Don't like it, Don't buy it

[Captain_Heavy]

When I want to buy a game on steam, I go to the forums to read other people's comments and reviews and concerns so that I can make an informed decision about my purchase.

Which is why it very much bothers me when I see "If you don't like it, don't buy it." plastered all over the forum.

People should be able to complain about a product that failed to meet their expectations if not for the sake of the community as a whole, for the sake of the developer who is angering a customer and probably losing money.

 

[Evonisia]

It's an attitude I despise as well.

The big flaw in your argument, Mr Anon, is that you can't tell whether you'll like a game or not until you play it. Even if you watch the entirety of a game with explanations of the mechanics and the story, you're not going to know for sure if you like it or not without playing it.

It's the same with films, and music. If you unfortunately look down to the comments section on any blog or YouTube you'll often see responses to criticisms be "don't watch it/listen to it if you don't like it".

 

[Random Argument Man]

If everyone followed the philosophy of "Don't like it, Don't buy it", BlockBuster would still be a thing.

I understand where the idea comes from though. It's mostly for people who tend to over-exagerate their criticism and probably needed to tone down their ALLCAPS mode.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

Jim did a show on why it's better to complain then to not buy something. It brought up the point that complaining just works better. If you don't buy something, that doesn't give any mean full feed back. Well even a incoherent complaint post at least gives off the feeling that your not happy. (Though coherent complaints are better.)

 

[Wasted]

Add-

"Don't like it, don't play it."
"If you don't like it, lets see you make a game better."

-To the list of terrible dismisses of criticism.

 

[krazykidd]

Jim did a show on why it's better to complain then to not buy something. It brought up the point that complaining just works better. If you don't buy something, that doesn't give any mean full feed back. Well even a incoherent complaint post at least gives off the feeling that your not happy. (Though coherent complaints are better.)

However, not buying something sends a bigger message if enough people do it. Telling someone i'm not going to support you're product because i disagree with X , says a lot more than , i bought you're product but i didn't like X.

In one case the supplier get's no money and in the other the supplier still makes money. And since the suppliers goal is to make money not buying a product makes more of an effect. Note that, you still need to "complain" and let them know why you aren't buying it.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

Jim did a show on why it's better to complain then to not buy something. It brought up the point that complaining just works better. If you don't buy something, that doesn't give any mean full feed back. Well even a incoherent complaint post at least gives off the feeling that your not happy. (Though coherent complaints are better.)

However, not buying something sends a bigger message if enough people do it. Telling someone i'm not going to support you're product because i disagree with X , says a lot more than , i bought you're product but i didn't like X.

In one case the supplier get's no money and in the other the supplier still makes money. And since the suppliers goal is to make money not buying a product makes more of an effect. Note that, you still need to "complain" and let them know why you aren't buying it.

I can see it working that way. Though there is another side to it in that your you really going to put as much weight to complaints that don't come from your customer bases. Your out to please your customers not everyone after all. You listen to your paying customers first before you listen to people who just didn't buy.

 

[petercacic]

To each his own ?

 

[spartandude]

The thing is "If you dont like it, dont buy it" is good advice, I just fucking hate that its now been adopted as "Shut up, your not allowed to complain". I mean yes if you know you wont like a game dont buy it but you can still complain and talk about the reasons why you think you wont like it. And if you buy a product and end up not liking it, then you have every right to complain.

 

[krazykidd]

Jim did a show on why it's better to complain then to not buy something. It brought up the point that complaining just works better. If you don't buy something, that doesn't give any mean full feed back. Well even a incoherent complaint post at least gives off the feeling that your not happy. (Though coherent complaints are better.)

However, not buying something sends a bigger message if enough people do it. Telling someone i'm not going to support you're product because i disagree with X , says a lot more than , i bought you're product but i didn't like X.

In one case the supplier get's no money and in the other the supplier still makes money. And since the suppliers goal is to make money not buying a product makes more of an effect. Note that, you still need to "complain" and let them know why you aren't buying it.

I can see it working that way. Though there is another side to it in that your you really going to put as much weight to complaints that don't come from your customer bases. Your out to please your customers not everyone after all. You listen to your paying customers first before you listen to people who just didn't buy.

That Makes perfect sense. I guess i'm a little cynical with the gaming industry. I do find that they try to gouge us out of our money, and that faithful customers are the ones that pay the most from their bad business practices. But that's another topic all together.

Capcha: skip a turn. I guess i will .

 

[krazykidd]

Add-

"If you don't like it, lets see you make a game better."

-To the list of terrible dismisses of criticism.

I use this one a lot. Not necessarily for "games" but more for game design. People don't realise just how much work and effort goes into game design, it's a lot harder than people think. Just the fact that people think it's so easy show how talented the developpers are. Because they make it look easy.

 

[spartandude]

Add-

"If you don't like it, lets see you make a game better."

-To the list of terrible dismisses of criticism.

I use this one a lot. Not necessarily for "games" but more for game design. People don't realise just how much work and effort goes into game design, it's a lot harder than people think. Just the fact that people think it's so easy show how talented the developpers are. Because they make it look easy.

While i do appreciate what your saying, at the end of the day they still want us to pay them for it, so if we dont think its any good we can complain. Also criticism (atleast constructive criticism which all of us, including me, could be better at giving) is important to tell devs what they are doing wrong and how to improve.

 

[Wasted]

Add-

"If you don't like it, lets see you make a game better."

-To the list of terrible dismisses of criticism.

I use this one a lot. Not necessarily for "games" but more for game design. People don't realise just how much work and effort goes into game design, it's a lot harder than people think. Just the fact that people think it's so easy show how talented the developpers are. Because they make it look easy.

If I pay for a product (and with video games I rarely have the opportunity to have my money returned if I have an issue) I have every right to share my problems with it. I agree that constructive criticism is better than rage-fueled hate but its a fallacy to brush away criticism because said person is not an expert/does not understand the process of making a product. Using that logic nothing could ever be criticized because, "you possibly could not understand what it takes to make this," would apply to everything.

 

[Zhukov]

Ehhhhh...

I use it freely when it comes to arguments over pricing. DLC prices for example.

Someone says, "This DLC is overpriced! $10 for two hours of content! What a rip off!"

Now it seems to me that the obvious response to something you consider a rip-off and one which you can see coming is not to partake. Hence, "Then just don't buy it. That way you won't get ripped off." It's also the most immediate way to send a message. If people complain a bunch, but then buy the thing anyway, what does that tell the supplier? It tells them that for all the whining, people still consider the price worth paying and that there's still a profit in it. (See also: MW2 boycott.)

Here's the thing about "overpricing". It's only overpriced if people are unwilling to pay your price. If people are still willing to pay, then you aren't charging too much. Obviously there's the potential for immoral exploitation when it comes to basic needs and vital commodities. For example, a power or gas company doubling heating prices in the middle of winter in a cold climate. But that's where the "video games are a luxury good" comes into it. Nobody's grandmother is going to die of hypothermia because they didn't cough up for the latest map pack DLC.

 

[sageoftruth]

The thing is "If you dont like it, dont buy it" is good advice, I just fucking hate that its now been adopted as "Shut up, your not allowed to complain". I mean yes if you know you wont like a game dont buy it but you can still complain and talk about the reasons why you think you wont like it. And if you buy a product and end up not liking it, then you have every right to complain.

The thing is, will anyone ever buy something if they're pretty certain they won't like it (reviewers aside)? It sounds like pretty pointless advice.

 

[Artaneius]

LOL, that's the best advice in the business world. Honestly if everyone did this then EA would finally die out. We would finally have skill based games again instead of casualized bs.

 

[nevarran]

"Don't like it, Don't buy it" just doesn't work these days. Because most of the game have no demos. How could you decide if you like it, if you can't even try it before buying?

 

[carnex]

And there I thought "If you don't like it, don't buy it" is all about complaining about something being overpriced or not worth your money as a reason why someone didn't make a purchase.

Look if you complain about price or quality, or bugs or whatever and keep purchasing, you are not making a good case for yourself. It's like saying that certain car uses too much fuel, has bad ride comfort, is slow and breaks down regularly and keep purchasing every new iteration of that model. You are still giving money to the producer of goods.

Games are luxury therefor every price is right by default, it's just one of the factors the determines the amount of product that will be sold. That's all there is to it. Sending a note to publishes saying "At this price this product is not worth it for me but I would spend X amount of Y for it" gives them your opinion and maybe in the future hey reconsider their pricing policy (highly unlikely if the sales are good). But I don't see how shouting match on forums and social sites helps your cause.

It's proven again and again that complainers complain but will not do the purchasing when their demands are met. I wrote that many times over and earliest example I know of is Sierra On-Line's Space Quest 6 that was made after a huge petition was made, with highest production values in series yet and flopped so hard it didn't even bounce of the floor.

Oh, and I see people mentioning no demos as a problem with decisions. I was thinking what's the logic behind that. Everything from production time needed, through potential losses in sales due to disliking since pre purchase and day one sales are so huge now to people playing demo and being satisfied by it thus not buying product. But from all of those one theory fitted the bill nicely inside my head.

And that is that with number of free internet media, reviews, gameplay videos etc, there is little need for demo. You can find basically anything on web. There are sites dedicated to playthrough lengths or whatever niche info interest you. They basically figured that creating a demo would be waste of money since there are thousands of people begging to do their work for free on internet.

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

It's always people attempting to defend their chosen items of affection.

Person A: I didn't like this for the following reasons.
Person B: If you don't like it don't buy it.
Person A: How would I know I wouldn't like it unless I tried it out?
Person B: Listen to the community.

Later?

Person A: I won't buy this product because the community is saying it's shit.
Person B: Don't knock it until you try it.
Person A: But it's near-unanimous.
Person B: You haven't played it so you can't judge it.

The above might also come with the choices of "You used it therefore you liked it and just won't admit it" and "You didn't use it therefore you can't judge it." All these arguments are worthless really.

EDIT:
Also, just ceasing to buy a product isn't very helpful because it tends to throw out the baby with the bathwater. I've never come across an irredeemable product (yet) so it's better to give feedback which can come in the form of complaints. Then they know why their products might not be doing so well or might not have a secure future.

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

Eh, you should be able to tell if you will enjoy a game by watching gameplay, reading reviews, word of mouth, etc.

Though, if there are glitches up the ass, inadequacies, then you should be able to bad mouth it all you want.