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Pre-ordering and Early Access Games

YOU FOOL! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??? YOU TOOK MY FOOD AND TRADED THEM FOR MAGIC BEANS!!??

-My Bank Account

Hey EVERYONE! Dopey here! Today's topic is going to be (well the TITLE) BUYING GAMES AHEAD OF TIME.

But first...STORY TIME

You know that feeling where you watch an epic trailer of a game? The anticipation of a sequel to your favorite series? A concept you have been waiting for since forever? 

You tell yourself...my GOD this game looks freaking good! then you pre-order the game for a whopping $60 (or 54.99 of you do it TODAY). The excitement begins to fill you up as you become impatient to own a copy before your friends do...

You wait months...weeks....days....and then.... RELEASED! You download the game with your newly purchased high speed internet that you've upgraded for this very moment. After a few moments, it finishes and you quickly launch the game! Heart beating rapidly, eyes WIDE open, and your phone ringing but you don't ANSWER....OMG....the client crashes.

You sit back, absolutely dumbfounded. Scratching your head wondering if it's just your system...but wait, you just bought a five-hundred dollar graphics card! No..No...that can't be it. You try again, this time the game does start! The loading screen is excruciatingly slow, but you don't care, as long as the game is working....right?

You are finally in the game! Overjoyed feelings begin to bubble up once more as you create your character! But...your character falls through the game-world immediately. You are confused for a moment, open up the menu.....the client crashes.

You look at the reviews out of both curiosity and an uprising anger....negative reviews left and right. Reality kicks in, the mind is at peace again. You sit back on your chair saying in a hysterical voice, "This is the best turd i have ever bought!" And you wait for a year's worth of patches HAPPILY. EVER. AFTER.

THE END

 

Alright guys! Is pre-ordering/early access games worth it?

I used to pre-order games on my N64 all the time back in the day. But my eight-year-old self realized that the games a hit-or-miss. With notorious companies and developers out to get your $$$, is it more effective to wait a bit? 

 

Steam "Early Access" logo

Steam "Early Access" logo

The Good Personal Experiences

I have always admired the developers of these games and definitely would love to support all of them if I had the money. Some of these guys really do need the funding and support to maintain their passion.  Some of these early access games are even good as they get updated consistently.  Sometimes devs even go out of their way to heed the wants of the gamers. 

With the rise of DLC to expand the game's universe, some companies will even provide you with benefits for buying their game early (such as the DLC content) and other goodies/passes. But we won't really get into this since its a whole other topic within itself.

I certainly enjoyed some titles like The Forest, Banished, watching the YY team play ARK etc. Another thing i would like to point out is the creativity of these bizarre, yet incredible ideas.. Most of the major gaming companies probably won't even give these ideas a chance. But with the concepts like the upstart of survival sandbox games, gamers will finally get the chance of their dreams coming to life.

I would LOVE to see more content from these developers in the future and see what new quirk they bring to the table.

The Bad Personal Experiences

OK, now its time to express my current frustrations with this concept. With these ideas comes a dark side; leaving it to HOPE and (oh god) POTENTIAL. In my opinion, hope is not a good thing when it comes to pre-ordering (early access is more understandable). I know that certain games are not for everyone, but i'm not here to give reviews, i'm talking about FALSE ADVERTISING. Instead of explaining, I'll use a few of my examples.

1. Rome 2 Total War: (pre-order)

The game was broken and nearly unplayable at launch after claiming to have the biggest budget compared to every other total war game

2.Towns (early access) 

The developers literally ABANDONED the game and launched the game as a full release. 200,000 players bought the game for $14.99.

3. Lollipop Chainsaw (pre-order)

Not a bad game, but mediocre for the price (49.99) during the time. The game was hyped by a stereotypical cheerleader who happens to to be sexy and voiced by Tara Strong :) The game was also short for fifty bucks.

4. Madden Games (pre-order)

Hardly any changes to the more recent ones. Madden 25 even had unfulfilled promises and lack of other features.

5. Movie Title Games (pre-order)

Plz dunt 

TOO AMBITIOUS?

This is mainly for early access games. Many of the early access games i have encountered (ESPECIALLY sandbox) offers a ton of content in the future...THE FAR FUTURE. I know that coding takes time and some of these companies are working with only a handful of developers but C'MON MAN! These sandbox games are becoming notorious for never being able to finish which brings us to.....

THE RELEASE DATE

 Some of these early access games are in their third year as of the time of this post. The games are being updated once every three months or their "updates" aren't relevant to the progress.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, I think players should wait for the gameplay to be revealed or reviewed. That way players can just go on Twitch.tv or Youtube  to see if the game is right for them instead of spending that $60 when you could've bought a dozen tubs of ice cream crying about your purchase.  Early Access games could be fun as well but always remember, POTENTIAL is all it has until the full releasePlus everything is going digital so you don't really have to worry about the store running out of copies. ;)

COMMENT below if you like, hate, or think i'm an asshole! If you have anything you like to add, I would appreciate that!

 

Thanks to the Reader!

-Dopey (Jeremy)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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