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Nuvendil on 24 April 2015
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ReimTime said:
Nuvendil said:
The issue isn't the preorder system itself but how it is treated. Preorders should be treated as votes of confidence of the absolute highest degree, nearly on the level of KS backing. It should be based on past experience with the company whose product you are preordering, their consistency, what information is available, etc etc. All information should be considered thuroughly, especially the track record portion, before a preorder is made. And if you get burnt by a preorder, that should have a heavy, heavy impact on whether or not you preorder from that company next time. The issue is that while some may do this, most take the path of "that trailer looked cool! I'll preorder!" without taking the time to realize that ANY GAME can look cool in a trailer, especially with the heavy CG abuse going on in the industry right now. And it's these types of preorders - the ones driven by over-hype culture - that are starting to decline, because such preorders are quite common with the big annual or semi-annual blockbusters.

 

Yes, agree, if a pre-order is to be made those steps should be taken. If I may pick your brain for a moment:

What do you believe the incentive is to pre-order in the first place? So far I've had the answer of bonuses and guaranteed day 1 arrival, which are valid points to a degree but I do not agree with.

It's going to varry from person to person.  Some want the preorder bonuses.  Others just want it day 1.  With Steam, for example, preordering means you can play immediately at the launch moment if you let it pre-load.  Other times it's brand loyalty, which is fine to a degree so long as the above steps are taken since you want to promote companies with good merrits.  But I think the guaranteed day 1 is still a major aspect of it.  It's a convenience thing, even moreso if you only buy from brick and mortar stores since those actually can run out of stock at times. 

On a side note, I preorder very rarely both for financial reasons and because not many companies, imo, meet a standard where I can be totally confident.  One time I did preoder was with Total War: Rome II.  In my experience, Creative Assembly had been pretty consistent, Empire not withstanding (which I still enjoyed) and had just come off Shogun 2.  All information on the game looked good, etc.  Suffice it to say that I got burned.  In situations like that, imo there's only one legitimate response:  don't preorder from them again until they have established a pattern of quality and consistency and transperency in pre-release promotion.  Which is exactly what I am doing.