Poll: Do you buy videogames to be part of the crowd?

[laggyteabag]

Sometimes I guess, it has happened with the Mass Effect series, the BioShock franchise, Telltale's The Walking Dead, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Bastion and hell even Borderlands. And not yet have I purchased a hyped up title that I have not enjoyed.

To be fair, the only reason that I have not yet picked up and played games like The Last of Us, Heavy Rain, GTA V etc is only because they are not on a platform that I own.

 

[Bellvedere]

It's been that way (at least for me) for about half a decade now. You'll basically just be told by the crowd (or in my case my friends) that game x is amazing and not getting or, god forbid, not liking it is grounds to be insulted. Of course my attitude towards that is "fuck the popular opinion" because if I don't like Modern Warfare 2 for example then I don't like it. As for buying, I don't really do it. Unless the game looks like something I want to play, then I won't play it.

That's my sentiments exactly, but this guy, when I presented him with this similarity...

It's like watching football just to be able to talk about it, even if you don't like it.

He answered...

No. It'd be like having the option of watching two football games & choosing to watch the game your friends are watching so you can talk about it with them. Then watching the other game.

Was wondering how many guys thought the same.

Have to say I agree with reddit guy. I mean if I'm going to end up playing both games anyway or I'm equally interested in both I'd prefer to be playing the game that I can engage in with friends or even strangers online. That is, I'd choose the one that I can talk about with others because it would add an additional social experience making it more valuable to have (either at all or in the present) than the game that doesn't.

I wouldn't buy a game just because my friends/large number of people are playing it though. It's very possible that their love of/excitement for a game may be influential (I never would have even tried the demo for fire emblem awakening if it weren't for numerous people online and in real life talking about it continuously for example), but I'm content to be out of the loop.

I would never have guessed there would be people who thought that was a strange choice. It's not like giving up personal autonomy or anything... From the parts of the conversation you've quoted he sounds like he wanted to get both but missed the launch discussion of TLOU so chooses to pick up GTA V first to engage in the present discussion about it. Am I missing something?

 

[CriticalMiss]

Nope, I buy/play games because they are interesting/fun/challenging not because other people are playing them. I have no interest in MOBA games, so I haven't and don't plan on playing them. I don't care if a million gazillion people are watching eSports and playing competative games, I'd rather play something I want to play even if I have no one to talk to about them. Sure there is some overlap between the games I buy and those which are popular, which is fine. But I don't go out of my way to buy 'Hip New Game 2014: The Reckoning' if I don't want it.

 

[bluegate]

As so many people here; I play games for myself and mostly by myself. I have never and would never buy a game just because it's the cool thing to do or because I want to belong to the crowd. My circle of friends is divided in all sorts of camps, some guys play Fifa, some CoD, some Dota2 and I have never in the least been tempted to buy any of those games just to fit in. Hehe, I usually have trouble finding a multiplayer game when some friends come over...

 

[FPLOON]

I hardly buy games to be part of the "in crowd"... In fact, most of the games I do end up buying are more niche than I'm willing to see at first glance... *cough*HyperdimensionNeptunia*cough*

It's interesting that I could have been one of those peoples that would buy those kind of non-niche-inducing video games... Then again I still buy annual Pokemon games, however the reason for that is different that the whole "my friends have it, so I should have it too" reason... (Hint: I find them fun to play...)

I can see where those kind of people come from and I respect their judgement... However, if they're just going to bash a niche game because it's that one game that only they would play among their friends, then they need to sort out their priorities in terms of judgement...

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Yeah, well.

I think that, to some extent, I do understand where you're coming from. However, I am also quite certain that you are simply 'not getting it' when it comes to GTA.

I, too, intended to hold off until it would eventually be released on PC. However, my resistance fell after ten days, and I haven't played anything but GTA V (finished the story) and then GTA V Online all the way. My buddy list on the console has exploded and I'm freelancing for four crews beside working on establishing a brand for my own, strictly one-person crew (it's all about me after all).

I have Davros Cäge's latest oeuvre, Beyond: Two Souls lying around, waiting to be experienced. I just can't be arsed. Every minute I would 'play' Beyond would be a minute lost in GTA V Online.

Yes, you are right that The Last Of Us will still be there once you decide to go get it - if your console is still working by then. With GTA V, I absolutely have to disagree. The short but very meandering and bumpy road from the initial release to patch 1.04 was something you just missed out on. There is no way to get that back. And I personally consider that to be a rather sad thing. You haven't found your favourite activity in the game yet. You've never found a glitch. You've never made a million or two. You've never bought your toon a nice home. You've never had a bounty set on your head and then spent the day watching silly people kill each other trying to kill you, which of course they can't when you're just watching them from inside the comfy confines of your not so humble abode.

And you don't know about the feature that lets you watch some random dude play GTA V on your TV all day long, sitting on your couch. Just when it gets boring and he gets the upper hand, send mercenaries after him and watch him die on TV. Oh the humanity.

So, yeah, in regards to the single player story/campaign mode, you're just not in the loop about what all these random folks on the internet are blabbering and opining on about. But in regards to the rather fresh online launch, deciding not to be a part of it is a bit of a bummer. Then again, you have more spare time to do other things, as GTA V Online happens to be quite addictive.

 

[Sandjube]

Yep, I spend good hard-earned money on games I hate just so I can be cool.

No, not really.

 

[Meinos Kaen]

I hardly buy games to be part of the "in crowd"... In fact, most of the games I do end up buying are more niche than I'm willing to see at first glance... *cough*HyperdimensionNeptunia*cough*

*pats his shoulder* I feel you, man. You should have seen my friends when I tried to show them Lollipop Chainsaw. I mean, they were the usual Fifa and CoD guys, but I thought Zombies+Chainsaws+Hot Chicks=Profit, you know?

Instead... Nothing.

 

[FPLOON]

I hardly buy games to be part of the "in crowd"... In fact, most of the games I do end up buying are more niche than I'm willing to see at first glance... *cough*HyperdimensionNeptunia*cough*

*pats his shoulder* I feel you, man. You should have seen my friends when I tried to show them Lollipop Chainsaw. I mean, they were the usual Fifa and CoD guys, but I thought Zombies+Chainsaws+Hot Chicks=Profit, you know?

Instead... Nothing.

I, too, have played Lollipop Chainsaw... Don't know how I ended up playing this game, to be honest... (*coughs*TaraStrong*cough*) So, because I don't know how I ended up pre-ordering that game and still occasionally playing it just for the heck of it (and not because of that one BS achievement that I could never get with any real skills), I'll just blame Suda 51... (I need to replay killer7... and No More Heroes...)

However, I think you should have sold more of the zombie-bit, considering the CoD guys must have played the mode with all the zombies... But, I digress... (Hmmm... Fifa+Zombies=Profit?)

 

[Olas]

Certainly not, considering my friends mostly don't play videogames, and I don't care what idiots[footnote]By idiots I mean idiots, like on most other sites, not you fine gentlemen... and ladies.[/footnote] on the internet say.

Even in highschool I never really cared all too much about being popular. It seemed like a shallow and stupid desire. It's not that I didn't care about my self image, I did. I just didn't see either "fitting" or "standing out" as being desirable in an of themselves. Kinda a false dichotomy.

For the record I haven't bought Last of Us or GTAV and probably won't in the near future. Again it's not out of active rebellion or anything. I just don't buy games until they come down in price considerably. Usually they have to be under $20 before I even consider buying them.

 

[Story]

No, not at all.
Not even when I was little.
Video games were and still are a big investment with me so I always choose to buy the games I want to play.
And I've bought some pretty unconventional titles over the years that I know only I would enjoy, like Tokyo Jungle, Kurby's Airide, Catherine, Puppeteer, and Viva Piñata.
And sure my FPS friends/family gave me funny looks, but I don't really give a damn.

I think maybe I was driven to ask my parents for the first Pokemon game when I was young, because all of my friends had it, but otherwise that's all I can think of.

 

[A.A.K]

I don't buy games. I don't think I've bought a game since Mass Effect 3 was released. Mates shaft me games if I really 'need' to play something...and then it takes me up to 6 months to get round to playing it.

I got given GTA V yesterday, which was shafted.... and I got bored 5 hours in. I was already losing interest in it and then I had to rob the LSPD Tac. truck. Could not be arsed anymore.

 

[Bat Vader]

No. I buy games because I want to play them and because I think they look interesting and that I might enjoy it. If a game that I buy is popular or becomes popular that is just a coincidence.

I tried playing The Last of Us and got like forty five minutes into it before I quit. It was because I am burned out with the whole zombie genre. I liked the setting and the characters but just not the zombies. I feel like they could have taken the zombies out and still had a great game with great characters.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Eh, yes and no.
I won't buy a game to get into the in-crowd but I have gotten into a couple of franchises because of said crowds.
...
That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, let me try again.
I've gotten into a few franchises that have pretty dedicated followers because they make so much noise about it. Most recently it was the Persona series.
I thought "Hey, people who play Persona really, really seem to like it, I should give it a shot."
Same thing happened with the Fallout and Resident Evil series.

Oh wait, yes, I did buy a game to get into the in crowd *once*.
Skyrim.
Friend let me borrow it and I was like, "Oh, well this isn't bad. I don't know if I would buy it but it seems to be the only thing my friends are talking about, so..."

 

[CannibalCorpses]

I don't buy video games so i guess not...why purchase when you can rent?

I don't play multiplayer either, so me and the crowd...we don't get on too well. The challenge isn't there enough for me to follow the herd

 

[MrBaskerville]

I never buy games when they are new, they are too expensive and frankly not worth the high price tag. I usually buy games when they get a bit cheaper but i don't really follow what other people are hyping. I usually just buy whatever i find interesting regardless of what reviewers and other people say.And you could say i'm missing out on Last of Us and GTAV, but i really don't see any appeal in those games, they don't look like anything that would catch my interest.

Oh, and i never play multiplayer, so yeah.

 

[verdant monkai]

I did with GTA V. It wasnt really anything to do with acceptance, but more to do with everyone loving it so I jumped on the band wagon.

It was a good buy because in the uni I'm now in most of the boys there have it.