Should you preorder videogames?

[MistTiger]

MY two cents.

 

I will NEVER pre-order a game. The best parallel to that behavior is writing someone a blank check. The one time when I had a fit of temporary insanity and payed $55 for a true "gem" of a game it was called Master of Orion 3. Went platinum with just presales. It sucked so bad that I now look at the developer credits and avoid anything that is worked on by any prior member of the "Quicksilver" team. The only thing faster than quicksilver was how fast they disappeared with their piles of money offering almost no support for the disaster that would have looked bad on a old Nintendo. A million plus copies at 55.00 each. they should have be charged and prosecuted for felony fraud. It hit the $9.99 software pile so fast that I thought it was a mistake. I hope and pray there is a special area in a very hot place down below for those developers who mislead their faithful with trash like that. That is how strongly I feel about their betrayal of a game series that I loved to play and looked forward to continuing.

 

Furthermore, Here are two excellent reasons for not pre-ordering.

 

1. Pre-ordering rewards the poorer developers with money before they have to produce results. How many people get their money back when the game is a dud. I'm sure all of those dissatisfied with Colonial Marine got return checks. Whoa!!! Take the money and run!!!! If pre-ordering were stopped, I believe that the overall gaming industry would improve because there would be no running with peoples' money when it rapidly becomes apparent that the game sucks. Pre-orders promote and encourage false advertising. Several people that I work with are always bragging about their pre-orders and getting their hands on a game first. Funny how they don't brag when they pre-order a dud. I personally will not purchase a game until it has been on the market for 6 months. That's just me. But, my track record on not wasting money on dud games is now 100% and I have contributed $0 to underachieving developer teams. I am not part of the problem. I enjoy the games I play and can be patient while I watch others curse and pray that the developers will fix the bugs in the games they have just paid top dollar for.

 

2. As was pointed out above, there is also a credibility issue among gamers when a dud is released that some hapless pre-order gamer has purchased and is now defending. Are you going to treat an individual who is defending a pre-order that was a disaster as a game success with the same credibility they might have had earlier. Heh, Heh, Trust me that game is great. It only has a few bugs. Hey, have you heard about that pre-order for that great new game "AAAAAA"? WE gotta get in on that. They have such cool pre-order bonuses. Yeah, Right.

 

The best paint job in the universe will not make a car with a broken engine move.

 

Bottom line: If you pre-order, you get what is coming to you. It's sometimes good and sometimes bad... like gambling. You are enabling the few bad apples in the gaming industry to continue operating. They just disband and reform under another name after they have took your money and ran. As you can probably tell from my post, I feel very strongly about this issue. I have been a victim too. I won't be fooled again.

 

Just my opinion. Cheers!!!! V/R MistTiger

[Beriallord]

Its been a long time since I preordered any game. Mostly because I no longer trust them to give me a good quality game at face value anymore. Also preorder bonuses are just gimmicks that don't interest me in the slightest.

[phoneyLogic]

I admit I purchased three titles before release.

 

This are

- Fallout New Vegas (I trust Obsidian because they never fooled or disappointed me.)

- Wasteland 2 (This is a Kickstarter-Projekt, I'm still a little suspicious since the Unity Engine might be not exactly high end, a little clumsy in my expectations. Lets see, if I burned 25 Euro, then okay, this will not happen twice.)

- Arma 3 Alpha (For 25 Euro you get the full game once released. There's a lot of trust I gave Bohemia Interactive in advance because I know the Arma series.)

 

 

So yes, this might be a little twisted if I say: Wait, don't buy on sight.

 

 

But in my opinion this boils down to the point:

Can you really justify to preorder a game to yourself?

Do you have any reasons to backup your trust?

Can you life with the situation if you get fooled? (And lets face it, this easily is going to happen in the gaming industries.)

Do you get an advantage if you are going to preorder a game?

Do you know from whom you exactly bought? (Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.)

 

 

EA for example is a publisher I wouldn't preorder any title in the near future. Because I know, they ruined a lot of franchises for the sake of maximising their audience (and profits).

 

So if you don't know what you are expecting, if you don't know what they deliver: wait.

Edited April 9, 2013 by tortured Tomato