Please don`t pre-order.

Socratatus

Socratatus

Emperor
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Jul 26, 2007
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I don`t say this to take a dig at Firaxis, not at all. But preordering any PC game is a bad idea:

1. We don`t truly know what we`re getting till we get it.
2. It encourages bad practises.
3. The `incentives` are just bait trinkets to hook you. It`s not worth it.
4. You`ll still get the game if you don`t pre-order.
5. It only suits the Publisher, NOT the customer\player.
6. It encourages bad official reviews (do not trust them).
7. It`s a psychological trick being played on you. You feel as if you have something when in reality, you have nothing, just what you think in your mind, which is always better.


Just wait until release and see what customer reviews\utube reviews say. Then pay up if you`re happy with what you hear\read. patience, padawans. :)
 
But I like trinkets!
 
I would agree. Pre-ordering is a marketing gimmick. It is a way for the publisher to be guaranteed a certain number of sales before they even sale the product.
 
It finances the game in the final months of production to help ensure they can fully staff Q&A, thus helping to ensure a more stable game upon release. Games are massively expensive and done on speculation with the hope that people buy them. Yes, they are requiring you to do the same thing and speculate that it will be good when released if you preorder, but the amount of risk you take is nowhere near the amount of risk they take. But the economics of it are reasonable. No one wants a game to run out of money a month and a half before release because that'll lead to an inferior product and take more time to get it fixed.

Granted, I generally don't pre-order. I can't think of the last game I did. At a minimum, I'm never confident it'll run on my computer. But I'm not going to go out of my way to discourage those who are less risk averse because I recognize that the practice is one that is necessary in this industry and the only other alternative is releasing a half-finished game and finishing it with a skeleton staff releasing patches over a period of months (which, in a way, is essentially pre-ordering but letting you play the half-version until it is fixed).
 
This game taught me not to preorder
total-war-rome-2-walkthrough.jpg
 
I really rarely preorder. The last time I did, I did for XCOM, after playing its beta and never regretted it.

If CBE will have demo (or at least very detailed playthrough videos), I will consider preordering too. Generally I trust Firaxis enough.
 
Yeah, I very rarely pre-order and never for silly goodies. For me, pre-ordering is more: "Hey guys, I like what you're doing, I trust you, here's sign of my trust."

Firaxis is, at the moment, the only company where I'd do it (BioWare used to be on that list, but DA2 blew it).

It's part of "vote with your wallet" - it goes both ways and it's the closest thing I can do to "tip" Firaxis for over a decade of enjoyable games.
 
Socratatus said:
I don`t say this to take a dig at Firaxis, not at all. But preordering any PC game is a bad idea:

Just wait until release and see what customer reviews\utube reviews say. Then pay up if you`re happy with what you hear\read. patience, padawans. :)
Click to expand...

Word. The last time I pre-ordered something was Spore, this based on the hype and marketing build-up preceding the release (including the Creature Builder demo). That game lasted all of one week on my machine. :shake:

I personally will probably be buying it when it first comes out, simply because I love planetary 4X TBS games. However for those that have any doubts whatsoever whether this game is for them, then I'd advise holding out that extra week after release and see what the greater Civ community has to say about the game: I consider the community to be the best portender of a game, and it also allows you the potential buyer to interactively communicate with those already owning the game (i.e. if you have specific questions about the game, you'll get answers to them from the community). No sense in going out and blowing $50 on a game that you end up not liking.

Socratatus said:
3. The `incentives` are just bait trinkets to hook you. It`s not worth it.
Click to expand...


So what are the "trinkets" you get with the pre-order?

D
 
I will pre-order a few weeks before release if I like what I've seen thus far. That way I get the 'trinkets' when I was going to buy the game anyway.

Collector's Editions are a bit different, of course.
 
Yeah...after Tropico 5 ("Trololol! You don't have a top-notch graphics card! You can't play it! HAHAA!") there's no way I'm going to pre-order anything again. Definitely will get this sooner or later, but probably when it goes on sale and/or once the major bugs in the original release (because you know there will be) have been ironed out.
 
Hmm, I think pre-ordering encourages developers to play safe with game designs, even more than they would anyway.

I'm as human as the next person, and I know that even when I say "I want radical new games" I kind of do but also secretly I want "the same games with tiny twists" :lol: I would rather the developers stretched me a bit - I don't want to give them more encouragement to pander to my unadventurous side!

Pre-ordering is like admitting defeat to your inner coward. You may as well just say, yeah just feed me the same old stuff till kingdom come. I never want a new experience ever again...
 
Hope they release a demo like they have in the past, so I can make sure it runs off my setup.
 
I think pre-ordering is entirely valid given there's a pre-order bonus (the 'Exoplanets' map pack), and presumably you'll be able to pre-load the game. But only if you're certain you're going to be buying the game at full price anyway. And even then, pre-ordering this early is hardly necessary; you can wait for reviews in the week prior to release.
Louis XXIV said:
It finances the game in the final months of production to help ensure they can fully staff Q&A, thus helping to ensure a more stable game upon release. Games are massively expensive and done on speculation with the hope that people buy them. Yes, they are requiring you to do the same thing and speculate that it will be good when released if you preorder, but the amount of risk you take is nowhere near the amount of risk they take. But the economics of it are reasonable. No one wants a game to run out of money a month and a half before release because that'll lead to an inferior product and take more time to get it fixed.
Click to expand...

This might be true of smaller developers, but I highly doubt this is a realistic consideration for a 2K title.
 
I'll be preordering the game once the option's available on Steam. Firaxis has yet to disappoint me, so it's a sign of trust on my part.

Plus, the exoplanet pack and preloading in particular will be nice. They might sweeten the deal further as we get closer to release, too.
 
Camikaze said:
This might be true of smaller developers, but I highly doubt this is a realistic consideration for a 2K title.
Click to expand...

Maybe, maybe not. But I still remember the massive layoffs at Firaxis a month or two before Civ5's release. Small developers are turning to things like Steam Early Access. It's the large companies that rely heavily on preorders. But that makes sense because their games are so much more expensive. And no matter what, I'm skeptical that they have as much capital in reserve as you may think. Too many publishers have gone out of business for that.
 
Yeah trust is the key word.

I vaguely recall a Penny Arcade comic of the familiar scenario where someone rants about EA being evil, then still purchases the next EA game anyway.

I think in many cases if you just take a step back, remove any layer of hype you may have picked up along the way, a lot of the big name companies are predictable in what they do. In the case of BE I'm sure it will be more of the same. Fans of Civ 5 will eventually get a comparable experience (likely rough on release, but Firaxis is good about sticking around and polishing the game). Haters of Civ 5 will likely have many of the same gripes (1UPT, etc.).
 
I was in the process of pre-ordering mine until I saw your thread. Thanks for the save. Seriously though, I had no intention of paying anything more than 50% of the sale price. I might wait until it's even less. There is absolutely no reason to pay so much for an expansion.
 
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