I'm kind of in a different boat with this. I'm paying for quality, not quantity. Especially since I don't have as much free time as I did 20 years ago.

So if I can play through a phenomenal story within a couple months over a 20 hour game (which usually takes me 30 hours) at the height of the hype when people are still talking about it, I love it. Give me efficient storytelling.

In fact, if it's something longer, it kind makes me rethink it whether I want to pay full price. Why rush?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I am the same. Game could take 60 hours to complete, and 50 of them are dogshit. Then it’s not a fun game. It’s all about the overall quality of the entire experience.

I would gladly pay $100 for Subnautica 2 if they could pull off another amazing adventure. Would do the same for another Larian studio game.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

While I agree with the mind set, I don't feel the industry is set up to allow consumers to make such informed decisions.

We have review embargos (hey just don't preorder bro), paid for reviews, blatant lies or mis representation in ads. Demos are few and far in-between. It's hard to want to pay for more than 60 these days given the constant anti consumer practices that happen in the gaming industry. Why would I pay you more when you clearly don't respect your customers (most publishers)

I'm at the point where I don't buy a game until it is on sale and has a ton of reviews. I have such a huge backlog, it doesn't bother me to not play the latest thing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

I do the same, follow my patient gamer philosophy.

Until that time I can play guitar and likely have more fun repeatedly failing to learn a new rift. It’s sad that sucking at a guitar is more fun than most modern games.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

I don't think there's ever been more game demos than there are right now, even going back to the PC shareware era. I can't even keep up with all of them on Next Fest these days, much less play any significant number of them.

Also, if your desired game is on GOG, they have a friendly return policy. That hasn't been a thing since the compact disc era started, so it's nice to have again.

We still have options.