Stop. Preordering.
100%. I’m a diehard Bethesda RPG fan, but never ever preorder. I’ll never understand the stupidity in doing this.
I also got hyped and joined the launch day queues when i was a kid. But then we as a community got burned again and again.
Like even the most casual gamer must get pissed off by broken servers.
Honestly I think this is a considerable portion of pre-orders. We didn’t have too much money when I was a kid so having something pre-ordered, knowing that when it comes out I’ll for sure get it, felt really good. Those were the ODST, Battlefront 2 (original) and Oblivion days, though.
Times have changed since, and even to kid me I’m pretty sure how buggy these games tend to be would annoy me.
At the end of the day, it’s a constant battle in my head between “let people enjoy things and do what they want with their own money” and “their spending actively lets companies know it’s ok to do this over and over again, delivering buggy messes that will affect game series I enjoy” lol.
The people that preorder clearly aren’t listening
The people that preorder clearly aren’t listening
Or they are listening and just don’t care.
Like at least find out if the planets are any good first and not just 2000 procedurally generated flavors of bear asses to collect.
Hopefully there’s a whole RPG game in there and those are just side stuff to muck around and get some loot.
I feel like mods would liven those planets up, but even then, I’m still expecting starfield to be very buggy.
The only thing they showed as a quest there was collecting bear asses from generic dialog with a scientist (but possibly there’s more to it) so that’s not a great sign. I can live with bugginess but if the content isn’t compelling why am I playing? if the content is compelling enough I’ll deal with a lot of bugs.
and yeah I think there might be a lot of cool mods around adding content to spawn on these planets if the structure of the game allows it. It would allow modders to create smaller self contained one shots basically without worrying about how it all fits into the rest of the game world.
This is the part that really worried me. They were talking about how the planets are procedurally generated but have the little “environmental narrative” elements that Bethesda is known for. So I thought, okay, maybe they procedurally generated 1000 planets and then populated them by hand with quests, NPCs, etc.
Then they go on to talk about how “your experience on a planet may be different from your friend’s experience on the same planet,” and they show an obviously procedurally generated fetch-quest from a generic NPC. So I’m getting the feeling that anything to do with the main story or the main faction quests is done by hand, but everything else in the game is just going to be procedurally generated nonsense. I could be wrong, but it’s worrying.
I’m expecting (if the game is made like a better Bethesda game) good story, good enough combat, and enough bugs to keep Mortein in business for the next decade alone.
Why are people advising against pre-ordering? Is Bethesda known for not meeting expected release dates?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf5Uj4XIT1Y
Basically, preordering incentivizes companies to release games that are not finished. In general, companies will always maximize revenues while minimizing costs. If they can release a game that didn’t cost them as much to produce (getting massive preorders through good marketing but pinching development and quality) then they absolutely will. look at any AAA released this year
It’s a digital good, there’s no scarcity and a lot of them turn out buggy or just bad.
Why are people buying products that they can’t even have until release day?
IMO it’s generally not a great idea to pre-order anyway because it’s not like they can ever run out, plus you never know what’s going to happen on launch day. The game could be a big mess like Cyberpunk was, or the servers could go down because everyone’s downloading at once so then there’d be no point paying to get it on day 1 anyway.
And on top of that, Bethesda has a bit of a reputation for putting out games that are… let’s say unpolished on release day. I usually find the best approach is to leave it for a day or two, see what people are saying about it online, and then pick it up if you really want to.
IMO it’s generally not a great idea to pre-order anyway because it’s not like they can ever run out
Except the collectors editions, those are physical products and not just bits and bytes. On the Dead space recent one the edition size was defined by how many were preordered, they had a cutoff where they closed the run.
I think one reason is that Bethesda’s previous game’s, Fallout 76’s, release didn’t go very smoothly. Not at all smoothly. Internet Historian has a good video about that: The Fall of 76
That and preordering a digital product that literally can’t run out has no benefits.
You just put down money for something without any idea what you’re getting.Preordering physical copies used to be a thing because shops would run out of them.
It’s literally pointless. You are getting no benefit. You can buy it when it releases.
I feel lucky. The only game I have ever pre-ordered was Battlefield 3 for PS3. Considering it’s EA and Frostbite was relatively new, I really lucked out
People will never learn to not preorder games. I have no hope for humanity at this point.
Queue the “internet people are a vocal minority” saying. Unfortunately, it really is true. How anyone can pre-order after fo76 is absolutely bonkers to me
well. yeah. i know people don’t like to hear it, because it’d be really nice if games shipped actually finished or not incredibly bug-ridden Day 1, but for most people the protest of not preordering a game so it’ll shipped finish just… doesn’t register as a concern. unless the game is so broken it’s actively unplayable (see the recent Gollum game) most people can hang with whatever happens Day 1 and it’s not a super big deal to them, nor is the principle of a playable game on launch. this is a case of online sentiment being a vocal but clear minority.
Yeah but Bethesda?! Release a big ridden game? Unthinkable.
/s
You don’t need the /s we all know you’re being sarcastic.
Its not a protest its common sense.
I dont know the product. I wait for the review embargo to lift. Then i wait for AT LEAST release day to hear if its broken/servers are down (hello diablo 4) or its just shit.
I can still literally buy, download and play it that same day if its amazing.
Yep!!! A game forum is a subsection of a subsection of people who actually play video games on the regular. The biggest groups of “gamers” are people like my cousin who buy the new FIFA, NBA2k and COD that come out every year.
On top of this Bethesda is one of the biggest game companies out there. It’s easy to forget because Skyrim was forever ago, but that game was so fucking huge that people I knew who didn’t care a single lick about video games asked me when “the dragon game” was coming out and if I was gonna get it and if they should get it too. I’m already getting messages from non-gaming friends asking me when starfield is coming out. The game’s gonna be explosive in popularity when it drops.
I hear ya. At the same time, I’m very happy to wait a year or more to buy the game with all DLCs are a discount.
I know that doesn’t change the fact the studios are banking on pre-orders to finish funding the game, but I’m doing my part… As little as it is.
I hear ya. At the same time, I’m very happy to wait a year or more to buy the game with all DLCs are a discount
Exactly my thoughts. It makes no sense to me buying a Bethesda game, knowing there will be DLCs that usually do not go on sale. So you pay full price for everything or are forced to buy that base game twice with a GOTY release.
I am years behind with Bethesda games, but once you are behind, you are not. I always have a good title in my stash to play :-)
Okay but it doesn’t really matter at this point. It’s close to release.
There’s always going to be a new wave of suckers who get caught up in the hype.
Source: I was one of those suckers at one point.
I will be a day 1 pirate. Starrrrfield. 🦜🏴☠️
Lol I recall preordering Cyberpunk 2077
I would never pre order this early, but I don’t see the big deal when you get close to release date. Sometimes you get early access or a few other perks, and there’s really no risk since you can get a refund if the game is totally broken at launch.
They never learn do they ?
My tactic of waiting a year until a newly released game is fully patched and grabbing it with a discount has yet to fail me.
Not like I have the time to play the games I already have anyway!
I’ve just switched over to watching games being played on Twitch. I can enjoy all the latest games, at max settings (minus the 1080p twitch encoding), and divert my attention to other things simultaneously.
(For visibility and sharing)
Let’s not kid ourselves, Bethesda depends on the unofficial patches and mods to really make their games working and shining. A year or two is mandatory for their games. 😅
Nope. And everybody will scream cause they payed 70 bucks for a broken game, just like Bethesda is known to produce.
Just keep looking at the list. Payday 3 is also there. A publisher known for maybe a worse dlc and microtransaction policy than EA with the Sims, but it seems that doesn’t matter a bit.
DON’T PREORDER SHIT YOU STUPID
Well this is sad.
insert here the definition of insanity lol
Every year it’s the same thing with pre orders
especially from a Bethesda game
Rule 1 of Bethesda. Don’t pre order Rule 1 if space games. Don’t pre order
did no one learn from No Man’s Sky at launch like??
Preordering is dumb, preordering in 2023 when it’s 50/50 whether any given PC port is going to be a total mess is dumb
At least they can refund?
Really depends on the platform I suppose. Steam does a good job at that. Xbox or 3rd party key sellers? Not as much.
For sure. Guess I’m saying I can’t fault people too much for preordering on Steam for the preorder bonuses since they can refund if the PC version is horribly optimized or the game is bad. Not my strategy, but I understand it
It’d be bad enough if this were just another AAA over hyped deal.
This is literally Bethesda. What are these people smoking?
People don’t care about Bethesda games being janky and buggy at launch. Its part of their charm honestly.
Such charm when i cant play the game I paid hard earned money for 🥰
They probably don’t care about the issues. Unless it’s Cyberpunk levels of bad, I’ll probably play it on day one
Cyberpunk wasn’t even that bad to be honest, except on last gen consoles and the reviews said as much. (When the reviews came out the day before release day. Nice embargo from CDprojekt.)
I played on PC day one and never had any gamebreaking bugs, just a few hilarious NPC clipping incidents.
It was unplayable on my current gen console.
Gotta be honest, if Cyberpunk “wasn’t that bad” then Bethesda games should be getting praised for how few bugs they have
The console experience was drastically different from the PC experience. On PC it was a decent game from the start, imho, even with the clear design issues.
That said, ridiculous that CDPR or anyone would have shipped it in that state for other systems.
I played on Stadia, which was basically the PC game. I had a few game breaking bugs that required me to revert to old saves. Also, there was an inventory bug that corrupted save files…. Luckily I never had that issue, since I’m not a vault hoarder.
That said, it was generally fun and played well. It needed some patches, but it wasn’t anywhere near the disaster that PS4 / XBone was.
Or the last of us… Or Fallen order… Or any other 2024 game this year?
What do you mean? All 2023 PC games have been great /s
Damn it, what ever happened to no pre-orders. People never learn, do they?
People never agreed to that. It’s not like a lot of these people hang out in communities where we drill this again and again.
Or they just don’t care what niche communities think about pre-ordering and they just play their games and enjoy them?
I’ve preordered because GMG has a 20% off offer that I reckon is unlikely to be beaten before launch and I want to play on launch day, not some months later when there might or might not be a sale. Yeah, I’m impatient with games that vaguely resemble my dream game I’ve been thinking of since the original Elite on my Speccy :) But I’m also prepared for bugs and jank and needing mods to round out the game.
If this gets us another Internet Historian video on the fallout, then this is worth it.
- Pun unintended.
His video was great. Not sure if anyone noticed when they were showcasing the game they were showing console games and cut off right before they fully showed F76 LMAO
I noticed that as well, made me laugh lol
I won’t even consider buying until it’s been out for at least a year or two. By then the major bugs will have been fixed and all the content added.
Why are people preordering a DIGITAL, BETHESDA game?! It’s still the Creation Engine (Creation Engine 2 so hopefully they fixed it!) so it’s probably gonna be a buggy mess at release.
$70 for a Bethesda game that will come out broken is just insane to me. I’ll pick it up a year or so after release at a discount when the game is actually decent
IDK about a year for me personally, as when it doesn’t massively disappoint when it comes out I will likely get it as soon as I have anything resembling a free day. Nothing like cracking into a new game after you know it won’t disappoint and you have post of time to loose yourself.
Nah Bethesda games are best left alone until the modders get a solid crack at it to shore up bugs and add features that probably should’ve been in the base game. Give that shit at least half a year imo
undefined> esda games are best left alone until the modders get a solid crack at it to shore up bugs and add features that probably should’ve been in the base game. Give that shit at least half a year imo
I definitely love the mods that the community makes for Bethesda games, but I have also enjoyed many of their games without them… I will often do a vanilla play through prior to doing any mods.
I played Oblivion and Skyrim right at release and had a good time with both (more with Oblivion though).
I played Gothic 1, 2 and 3 though, so I am used to games with really ugly bugs. The ones where your saved stage can get corrupted in a way that you have to load one from several hours back to correct a mistake to be able to proceed. So my threshold might be higher.
Gothic 3 was so broken it was impossible to get it to even run on my PC.
It took me 8 years but I finally got a refund when the Australian Consumer Commission won against Valve over their anti-consumer practices.
Same thing I do with Far Cry games
Wait until it’s on a deep discount, then pick it up and hopefully enjoy it.
FC6, despite some of its flaws, was definitely worth the $10 I paid for it.
i will say, one of my favorite parts about bethesda games is that basically everybody agrees going in that this game is not gonna be anywhere close to done. we’re all gonna see a fuckton of bugs and it’ll be the subject of ridicule for years. but, still, we will all unflinchingly call it one of the best games ever.
Because it will be. For as much shit as Bethesda receives from “gamers”, there is literally no game that scratches the itch the same way Elder Scrolls and Fallout does. No one even comes close.
Unfortunately true. I’ve been waiting for a game like starfield for decades now, i’ve been hyped and disappointed by star citizen, elite dangerous, dual universe, NMS and probably many other smaller games, trying to chase down that freelancer spark once more. I won’t buy it at full price for sure, but at this point I’m desperate enough to give even Todd a new chance. I really want it to be at least adequate.
It’s honestly so weird to me how the narrative has changed. IDK why people are so angry about them all the time. Gamers are fueled by rage now.
And this also looks like it will actually delivery what star citizen promised for the single player side, it hard not to feel excited. But still no preorder please.
I have a strong feeling that Starfield is gonna be a shit game, to be honest. I’ve just got a vibe that it’ll be a shitty boring open world anthem/Ubisoft game