There’s no magazine on any instance that I see of such a community on the topic matter. To anyone not familiar, a patient gamer is someone who is immune to FOMO, doesn’t get caught up or tied up with current modern gaming. Someone who doesn’t care that they’ve beaten a game from 1996 and here it is 2024. Someone who doesn’t care that they’re still playing games 40, 20 or even 5 years ago on the present day.
I would personally say that I am. I don’t have a level of disposable income where I’m throwing down on buying games. I’ve spent 10 years between 2011 and 2021 wheeling and dealing on game sales. So much that I’ve piled on over 1,000+ games combined between GOG, Steam, Battle.net and Epic Games.
I do more often than not, play games from so long ago than I do modern games. I’m at a stage in my life where I am noticeably slowing down on gaming in general, I am also finding myself more comforted in what I play and I again can’t simply just keep buying newer games. I also don’t really care about buying newer games, the time of the present is rich with game sales all day, everyday.
There will always be a time later to buy a game that is ripened for a good sale. So I don’t have to worry at all.
I see 4
One of those is dead.
One is blocked by OP’s instance.
One is hosted on an instance that more than a few people avoid.
One is nearly empty, but maybe worth joining and starting some discussion? !patientgamers@lemmy.world
Lemmy.world is blocked by beehaw as well…
Ah, so it is. I wonder when that happened. I guess .world might have outgrown beehaw’s ability to make up for spotty moderation.
The SJW one is fine, further centralization on LW is probably not desirable
how can you tell one is blocked by an instance?
I know by having seen it discussed in one or two beehaw communities, but you can look it up here:
It’s a damn shame because I really like beehaw, it feels nice and cozy but they block too many instances. If it wasn’t for that I’d use it as my main. I hope they don’t block sdf. I like being able to comment and see post from beehaw
I’m pretty sure they don’t block sdf. That’s where I am, and I’ve had several interactions with Beehaw folks while here. :)
Fun fact: Beehaw and sdf are among the few well-known instances that don’t hand their users’ traffic (all their activity on Lemmy) over to Cloudflare.
Yeah they don’t. I’m just saying I hope they don’t in the future.
I did not know that. The more I learn about sdf the more I love it.
deleted by creator
While I admire the ideas behind patient gamers and think it probably works out really well for some people, I personally also enjoy participating in the zeitgeist from time to time. Playing Elden Ring on launch was fantastic - you really felt like you were exploring the world alongside everyone else as you’re finding Ashes and weapons that don’t even have wiki entries yet.
The thing is you don’t actually have to look at wiki entries or any media surrounding game hype really. I have virtually no spoilers on Elden ring and I still haven’t played it.
Yeah but it’s not really the same thing years later when most people are long finished with the game. Was the same with playing BG3 around release last year, participating in conversations with friends and strangers alike about discoveries in the game as it’s happening and everyone is talking about it and playing it at the same time. I’m sure similar things happened this year with Black Myth Wukong and Silent Hill 2 Remake to some extent, though I didn’t play those.
It’s not about spoilers so much as participating in the buzz and culture and community that only really occurs around release.
@Coelacanth @ndondo yeah the games are lower priced later because their value actually does decrease. I find myself simply never playing or purchasing games that I was going to wait for a price drop on. It’s kind of like watching a championship game from years ago. Even if you personally don’t know the outcome something is lost from not being in the right moment for it. This varies more with games but I think people undersell it.
I see your perspective. I think the difference with me is that I don’t value the cultural moment very much and more so care if the game is good aside from hype. The main exception being multiplayer games. Those mostly are active when they’re new.
I haven’t played Balder’s Gate 3 yet, so I’d say I’m patient.
Same! Waiting for it not to cost 80$ Canadian… If it goes on sale for half, I’ll buy it I guess
BG3 is self-published by Larian. Which sadly means you’re unlikely to see a 50% discount or above.
Well, at least not anytime in the near future.
It was 10% off at one point. So maybe 20% isn’t out of the question.
Well, at least not anytime in the near future.
I think you underestimate how patient some of us can be… 😉
Not at all. And more power to you for that.
I’m just saying it’s gonna be a while yet. 😉
Baldur’s Gate 3 is still a bit of a recent game, even if it’s a year old. Normally games like it, take about 3 - 5 years before we start seeing drastic sales.
Now games that are over 10 years old and still being 10% off? Fuck out of here with that.
I don’t know what your point is, but yes, BG3 is still a recent game.
Therefor it’s unlikely we’ll see a higher discount anytime soon.
Maybe more significantly, it’s a recent game with rave reviews that’s still making Larian money without the use of mtx and/or dlc.
Aside, kinda expecting a lot of garbage D&D games since the endlessly greedy Hasbro has seen how much money it can make them. Doubt they’ll do anything other than miss the forest for the trees in their execution of that, though.
Guess I’ll really have to work for being patient… Or I’ll just break down and buy it anyway at some point.
Meh, of all the games… BG3 shouldn’t make you feel bad for buying. It’s one of the few games in recent memory that is worth the money in full, imo.
Witcher 3 was also self published, and it came down to 70% off after a few years.
Which is an anomaly, not a rule.
But yes, we got lucky with The Witcher.
It’s actually 20% off right now and until the 11/11-24.
I finished it 3 times, so I’d say I’m pretty patient.
Dang, you are patient!
Yes and no. Some games you just cannot be patient about, as part of the whole selling point is the community in the moment. For example, the way in which hype went for Helldivers 2 pretty much necessitated that if you weren’t part of the community in the first 3 months then you missed out on a lot of “storytelling”.
This would go for most multiplayer games. Single player games though have a lot more freedom to be late to the game, so to speak ;)
Otherwise, for me personally it usually just comes down to the IP. Monster Hunter is my go-to, so it’s sort of a no-brainer for me to go for the new game as they come out barring any major issues or personal life events, I get them. I did buy Cyberpunk on release, however that was more because I wanted to see what my new 3080 could do and I was looking for a solid single player game, and I didn’t encounter nearly as many problems as other players did. But, I haven’t gotten the DLC for it because I haven’t been looking for that kind of game again yet.
Being ready for the game is another aspect I take into consideration, Dragon’s Dogma 2 was something I was pretty highly anticipating, but after hearing about the release issues and remembering what DD:DA was like to replay, I realized that I wasn’t ready for it again at release. However now it’s on sale and I’ve been out of gaming for a few months outside of small old games on my Steam Deck once in a while. I picked it up and I’ve been enjoying it.
So I think patient gaming really comes down to having the understanding of the social aspect the game is trying to sell - sometimes it’s marketing (2077) and sometimes it’s the nature of a game that’s fun to play with other people. Getting games like Phasmaphobia, Dale & Dawsons, they aren’t really going to be that fun if you’re multiple years late to the game. Similarly, if your friend just finds out about the game late, it’s just a smaller niche, being your friend group instead of random people in public lobbies, at which point you can expect to play that game a handful of times before your group drops it forever, lol.
There’s also the kind of games where you can’t wait, with the online-only ones, once the servers shut down, it’s bye-bye forever.
Yes and no. It depends on the games. Usually I wait for discounts now though. I don’t have time to play every game anyways so it saves me money to wait. Even during sales, I’ll stop and ask myself if I’ll play it soon. If I don’t think I will, I usually just wait
The only video game I play is Team Fortress 2, anywhere from 10 to 20 hours a week. So I guess I’m a patient gamer since my favorite game is over 6,000 days old.
I’m almost 60 hours into factorio’s space age expansion that just came out out 10 days ago. However I have over 2500 hours in the base game.
That being said, factorio is notorious for never once having gone on sale.
The only other game I play launch day for is path of exile expansions.
Everything else I buy later on sale.
Factorio goes up in price over time, so now is always the best time to buy Factorio.
Been meaning to check out the expansion, good?
Quite good. Sans any real spoilers:
Space is a lot more accessible in the early game, and in space ~~no one can hear you scream ~~ there’s a lot more complications than normal, including really turning factory planning and scaling on its head on one planet.
Really mixed it up, much more than the SE mod did (which was good, but just felt like scaling more than unique challenges)
Awesome, I was sure they wouldn’t disappoint.
It’s that pricing model which has consistently kept me away. Lots of people like it, and it’s supposed to be really fun, but it’s not the only fun factory builder out there.
I’d rather get a good deal, and I’ve never (re)played a solo game for anywhere close to the thousands of hours some people have played Factorio. I might be missing out, but I can buy an entire bundle of games for that price and still have money leftover.
Mood.
I’m not going to pay $45 for any game. If I’d known about the “never on sale, price only goes up” model they were using, I might have bought it back when it was $20, but I’ll just never play it now and I’m okay with that. There are literally hundreds of amazing games I already own to play, and if I had 100+ hours to sink into a game like this (I don’t, post-kiddos—for now, anyway), then I’d strike the earth for some Dwarf Fortress !!!FUN!!!, which I know I’ll enjoy.
Or maybe finally get around to beating Baldur’s Gate 1… (I never made it past the early game… BG3 I’ll get to in the 2040s at this rate, ha ha!)
Aside from people who just want to play football/CoD/D4/whatever multilayer game, I don’t understand why anyone pays full price for games. I’m glad they do, mind, since they’re subsidizing the development costs mean games get made, and I get amazing games for cheap.
As a recent example, I nabbed MH Rise for cheap recently, and bounced off it. I might try again later, but it didn’t grab me. So glad I didn’t pay more than $15 CAD for it!
I played MH World a bunch, but I couldn’t get into Rise, either. A bit too cartoonish, and not just graphically.
In any case, I have a backlog of hundreds of games from bundles and freebies (including the Mass Effect trilogy, which I’ve not yet played), so it’s not like I’ll be having less fun by skipping Factorio. We all have limited time, and we’ll all miss out on some gems.
And if the dev wants to gate the game by constantly raising the price, he’ll lose out on players like me. His choice, but he’s leaving money on the table, and the rest of the games are picking it up.
It’s not a $60 or $70 game, but certainly is better than most of the AAA offerings of late. Maybe think of it like it’s a full priced game that’s always on sale? You do you though. I thought it was well worth the asking price.
And that’s what some people have said. I’ll play the demo tonight, but even for lots of fun, I can think of other ways to spend $35, as that’s a large sum for me.
But who knows? Maybe it will knock my socks off.
I always rate my games on price per hour played, rather than just total cost.
Factorio is one of my cheapest games ever.
Yep, that’s a good way to view games. I do that as well.
If you enjoyed the base game, you’ll like the expansion. It’s a lot more content with tons of new things to deal with and optimize.
I’d say I’m fairly patient. It does depend on the title and how it’s handled.
If I heard Tim Cain & Leonard Boyarsky was spearheading a new Fallout, I’d be hard pressed not to buy on release.
If, however, the game is exclusive in anyway, timed or otherwise, it’s instantly blacklisted and I refuse to buy it at all. (I have an array of chips on my shoulders, I know)
But other than that specific scenario, I can wait for a good sale, no problem.
It’s easy to be patient when you have a backlog of games to go through. Paying full price for a game that still has Denuvo or other forms of DRM just isn’t worth it for me. That said, I’m very sad Fantasian will be released with Denuvo soon after years of languishing in Apple Arcade.
Oh yeah. I’m still regularly playing Skate 3 and making video clips from it. I mix it up though. I play tons of old console and PC games (Steam Deck), and occasionally get into a headspace where I dive back into retro games. N64, NES, Genesis/Master System, etc.
On the flip side, I’m playing Veilguard right now. I usually don’t buy games on release day, but I make exceptions. The other exception I made was Elden Ring and I have nearly 400 hours into that. No regrets.
I just bought the F.E.A.R bundle from steam a week ago or so, and beat the first game in the series 20 years after release. And other than a fan made .dll patch, it was great. Lacked some depth more modern titles have, but I also noticed how much effort was put into some details that were surprising for its age.
It feels like a natural consequence of playing a lot of indie games; there’s too many little gems you just don’t hear much about on release, or which you end up only learning about because they end up bundled with something else you were being patient about.
Though I’m not even sure how I’d apply this label to traditional roguelikes, given how many are free, and how many more seem to be in a permanent state of development/‘early access’ (Caves of Qud is hitting 1.0 in a month does break my go-to example there though).
There’s definitely an appeal with some of the better AA and ‘AAA’ games too beyond financial reasons though, given the tendency for bigger studios to launch titles full of bugs these days. (I loved Cyberpunk when I played it a couple of months after release – was lucky to not experience many bugs at all on PC – but it’s so much easier to widely recommend it since it hit 2.0.
I think it’s fair to say I’m more patient than I was. Having kids has slowed me down on playing games constantly, but I’ve also drifted towards more indie games and away from big tentpole $60-$70 releases. Some games will be a day one purchase based on enjoying their past work(s), like Tactical Breach Wizards and Steamworld Heist 2, and the cost barrier ends up lower. The last time I went for the big AAA game on or close to launch was Hogwarts Legacy, and that was mostly for the wife since she loves all things Harry Potter.
With the sheer amount of games being released and being able to find just about anything you could want, there’s not really a need to be in on the hotness. There are plenty of games to enjoy while those other ones get cheaper and cheaper. The launch day excitement/rush of discovery is always nice though and I do wish there was some kind of a “book club but for games” where a group could go in and have a fresh experience with a game that’s already released.
Very much so (and there’s at least one patient gamers community around, because I’ve posted to one).
The only advantage I can see to playing a game on release is taking part in that first rush of interest, but I’m antisocial enough that that doesn’t appeal to me anyway, so I’m not missing anything there.
Beyond that, I think playing a game at least a year or so after release has all of the advantages. The initial flurry of absolute love vs. absolute hate has died down so it’s easier to get a broad view of the quality, the game is more stable, the price is better, dlc and expansions are out and generally packaged with the game, and best of all, in this current era, I can most likely buy it from GOG and actually have the full game, DRM-free, on my system.
And there are a bajillion good games out there, just waiting for me to discover them.
