch unless it's a birthday and/Christmas, I can get a really good pre-order price on it, or it has Zelda or Resident Evil 4 in the title.
It started with stuff like Goldeneye but has advanced over the years to include 16 player Mario Kart: DD tourneys, FF:CC runs, a Mechwarrior 2 tourney.
We also go out drinking or clubbing or sporting events or movies or just out to eat or have a BBQ.
Same group of people.
When it comes to the actual question of "Why buy games at launch when you can get them cheaper months/years later?" It's a simple answer.
If I know in my heart of hearts that I don't need the game right away and that it will get cheaper, I wait.
If the game is made by Nintendo or Atlus I know that it won't get any cheaper anytime soon, and in Atlus's case, I may not be able to find the game even two months later.
Also some games have good incentives for buying early, like a free version of an older game. That will usually get me on board early.
This.
The Zelda's Collectors disc, in the UK at least, was only supposed to be free with any new Gamecube purchase, but I asked the manager of my local game if there was any other way I could get it (since I'd had my gamecube since launch), he said "Buy any full price game, and you can have it for free", so I bought F-Zero GX for full price.
If this kind of thing happened more often, I would be inclined to buy games at release more often.
Isn't Little Big Planet doing something similar?
Man now I want to go find a forum dedicated to family stuff and post about how I value video game playing time a lot more.
Anyway, making myself susceptible to corporate greed? I really think that's a lame way of trying to put a bad spin on "giving people who make games I like money so they can make more games I like." Many game companies (especially smaller ones or ones producing niche titles) judge a game's success relatively early based on how well it sells and how many preorders it gets.
Before releasing Phoenix Wright 2 in the U.S., Capcom said their decision to remake/translate PW3 would at least partially be based on how many people preordered PW2. Since I wanted to play 3, I preordered 2. Simple.
I think people already have given a ton of good reasons in this thread. More people to play with in MP games, ensuring yourself a copy of a niche title, preorder bonuses, and yes even just plain old playing it when it's new so you can talk about it while everyone else is playing it or because you're excited after waiting a long time for its release. I buy games at launch of any of these reasons.
Sometimes I find a game I hadn't kept up with used and will buy that,but most of the times it's day 1 for me.
Oh and like I said before, I like to participate in the threads about the game when it just came out and everyone is excited and not when everyone already beat it and I have to ressurect a 6 month old thread.
Also, OPman, think of it this way. You say $100 on a night out is fine because you're spending time with friends and family which is far better than gaming.
Unlike $50 spent on Super Smash Bros Brawl. which isn't fine because you're spending time with friends and family while gaming.
Gaming is a social activity. It wasn't always, and it wasn't always as social. But it is a social activity. Especially as it gains recognition, it's almost as common to hear "Hey did you get to X part in Y game?" as it is to hear "Hey did you see X part of Y show?". And just like TV-watching, going to Movies, going to a concert, whatever, it can be done alone, yeah. There are still great singleplayer-only games that aren't by themselves social, but a night on the town is intrinsically no more or less social than a night spent playing video games. It's all about who you're doing it with. Whenever I'm playing games with people, we're not all sitting there completely silent focusing on our own character, not talking to each other at all, we're talking about pretty much everything while playing. Yes, doing nothing but gaming all day and all night is not social, and if someone who does that has no friends outside of the game then there's a problem with them socially, but trying to say that games are just completely brain-killing antisocial experiences is waaay off. In fact there has been research done(way too lazy to look up the source on this right now) that pretty much specifically shows the social effect of gaming.
Also, I buy certain games on launch. It depends how excited I am, and unless it gets absolutely slammed in reviews if it's something I've tracked the development of and been sold through it all, I'll get it. If not, I'll wait 'till the intertubes has an opinion.
Games I have a ton of unfinished ones. And am as guilty as the next gullible fool getting sucked into the hype of the new better iteration.