Tallima: Over the past 5ish years, I've found myself not buying games that I would otherwise buy because I'm not certain what I'm buying and it's not immediately obvious.
Case in point is I recently had a birthday and have some fun money to spend. I saw Titanfall 2 on sale for Xbox and thought of buying it. But there's a bunch of editions. There's normal edition, some dlc bundles, regular dlc, and an ultimate edition that doesn't appear to have dlc included - or, at least, not additional maps.
So I have no idea what I need to buy. Is the regular editon enough? Do I need those extra maps? You know how it is. If you don't have all the maps for some games, it's hard to get into a game. And the ultimate edition unlocks the Titans and weapons and gives xp bonuses. But I've never played the game before, so I have no idea how difficult it is to unlock those things and don't know what xp even does in this game.
And why am I paying more to get an advantage? Doesn't that sound sort of immoral?
But I don't have time to research all this like I did in my younger years. I'm far too busy and, to be honest, annoyed. Why do I need to research the mechanics of a game to make a purchase decision? Why so many options? It's just a bit much. So I moved on.
And then I thought of a few other times in my past where I did the same thing. I don't get Battlefield games anymore for the same reason. And I love Battlefield. And I was really excited about Star Citizen. But it took me over an hour going through their website and then asking people to figure out how to even purchase the game. So that game is obviously not for me.
I like buying a game with all dlc/maps/levels/charcters included. I like to buy a game and play it and not care about a whole market involved with the game. Just buy, play, enjoy, repeat.
Am I alone out here? Are publishers making more money with this model, you think? And so then they use it?
To me, it means the publisher doesn't actually believe in their game. They know the only way to make money isn't by word of mouth or good gameplay. It's by screwing their customer over. Suckering them into buying something cheap, and then showing how it's just an empty shell of what could be, with just a few more dollars.
I wonder, too, if it gives them more development time. Put something out in 6 months and then charger dlc to get a decent game out of it.
What are your thoughts? Similar view or experience? Or am I just old and cranky these days? Do you think their model isn't as complicated as I make it out? Do you think it's anti-consumer? Or the other way around, implementing choice and lower buy-in threshold?
Not on purpose or to make a boycott. But I do lose interest if I see stuff like these 10 million Pathfinder editions. That means games I'm merely somewhat curious about and might have buyed on a whim in the past I do now wave off until they get like really cheap and reduced to only one edition (if I still have interest by then). Games I am totally convinced and hyped for; the top thing I am waiting for I am likely to buy one of the big editions. But thats raaaare. The last time was kind of Pillars of Eternity (kind of because I backed it enough for the everything goes edition) and currently no such game is on the horizon.
