I will never ever pre-order a Game again. A Guide to no disappointment

[Deleted]

I will never ever pre-order again. This is it, Elder Scrolls Online showed me that pre-ordering is the last thing a sane human individual can do if one wants to have a quality gaming experience. Lets focus on trials, lets focus on F2P models with a fully accessible game, lets focus on a pricing model that allows the player to clearly see and experience what he gets and then evaluate how much he will pay the creators of his just perceived joy. And of course he will throw tons of greens at a great game but on the other hand nothing if it is bad designed.

This forces developers to sit on their creative behinds again. I can not believe I am telling you or the developers this. I am the developer, I am creating art – I am the publisher, I let this art be created, unhindered and do my best to reveal it to the masses. I am the consumer, I am the observer, I enjoy the experience.

Pre-ordering is just a worse buffer to secure funds for development, it lets the developers lean back in their developing behaviour – instead of having to provide quality content, they procude what they think then fits the minimum gamers want. Maximum gain through advertisment, minimum output through development. And I am so digusted by this, I can not tell you in words! Playing games since 1995 and seeing how this trend evolved over the last years until now and continues to do so. I can spit on it! But that solves nothing for the rest of you, because we have to understand it – look it in it’s eyes and see clearly what is happening here. And this only happens in a balanced state of mind, neither in rage nor in excitement.

No, this is no conspiracy and nothing is bad or wrong. It is simply the reaction to measures that have been done with you, gamers. a) you buy a title and it is a clear Yes to everything the developers have done to create it, including marketing and pre-ordering or -purchasing IS a Yes
-or- b) you do not buy it and it is a No to how the developers have created the game, then having to reconsider.

Let us be honest and face the fact, that everywhere else on this planet this is the healthy norm: You buy something because it interests you, because you see it first hand and want to have it to enrich your life with it. And not live off promises. Nobody needs to promise anything if the evidence is clear that there is something about to succeed greatly. Promises are made if all is vague and not clear. Understand this, now and forever. I will not write a second post like this. I will spoon feed you consciousness right now. Unbiased clear sight.

You from now on never ever pre-order a game again. Never. Again. You wait for the developers and publishers to release reasonable F2P models, or trials, or betas which are fully accessible. A form of view into the game that clearly shows you what you get. This gives you a clear impression if you want to buy it lateron or not. Yes, you only buy then something you clearly want. Not coming from cinematic trailers or reviews from popular youtube or twitch-streamers, no, from Your First Hand Gaming Experience.

Every game has a feel to it. This feel has Nothing to do with cinematic trailers or hypes. It is a feeling you feel when playing it. This is crucial for the decision making process of buying a game.

And then when you follow this, you will not be disappointed. Then, you have finally understood a very important key factor of making powerful conscious consumer decisions. You are powerful. Without you a game can not be made. You decide if games are full of quality or lack there of.

There was an age where we did not have to help developers making a game.. we did not give them tips or hints on how to do things.. they just made great games and we enjoyed them, fully! You are no developer. I am no developer. You are a consumer, you are a gamer. I am a consumer, I am a gamer. Let it stay this way.

Quit this exploitation with pricing models! For ever! Both sides in trust again.



All the best.

[Terridon]

Well i think it has some advantages. Specially if you turn your eye towards the kickstarter projects that often are a pre-order to let the developer know how much money they can afford to use without going bankrupt.
The more money they get, the more they get to make. It's rather common to have linux/mac support when some threshold is reached, extra features etc.

Pre-ordering wow doesn't really give that, since they already know it will be a succes. It gave diablo3 last time, but often it's not even cheaper to pre-order.

[Deleted]

I'm not able to feel sorry for people wasting their money on pre-orders for every new MMO. There are people like the OP who praise every upcoming MMO to heaven without ever realizing those games are trash.

Age of conan OMFG gonna be so awesome >preorder >crap >> dead
RIFT OMFG gonna be so awesome >preorder >crap > dead
TERA OMFG gonna be so awesome >preorder >crap > dead
AiON OMFG So epic gonna bE THE next MMO >preorder >crap > dead game
SWTOR omfg this is so gonna be the best MMO EVER >preorder >crap > dead
LOTR MMO, OMG gonna be so the best MMO ever made >preorder >crap > dead
ESO OMFG this time for real, best MMO there will ever be >preorder >crap > dead
Wildstar OFMG but THIS time for real best MMO ever! >preorder >crap > dead

Ppl who don't get this pattern should lose money as a punishment for their weak mind

[Eliandal]

One persons trash is another's treasure. I've never been disappointed with my preorders, feeling that I've more than got my moneys worth out of them. Then again - every company that I've preordered from allowed refunds right up to launch (and yes, even including the much maligned EA which easily allowed my DD refund of TOR)

[Dispraise]

Over the years I've pre-ordered somewhere between ten and twenty different titles. I have never been disappointed with such a purchase, and in every single case I was glad that pre-ordering was an option. The only thing I don't like about the practice is when DLC is attached. But most of those end up getting sold separately, anyway.

[Yunru]

Some donkeys need to step on a ice more than once to realize that preoder is a bad idea in 95% cases. (kickstarter is not realy a preoder)

[Deleted]

Elder Scrolls Online easily has 30-40 hours of content available in its beta, with keys available to every single person who signed up. They also offer refunds if you bought from them direct. I don't know what more you want for a game than that. I've never been unhappy with a game I've pre-ordered because I always research fully before I pre-order it and don't have unrealistic expectations from games.

[Deleted]

nice to see there are still some intelligent people out there who dont throw money at everything they see

[whywhatwhowhenhow]

Saw this in a thread the other day. I think it deserves a post here too.

[Oevaag]

From my own perspective. I blame Blizzard. Pre-ordering a game had never occurred to me prior to them selling out of WoW at release and needing to wait another month before they could get another run out. Since then I've pre-ordered most games I'm interested in Saying that there have only been a few as, due to not playing anything but WOW for 7 years, I had a large pool of quality games to pick up on budget :P The only one I would consider a "mistake" was Bio-shock Infinite. Lovely game but had I known the main story was so short I would have waited to pick it up in a Steam sale when it dropped under a tenner ^^

[Marquize]

So this is basically a "I pre-ordered something and now it's not turning out the be the way I wanted"-thread? Well perhaps next time you'll be smart enough to not pay money for a unfinished product just to get some extra trinkets.

Well i think it has some advantages. Specially if you turn your eye towards the kickstarter projects that often are a pre-order to let the developer know how much money they can afford to use without going bankrupt.
The more money they get, the more they get to make. It's rather common to have linux/mac support when some threshold is reached, extra features etc.

Pre-ordering wow doesn't really give that, since they already know it will be a succes. It gave diablo3 last time, but often it's not even cheaper to pre-order.

Kickstarter is not a pre-order, it's a fund raiser, the difference is that a game that can be pre-ordered will happen, it will come out. A kickstarter project may never happen, even if you pledge your money to it. Also take a look at the Double Fine Adventure, or now known as "Broken Age". It had one of the most successful kickstarters, they raised many times more than they asked for(3.3 million of the 400k they asked for). What happened? They had to turn to humble bundle and put all their old games in a bundle to make extra cash because they used it all before the game was done. What happened after that? They made the game episodic and released half of the game on steam, selling it there to be able to fund the second half. So as you may see, kickstarter is not always a good thing. Especially in the hands of developers that can't handle their economy.

[Dhrizzle]

Saw this in a thread the other day. I think it deserves a post here too.

It's a shame they stopped it there, a moment later it turns into an advert for pre-ordering Stick of Truth, which I did, and it was awesome.

There's nothing wrong with pre-ordering, but I find it annoying when people do so, don't like the game, and spend the rest of their lives crudding up forums and blaming publishers/developers for their poor choice.

[Super Kami Dende]

I haven't pre-ordered a game since FFXIII destroyed my faith in Square-Enix.

[Noxina]

I dont see the problem in pre-ordering, if you end up buying the game anyways. Unless you want to wait a month or so to see how it goes before you buy it of course.

[Deleted]

Is this a duplicate from another thread or?

- - - Updated - - -

So this is basically a "I pre-ordered something and now it's not turning out the be the way I wanted"-thread? Well perhaps next time you'll be smart enough to not pay money for a unfinished product just to get some extra trinkets.



Kickstarter is not a pre-order, it's a fund raiser, the difference is that a game that can be pre-ordered will happen, it will come out. A kickstarter project may never happen, even if you pledge your money to it. Also take a look at the Double Fine Adventure, or now known as "Broken Age". It had one of the most successful kickstarters, they raised many times more than they asked for(3.3 million of the 400k they asked for). What happened? They had to turn to humble bundle and put all their old games in a bundle to make extra cash because they used it all before the game was done. What happened after that? They made the game episodic and released half of the game on steam, selling it there to be able to fund the second half. So as you may see, kickstarter is not always a good thing. Especially in the hands of developers that can't handle their economy.

Kickstarter is utter shit. It's being used by people with big names in the gaming industry to fund money for a game they already created. It's brilliant really, you show people a close to finished game, people think you are awesome and fund you money and then you sell said game once you have stretched the funding long enough.

You are making twice as much profit from a game...

[tru]

Elder Scrolls Online easily has 30-40 hours of content available in its beta, with keys available to every single person who signed up. They also offer refunds if you bought from them direct. I don't know what more you want for a game than that. I've never been unhappy with a game I've pre-ordered because I always research fully before I pre-order it and don't have unrealistic expectations from games.

You cant exactly tell how well an endgame is structured. If SWTOR or GW2 actually had a good endgame when i played them at launch I would have stayed playing them. FFARR was the same way crappy end game. I have decided I wont preorder games either unless its to support something that really means something to me like a new/reamake ff7 or Legacy of Kain game /castwish

Ill wait to see how live eso goes and what people think and get more info before I spend my money on it.
I wont preorder WoD until I start seeing more realistic info from the Beta

[Marema]

Is this a duplicate from another thread or?

- - - Updated - - -



Kickstarter is utter shit. It's being used by people with big names in the gaming industry to fund money for a game they already created. It's brilliant really, you show people a close to finished game, people think you are awesome and fund you money and then you sell said game once you have stretched the funding long enough.

You are making twice as much profit from a game...

My buddy is using kickstarter. It made me /facepalm when I saw how much money he had raised for his Euro board games. And I still have no idea wtf a Euro board game is.

[Not Againnn]

i only preorder console games so i can be sure to get it physically and not be sad when they run out.

[Bluesftw]

well thought and indeep guide to not be dissapointed:

step 1: dont get excited like a little girl , expect shit till proven otherwise.

done.

[Manataurus]

Pre-ordering is a part of the system and has been around for the better part of the last 2 decades. It just guarantees that you get your copy, usually upon release. If you would like to wait and see if the game will truly be worth your money, than don't pre-order it. Wait and try a friends account or you can try the free-trial that all non-FTP games offer at some point.