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From: Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: I don't understand pre-orders. Do you preorder?
Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:54:46 -0600
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On Fri, 07 Feb 2025 14:06:56 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote: 

>
>On Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:03:45 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>>I recently went to Epic to get my weekly freebie hit and was asked in a
>>banner at the top of the page if I wanted to 'pre-order' Civ VII.
>>
>>Why would anyone do that with Civ? Civ has a storied reputation for being
>>unfinished at release and only being worthwhile when DLCs drop.
>>
>>In this case, you get an extra Civ that isn't even an exclusive. You can
>>buy it in the Deluxe version. If I like a Civ game, I tend to eventually
>>buy all the add-ons.
>>
>>It's also a general question for any game at all.
>
>
>It's based on the age-old "Fear Of Missing Out". You wouldn't want to
>be the last one to get The Newest And Hottest Game, would you? Get it
>now before it's sold out!
>
Umm. Games don't sell out any more (you mention this later), but I get
your point. It's always nice to be able to comment on 'trending' topics,
and a bandwidth issue on release day might delay participation in the
buzz for a few hours to a even a day or two.

To quote Marissa Tomei, 'Oh my gawd. What a f__king nightmare!'

I consider such people fatuous fools with no regard for money, or too
much disposable income. But that's awfully judge mental. 'I'm just not
into that' is what's real here.

If you're a streamer, you're looking for day 1 or even an advance copy.

>Of course, that tactic best worked when there actually was a
>(sometimes artificially) limited number of games to purchase. Twenty
>years ago, you _could_ miss out on a game just because there weren't
>enough copies in-store for everybody to buy. These days, with digital
>distribution making the number of available copies essentially
>infinite, there's a lot less incentive to get a game Day One.
>
Not my experience. I never saw an heirloom game released. I've only
rushed to the store to buy two games ever on day 1 (Ultima VI and
Descent) and can't remember a time when I significantly missed out. Maybe
the game was occasionally out-of-stock for more than a week, but rarely.

It was possible to miss out on physical premiums, such as a cloth map, by
waiting too long though. Re-releases omitted these. Infocom's physical
goods were significantly truncated on re-release to the grey striped box
version. I'm glad I had my big folder version of Planetfall that came
with a plastic ID card that I carried for years in my wallet. Spindled of
course. There was a specific warning not to do that.

>Not that stops the publishers from trying to push the scheme; they
>just use different tactics. Exclusives are the usual bribe, from
>various cosmetics, to included DLC, to 'early access' privileges. Of
>course, the publishers then repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot by
>making those bonuses a lot less valuable than they'd otherwise be:
>often, your early-access save-games become invalidated on the game's
>actual launch, or they sell the 'pre-order exclusives' become a lot
>less exclusive after they're included in Game of the Year collections,
>or the included season pass has no real content. 
>
Yeah. I would appreciate a small price break, a price somewhat higher
than what I would get from waiting for it to go on deep discount, but a
few dollars less than day 1 retail. But that wouldn't square with
"maximizing shareholder value." 

Giving actual value in the transaction, that costs something to the
publisher, is fair incentive. Actual free market competition, instead of
centralized, standardized pricing would be a good thing. It also might
cause customers to look more favorably upon the publisher.

The funny part is, as a long-term strategy, engendering such good will
pays serious dividends. It just doesn't thrill the day-to-day attention
span of the market. So we're stuck with this. Please pay full price 2
months before release and we'll give you a few outfits. Disclaimer: Skins
may be produced in a half-assed fashion.

OTOH, Bethesda put together a nice bit of kit for an Indy exclusive. It
comes with physical goods, digital goods, and costs a packet. 

https://gear.bethesda.net/products/indiana-jones-the-great-circle-collectors-edition

This tack I can relate to. But full price sight unseen with an incentive
of something like horse armor of unseen texture quality? At the levels of
bugginess games release these days? WTH? WTAH.

>Then there is the argument about getting the game before anyone else
>so you can get the Skillz to master the game ahead of the rest. And I
>suppose for a very small minority, that actually matters but for most?
>Unless you intend to play only against strangers, what's the point?
>Just wait until your friends get the game too --which can be six
>months down the way-- and start the clock then.
>
This was the root of my comment about understanding it in the case of
competitive FPS, especially pro, semi-pro, or college level. Also
streamers, as I mentioned above.

>The TL;DR is that pre-orders are a hold-over from a previous age of
>gaming, and these days it's mainly aimed at the young and the stupid.
>Except for a vanishingly small number of people, there's no advantage
>to getting the game early, and a lot of reasons not to. 
>
An interesting analysis. I take it from your reply that you essentially
never pre-order. If you ever have, why, and what did you get out of it?

Most recently, I preordered Cyberpunk 2077. What I got out of it was
investing money into DRM-free games and the encouragement of Cyberpunk
game settings. They have gone out of fashion. I didn't do it to get the
game ASAP. I did it to reward CDPR and demonstrate market viability for
the genre.

-- 
Zag

This is csipg.rpg - reality is off topic. ...G. Quinn ('08)