Jimquisition: Watch Dogs - Five Collector's Editions For One Game? What? F*$%ing WHAT?

[Mr C]

I hated the shitty Gears of War and Halo 3 tins, I do not know why they couldn't have used the same DVD style metal boxes used for the special editions of Doom 3 and Halo 2 on the original Xbox. However, Assassin's Creed on 360 was the final straw. A lame metal box with a cheaply crafted figure. Haven't wasted money on a special edition since, nor will I start again with any of these travesties Ubisoft are trying to shift.

 

[Mr C]

It's really not that complicated to figure out which Watch_Dogs special edition to buy. Just get the one that offers the most console exclusive missions at 1080p 60fps.

Saw what you did there, lol

 

[Kerethos]

Here's what the games industry keeps teaching me;
Never trust any pre-lauch media or details.
Never pre-order.
Never trust a game not to have DRM.
Previews are mainly soft PR pieces, they are largely useless.
Avoid buying DLC as much as possible.
Never buy a paid game with a 'real money economy'.
Reviewers are terrible at judging PC ports, wait for a trusted source to evaluate it.
Wait a couple of months for the patches and truth to eventually come out.
Wait for the game of the year edition with all the DLC in it for less money than new.

After years of being burned the industry has basically turned me into a paranoid survivalist of a consumer. If you want me to buy any game you're going to have to prove a LOT.

Oh, happy days on the internet when you see people who share your views on how to properly decide whether or not a game is worth your time and money!

This is exactly the way I do my games shopping nowadays, and I wish the large masses would embrace it too.

God I hate the pre-order culture and its obsession with day 1 DLC. It just means bad games sell before word gets out their bad, and good games get sold piece by piece... and both screw the consumer.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

There is another choice of course. There is the choice not to buy into any of this collector's edition bullshit. However don't enough people will actually do that.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I don't like Collector's Editions at launch in the first place. The one kind that I do like the sound of is a later Collector's Edition, with physical merchandise and possibly an alternate skin or something but no significant content changes to the original game. But even beyond not liking them, the gall of having console-exclusive content, store-exclusive content, preorder-exclusive content and the editions having such frenetic offerings so as to confuse the customer, that is infuriating.

When Watch_Dogs was previewed originally: That looks really cool, especially the open-world hacking.

When Watch_Dogs got a graphics downgrade: That doesn't bode well.

When early Watch_Dogs builds were reviewed: So it's a bit more restricted than I expected but it'll probably still be good, just not incredible.

When Watch_Dogs got 5 different editions, season pass, launch DLC, etc.: Sick of your shit, Ubisoft. You won't see a cent from me.

 

[irishda]

As someone who has never bought a collector's edition anything (Wow! You mean I get a figurine? That would've impressed seven year old me to no end), every time I see a special edition game I think "What fucking WHAT?!"

 

[Vegosiux]

I feel Jim's videos should more directed at consumers than actual publishers, but he keeps acting as if all these practices are 100% the fault of publishers. Is it really that hard to understand that consumers are the MAIN reason this kind of bullshit gets pushed so far? "Pre-order culture" was created by consumers - publishers presented the concept and consumers went crazy over it, they spoke (with their wallets) "DO THIS MORE OFTEN PLEASE!" so that's exactly what publishers did.
Consumers encouraged ridiculous DLC practices by buying everything the moment it gets thrown out, buying DLCs that launch with the released game. Consumers embraced collector editions so here we are.

There's no point getting worked-up about the game industry making "fuck-ups", because all of these moves are calculated. There is no right/wrong/good/evil in business as long as it doesn't break any laws - there is only what sells and what doesn't sell. Yeah go ahead and tell me "you sound just like a soulless corrupt publisher", but I only strive to be realistic about things and not let emotions/morals get in the way of that reality.

Everyone has the right to criticize, but to what end? To what purpose? To achieve WHAT? Self-satisfaction of getting it off your chest, that's all I can think of. The only thing that is going to persuade publishers is sales figures (or lack of), i.e. voting with wallets.

It's...more complicated. Yes, not to completely absolve the consumer, but advertising isn't just "the science of selling stuff", it's the science of manipulating people into thinking they want and/or need said stuff. Marketing departments have folks with degrees in psych whose profession it is to figure out how to trick the consumer into believing that handing over their money for whatever the company's selling is something they wanted to do all along in the first place.

The consumer can counter that by keeping themselves informed, and not buy things on a whim, but advertising is designed to trigger the whimsy-override over the cold, calculating reason.

 

[Vegosiux]

First world problems to the extreme.

How about if you can afford a collectors edition AT ALL, you have literally nothing to complain about.

Okay, I'll bite. How bad must a problem be before we have "something to complain about"? I mean, what's the threshold that makes complaints "legitimate"?

No really, complaints are valid. I always complain if I get the feeling someone's trying to rip the customer off.

 

[Snacuum]

Not to mention the terrible evolution of scarcity and economy that has been created around these 'collector's editions' to the point that getting a special edition of some variety now is completely synonymous with pre-ordering.

There used to be a time when somebody who wanted a special edition could wait and see how the game turned out, or wait and see if it was worth the price. Or even get a good bargain down the line. These days, many special editions are bought up by ebay traders who on-sell at a massive markup (like 300%) thanks to the 'limited' release. Even the regular Joes just selling their games second-hand have caught wind of this and try to make a deal for themselves like it's antiques roadshow or something.

I miss the time when I picked up almost all the special editions of games I originally missed on PS2 and Xbox. Now there's entire lists of games I haven't played because for so long I was hoping for a good deal on special editions.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

I feel Jim's videos should more directed at consumers than actual publishers, but he keeps acting as if all these practices are 100% the fault of publishers. Is it really that hard to understand that consumers are the MAIN reason this kind of bullshit gets pushed so far? "Pre-order culture" was created by consumers - publishers presented the concept and consumers went crazy over it, they spoke (with their wallets) "DO THIS MORE OFTEN PLEASE!" so that's exactly what publishers did.
Consumers encouraged ridiculous DLC practices by buying everything the moment it gets thrown out, buying DLCs that launch with the released game. Consumers embraced collector editions so here we are.

There's no point getting worked-up about the game industry making "fuck-ups", because all of these moves are calculated. There is no right/wrong/good/evil in business as long as it doesn't break any laws - there is only what sells and what doesn't sell. Yeah go ahead and tell me "you sound just like a soulless corrupt publisher", but I only strive to be realistic about things and not let emotions/morals get in the way of that reality.

Everyone has the right to criticize, but to what end? To what purpose? To achieve WHAT? Self-satisfaction of getting it off your chest, that's all I can think of. The only thing that is going to persuade publishers is sales figures (or lack of), i.e. voting with wallets.

It's...more complicated. Yes, not to completely absolve the consumer, but advertising isn't just "the science of selling stuff", it's the science of manipulating people into thinking they want and/or need said stuff. Marketing departments have folks with degrees in psych whose profession it is to figure out how to trick the consumer into believing that handing over their money for whatever the company's selling is something they wanted to do all along in the first place.

The consumer can counter that by keeping themselves informed, and not buy things on a whim, but advertising is designed to trigger the whimsy-override over the cold, calculating reason.

Exactly, and Jim is constantly criticizing those advertising designs. I was pointing out that he could be instead aiming his efforts towards informing consumers to NOT buy into this stuff or calculate for themselves whether it's worthwhile for them (he occasionally does do that).
Hurling verbal criticism at publishers is a futile effort that simply won't change anything because most of the world's biggest businesses and corporations aren't interested in opinions from individuals or groups, only quarterly reports (i.e. the wider picture). Jim seems to be under the impression that publishers are listening directly to him with that "oh look another big fuck-up by the game industry" tone of voice, but that's not how things work.

But I guess we all know what would make for more interesting JimQuisition episodes, it's vastly more entertaining to see someone ripping shit apart as evidenced by Yahtzee (my hero)

 

[Sticky]

Next step: Game of the Year editions made before the game is released.

You may laugh, but deep down, you know it's coming.

 

[leviadragon99]

Yeah... these days I just end up buying a game through the service/vendor that I'd already decided on using as the most convenient to me, and if that happens to come with some sort of bonus that actually seems beneficial to me, great, I'll have that too, if not then I'll shrug and manage to live without it.

 

[leviadragon99]

I'm having trouble finding a way to express my disdain for this episode that wouldn't just devolve into me ranting about how people are basically complaining that they have so much money they'll have to buy two $100 dollar versions of a game to get all the collectables things they want.

But I can't.

Just because something is a less serious problem than something else you can think of, doesn't mean it's not a problem, doesn't mean we should shut up and take it, and doesn't mean it's not a symptom of what could potentially be a larger problem.

You're always going to be able to find someone worse off than you, that much doesn't even need to be said, but honestly, this is a webseries dedicated as a whole to discussing the Videogame industry, which would have to be the very definition of talking about first world problems, what did you expect? And hell, if that bothers you, why watch the Jimquisition?

For that matter, Jim was in no way saying that people are or should buy multiple versions of the same game, he was talking about that being unobtainable for most consumers, thus they miss out on so much content from that game because they cannot afford to drop several hundred dollars on getting all the versions as the developer and distributor seems to be trying to force people to do.

 

[xGrimReaperzZ]

I just.. sigh..


I was never excited for the game and everything we've been hearing about it recently is making even less excited and interested, especially with the vagueness of a good PC version, oh well, i'll read some reviews when it's out and see if it is worthwhile, will Jimmy Boy be reviewing it? since it's a huge release and all that beeswax?

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Cool Story Bro Time:

i've never quite understood the purpose of collector's editions, at least in terms of what's included in them by publishers/devs. i worked at a GameStop in South Carolina for two years(worked the Black Friday of the Wii/PS3 launch and the one after), and in that entire time i saw one, ONE, collector's edition that when i saw what came with it i thought "oh that's fucking awesome!" and that was Unreal Tournament 3 for PC. for those not familiar, it included six hours worth of video tutorials on how to utilize the included toolsets to make mods and maps, which, asied from being the backbone of that particular franchise, is one of the single coolest things i've ever seen in a collector's edition. it added genuine, tangible value to dropping an extra twenty bucks for the game. it was the only time i've ever seen a CE include something that was absolutely WORTH the extra cost.

The CEs Blizzard does for the World of Warcraft ex-packs are pretty good: soundtrack, making of DVD, art-book and a couple of in-game cosmetic items.

All actually interesting stuff.

 

[Casual Shinji]

You can say that for a lot of content in these games that is part of the main game. You could cut it out and still not feel something was missing. Does that make it right to do so?

Like I said, I don't have too much experience with pre-order bonus content.

But another thing is that these types of shenanigans tend to run the most rampant in America, with stores like Gamestop selling pre-order bonuses. In Europe we don't have Mediamarkt or Game Mania saying 'Pre-order the game with us and you'll get a free in-game hat, and an hour of extra content, exclusive only at our store.' So when it comes to that it just smells of tacked on nonsense.

It's a shitty state of affairs, but the only thing I can do is vote with my wallet and not buy any of these Editions, which I don't.

 

[EternallyBored]

I'm having trouble finding a way to express my disdain for this episode that wouldn't just devolve into me ranting about how people are basically complaining that they have so much money they'll have to buy two $100 dollar versions of a game to get all the collectables things they want.

But I can't.

Your entire post is basically a massive case of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_relative_privation

It's called a fallacy for a reason, you're basically trying to dismiss a complaint being made because what? there are starving children in Africa? People are getting killed or raped somewhere in the world at this very moment?

Your entire point fails for two reasons: 1. you are assuming that the people here complaining lack the ability to care about anything other than what they are currently complaining about, and you are assuming that just because someone complains about something petty means there aren't any greater problems in their life. and 2. you are operating under the hypocrisy of being guilty of the very thing you're complaining about, I.E. "how easy does your life have to be if the only thing you've got to complain about is gamers on an internet forum."

So yeah, the Watch Dogs situation sucks, and I'm perfectly willing to complain about it, I've got a lot bigger things in my life to worry about than how many collector's editions Ubisoft is releasing, but worrying about them at this exact moment in time accomplishes nothing because my bigger problems are either currently out of my control, or my rectification of said problems doesn't require any immediate action. So yeah, I'm taking time off from real life problems to complain about something petty, they say beggars can't be choosers, but I've seen enough homeless people complaining about petty issues to know that's not true.

People like to complain about petty stuff, because it's something they actually have control over, I can't do shit about my friend's ovarian cancer, but I can control whether or not I give my money to a company to feed my casual hobby, I recognize the cancer is a much more serious issue, but not buying watch dogs is something I can actually control, which is something humans tend to crave.

 

[Sticky]

I'm having trouble finding a way to express my disdain for this episode that wouldn't just devolve into me ranting about how people are basically complaining that they have so much money they'll have to buy two $100 dollar versions of a game to get all the collectables things they want.

But I can't.

Every thread

Every one of these threads pointing out the most minute problem with anything results in a post just like this.

"The whole world is suffering while we're having problems with our video games!"

Do you feel this added to the conversation? Did you feel people really didn't know about this before you came and enlightened our lives with your wisdom? Do you feel that pointing this out has somehow helped solve the problem in any way? I'm not asking this to be snarky or to be rude, but there has to be a reason you felt to come and post about what is otherwise a completely unsolvable problem on our ends.

You see, the reason we talk about industry woes is that is a problem we can actually solve, we can solve Ubisoft being greedy cunts or EA being rude dicks by not giving them our money. It is US that is the reason THESE companies are able to continue with the practices they spew onto the industry. When we stop giving them money, they get a clear message (at least that's how it should work in theory).

The only way to solve the world's problems is to tell other people how to live at gunpoint, and I doubt you would feel THAT is ethical. So since the only way to fix it is completely unethical and unworkable, we should focus on the problems we can fix, no?

 

[truckspond]

Between this and the fact that the review embargo is not lifted until the game is released I am seriously considering cancelling my preorder and waiting for the GOTY edition/collection. That way it will actually be an informed purchase rather than me just blindly handing over money and expecting to get good value for it.

 

[SuperScrub]

Well lets hope the game designers can make this still a game worth playing otherwise I am so not keeping this game on my Gamefly.