Gaming Conformity vs Reality
Like many other people I tend to purchase new media on day one. A new game is coming out? Preorder from Amazon or Game. Much of this is enforced by the wonders of the preorder. Buy from X and get an exclusive code to unlock something. Do it in one of those old fashioned brick and mortar stores and you might get a keyring or special soundtrack CD.
Movies still rely on opening weekend figures to grab headlines, then go for the “long tail” with home release on DVD and Blu-ray, often followed by a special edition version a few months down the line.
In gaming terms the big opening weekend is just as important, and preorder bonuses are a great way of securing our money before you are able to get the shiny disc in your hopefully not too grubby palms.
Just recently I have embarked on another colossal bit of life laundry, the target in question this time was the loft (or attic for my friends outside of these shores). Sally and I have now been together for almost fourteen years, and out loft contains a lot of years of…stuff. I was going to say crap there, but most of it isn’t.
During that sort out the local charity shops did extremely well, especially with Xbox 360 games that rather than sell I donated to the Haiti fund and MIND (if you can have a favourite charity then MIND would be mine).
I was actually rather ashamed sorting through a lot of the stuff up there because I found scores and scores of DVDs that I didn’t even know I owned.
I regulary go through my disc inventory I keep downstairs and get rid of unwanted items, but in the loft I found boxed DVDs I had forgotten I had bought. Yes some of them were even still sealed. I’m positive that I’m not alone with this particular confession, but safety in numbers doesn’t even make up for the fact that I have spent hundreds (possibly even thousands) of pounds on stuff I don’t even remember buying.
Due to the fact that my shelves are heaving a sigh of relief actually having space on them again, and the ceiling isn’t in danger of collapsing under the weight of my twentysomething shopping binges, I have been extremely careful about what I’ve been buying lately.
Given that I will be out of regular contracted employment at the end of next week (as mentioned in my previous post) I have done something I should have done a long time ago, and cancelled preorders and reined in my spending. Which brings me to the point of this post.
As I mentioned at the top of the screen, a new game comes out and I buy it so it is here for day one (usually the day before). But then along came Bioshock 2 and things got interesting.
Just like thousands of other gamers I adored the original Bioshock, and I won’t bother droning on with a laundry list of things that made the game so enjoyable as far more talented writers have done so many times before me. Nor will I mention the obligatory “didn’t need a sequel” argument.
The reviews came out and pretty much unanimously said that the game was a solid action titled, lacked the originality of the first but for a game that didn’t need a sequel it is well worth playing. I knew that I wanted to play the game, but didn’t have to do so right at the second it was released. After all, I still had other unfinished games to play.
But as soon as the game was released and friends were playing it online I was gripped with an overwhelming desire to play the game. Did I really want to play it, or did I just want to conform and play it because my friends were doing so, and saying they enjoyed it?
A week passed, I didn’t buy it but kept an eye on Amazon where the price has now dropped to around £32. By now I was starting to feel like some kind of immediacy junkie. All throughout this weekend I have teetered on the verge of jumping in the car and driving to Tesco to buy it. Even though it is £40 there, and I could have it on Tuesday for less.
This brings another of those “NOW!!!” points. As someone who doesn’t particularly want disc based media any more (that is an article for another time) getting a copy of Bioshock 2 in my hands involves driving somewhere to buy it, or ordering it online. But that’s so dull, isn’t it? Having to actually (heaven forbid!) leave the house OR suffer the indignity of WAITING for it to be delivered the next day. Probably by the same time tomorrow I wouldn’t want it anyway.
Which brings me to digital distribution. Steam is a wonderful thing, and thanks to the ridiculous recent holiday sale bargains, a recipient of a large chunk of my money. I love Steam, even though is does somewhat dangerously scratch the itch of “I want to play this right now”. A couple of clicks, a download and then you are away.
And I would have been playing Bioshock 2 at launch if it wasn’t for one thing; the lack of support for the Xbox 360 controller for Windows.
Bioshock 2 is a Games For Windows Live game, but (like Fallout 3) is available on Steam. Laughingly it is ten pounds cheaper than the GFW Live digital version too. As my games PC is connected to a big screen TV it feels like a higher resolutioned version of the Xbox 360, and I could still get Achievements. Except the controller isn’t supported, which seems like a major omission to me, but it makes my bank account a little healthier. When I’m sat in a comfy chair in front of a big screen I want to game with a controller, not a keyboard rested on my lap and mouse to one side.
I have resisted the urge to buy Bioshock 2 this weekend by finally completing games that have been sitting around for a while. I don’t want to start to play anything new until I have cleared the decks and can therefore say “Yes, I need to play this game now, as I have no others”. That argument is inherently flawed anyway, but it makes me feel better.
I played Blue Toad Murder Files on the PlayStation 3 that I purchased at the end of 2009 (surprisingly good Whodunnit fun from the makers of Buzz, although the Announcer takes a lot of getting used to) and Shadow Complex on the Xbox 360. I tried to get into Halo 3 ODST again but once again just couldn’t be bothered with it.
I have cleared out my Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games now. But there are still a good ten or more unplayed games on Steam, and the Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles for the Wii that Sally bought me for Christmas hasn’t even been looked at yet.
At some point I will play Bioshock 2. And Mass Effect 2 for that matter. But for now I almost feel like an addict fresh out of rehab who is starting to see the error of their ways. I’ll get to it, but not at full price and certainly not in the next couple of weeks.
Now if you could buy brand new releases digitally from the Xbox 360 dashboard then this could be a wholly different story…
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Category: HD, Personal, Videogames
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About the Author (Author Profile)
By day I work in IT as an infrastructure manager, specialising in Microsoft technologies, primarily Windows and Exchange Server.
On here I write about my passions, movies, videogames, technology and particularly the world of high definition.
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I know the feeling about wanting something from Day One. I have two basic criteria for games . . . if it’s mainly a single player game it has to be VERY good (Bioshock, ME and ME 2, etc) for me to get at all, let alone day one. If it’s a game that I’m getting for the multiplayer, then if I’m going to get it it’ll probably be from day one so that I can play what most of my friends are playing.
I know it’s a follow the heard mentality, but I enjoy multiplayer with friends so much that I’m not so concerned what game it is that we’re playing rather that we’re just playing something fun. It’s the time spent playing with friends, more then the specific game for me. That said, I don’t buy just any game. I check the reviews and if it’s got bad multiplayer, I wont get it even if all my friends have it. Though COD has some very good multiplayer . . . so that helps a lot.
The new Battlefield: Bad Company I will most likely be getting on day one (if finances allow) due to the multiplayer. I couldn’t care less about the single player part of the game, it might be good it might be crap . . . either way I’m buying the game for the frenetic squad based multiplayer that is SOOOO much fun . . . at least if the demo is to be trusted.
Perhaps when I’m more . . . mature like yourself then I’ll get over the Day One mentality for multiplayer as well. 8- ) Though 31 is just around the corner !
The only thing for sure I know is….we need to play some Borderlands!
Firstly, I MIGHT have to lay some Borderlands with you kids. I am really liking that game.
Secondly, I realized a little while ago that I was an “immediacy junkie” in that if there is hype about a game or other media, there is something in me that tries me to compel me to go get it. I’ve been doing a lot better though because I’ve just been so busy I don’t have time to play anything! If that were NOT the case, I don’t know that I would have it so much in check.
I will admit today I broke and preordered Heavy Rain, but that was always going to be a purchase for me having loved the demo and it’s a different type of game.
I can hang on a bit longer until playing Bioshock 2.
But Borderlands does need some serious attention.
I have Borderlands as well ! Do I hear a plan forming ?
ahhh see dashboard purchases of new release games is a great idea and one we would all love. But i betcha M$ would charge way too much for them yet again still wanting you to drive off to tesco to pick a copy up!
In fact Pete, you’re playing Blue Toad now!
hehe. Stalked.
I know what you mean about finding piles and piles of stuff that you don’t even remember buying.
When the girlfriend and I bought our house in September, we were amazed at just how many disc boxes I had. My CDs, DVDs, BDs and games took up 11 industrial office relocation crates (you know the big blue plastic ones?). About 3 of those were brimmed with unopened or unwatched discs.
I’ve solved the problem in a similar way to you, in ceasing new purchases for a while, but also by creating a Lovefilm style list, but of things that i already owned and then piled them next to the TV/console and have been working my way through them since. Great stuff.
Another good scheme to donate unwanted games to is Future Publishings Games for Heroes (or something like that) which is sending PS3 games out to our boys and girls in Afghan.
Well strictly speaking the missus is playing Blue Toad Sir Stalks-a-lot
That’s a really good idea about Games for Heroes, I’ve got a couple of extra ones will have to send their way.
And that’s a LOT of discs, methinks we’re kindred spirits Lee!
Yup, although the actual number of discs is significantly lower than what I would have thought. Being a nerd I tally charted them all when taking them back out of the crates and it was only about 1500 or so in total. You couldn’t over pack them or you wouldn’t lift them. Who would’ve thought that plastic could weigh so much?
Indeed, back in olden times when the flight case was almost full the two of us could hardly lift it to shift it around the house.