I caved in yesterday on a stand I'd taken regarding SWTOR. I was annoyed they closed SWG just to stop it competing so I had decided not to buy SWTOR. Yesterday an old friend phoned and told me he'll be playing SWTOR so I decided to pre-order it.
I feel in some ways like I've made a righteous decision to make a stand then ceded defeat partly because of the social tie, but also if I'm being very honest partly from greed for the new shiny.
How does everyone else feel about gamer ethics? Are we all just sluts, sleeping with whichever game promises the next gratification? Or are some of you out there headstrong determined people who often take a stance on a matter of principle and stick with it?
Let's just call ourselves pragmatic ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to take a stand; harder to make one.
ReplyDeleteBesides, the "cause" of SWG is a bit too esoteric for your boycott to make any real sense. Much better to buy SWTOR and subvert it from within. :P
It's easier to make a stand on not buying a game if there was something else you wanted to play, none of your friends wanted to buy that game either, and you weren't gung ho about it in the first place.
ReplyDelete(ie. what would blizzard have to do to make you swear off D3?)
It was easy for me to make a stand on not playing TERA because of the stupid pantyshots in screenshots, given that I didn't want to play it anyway, frex.
When Crysis 2 came out, I decided that if it was not really really good as promised... I would have stopped buying "blockbuster" games. And so I did.
ReplyDeleteI now buy indie titles only, or "big titles" with amazing discounts on Steam. If anything, I pretend a demo to test things in advance.
Will I play the SW MMO?
No, unless they give me a 7-14 days trial.
Will I buy Skyrim?
No, unless I can download a demo and see if it's all about hype or it's a real deal.
Will I buy Battlefield3?
No, unless they give us a decent demo.
The only title I'll be buying at day one without any doubt is Diablo III, but that's because I (almost) blindly believe in the top quality of Blizzard titles. That's a personal problem, I'm working on it.
I don't play any games on console.
ReplyDeleteIt's mostly because I don't have a console or a tv, or place to put a tv and a console.
I really wanted to play Dragon age 2, I loved Origins, but I didn't like the direction the game was taking.
I told myself I would buy it if they ever bundled Dragon age 2 with its downloads. Still waiting.
I don't buy or play M-rated games on principle. There are a handful I'd really like to play, but that's the line I've drawn for myself, so I stick to it. Ditto for R-rated movies.
ReplyDeleteI don't think gamers are any different from other people when it comes to acting on principle, though. We might have different principles, but most of us have a hard time sticking to principles at times. (I keep telling myself not to drink any more soda, for example, but this root beer is soooo good...)
There is a good amount of competition in the gaming industry that I don't think there is much to make a stand about. Prices stay fairly low compared to other forms of entertainment.
ReplyDeleteI will likely buy D3 and probably get over 100 hours of play out of it. Assuming I play for 120 hours. That comes to a rate of 50 cents per hour. You will spend many times that when doing other forms of entertainment like movies, bar, sporting events, concerts, etc...
I've faced the same dilemma. So far with SWTOR I have resisted pressure to start that, but only because the same people moving over to play that will be up for playing GW2 when that releases so I can wait till then and concentrate on studies.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly if you persuade people to play a game it's a bit churlish to ragequit over this feature or that expansion. So I still play WoW occasionally because a) my partner loves it still and b) several relatives want to play it with me.
I guess it's down to priorities - do you (meaning all of us) play MMOs to game with friends/family/'the guild' or for the rules and setting they offer?
Thanks all.
ReplyDeleteVery sensible collection of comments. Sad really, I'd like to imagine I moved in circles where radical gamers would chain themselves to railings and go on hunger strike to fight the evils of closing a sandbox to make a theme park and putting kids characters in my seriousface wargame.
Or maybe I wouldn't.
Stabsy, Whamo here!
ReplyDeleteLet me know which server you roll on and which side. Just finished their stress test weekend and tried many classes. I was on the face about it but it's a good roller coaster experience for awhile. Whether it has more legs than Rift in the long run, who knows.
Will do Whamo.
ReplyDelete