Well well well, if it isn’t my old friend: day 1 performance issues.
I simply do not buy games on release.
I won’t even buy Silksong on release - wait at least a couple of weeks for the impatient to beta test it for you.
Not even a good dev reputation is enough anymore. I’ve avoided a lot of wasted money by just letting people QA the game for a few months. How good the game is and how much I want it get factored in and then I decide when I want to buy it and at what sale price.
If it’s a franchise I love and the game gets good reviews, only then will I buy it completely new for 70 USD. Anything less and I either wait for patches to make the game what it should have been or just wait for a Steam 9.99 sale on the GOTY edition.
Unfortunately a trend I’ve noticed is a game will come out busted, get dropped to like 40 bucks a month in cause it’s shit, then when it’s finally patched a year later to launch day expectations they bump the price back up to its original value.
The system is so fucked and it works cause people will willingly pay to be QA testers.
There are lots of benefits to this approach.
You wait for a sale and not only do you pay less, you get a patched version of the game, with mods available, often with DRM removed or toned down, walkthroughs and wikis already matured, and depending on how long you wait, your hardware might have evolved allowing you to experience the game better than you could at release.
Remember, games are now being put out for $70, I refuse to buy those games on principle
That works for you and me, where we do without.
But it doesnt hurt the industry enough to notice or care, because the vast majority of gamers are idiots who continue to throw buckets of money at game devs, often while begging for more pointless DLCs so they can throw even more at it,
and until the little gremlins with fat wallets and minimal sense see the light, we’re just gonna have to sit back and watch all the worst shit continue to get ever more worse.
70 will become 80 before long, 80 will become 90 and so on, if we remain apathetic about changes like this. Its good principle.
i paid full price for destiny 2. now its free
still, that was a better use of my money than black ops 4 was. what a shitty game that was
It’s kind of bullshit to call people impatient if they buy a game when the publisher says the game is ready for release. That’s on the punisher, not the consumer. While everyone is fine with pushing the blame on the consumer for buying games at release, I’m over here shaking my fist at the publisher. I get the whole idea of being upset that purchasing on release is perpetuating poor practices, but don’t be sloppy with your aim. This is squarely on the publisher.
The old adage is relevant here:
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Yes, the publisher is to blame.
But it will keep happening regardless - so you can either keep falling for it and screaming it’s not your fault, or wise up and start having a bit more patience and buying games later.
It’s on the publisher the first time. It’s on you if you keep buying them.
You might think that fist shaking will make a publisher change. Look at the history of buggy game releases. It’s extensive. Look at all that fist shaking.
Publishers are run by people. People respond to incentives. Business is incentivized to gain dollars.
If, for example, no one gave publishers dollars until trusted reviewers verified no bugs / issues, the publishers would be incentivized to release polished products. (note, trusted reviewers may not be the ideal solution, but hopefully illustrates the concept)
It’s kind of bullshit to call people impatient if they buy a game when the publisher says the game is ready for release.
At this point…you’re contributing to the cycle of buggy releases. Yes, the responsible gamers absolutely can call out the dumbasses who still pre-order games.
This your first day in the real world? Devs have been releasing games in this state since like 2013 (not including the gaming collapse of the 80’s) regularly.
If you still trust developers to claim a game is ready and then release it as such, then you’re gullible and will fall for anything.
You want the system fixed?
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DONT PREORDER
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Wait for actual reviews, not the “I played the tutorial and then made this video so I could beat the other YouTubers, 7/10.” Two weeks or so gives the passionate reviewers to play the whole game and give their opinion.
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(This one is where you morons keep fucking up) If the game isn’t up to your standards… DONT FUCKING BUY IT! Buying shitty products tells the devs and publishers that you’re willing to spend money on a heap of garbage! You know what they’ll do next time? That’s right! More garbage!
Stop trying to blame the system because you’re a shitty consumer who will hand over their money for a promise and no second thought.
Stop. Buying. The. Crap. Products.
If this was housing or medical I’d be calling for regulation, this is video games. A luxury good. Just don’t pay money for garbage and they’ll be forced to make better products to get our money.
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Even if customer isn’t to be blamed as you claim being voluntarily ignorant despite past trends at the very least makes them an idiot. And the type to get swindled by everyone since they take everything at face value.
It’s like these gaming companies have NO Q&A people at all. Build a lab with a bunch of varying levels of machines and see if the game is playable. It’s not really that difficult is it?
