Help your fellow man! Be a Gaming Disabler!

Have you ever tried to rent a new game from a brick-and-mortar Blockbuster? If your Big Blue Eyesore is anything like mine, I'll take playing the Gamefly game of deleting everything marked "available now" from my queue and trying to time a return to hit on release day over showing up at a physical store at opening on release day and elbowing aside the horde of sideways-hat-wearing dudebros for one of the two rental copies of [Designated Brand New Popular Game of the Week] any day. And just forget finding anything even slightly niche.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

So you're saying that Mass Effect is crap but Mass Effect 2 is actually good? As the resident dissenter on Mass Effect, I'm not happy about this. I was much happier having written the sequel off on the merits of its predecessor.

Whatever helps the guy out, I guess. Not that the first one didn't have its merits, but it would take a LOT to balance out those godawful Mako segments.

A few months ago I could've just pointed to scanning for minerals as a reason not to play the sequel, but Bioware had to go and patch that. New players should have to suffer like I did, dammit!

hbi2k wrote:

Have you ever tried to rent a new game from a brick-and-mortar Blockbuster?

You still have those? Ours almost all closed.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
hbi2k wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:

Help de-enable me from buying ME2 at some point in the future.

Here's the thing. I'm not about to say ME2 isn't a great game because that would be a lie. But you get so much more out of it if you've played ME1 to introduce yourself to the world and so that you can import a save, and playing through ME1 is a real chore. The story's still good, but the gameplay is just PAINFUL. So unless you have a helluva lot of free time coming up with absolutely nothing to do but power through 20 hours of this crappy game before you can get to the good one, I wouldn't recommend it.

So you're saying that Mass Effect is crap but Mass Effect 2 is actually good? As the resident dissenter on Mass Effect, I'm not happy about this. I was much happier having written the sequel off on the merits of its predecessor.

That's my issue. I actually have played ME1(still have a save on 360) and after DA:O am just done with bioware games. But I'm hearing on older podcasts(back in January) about how good ME2 is.. well my resolve is wavering.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
hbi2k wrote:

Have you ever tried to rent a new game from a brick-and-mortar Blockbuster?

You still have those? Ours almost all closed.

I bought fireworks from one last year. Another is selling Halloween costumes.

AnimeJ wrote:

That's my issue. I actually have played ME1(still have a save on 360) and after DA:O am just done with bioware games. But I'm hearing on older podcasts(back in January) about how good ME2 is.. well my resolve is wavering.

Well if that's the case, if you've waited this long you might as well wait longer. You've already missed the "part of the conversation" period, so there's no reason not to wait until you're 100% over being burned out on Bioware. Play something in another genre for a while and come back to ME2 in six months or a year when the price has halved again (sure, $20 is cheap, but $10 is even cheaper) and you're really hungry for another big long Western RPG instead of just going back to it because you feel like you have to. Or, alternately, wait for the inevitable Ultimate Edition that comes with all the DLC.

Aaron D. wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

I want Darksiders.

Don't go to GameFly since it's on sale for $12.99 right now. They'll probably send you a scratched disc anyway.

Don't get Darksiders. Make a cardboard cut-out of the Lich King and pretend to smash things while listening to Cradle of Filth. Smolder with generic rage and speak with a British accent. Consider your wallet saved!

ClockworkHouse wrote:

You all failed. I bought Darksiders today.

Damnit, too late! Curse my skimming!

AnimeJ - you live close, just borrow mine already. I'm not playing it and won't miss it.

hbi2k wrote:

Have you ever tried to rent a new game from a brick-and-mortar Blockbuster? If your Big Blue Eyesore is anything like mine, I'll take playing the Gamefly game of deleting everything marked "available now" from my queue and trying to time a return to hit on release day over showing up at a physical store at opening on release day and elbowing aside the horde of sideways-hat-wearing dudebros for one of the two rental copies of [Designated Brand New Popular Game of the Week] any day. And just forget finding anything even slightly niche.

If it's niche, I'm probably getting it on PC and will want it for longer than a rental anyway. In-store rentals for me are only for the flavor-of-the-month 6-hour titles. Sort of what you're thinking about using a Red Box for.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
hbi2k wrote:

Have you ever tried to rent a new game from a brick-and-mortar Blockbuster?

You still have those? Ours almost all closed.

Then again, you live in a cultural wasteland.

wordsmythe wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:
hbi2k wrote:

Have you ever tried to rent a new game from a brick-and-mortar Blockbuster?

You still have those? Ours almost all closed.

Then again, you live in a cultural wasteland.

Naw, man! We have, like, art and sh*t!

Quintin_Stone wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:
hbi2k wrote:

Have you ever tried to rent a new game from a brick-and-mortar Blockbuster?

You still have those? Ours almost all closed.

Then again, you live in a cultural wasteland.

Naw, man! We have, like, art and sh*t!

And art of sh*t.

wordsmythe wrote:

Then again, you live in a cultural wasteland.

While this may be true, I'd sort of question any positive correlation between the number of active Blockbusters in a given area and that area's culture. (-:

Swat wrote:
Aaron D. wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

I want Darksiders.

Don't go to GameFly since it's on sale for $12.99 right now. They'll probably send you a scratched disc anyway.

Don't get Darksiders. Make a cardboard cut-out of the Lich King and pretend to smash things while listening to Cradle of Filth. Smolder with generic rage and speak with a British accent. Consider your wallet saved!

Hmm, since AnimeJ can borrow ME2 instead of buying it, am I allowed to say anything nice about the game?

hbi2k wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

Then again, you live in a cultural wasteland.

While this may be true, I'd sort of question any positive correlation between the number of active Blockbusters in a given area and that area's culture. (-:

Critical mass of population allows all sorts of weird things to grow and thrive. But most of them are liberal.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Get outside, get some sun, bone some chicks.

Noble past times.

"Outside"? Never heard of that game.

foil wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

Get outside, get some sun, bone some chicks.

Noble past times.

"Outside"? Never heard of that game.

It's not all that great... I don't recommend it.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
foil wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

Get outside, get some sun, bone some chicks.

Noble past times.

"Outside"? Never heard of that game.

It's not all that great... I don't recommend it.

It is pretty much just a boring brown color palette, and really dumb NPC's.

Grubber788 wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:
foil wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

Get outside, get some sun, bone some chicks.

Noble past times.

"Outside"? Never heard of that game.

It's not all that great... I don't recommend it.

It is pretty much just a boring brown color palette, and really dumb NPC's.

The save system is really broken.

On the gaming front: I have two board games on order (for arrival in the next couple of months). I also have several great, newish PC/Xbox games that remain in an ever growing pile.

I KNOW I won't have the time to play Fable III or Fallout: NV beyond a first 2-3 hour exploration the night I open them.

BUT I MUST HAVE THEM! I MUST! I think I have just enough control to not buy them and instead leave them as wishlist objects ripe for the holiday gifting. But why even ask for them now when I know it's going to take me at least a year to finish Dragon Age and Red Dead Redemption?
To say nothing of getting in a few games of RUSE and Civ V here or there.

What I am asking you for is to disable my lust for the new. Please, won't someone think of the children?

Thanks to Amazon... and now Kmart, I don't buy anything new unless it comes with a $10-20 gift card for my next purchase. And then I just roll the gift card from one purchase to the next. If it doesn't have a gift card deal, then I just don't buy it and wait for a steam sale or amazon price reduction down the line.

See NBA 2k11. The PC version got no gift card on Amazon. Even though it's only $30, I held fast. Seeing MJ and Kobe on tv commercials is trying to sway me. But I will hold for the Steam thanksgiving sale or a black Friday deal or something. Maybe, if I accumulate enough Amazon gift card money to get it free.

There's no reason to pay full price for something new. I still have Fallout 3, Company of Heroes, The Void, STALKER, Monkey Island, and some other stuff in my Steam library just waiting to be played, from sales.

HedgeWizard wrote:

On the gaming front: I have two board games on order (for arrival in the next couple of months). I also have several great, newish PC/Xbox games that remain in an ever growing pile.

I KNOW I won't have the time to play Fable III or Fallout: NV beyond a first 2-3 hour exploration the night I open them.

BUT I MUST HAVE THEM! I MUST! I think I have just enough control to not buy them and instead leave them as wishlist objects ripe for the holiday gifting. But why even ask for them now when I know it's going to take me at least a year to finish Dragon Age and Red Dead Redemption?

How about this: why don't you get them, play your little bit of exploration, and then send them to me for safe-keeping? When your pile is cleared a bit, I'll send them back.

Here's the thing about new games: they turn into old games. And when they do, a few things happen. First and most obviously, they drop in price. Second, bugs get patched. And third, people get perspective on whether they were really any good or whether that was just the hype train talking. If people are still talking about Fable III and Fallout New Vegas in a year when you have time for them, then they'll still be worth your time to play then. And if they're not, then they're probably just flashes in the pan that you can safely skip. I remember when GTA IV came out and everyone was singing its praises to the heavens, and then six months later it was mostly forgotten, and most of my friends who still talked about it at all were heard to say, "Why did we have such a boner for that game? In retrospect, it wasn't that great." (I skipped it.) By way of contrast, it's coming up on six months since Red Dead Redemption came out and people are still gaga over it, which tells me that it's probably worth my time to check out.

Let the world be your beta tester.

hbi2k wrote:

Here's the thing about new games: they turn into old games. And when they do, a few things happen. First and most obviously, they drop in price. Second, bugs get patched. And third, people get perspective on whether they were really any good or whether that was just the hype train talking. If people are still talking about Fable III and Fallout New Vegas in a year when you have time for them, then they'll still be worth your time to play then. And if they're not, then they're probably just flashes in the pan that you can safely skip. I remember when GTA IV came out and everyone was singing its praises to the heavens, and then six months later it was mostly forgotten, and most of my friends who still talked about it at all were heard to say, "Why did we have such a boner for that game? In retrospect, it wasn't that great." (I skipped it.) By way of contrast, it's coming up on six months since Red Dead Redemption came out and people are still gaga over it, which tells me that it's probably worth my time to check out.

Let the world be your beta tester.

Now see? That's some quality disabling right there. You should all take note.

(Or is this all just delayed enabling?)

Irongut wrote:

Time spent on games could be time spent on oogaba.

This explains why I didn't get much into gaming until I got married.

Ok folks help me out here - tell me why I shouldn't use the Cataclysm promo to add WoW to the pile. I know right away that I not going to get around to playing it anytime soon, but it seems like a pretty nice price for an awful lot of content that I'll theoretically enjoy some day.

Do you like games? Then don't play WoW, because people who play WoW don't play games. They play WoW.

hbi2k wrote:

Do you like games? Then don't play MMOs, because people who play MMOs don't play games. They play MMOs.

FTFY.

I have a good friend who plays WoW. He buys brand new PC games and they just sit there in the wrapper for months. He never got around to Hellgate London before the servers closed. Still hasn't opened Spore. Stuff like that.

You are paying the monthly fee and something compels you to play that game above all others. You've paid for it, might as well play it. And everything else gets left in the dust.

I went through some similar things for the 6-8 months I played. But I sold my account and got the hell out of there and never looked back. Suddenly I was free to play all kinds of other PC, console, and portable games. It was glorious.

Stele wrote:
hbi2k wrote:

Do you like games? Then don't play MMOs, because people who play MMOs don't play games. They play MMOs.

FTFY.

You are paying the monthly fee and something compels you to play that game above all others. You've paid for it, might as well play it. And everything else gets left in the dust.

Yeah that's the thing - I'm a tight-fisted b*st*rd by nature, so I'm never gonna plonk down 15$ a month if I don't play - and I won't play because I have no time. But I could pay 20$, get the free month and play it like a RPG. Can this line of thinking be de-enabled?

MMOs are not RPGs. WoW is far easier than it was a few years ago, and it was pretty simple then. It's a social platform with grinding required, which slows your progress, which keeps the sub fees rolling in. But it's not an RPG in the sense of Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights or even the Fallout Series.

avggeek wrote:

Ok folks help me out here - tell me why I shouldn't use the Cataclysm promo to add WoW to the pile. I know right away that I not going to get around to playing it anytime soon, but it seems like a pretty nice price for an awful lot of content that I'll theoretically enjoy some day.

Things get cheaper over time. It's not a nice price for something you'll theoretically enjoy some day, its a terrible price for 0's and 1's that you're not doing anything with. Unless you plan on playing it soon, it's wasted money that's better off doing something different. Buy games when you want to play them, unless they're ridiculously cheap.