Collective excitement is different from individual excitement, whether that’s going to see a movie on opening weekend in a packed theater vs going to see the same movie later in a mostly empty theater, reading the latest Harry Potter book along with your friends when it comes out and discussing it fresh, versus reading it years later, or playing a game at release when it’s a collective experience vs playing it later when no one else is discussing it and playing through it anymore. This is not just the hype machine of the industry, it really is a different experience, and in my opinion, in many cases, a better one. Human beings are social animals, we crave this kind of collective excitement, which is one of the reasons why sports are so popular.
Not being a good little consumer sure is controversial these days. Should we move this to P&R?
No, it’s all game related.
What is with people thinking that because a discussion has people that disagree, it automatically makes it P & R.
That’s what I was going to say. There’s an additional amount of fun in playing a new game right when a bunch of other people are playing it, so you’re communally discovering things. It’s a positive shared experience that you don’t get when you play the game later. You can also bat around ideas and get more feedback when there is a larger number of people playing a game.
Now some people just don’t care about that shared experience, and maybe for some games it doesn’t happen for one reason or another (maybe when each individual’s experience varies widely?). But it’s a definite thing that some people find valuable.
I think Perky Goth was joking. “Let’s move this to P&R” is a recurring meme at Qt3 enough to warrant a joke like that. :)
Yep. Those were some oddly strongly worded responses to an advice of not making everything a big deal. It can be, responsibly even, but rushing to buy/play a game shouldn’t be a goal into itself.
Ah, so I missed that. I guess I haven’t seen it enough to understand that it’s now seen as meme.
I don’t think anyone is claiming it should be that.
Heck, this whole Epic exclusivity might actually be advantageous to people looking to get a collective experience. First you have the community of players who play through a game at launch on Epic, and get to experience it together. And then you have the community of players who will play it collectively at steam launch. Bonus! You get two chances instead of one.
This had nothing to do with being “a good little consumer”.
Alright, I’ll assume we’re all in the same page, then, as I don’t think he was literally telling you, personally, what to do.
I share you doubts about the price after exclusivity, I’m just more used to doing without or waiting a while. It’s fine.
I can speak from personal experience. It sucks to always play a game 2-3 years late.
It gets very lonely.
:(
Come on, it’s not that lonely. I’m one of us. Unless, Mr. @BrianRubin or any one of you guys manage to dial up the hype so much I give in to the wicked and evil seductive voice that tempts me… and make me feel so miserable about not playing with these they get to play with first…
Well, it does mean not participating in the conversation here, unless someone has some organized play. When’s the last time someone discussed Age of Wonders 3? It wasn’t until a multiplayer game was set up but currently, there is no discussion of it.
So, yeah, it’s a bit lonely because everyone is always on the hype train, and I almost never buy a game until there are huge sales going on, and at that time, the community has usually moved on.
Right now, I’m finishing off Borderlands 2, and there is nothing really to say to anyone. 2 or 3 people are playing fresh, like I am, but, there all busy or working different schedules. Everyone else has moved on to Borderlands 3, or isn’t all that interesting playing Borderlands 2 right now.
Yeah, I also start games 2+ years after release. With some games it’s actually pretty nice: you get to play with bug fixes, DLC, and stable mods on the first go. (Right now I’m playing Cities:Skyline for the first time and replaying Fallout:NV. Also played Anno 1404, AoW3, and HoI4 for the first time this year.)
But I end up reading old topics here and keeping my thoughts to myself so I don’t go around resurrecting dead threads.
I played AoW3 when Planetfall came out, and a lot of stuff in the Planetfall thread was actually pretty relevant to my game.
It kinda has? For example, it’s sort of very noticeable that most WWII war-games have zero swastikas in them. That is a direct result of German law and companies not wanting to have to localize German-specific versions of the assets.
(This is not me complaining about this. I think it’s fine. But it’s a good example that the issue is not as simple as ‘Eff you I won’t do what ya tell me!’)
Has it? I mean, I think I see it all time in my games, when it was appropriate.
Can you name some instances where you expected to see it, but didn’t?
Sure - the example that I noticed most recently (because I was at PDXCon!) is Hearts of Iron 4. For an older example, Panzer General 2. Many games use the iron cross on a red background and leave you with the idea that you saw a swastika, when you didn’t.
I’m certainly not saying “no game has ever used a swastika” (I assume without checking that Wolfenstein 3D did, and I know the original Apple II Wolfenstein did.) But enough noticeably don’t use it that it’s part of this discussion.
EDIT: Had to look this one up. The recent game Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which is a game about killing Nazis, does not have swastikas in it.
I found this.
It could be that people in general just don’t like the Swastika. Heck, I heard blow back from games, where instead of commanding German forces, you actual portray German generals, and people don’t feel comfortable with that. So, even outside of Germany, there is a lot of negative association with Nazi Germany, that is made worse by show Swastikas, and can hurt game sales.
So, although I can’t dispute that German historical ban (which I believe was lifted in 2018) may have had an impact, I think we also had to consider that people in general don’t want to be associated with Swastikas.
I personally feel more comfortable leading a Nazi Germany under an Iron Cross, rather then a Swastikas.
My only point here is that the German law clearly changed the resulting games of some major game publishers in the US market, and you really don’t see many people too upset about it.
And I would push against that and say that the audience had pushed against the usage of Nazi symbols, independently of the law.
People don’t want their gaming associated with Specific Nazis icons and characters.
I am trying to remember the game that was specifically talked about, but I am drawing a blank.