Why do you pre order?

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Choppaduel

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Mar 20, 2009
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Daystar Clarion said:
Pretty much all Bioware games get an automatic pre-order, they haven't done me wrong yet.
They will let you down eventually.

Its foolish to pre-order. Its foolish to pay any amount of money for anything before you take it for a test drive.

You will get burned.



It is inevitable.
 
Apr 24, 2008
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I pre-order so I can forget about it.

I watch just enough gameplay footage to be sure that it's going to be good(I can tell by seeing a game at this point)and then I pre-order and enforce a media blackout so not to ruin the spectacle of the game. I hate when I play through a game and I've seen near enough all of the environments already in the trailers.
 

Gennadios

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Aug 19, 2009
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I pretty much stopped after the few recent disasters.

Reasons used to pre-order:
1) Discount coupons on D2D/EA store. They tend to be use it or lose it, and if the game turns out to be good I'm not getting that cheap a price for a while.

2) Team Fortress 2 bonus items.

Reasons I don't Pre-order:
1) Pre-order items tend to be early game breakingly overpowered and useless in the end. Also they rob you of the fun of finding gear.

2) I won't buy games until I'm sure there's no Games For Windows: LIVE. Developers have been pretty good about hiding that fact, so I wait for confirmation.

3) All my TF2 classes are equipped with bonus items in every slot.

4) Even well reviewed games haven't been worth the price of a new game purchase. Maybe it's just me.
 

Sonic Doctor

Time Lord / Whack-A-Newbie!
Jan 9, 2010
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Wolfram01 said:
Seriously. Why?

I ask this because we've seen 2 big name releases in the last little bit - Dragon Age 2 and Crysis 2.

Both games have DROVES of people bitching and moaning about it.

DA2 there's a TON of complaints about features being removed, about the combat changes, about more linear environments etc. Crysis 2, most of the whining is from PC gamers. The game was shipped in DX9 and also has limited environments (the original game allowed you to roam around a lot). This was present in the demo, mind you.

So, it boils down to this. Either they had NO IDEA what the game would be like but pre ordered/bought right at release and then went "WTF?" because it didn't hold up to their expectations, or else they KNEW full well what was coming and bought it anyway, then bitched.

The only smart people are the ones who didn't buy the game because it had unappealing features/changes.

FYI: I have DA2 and like it a lot. I have not bought Crysis 2 and will refrain from buying it until I hear about some future patches adding features I want in the game.

TL;DR: Why don't gamers speak with their wallets, but instead throw money at big name devs/games and then whine when it's not that holy grail of a game they imagined?
I haven't made a pre-order that didn't like. One thing, people pre-order to get the special incentives. I did the Dragon Age 2 one because I got the Signature Edition and special stuff without paying extra. Before I did, I did all the research into what people were saying about it, and frankly, the stuff people complaining about before and after release, I see as improvements, so I knew I was going to like the game. I saw that they were improving the things I hated in Origins. I loved that they went to the Mass Effect dialogue wheel and threw out the ancient out dated dialogue system of Origins.

Other than the incentives that the developers give out, there are the incentives that the sellers put out. I usually pre-order from Amazon.com. And many times, if you pre-order a game there you get a 10 or 20 dollar credit towards your next game. There were a few games I wouldn't have gotten if I hadn't had my special money credits to cut the prices so it made them affordable on my budget.

I say, don't listen to the whiners. They were especially not bright about the DA2 thing.

If they had been paying attention, they would have known BioWare changed what they changed. I read the releases BioWare put out as well as watched the gameplay videos they put out. All the things that people were like, "Oh no they changed it", were already known and it was their fault that they bought a game that they should have known it was changed and they wouldn't like. So what if they pre-ordered it, they could have canceled their pre-order anytime.

Whiners are going to whine, just ignore them.
 

Wolfram23

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Mar 23, 2004
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Ok so now we've got some responses. Let me attempt to categorize reasons:

1) Limited availability.
-This is valid to a certain extend. I haven't seen this issue in a long time. Even when I bought MW2 and Starcraft 2 at launch day (not preordered) I found copies easily. And if you're on PC there's even less reason for this with all the digital distribution sites.

2) For bonus in game items.
-I don't like this one at all. In conjunction with some other reasons to follow, I suppose it's a nice bonus. But for this to be a reason on it's own is silly.

3) I know I'll like it/I like the company.
-This is the worst reason, really. Ok, ok, yes maybe you really do know you'll like it because you saw some preview videos and it's simply a genre that you feel can't go wrong or whatever. But this is the exact reason Dragon Age 2's metascore by users is sooooo low. A LOT of people thought "Oh it's BioWare!" "Oh, it's DA2!" "Of course it'll be awesome!" and they were sorely mistaken. Not everyone! But many were, and there's nothing they can do about it. Can't exactly get their money back.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes these reasons are justifiable. But, hey, you wouldn't buy a car without a test drive, right? You would marry a girl without first meeting her, right? So why would you spend your hard cash without first playing, or at least seeing first hand footage, of a game?

Also, as we've seen lately, you can't rely on the preview material. You can't trust the promotional interviews. Of course they're going to focus on their checklist of great features, but they might miss out on some horrible design decisions that won't come to light until after you already have it in your hands.
 

Tanfastic

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Aug 5, 2009
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I only pre-order games I KNOW i'll love. Those games usually also come with neat little doodads. So I go for it because I love it and I get sweet things for free instead of wasting money on Ebay getting the item that I knew I could've had for free.
 

Wayneguard

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Jun 12, 2010
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I preordered dragon age 2 for one reason... the lion of orlais. I needed my fuckin' paladin shield.
 

MR.Spartacus

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Jul 7, 2009
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I'll only pre-order if there's a bonus (like Fallout 3's music cd's ad bottle openers) or if it's a collector's edition and even then it's got to be a game I'll know I'll want. So yes it's pretty much only sequels. Otherwise there's this little thing called "mass production" that sort of renders any other "benefits" moot.
 

godofallu

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Jun 8, 2010
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I pre-order so I can play the games on release day (or usually midnight launch) with friends. Sometimes preordering bites me in the ass though, and when they don't let me return the game due to DLC codes being used I get pissed.

What can you do though, usually you save 10 bucks and get it day 1 (a 10 dollar value IMO). Sometimes you lose out on 60 bucks. You just have to be smart and pray that the good times outweigh the bad.
 

Moonlight Butterfly

Be the Leaf
Mar 16, 2011
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Lt. Vinciti said:
Depends on the game really...





And the goodies...


Still waiting for Skyrim to have a CE + Preorder
Me too!

Some games I'm so excited about that I just have to have the moment they are released. Like Fallout Vegas.
 

LadyMint

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Apr 22, 2010
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Because those cutthroat drug dealers at EA Games know to put extra content on the pre-order so I'll sign up for it.

It's a compulsion of mine. If a game I want says it has extra stuff you'll get for pre-ordering, then I'll do it. I won't go for the Special Edition versions of games that are 10-20 bucks more, though. I barely have the cash for regular price. But if I get extra virtual stuff just for pre-ordering a game at regular price that I intended to get anyway? It's just my thing, I guess.
 
Mar 9, 2010
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Frozen Donkey Wheel2 said:
I don't. Never really been in a situation where I couldn't find a game I wanted.

That's odd, my captha is in a different font then usual...
What not 'Unreadable Gothic'?

OT: I pre-order titles that I know I'm going to like because they always come early and with extra rewards. I like getting a game 2 days before official release and messing around on it, there isn't much else to it. I know my tastes pretty well so it's always a safe bet.
 

RedEyesBlackGamer

The Killjoy Detective returns!
Jan 23, 2011
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Wolfram01 said:
Ok so now we've got some responses. Let me attempt to categorize reasons:

1) Limited availability.
-This is valid to a certain extend. I haven't seen this issue in a long time. Even when I bought MW2 and Starcraft 2 at launch day (not preordered) I found copies easily. And if you're on PC there's even less reason for this with all the digital distribution sites.

2) For bonus in game items.
-I don't like this one at all. In conjunction with some other reasons to follow, I suppose it's a nice bonus. But for this to be a reason on it's own is silly.

3) I know I'll like it/I like the company.
-This is the worst reason, really. Ok, ok, yes maybe you really do know you'll like it because you saw some preview videos and it's simply a genre that you feel can't go wrong or whatever. But this is the exact reason Dragon Age 2's metascore by users is sooooo low. A LOT of people thought "Oh it's BioWare!" "Oh, it's DA2!" "Of course it'll be awesome!" and they were sorely mistaken. Not everyone! But many were, and there's nothing they can do about it. Can't exactly get their money back.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes these reasons are justifiable. But, hey, you wouldn't buy a car without a test drive, right? You would marry a girl without first meeting her, right? So why would you spend your hard cash without first playing, or at least seeing first hand footage, of a game?

Also, as we've seen lately, you can't rely on the preview material. You can't trust the promotional interviews. Of course they're going to focus on their checklist of great features, but they might miss out on some horrible design decisions that won't come to light until after you already have it in your hands.
Reason one is for us niche gamers. Stores simply don't get many copies of games like Record of Agarest War Zero. We sometimes have to pre-order. Triple A titles don't have this problem. I didn't pre-order Hyperdimension Neptunia and, as a result, had to go to multiple stores to get a copy.
 

tharglet

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Jul 21, 2010
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I only preorder if there's a collector's/special edition with something I want in it, which means I preorder rarely.
I don't have any particular desire for virtual trinkets in single-player games, so I'll only go for special editions that offer me more gameplay or physical items.
 

GonzoGamer

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Apr 9, 2008
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KeyMaster45 said:
So yeah, I eventually just said fuck it and started waiting for games to just go on sale or flat out not buy em at all. To be honest I haven't had much worth buying lately, maybe it's because I'm not as easily pleased the older I get. Of course it could just be that every other game release is an FPS and I don't really care for the FPS genre.
Yea. You're not alone. I find that there are very few games this gen that are actually worth $60.
I tried pre-ordering a couple of times last year when they started offering in game bonus items. Those are pretty cool but I hate it when they put gameplay content as a pre-order 'bonus.' Then I hate it even more if they pull crap like LA Noir when there's different gameplay from different retailers: no way you're getting the entire game with your $60 on launch.

So of the two games I pre-ordered last year:
One I was very pleased with - Just Cause 2. I knew I would like that because I kept playing the demo over and over again.
The other I wish I hadn't gotten - Fallout New Vegas. I loved Fallout 3 and expected FNV to have as many technical problems, but not 30x the technical problems that are 10x more annoying.

So now I'm only going to pre-order when I can try out a demo and am really taken with it.

The whole needing a $5 deposit is just some BS money grab by gamestop. Of my two pre-orders last year, I didn't have to leave a deposit for either.