Jimquisition: The Poison of Pre-Order Culture

[Jimothy Sterling]

The Poison of Pre-Order Culture

Sega is selling the cast of Alien separately from Alien: Isolation. GameStop wants to help developers make exclusive pre-order content. AAA is getting desperate, and as usual, the customer has to face publishers' consequences for them.

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[tm96]

That seems EA like of them to sell the cast separately.

 

[Bindal]

And I can't even remotely agree with Jim here:
Alien Isolation is about Amanda Ripley. Selling a DLC with the original Nostromo Crew (which are all but one, at the time Isolation takes place, are kinda, sorta... you know... dead?) telling a story we already know, then that's fine by me. It's a bonus in every way.
Now if the game would advertise itself as playable version of the original movie or a parallel story where you may run into the original cast, it would be a whole different case. But as it stands, it's not. And if you don't want to pre-order or get the DLC later but still want to know about it... Alien is over 25 years old - get it and freaking watch it!

 

[Magmarock]

Truth on a stick right here.

I pretty much agree with you here 99.99% if it wasn't for the fact that I pre odder Witcher 3.

This is because CD Project Red and GOG have Earned, My, Trust

On top of that it was a great deal with a lower price and discounts on GOG games. Now that's how you do a pre order.

 

[Evonisia]

Uh... why is this posted by Team Hollywood?

But anyway, pre-ordering has just become more and more toxic, it seems and that's a damn shame. I shall remain being irritated at the Alien pre-order thing. Damn it. Why bother including them if it is just for pre-ordering (the DLC is basically an excuse).

"Believe the hype", I believe, should be a nomination for most stupid thing said about a video game for 2014. Ahead of Ubisoft and Nintendo's claims about equality.

 

[Dragonbums]

At this point, the only time I preorder games is for Pokemon. You ALWAYS know what your gonna get.

Actually I would say that preordering Nintendo games is the safest thing you can do. You hardly if ever get scammed.

But I feel this message just needs to go to the general public. After all, when it comes to preordering, someone who doesn't have the money to pay $60.00 up front can pay bit by bit by bit in the coming months to the game's release. Extra bonus considering that they get those very bonuses that are killing the industry.

So I feel that preorders die, when they take away the ability to pay just a little bit each time. This rally may work on us, or just well off people in general, but someone who is tight on money but loves to play games is going to be hard pressed to go with it.

I think that really needs to be addressed first and foremost.

 

[SnakeoilSage]

I was hyped for Alien: Isolation. Now I just feel the sad. I thought the developers cared more about the franchise and its fans than they did, but no, they just dressed up their greed in a little cosplay show. Come suck my xenomorph lollipop, it's right here in my pants. Mmm, suck it good. You want it, don't you? Yeees.

 

[porpoise hork]

I used to pre-order games all the time. After getting burned one too many times I no longer do that. I wait until the game releases and then look at getting it.

The pre-order garbage they try to push on consumers to buy it is 99.99999% meaningless in the overall scope of games. So buying a game based on promises from a publisher that has a track record of lies longer than Obama's is not something I will continue to do.

 

[Jimothy Sterling]

That was a lot of aptly used profanity and flailing about. Good job.

 

[Macsen Wledig]

Trying to get us to pre-order a game before any actual gameplay has been seen reeks of desperation, and to think that I was looking forward to this game. Now I have a seeking suspicion that The Creative Assembly and Sega are working together to deliver us another turgid turd like Rome 2. Seriously these guys couldn't deliver on their flagship franchise, what makes people think that they give even the slightest fuck about Alien?

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

When a pre order was just a weapon or a new vehicle it wasnt really a big deal. But when it comes to big issue stuff like playing as the original cast of Alien or ME3 playing as a Prothean - that stuff should be on the disk. But now companies are blatant with its Dlc. Used to be after release they would start mentioning DLC. Now, before the game is released, they are telling you all about the extra content in advance. Its now part of their development plan, not something extra for the fans to enjoy.

 

[PG]

"Believe the hyp...odermic syringe filled with hallucinogens that you'll need to think this shit is worth buying before release!"

 

[spartandude]

The last game i preordered was Pokemon X and thats purely because the only shop in my town that sold 3DS games was small and actually did sell out.

 

[KiKiweaky]

Made the mistake by pre ordering Rome 2..... wont be doing it again as it was such a huge disappointment for me. The end was rather disturbing Jim haha ^_^

 

[Scars Unseen]

Yeah, I stopped pre-ordering things a while back. The only justifiable reason for doing it, in my opinion, is as a hedge against scarcity. Since I can't recall the last time a game I wanted actually had scarcity, there is no reason I would pre-order.

 

[JoJo]

Uh... why is this posted by Team Hollywood?

Yeah, I'm wondering that too, someone probably forgot to log-in to the Jim account before posting I guess (I believe the staff have access to all of the staff accounts).

On-topic, I can't entirely agree Jim, I sometimes preorder games for series which I have a long history of playing and enjoying (Pokemon or Mario Kart for example), I haven't regretted any of those yet. But yeah, I wouldn't risk it on a series I have no experience with, better to wait for some reviews and for the price to drop.

 

[Bayushi_Kouya]

So, uh, what do we do about it?

I've tried setting my heels and standing on principle before, and I've noticed two primary reactions:
#1. The people who make these decisions interpret me not playing their game as a lack of interest and murder the game/genre in its crib
#2. The tide of people who don't care how much they're exploited makes my stance irrelevant.

I realize that this idiomatically similar to negotiating with terrorists, but I'm not convinced that this industry wouldn't be murdered fucking dead if we resist the shenanigans. If we video game fans get a reputation with investors as being balky and unpredictable, that means fewer investors and even less risks than the already paltry amount currently being taken.

Steam looks pretty fucking bleak to me, speaking as someone who just joined the glorious PC gaming master race. While I would accept a world where the only games made were indie games, I'd much rather have some AAA still on the menu.

How should defeat preorders without defeating the existence of AAA gaming?

 

[rbstewart7263]

And I can't even remotely agree with Jim here:
Alien Isolation is about Amanda Ripley. Selling a DLC with the original Nostromo Crew (which are all but one, at the time Isolation takes place, are kinda, sorta... you know... dead?) telling a story we already know, then that's fine by me. It's a bonus in every way.
Now if the game would advertise itself as playable version of the original movie or a parallel story where you may run into the original cast, it would be a whole different case. But as it stands, it's not. And if you don't want to pre-order or get the DLC later but still want to know about it... Alien is over 25 years old - get it and freaking watch it!

Im with this guy here. I kind of think that the dlc is both justified and makes a full purchase of the new game worth it. The only thing stingy here is that sega doesnt have my trust like cd project but perhaps this is there way of being sincere. Time will tell.


Plus someone pointed out how they are trying to "force it down your throat before gameplay is revealed. Well youl still be able to preorder right up until near the game comes out and we have a whole slew of gameplay videos to watch. So if someone wants to preorder now and risk getting dashconned in the process(OH! OH!!!!!! ) lmao Well thats on them.