Gaming

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While I admire the ideas behind patient gamers and think it probably works out really well for some people, I personally also enjoy participating in the zeitgeist from time to time. Playing Elden Ring on launch was fantastic - you really felt like you were exploring the world alongside everyone else as you're finding Ashes and weapons that don't even have wiki entries yet.

I haven’t played Balder’s Gate 3 yet, so I’d say I’m patient.

Yes and no. Some games you just cannot be patient about, as part of the whole selling point is the community in the moment. For example, the way in which hype went for Helldivers 2 pretty much necessitated that if you weren't part of the community in the first 3 months then you missed out on a lot of "storytelling".

This would go for most multiplayer games. Single player games though have a lot more freedom to be late to the game, so to speak ;)

Otherwise, for me personally it usually just comes down to the IP. Monster Hunter is my go-to, so it's sort of a no-brainer for me to go for the new game as they come out barring any major issues or personal life events, I get them. I did buy Cyberpunk on release, however that was more because I wanted to see what my new 3080 could do and I was looking for a solid single player game, and I didn't encounter nearly as many problems as other players did. But, I haven't gotten the DLC for it because I haven't been looking for that kind of game again yet.

Being ready for the game is another aspect I take into consideration, Dragon's Dogma 2 was something I was pretty highly anticipating, but after hearing about the release issues and remembering what DD:DA was like to replay, I realized that I wasn't ready for it again at release. However now it's on sale and I've been out of gaming for a few months outside of small old games on my Steam Deck once in a while. I picked it up and I've been enjoying it.

So I think patient gaming really comes down to having the understanding of the social aspect the game is trying to sell - sometimes it's marketing (2077) and sometimes it's the nature of a game that's fun to play with other people. Getting games like Phasmaphobia, Dale & Dawsons, they aren't really going to be that fun if you're multiple years late to the game. Similarly, if your friend just finds out about the game late, it's just a smaller niche, being your friend group instead of random people in public lobbies, at which point you can expect to play that game a handful of times before your group drops it forever, lol.

Yes and no. It depends on the games. Usually I wait for discounts now though. I don't have time to play every game anyways so it saves me money to wait. Even during sales, I'll stop and ask myself if I'll play it soon. If I don't think I will, I usually just wait

It's easy to be patient when you have a backlog of games to go through. Paying full price for a game that still has Denuvo or other forms of DRM just isn't worth it for me. That said, I'm very sad Fantasian will be released with Denuvo soon after years of languishing in Apple Arcade.

The only video game I play is Team Fortress 2, anywhere from 10 to 20 hours a week. So I guess I'm a patient gamer since my favorite game is over 6,000 days old.

I'm almost 60 hours into factorio's space age expansion that just came out out 10 days ago. However I have over 2500 hours in the base game.

That being said, factorio is notorious for never once having gone on sale.

The only other game I play launch day for is path of exile expansions.

Everything else I buy later on sale.

Oh yeah. I’m still regularly playing Skate 3 and making video clips from it. I mix it up though. I play tons of old console and PC games (Steam Deck), and occasionally get into a headspace where I dive back into retro games. N64, NES, Genesis/Master System, etc.

On the flip side, I’m playing Veilguard right now. I usually don’t buy games on release day, but I make exceptions. The other exception I made was Elden Ring and I have nearly 400 hours into that. No regrets.

I'd say I'm fairly patient. It does depend on the title and how it's handled.

If I heard Tim Cain & Leonard Boyarsky was spearheading a new Fallout, I'd be hard pressed not to buy on release.

If, however, the game is exclusive in anyway, timed or otherwise, it's instantly blacklisted and I refuse to buy it at all. (I have an array of chips on my shoulders, I know)

But other than that specific scenario, I can wait for a good sale, no problem.

It feels like a natural consequence of playing a lot of indie games; there's too many little gems you just don't hear much about on release, or which you end up only learning about because they end up bundled with something else you were being patient about.

Though I'm not even sure how I'd apply this label to traditional roguelikes, given how many are free, and how many more seem to be in a permanent state of development/'early access' (Caves of Qud is hitting 1.0 in a month does break my go-to example there though).

There's definitely an appeal with some of the better AA and 'AAA' games too beyond financial reasons though, given the tendency for bigger studios to launch titles full of bugs these days. (I loved Cyberpunk when I played it a couple of months after release -- was lucky to not experience many bugs at all on PC -- but it's so much easier to widely recommend it since it hit 2.0.

I just bought the F.E.A.R bundle from steam a week ago or so, and beat the first game in the series 20 years after release. And other than a fan made .dll patch, it was great. Lacked some depth more modern titles have, but I also noticed how much effort was put into some details that were surprising for its age.

Very much so (and there's at least one patient gamers community around, because I've posted to one).

The only advantage I can see to playing a game on release is taking part in that first rush of interest, but I'm antisocial enough that that doesn't appeal to me anyway, so I'm not missing anything there.

Beyond that, I think playing a game at least a year or so after release has all of the advantages. The initial flurry of absolute love vs. absolute hate has died down so it's easier to get a broad view of the quality, the game is more stable, the price is better, dlc and expansions are out and generally packaged with the game, and best of all, in this current era, I can most likely buy it from GOG and actually have the full game, DRM-free, on my system.

And there are a bajillion good games out there, just waiting for me to discover them.

I'd say, I'm primarily a very low volume gamer, so I don't play a lot of games, and if I do, I don't play them for long. And that certainly makes it easy to look at the news of a game releasing and to think, yeah, that's probably neat, but if I'm buying another game then it'd be Undertale or Baba Is You or such, and it definitely doesn't look as neat as those...

I think it's fair to say I'm more patient than I was. Having kids has slowed me down on playing games constantly, but I've also drifted towards more indie games and away from big tentpole $60-$70 releases. Some games will be a day one purchase based on enjoying their past work(s), like Tactical Breach Wizards and Steamworld Heist 2, and the cost barrier ends up lower. The last time I went for the big AAA game on or close to launch was Hogwarts Legacy, and that was mostly for the wife since she loves all things Harry Potter.

With the sheer amount of games being released and being able to find just about anything you could want, there's not really a need to be in on the hotness. There are plenty of games to enjoy while those other ones get cheaper and cheaper. The launch day excitement/rush of discovery is always nice though and I do wish there was some kind of a "book club but for games" where a group could go in and have a fresh experience with a game that's already released.

yes, for the most part. unless im REALLY interested in a game, i generally wait till i find it on 50%+ sale. the last game i bought on full price was hi-fi rush, and the last one before that would have been dmc5, if the rx580 i bought at the time didnt already have a code included