Constantly Unsatisfied Gamers

DiGRA, specifically the preservation panel but also noted in a few other places, pretty much did doggedly say that previews and other items basically make gamers eternally unsatisfied.

Brought this up when I got asked about the upcoming Left 4 Dead 2 which I gave up from once I’d watched a few gameplay videos, getting my award for “most likely to be more of the same which isn’t a bad thing but I don’t want to know everything before buying it“.

This view below might be pretty common (no, no, it is pretty common …is it a bad thing?

09:59 – X: see the jockey?
10:07 – Me: um, no?
10:07 – Me: huh?
10:08 – X: new SI for L4D2
10:08 – Me: SI?
10:08 – X: special infected
10:08 – Me: no
10:09 – Me: not seen it
10:09 – Me: don’t do many previews
10:09 – Me: for various reasons
10:10 – X: damn
10:10 – X: ill keep my mouth shut then
10:10 – Me: heh
10:10 – Me: the implication of previews is always “what you’ve got is not good enough”
10:10 – Me: yet I have enough to play right now 😉
10:11 – Me: “wanting” something that *may* be out this year and I won’t buy at full price is a bit pointless, hah
10:11 – X: well l4d certainly isnt good enough
10:11 – Me: hahahahaha
10:11 – Me: there we go
10:11 – Me: yet you’ve brought it
10:11 – Me: and played it
10:11 – X: a lot of the new features are designed to fix certain lame ways of playing
10:12 – Me: “fix” lame ways of playing, I wonder why they don’t “fix” the original game?
10:12 – X: puts a bit of a dampner on playing l4d tho knowing its fixed in 2 haha
10:12 – Me: oh, yeah, like Starcraft 2 or something right?
10:12 – Me: after all, compared to Starcraft…
10:12 – X: ?
10:13 – Me: heh, nevermind
10:14 – Me: just going to reuse this conversation anonomously on my site, got something to say about the pressure of newnewnew 😉
10:14 – X: im not bitter about l4d i got it discounted and i still got a full games worth of play out of it i feel, and the drips and drabs of dlc to come will make me get it out from time to time
10:14 – X: it hasnt lasted as long as tf2
10:14 – Me: hehe
10:15 – X: but it still provided me with more hours than most other stuff
10:15 – Me: so, the value gained from it is high, yet you’re still disappointed with it – would you be even if the game wasn’t going to get a sequel?
10:16 – X: yeah my disappointment set in once pub games started sucking dick
10:16 – X: theres not enough noobs around anymore
10:16 – X: and games where noone screws around are boring because infected is too hard
10:17 – X: but reading the l4d2 previews has certainly heightened my disappointment
10:17 – X: because i know things will be better
10:17 – Me: heh, right
10:17 – Me: never satisfactory right…
10:17 – Me: after all, what about Left 4 Dead 3?

We trailed off onto if Valve had fulfilled their promises for Left 4 Dead 1, and that they’ve supposedly promised long-term support for Left 4 Dead 2 (I’m not surprised they’ve said this, I’ve no idea if they’ll stick to it).

As for if it is bad, personally I think we always seem to be unsatisfied. I’ve got Mass Effect to play, but with Mass Effect 2 coming out do I feel down? I still feel it’s worthwhile. I still think Half-Life is ultimately a much more fun and fulfilling experience then Half-Life 2 (for a variety of reasons, not that Half-Life 2 is bad at all!).

Then again, people are right – and do get board with current games (with whatever amount of hours played in them) so a sequel, or simply more content is always attractive. If they’ve played the older versions this makes sense – when it doesn’t is when people long for sequels and “new new new” when games on the same console generation are still available to play, or older games are immensely better then new shiny offerings 🙁

The reasons for this all varies too – game publishers advertising, lack of re-releases (stock goes, it’s unbuyable), game journalists only really doing previews, reviews then nothing else, with no proper follow up, and the players themselves being set to always want the latest patch/expansion/sequel to play from all the previous reasons. Not to say new games are not fun, but the assumption so far is all previous games are bad for no apparent reason.

2 thoughts on “Constantly Unsatisfied Gamers”

  1. I loved l4d, and I’m looking forward to l4d 2, but the only time I play it is LANs usually, because I like to play with people I know and can communicate with. Even though I don’t play it so much, I’m still glad I got it.

  2. Absolutely, but the game in question is of course by the by in this case. A better example might be the 20XX series of games – Madden, Fifa, Pro Evo, Champ Manager etc. etc. – basically, if you haven’t got the latest and greatest, you are a failure (according to the press, advertising and everyone else).

Comments are closed.