Let me preface this by saying, yes, I fully understand the reason why publishers tend to have this drip-feed mentality. It keeps players coming back, it entices those who don't own the game to pick it up because a neat new feature was added. It helps put the game back in the headlines slightly after launch. I get it, I do.
But that doesn't keep me from feeling like it's pointless to play games when they do come out.
I'm the kind of person who agonizes over spending a single dollar. I'll mull over and debate a purchase incessantly, until deciding to finally commit, only to see the total I expected, but with tax added onto it, sending me into a spiral of internalized suffering. It could be the matter of a few pennies, and I'll still balk, mentally, before reluctantly handing over my card and dealing with the emotional toll of spending just a tiny bit more than expected.
Dramatic, I know.
But personal quirks aside, I try to make sure that every time I buy something, I'll truly enjoy it. That includes video games. And yet, it's come to a point where I'm starting to hate buying or even just ahem, playing games on launch. And that's not because of the typical disappointment from an overhyped E3 trailer, or overzealous promises from a developer. It's because of the post-launch content that slowly gets added, weeks, maybe even months after the fact.
Take for example, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. The second that game launched, I was booting it up. A DBZ RPG? Heck yeah, exactly what I've been waiting for. I played the game for an excessive amount of time, genuinely excited about every little detail. Within the month, I'd completed it entirely, start to finish. There was nothing left to do. And then, there was the announcement of DLC, oh but not just DLC, either, free updates that would add little things into the game, making things funner for the players. Players who hadn't beaten the game yet. Joy.
Or there's Animal Crossing New Horizons. A game that launched, with the expectation of it to be the full experience, yet new features keep spilling out every few months. And that's great! The game seriously needed some of these additions--it makes it better for everyone, and given that it felt a little lacking compared to some of its predecessors, it's almost vindicating to know Nintendo knows that fact, too, and wants to fix it. But when I think about returning to the game after putting in all the time I did back when it released, the thought seems tiring. I did everything I wanted to, and now I'm pressured by some weird online time-clock restrictions to do these new things now, or else I won't be able to later? I can't be free to enjoy it on my own terms. So the game sits untouched.
And what about Persona 5 Royal? It's been three years since Persona 5, and even so, I still feel burnt out by the game. There's so many mixed feelings about wanting to see the new content, but also the reluctance because it means another 100 hours of dedication, slogging through things I've already played before, just to see small glimpses of things I might not even enjoy. I'll need a few more years to really want to go back to it. Heck, maybe there'll be a PC version by then...
Even Sekiro is getting updates, and the game is more than a year old, now.
Thinking about it, my way of thinking is a bit petty. I mean, in a lot of these cases, I fully enjoyed my time with the game, I had fun, and the experience lived up to my expectations. That's what matters. But when I think about things that were added post-launch, I can't help but feel cheated. A lot of the time, some really neat features will be patched into a game as I mentioned above, and I'll look back and think, dang, I wish I could have gotten to enjoy that. I could, of course, go back to the game and replay it, although that's a lot of investment. But if I'd waited, ended up playing it next year or so, maybe even when some sort of definitive edition came out, then I could have had the exact same experience, but better in every way.
There are cases where I do like the post-launch content, though. Online games or games that you can easily jump in and out of are best suited to this structure. I look at the new updates that The Division 2 receives and I get excited, and every time I see something new in Rocket League, I want to get back into it, and see what's changed.
Really, this was just an outlet for me to express my feeling warier and warier of buying anything on launch that isn't an online game, and that's a bad mentality to have--there are so many games and companies I want to support, but there's also the question of it even being worth it for me, as the player, wanting to get the best gaming experience possible.
But that doesn't keep me from feeling like it's pointless to play games when they do come out.
I'm the kind of person who agonizes over spending a single dollar. I'll mull over and debate a purchase incessantly, until deciding to finally commit, only to see the total I expected, but with tax added onto it, sending me into a spiral of internalized suffering. It could be the matter of a few pennies, and I'll still balk, mentally, before reluctantly handing over my card and dealing with the emotional toll of spending just a tiny bit more than expected.
Dramatic, I know.
But personal quirks aside, I try to make sure that every time I buy something, I'll truly enjoy it. That includes video games. And yet, it's come to a point where I'm starting to hate buying or even just ahem, playing games on launch. And that's not because of the typical disappointment from an overhyped E3 trailer, or overzealous promises from a developer. It's because of the post-launch content that slowly gets added, weeks, maybe even months after the fact.
Take for example, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. The second that game launched, I was booting it up. A DBZ RPG? Heck yeah, exactly what I've been waiting for. I played the game for an excessive amount of time, genuinely excited about every little detail. Within the month, I'd completed it entirely, start to finish. There was nothing left to do. And then, there was the announcement of DLC, oh but not just DLC, either, free updates that would add little things into the game, making things funner for the players. Players who hadn't beaten the game yet. Joy.
Or there's Animal Crossing New Horizons. A game that launched, with the expectation of it to be the full experience, yet new features keep spilling out every few months. And that's great! The game seriously needed some of these additions--it makes it better for everyone, and given that it felt a little lacking compared to some of its predecessors, it's almost vindicating to know Nintendo knows that fact, too, and wants to fix it. But when I think about returning to the game after putting in all the time I did back when it released, the thought seems tiring. I did everything I wanted to, and now I'm pressured by some weird online time-clock restrictions to do these new things now, or else I won't be able to later? I can't be free to enjoy it on my own terms. So the game sits untouched.
And what about Persona 5 Royal? It's been three years since Persona 5, and even so, I still feel burnt out by the game. There's so many mixed feelings about wanting to see the new content, but also the reluctance because it means another 100 hours of dedication, slogging through things I've already played before, just to see small glimpses of things I might not even enjoy. I'll need a few more years to really want to go back to it. Heck, maybe there'll be a PC version by then...
Even Sekiro is getting updates, and the game is more than a year old, now.
Thinking about it, my way of thinking is a bit petty. I mean, in a lot of these cases, I fully enjoyed my time with the game, I had fun, and the experience lived up to my expectations. That's what matters. But when I think about things that were added post-launch, I can't help but feel cheated. A lot of the time, some really neat features will be patched into a game as I mentioned above, and I'll look back and think, dang, I wish I could have gotten to enjoy that. I could, of course, go back to the game and replay it, although that's a lot of investment. But if I'd waited, ended up playing it next year or so, maybe even when some sort of definitive edition came out, then I could have had the exact same experience, but better in every way.
There are cases where I do like the post-launch content, though. Online games or games that you can easily jump in and out of are best suited to this structure. I look at the new updates that The Division 2 receives and I get excited, and every time I see something new in Rocket League, I want to get back into it, and see what's changed.
Really, this was just an outlet for me to express my feeling warier and warier of buying anything on launch that isn't an online game, and that's a bad mentality to have--there are so many games and companies I want to support, but there's also the question of it even being worth it for me, as the player, wanting to get the best gaming experience possible.
