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[Column] General: The Enticement
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
MMO companies these days offer their players incentives to invest or to purchase "founder's" packages giving them extra perks for doing so. In today's Devil's Advocate, we take a look at the enticement that that fact brings. See what you think before airing your thoughts in the comments.
From last week’s Devil’s Advocate on beta testing behavior, a number of you felt beta tests were less about the testing and more about the advertisement factor for a game.
Taking your realizations into account, I wanted to discuss one of the other trends that have come about in the gaming sector as a whole: the development of ways to entice players to pre-purchase a game.
Read more of Victor Barreiro Jr.'s The Devil's Advocate: The Enticement.
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Comments
I dont know why anyone pre purchases a game, especialy without trying it first.
You give all the power to the company and completely diminish the consumer (us). Companies make huge money off of stuff that isnt even complete, is broken or just flat out bad.
Do yourself a favor, for the sake of your money, and for the sake of the genre... stop prepurchasing.
The way mmo's were: Community, Exploration, Character Development, Conquest.
The way mmo's are now : Cut-Scenes,Cut-Scenes, solo Questing, Cut-Scenes...
www.CeaselessGuild.com
haha i pre purchased in the most unlikely place- Walmart, just for the shotgun!...then i saw what steam was offering!-its BEAST!....
I also called Trion to reasure my purchase at walmart so i can get access to beta after a few requiremnst from their end- i am in!- Trion costumer support are pretty awsome!-side note.
but this steam vehicle is tempting!!!!
I highly dislike pre-purchase "unlocks" like this. The recent trend of having multiple levels of unlocks based on how many pre-orders are is a dirty way to incentivize people to pre-order when they may be hesitant about the actual product. They're pre-odering for the bonuses more than the product at that point.
Do not like shady practices like that. I know why they do it and I know they work, but I can't help but feel that they're fucking shady as all hell and not in the best interest of consumers.
Currently playing:
Rift
Played:
SWToR, Aion,EQ, Dark Age of Camelot
World of Warcraft, AoC
you nailed it!
No it's not - it's a consumer purchase based off marketing hype.
It's the same as buying a new model year car based only on what you see at the autoshow.
Heyo. Victor here.
Just wanted to say that, yes, the consumer purchase based off marketing hype is an accurate way of putting it.
Anyway, one thing to note is that crowdfunded initatives with stretch goals and whatnot have their own problem, which is that if you're not upfront about any issues you'll face, you're bound to not get funded. On Kickstarter, people now expect to know what difficulties a dev will face... which in itself is a somewhat refreshing development.
Of course, it doesn't stop impulse buying (Guilty of that, I am), but it helps.
A writer and gamer from the Philippines. Loves his mom dearly.
Can also be found on http://www.gamesandgeekery.com
For me personally I don't pre-order games site un-seen, and havnt for the last 4 years. Even games I have beta tested or demoed I wait 3-9 mo.(worked well for me on the SWTOR disaster) post release. My reasoning is this:
Incentive items invariable fall into two categories; fluff, safely ignored or balance borking super items. Either way I could care less and such things don't move me except possibly away.
If a games dev/pub team have such poor planning and budgeting skills that they need LTS, LEGENDARY whozits, or special gimics to generate xtra $ to make payroll; the planning is gonna be just as bad once it hits live. If they don't then let the moronic suckers and QVc watchers pony up if they wish.
We seen several compnies go the route of hey give me 69 - 250 bucks and we will let you beta test the product.
I will not ever do that, just to get into a beta, what happens when you get into a beta after spending that kind of cash and hate it.
I think I will just wait until I see what the game has to offer. The entier bs of pay us to beta, and folks fall for it is just sad.
^ this
Wait, you want me to pay you to find bugs in your product? lol so not gonna happen.
When you invest that money, you tend to want to get your money's worth, too. Even if you're disappointed in the game, you're not getting your money back, so you'll want to play the game you paid for. At least to an extent.
From then on, it's just a downward spiral. It happens all the time in F2P games, big spenders end up way over-committing to a game (financially) that they may not even enjoy (Pay-to-win tactics) - and then they can't justify leaving! When you've already spent [x] dollars, what's another [y]?
It's psychological warfare.