I tend to operate under a very simple idea, “Never tell someone what to do with their money”. If you go to 100 people you will find 100 different financial situations. So to tell someone, let a lone an entire group, not to buy something is very arrogant.
This opinion piece is in response to a recent article on Polygon by Ben Kuchera titled “You Shouldn’t Pre-Order Alien: Isolation (or any game for that matter)”. In the article Ben repeats much of the hate the pre-order process has received so I want to be clear this article is in response to recent frustration over this stance.
For transparency purposes I will say I am a former GameStop employee, was an Assistant Manager, and am familiar with their process and policies.
My biggest issue with the article is the gaming vacuum many of the detractors to pre-ordering live in. They rarely spend money in games and tend to be disconnected from the real world that we all operate in. I am 27 and work 45 hrs a week at a nursing home taking care of a 52 year old man with mental disabilities. I have 2 kids and a stay at home wife so my disposable income has to be carefully distributed. Pre-ordering allows me to plan out my gaming purchases for the year and chip away at them accordingly. If I was expected to stroll into stores on release day and drop $64 to get a game I would probably have no games at all. This is the real world most gamers operate in so you have to excuse me if I feel it’s a little ignorant to say in the article “pre-ordering a game doesn’t help the consumer.” It sure helps me and many other people I know and have helped. It’s a growing problem with writers from these gaming sites expressing there opinions on matters like pre-ordering, the demise of GameStop and the digital revolution. They type it from their fancy offices and forget what it’s like in most suburban middle income areas. In essence they are too close to the forest to see the trees.
Later on in the article he launches his attack at the publishers. Claiming they have little confidence in their games so they use the process to goad you into a purchase before you can read reviews and assess word of mouth as to if the game is worth it or not.
This is false. He uses the DLC bonus as a reason why you have to get the game before you can weigh the options. In most cases the bonus code prints out on the receipt. These codes will print out for weeks as people trickle in to pick up their reserves. There is plenty of time to figure out if the game is worth it to you before going into pick up the game.
I suppose my biggest issue with this stance is it assumes all consumers are mindless drones incapable of making decisions. Thank God these courageous writers have taken up the mantle cause we can’t have people just walking into game stores and buying bad games! Except that’s flawed logic. If these consumers are going to give into hype and buy bad games that is gonna happen regardless of pre-order, DLC bonus or any other obstacle you can put in their way.
I get that it may be shady and I’m not naive enough to think that this practice isn’t benefiting the publishers and retailers, because it is, but to say that no positive comes out of the practice for the consumer is clearly wrong. Talk to any gamer living in the real world and they’ll tell you it is a life saver to them. Not to mention some people just plain like it. It’s the first step to getting that big game you have been waiting years for, it’s the first tangible evidence that in a few months you’ll return from that midnight, pop that disc in and embark on a journey. So who do people think they are to flat out tell you not only that you’re wrong but that you are part of problem?
One also has to call out the fact that the article asserts that reviews are the end all be all to if a game is good or not. I think we all can think of one game we loved or really enjoyed that was reviewed poorly. It’s funny everyone is concerned with what’s “consumer friendly” except when it’s what the consumer wants.
So keep on doing what you want gamers. Does the process disgust you? Do you feel the Bonus DLC gimmick is crap? By all means don’t pre-order. To the rest of you that find value in it and works for you. Do it and don’t let anyone in an office building playing games for a living tell you any different.
