This is a little late to post, but I want to hear everyone’s opinions on this.
So Jess, AJ, and Shae talked about DLC, preorders, and Kickstarters for quite a while on episode 5 of the Grouvcast. Shae and AJ are very much against preorders and Kickstarters and would rather wait until a game is released with good reviews before purchasing. Jess believes in backing games and developers she believes in with Kickstarters, and sometimes preorders.
Where do you guys fall on preordering games and Kickstarting games? What are your thoughts on DLC in general?
DLC is fine when you know it’s something extra the devs wanted to throw in and not something that should’ve been included in the game, but was cut out for the sake of selling it as an “add-on”. The latter tactic is scummy imo.
You’re always taking a bit of a gamble with Kickstarter, but I think it’s great as a last resort for games that would otherwise never see the light of day or for promising games that can’t get recognition or funding elsewhere. I Kickstarted Yooka-Laylee at the $24 mark which guarantees myself a copy upon release. To me, that isn’t just an investment in the game, but also an investment in its makers new studio. They’re all ex-Rare devs so I trust that both this and any future games from them will be good.
Ideally, if every good idea and potentially marketable game could receive the funding it required, we wouldn’t need Kickstarter. But for now, it’s the lesser of 2 evils; the second evil being that these games don’t exist at all.
I stopped pre-ordering games after Assassin’s Creed: Unity. When that was broken, I sent it back to Amazon and cancelled all my pre-orders. There are very few games that I can’t hold off on getting. I have a big enough backlog.
As for DLC, there has not been a game yet that I feel like I want DLC. Shadow of Mordor was my favorite game last year and I did not get any of the DLC. Once I am done with a game, I am done.
I have backed some recent kickstarters. I don’t see it as a pre-order and would not care if I did not get the game. I see it as supporting creators that might not get to do what they want otherwise. I think supporting creators is important. That is why I support several things on Patreon and pay for stuff like Grouvee Gold too.
