Whimsical Game Purchasing

[Saelune]

The "Getting bored with gaming" topic made me think about what makes me buy a game. I am pretty informed and aware, and can tell you most of the games I intend on buying for quite awhile. But that wasnt always the case, since when I was a little kid and did not have the internet or game magazines or any of that telling me what is coming or out or if I would like it...I would just browse the gaming section of Toys R Us.

Most games I bought back then were chosen on usually little more than the cover. I got alot of games this way...alot of games I still think fondly of. Dark Cloud 2, Dragon Warrior Monsters, Crystalis for GBC.

I also rented games alot. My family were regulars at Blockbuster, and I swear Ive played every N64 game ever released in the US. Id rent games simply cause I hadnt rented them before. Great memories playing Mystical Ninja (second favorite game ever, and likely why I love medieval Japanese culture), Chameleon Twist, Turok, and Ogre Battle 64.

(I also re-rented alot of games cause I didnt understand money at the time)

Occasionally I will see some interesting game on sale on Steam and might buy it, but usually I have to know something about it, since there is so much garbage there it is hard to tell anymore. Maybe I am too nostalgic about this, and maybe there are plenty of kids browsing Gamestop now doing similar to what I did, but I definatly feel a lack of "what the hell" in getting games, as I now mostly stick to trusted choices (its why I, and likely many others, keep buying sequels). Most of the games I intend on buying anytime soon have a number at the end. Dishonored 2, Shadow Warrior 2, Mount & Blade 2, and Im still waiting for Koei to announce the inevitable Dynasty Warriors 9.

Basically, how do all of you feel about this? Do you find yourself taking chances on games often? Do you prefer to stick with what you already know? Do you feel like you lost some magic for gaming as you grew older? Maybe it was the reverse? Am I just being a bummer? What if anything has changed how you decide what games you get? Are you mad that the poll I didn't add doesn't have a vegetarian option?

 

[Cycloptomese]

I'm like you. Most of my new games have a number at the end. Fallout 4, Witcher 3, soon enough Gears of War 4. I'll never forget when I was a kid. Couldn't wait to get home and play Hydlide. It had such a cool cover. Man, that game sucked.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I feel like I take a chance every time I buy a game even remotely associated with Shinji Mikami, Suda51 or Hideki Kamiya.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Do you feel like you lost some magic for gaming as you grew older?

Obviously, since I grew older. When you're a kid everything seems more magical.

I only really got into gaming once I hit 15, so I wasn't as gullible. I don't think I've ever taken a chance with a game that wasn't influenced by some exterior source. When I rented Onimusha it was because it was made by Capcom (which still meant something back then) and because from the pictures on the back it sorta looked like Resident Evil, and when I rented Metal Gear Solid it was because magazines wouldn't shut up about it.

I don't see anything wrong in wanting to know a bit more about the product you're about to spend your money on.

 

[Zhukov]

Same boat here, mostly. I look into my games pretty extensively. I basically never buy anything until I've seen a solid chunk of unedited gameplay footage. (Fortunately publishers are catching on that that's what people want to see and the Youtube "Let's Play" crowd provides a boundless supply.)

However, I will blind buy cheap games on Steam on a whim every now and again. It generally doesn't work out. I often end up with an interesting or potentially good little game hamstrung by poor execution.

A recent example would be The Fall, a sort of Metroid combined with a P&C adventure game where you play an AI controlling a combat suit with a half-dead human inside. Intriguing and even somewhat funny, but the animation was adequate at best and the controls were terrible.

Or Exanima which is a weird little isometric, slightly Dark Souls-ish thing with physics based combat. Cool idea, shit controls. It's Early Access, so it might improve but I'm not holding my breath.

I have found a few gems though.

I rather liked Gone Home. (Don't fucking start. I bought it early, right when it released, before the miserable dipshit brigade turned it into a battleground.)

There was Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy (hey, don't look at me, I didn't name it) which was a cool little plan-and-simultaneous-turn-based space combat game. Comparable to Battlefleet: Gothic Armada except not shit, except for the visuals, which are shit.

There was The Banner Saga which was legitimately excellent bar a few frustrating design choices.

The Longest Journey was just adorably charming despite it's obscure puzzles and outdated... everything.

Okay, I should stop scrolling through my Steam library or I'll never shut up.

As for gaming "losing some magic", hell no. As far as I'm concerned games have been steadily improving since I was a kid. If you were to take a game that present-day me is lukewarm towards like, say, Dishonored or the new Tomb Raider(s) and show it to 12-year-old me, kid would have his tiny fucking mind blown.

 

[Barbas]

I'm like you. Most of my new games have a number at the end. Fallout 4, Witcher 3, soon enough Gears of War 4. I'll never forget when I was a kid. Couldn't wait to get home and play Hydlide. It had such a cool cover. Man, that game sucked.

Oh my sweet chocolate-coated Christ, I just Googled that game and the colour scheme makes me want to jab a biro in my eye.

OT: I can't remember the last time I bought a game. It may have been Planet Coaster, because it just looks like something I could return to over and over. A single MMO or F2P game seemingly manages to capture and hold my attention for months at a time. Maybe this is simply a natural part of progressing through life. It suits me fine and saves me some cash, which I like.

Ooh, I do miss walking the grey-carpeted aisles of Blockbuster or KPS and browsing the rentals, though! It was always like a quiet, air-conditioned crypt in there. I could swear someone left their lunch in the break room and the miasma of it was being circulated through the vents. It was a weird, almost Gothic establishment.

 

[meiam]

Sometime I do, it usually end well honestly. When demon's soul came out in English in asia (at the time there were not even a possibility that it would come west side) I pretty much imported it just cause I though it was "cool" to import a game since the PS3 was not region locked.

But now there's essentially two type of game I buy, game that I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy, so usually strong brand, for the moment civilization 6 and mount and blade 2 are pretty much the only one. Otherwise almost every game I buy is because I put it on my wishlist in steam when it comes out and wait for it to be on sale. Buying day one, especially on steam, seems like such a bad idea now, you get the buggiest version of a game and I think devs are staring to price game around the idea that they'll soon go on heavy discount, so rather than price a game 20$, it's better to initially price at 30$ (with a small pre order discount to make it 25$) and then wait a month or two to put on a big sale at 20$. That way you get to put the big -30%/-50% discount without actually losing out.

I used to rent a ton of game when I was poor but had lots of time to finish game (so I could finish most game in a week end) but that's less and less a possibility.

As for magic, sorta but not really, as I play more game a lot of games end up feeling like there just a remake/reskin of another game, but whenever I play game with fresh concept, like shadow of mordor, I really like it and the magic is still there. There might come a point where I essentially played every iteration of game out there, but I'm still far from that and there's still so many concept that haven't been touched yet.

 

[Fox12]

Nope. I only buy the games I'm super hyped about, from developers that it trust, that I've been waiting on forever. I find that this prevents me from getting burnt out on gaming as a hobby, or from wasting money. I pre-ordered FF15 and Persona 5 months ago.

I did almost impulse buy SMT Apocalypse today, though. I wisely decided to wait for another paycheck or two. I guess that makes me an adult.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Well I think there are a few factors here at play. For one, everything is great when you're a kid. I'm sure that games (or movies/books/etc) that I would have perceived as good I could look at now as pretty horrible or bland. As a kid everything is shiny and new and of course there's more magic associated with it.

Plus, renting a game for $5 (probably of your parents money) is a much easier "what the hell" moment than risking $60 of your money, especially now when you're older and can more easily look at a game objectively and are more prepared to criticize it on a technical, mechanical, or thematic level.

It's sad but those starry eyed wonder moments will probably continue to be scarcer now that you're older. But, there will definitely be games that make you take a step back and remember what it's like to have that same all consuming immense fun (that is why we play games right? Not just to whine about them on the internet?) that comes from a game you're really enjoying.

For me though, I actually feel like I've gained more of an appreciation for games now that I'm older and have less time to play them. Most recently Forza Horizon has been my game of choice and it has me grinning like an idiot as I speed down the Aussie coast in a Gallardo Superleggera with relaxed trance or drum and bass mixing with the exhaust note. In a way, I think I appreciate good games now more than I ever did.

Edit: Oh yeah, one last thing- I do impulse buy occasionally. Today I saw Grow Home is on sale and I've heard good things so I scooped it up. Same with Soma. I enjoyed Amnesia and Soma's on sale so what the hell why not? My "eh why not" price is around $20. Any higher than that and I'll stop and really consider my purchase.

 

[Saelune]

I would add that I am more referring to getting games, losing the joy in the surprises a seemingly unknown game may have. Reading some responses to this and the other thread, I am not so cynical of gaming as a whole. I still regularly immensely enjoy games, I just am rarely surprised by any of it.

 

[Catfood220]

I used to pick up games on a whim, some were good and some were pretty awful. Daikatana anyone? But as I have gotten older, I like many people on this thread will read at least one review of a game before I buy it.

But three games standout in my mind when it comes to buying games and knowing nothing about them. The first being Paper Mario on the N64, when I had Nintendo consoles, a new Mario game was bought on the day of release. But browsing a GAME on day I came across Paper Mario and didn't buy it, I'm not sure why, maybe I just thought it was a stupid idea. Then one day, towards the end of the N64's life, I was browsing again and saw it, a bit cheaper now. So I thought "what the Hell?" How fucking wrong was I? I loved it, past me was a fucking idiot.

The second being Beyond Good and Evil, I saw it in GAME before I'd read any reviews but looked at the box art, read the blurb, especially the bit about it being a "adult Zelda" and that was it sold to me. The fact it cost ?15 on release didn't hurt either. Ended up loving it too, I hope the sequel happens.

The third being de Blob, I wanted a new game and was planning on buying a Band of Brothers shooter game, because why not? But as I was reaching for that game which probably would of bored me stupid, I saw de Blob sitting there, read the blurb, looked at the box art, it looked fun. So I bought that instead. It was so much fun, the sequel was awesome too. Its a shame no one picked up the license when THQ went under.

 

[Elijin]

I semi-blind(I knew it was a competitive shooter, and that it was popular, but that's it) impulse purchased Overwatch on a boring evening a while back. At the time it was a terrible decision. It was a digital purchase, and on my poor poor connection it ended up taking like 2 days to install. Which in turn, let the 'impulse' pass. It took me a week or two to finally boot it up and give it a shot. It turned out to be a totally worthwhile purchase.

Turns out impulse purchases work better when your internet can support them before the impulse fades.

 

[Maximum Bert]

As a child I always bought on impulse or it would be more correct to say asked my parents to buy me a game I wanted (from impulse).

These days not so much simply because I am much closer to the industry in that I follow it to a much higher degree which the internet has only made easier.

However most of my favourite games of all time I bought on impulse games like Valkyria Chronicles, Disgaea, Okami and most recently Steins Gate (would not call it a game though as its a VN which is the only thing I knew about it at the time) were mostly or in a couple of cases completely impulse buy and I am really glad I did as with Steins Gate in particular I would have given it a miss if I had read some of the reviews I did after and yet as an experience it is one of the best I have ever had in regards to digital entertainment and is up there with some of my favourite books ever.

I just ignore the other much much larger pile of impulse buy games I have bought over the years which range from ok to pretty horrendous.

While I dont impulse buy very often now I still do on occasion simply because of the few gems it has allowed me to find over the years which I would have otherwise missed or not given the time to because I thought I would hate them.

 

[sageoftruth]

Thinking back on Blockbuster, I wonder what going to Blockbuster would be like for me now? With the highly-skeptical outlook we now have on games, would I even know what I want to buy, just by walking through aisles and looking at box covers? Nowadays, I feel like I can't buy anything without first going on youtube or some game review site first to see if it's worth buying.

 

[CaitSeith]

Well, the lack of vegetarian option leaves Super Tofu Boy out, so... tsk tsk.

OT: I use trusted sources now before buying some IP I don't know too (and even for some that I know). That's how I got into trying different things from Stanley Parable and Undertale, to Dark Souls and Mordheim: City of the Damned. I think the last game from a "new" IP which I got hyped by trailer alone and bought without consulting any sources was ZombiU (I don't regret it, I still like that game).

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

A recent example would be The Fall, a sort of Metroid combined with a P&C adventure game where you play an AI controlling a combat suit with a half-dead human inside. Intriguing and even somewhat funny, but the animation was adequate at best and the controls were terrible.

Huh. I actually rather liked that game. Art style and the atmosphere made up for the controls.

But as for me, I bought Rebel Galaxy on a whim a few weeks ago. For those who don't know, it's basically a cross between Freelancer and Firefly, and it did a good job of scratching my space sim itch until I finally got around to buying the Blood and Wine expansion for Witcher 3.

I just wish there was a custom soundtrack for it. The soundtrack for Rebel Galaxy is actually pretty good...all six tracks of it.

 

[09philj]

I never got new games very often when I was younger so I was always obsessive about getting the best one possible. I'm still like that now. The most impulsive thing I ever did was buy a PS Vita and I had to intentionally take ?125 cash into my local city centre to do it.

 

[FakeSympathy]

I think part of the reasons why we trust the series more than the new ip is that we know it would be great if not decent. I mean, Fallout 4, Witcher 3, DEus Ex: MK, and Skyrim are all great games by themselves, but their predecessors certainly helped to establish their praises.

New Ips what I feel like the ones that gets the mixed opinions. We never know if the game will be good or not because there were no previous games that helped them to be a good game. Destiny, No man's Sky, and Ride to hell: retributions all failed because devs did not know what they were doing. Only rarely do I see fresh new ips being good such as Overwatch, Dishonored, Outlast, and few more

 

[Shoggoth2588]

A big part about why I like collecting for older games is that even though I was a kid when the SNES, N64, PSX etc were big and growing in popularity there was still a lot of games that I missed out on. When it comes to modern gaming, I am a bit disappointed that a lot of what interests me is a sequel or a reboot but at least there are a lot of good indies that come out from time to time to mix those up. When I buy games now I generally know enough about a game before I buy it that I'm certain I won't regret the purchase. When it comes to buying old games though, I take things like price and the WTF factor of the box/cart-art into consideration. Crusade of the Crystal Palace is an NES game I bought a while ago and it's downright bonkers from the second you pick it up but Guardian Legends is a game that I got because of how cheap it was; the cart-art doesn't give you a hint about the type of game it is but it's cheap enough that I probably wouldn't have felt too cheated by it. Popping it into my NES for the first time, I find out it's a bottom-to-top schmup (fun!) but then my ship turns into a robot girl and I'm in a LoZ-style shooter?! (Awesome!)

I guess my buying habits are a bit weird...I like to know what I'm getting but I don't like to pass up on something I've never heard of if it's cheaper than a combo meal.

 

[Fox12]

Ah, fuck it, I bought it anyway