I'm just gonna re-post something I already wrote over a year ago for something else. My expectations are pretty simple and are as follows.
I'm a gamer since the age of 5. I grew up surrounded by arcade games, early consoles and early computer games. I'm 34, which gives me almost 30 years gaming. That's pretty huge.
In my time, I have learned to NEVER back down nor submit to what big businesses want from me, unless they offer a fair exchange in return, and in modern times, what our expectations for fair exchange and big publishers' expectations are, have begun to show a marked shortcoming. Gamers' expectations have never changed, but over time, as a collective, we allow ourselves to be caught up in the "bro gamer" machine and throw our money needlessly at projects before we even know they'll be functional, much less good. Gamer culture as a whole, has begun to be very self-sabotaging. We're all guilty of it, or we allow ourselves to be co-opted when people claim we're just being arrogant, whiny or entitled, because hey...who wants to be THAT guy?
However, this is damaging in ANY industry, for ANY consumer and ANY hobbyist, period.
My expectations are simple.
Does it work mechanically the way the developers promised? Does it crash, bug out or have issues graphically, musically or in the sound department? Will I enjoy the story, or is it a loosely slapped together after thought? Is it well executed? Can I access it when/where/how I want to, online and offline, should I be in an area without internet access? Is your product complete, and if not, do you clearly delineate that fact to potential buyers honestly, or is it a case of say, Dragon Age: Origins, where content was actually cut from the game, then slapped on as day one DLC to ruin the immersion factor? Lastly, and most importantly, is it fun? Bottom line. If your game can answer yes to all these questions, then you have a pretty high percentage chance of a sale, and you can have my money. If you can only answer yes to less than half of those questions, it's very unlikely you'll get my money. I believe my expectations are fair. I believe my expectations are also reasonable, therefore, if logically, my expectations are both reasonable AND fair, then I don't believe what I ask from devs/pubs is too much, especially if they want me to spend MY money. Which at the end of the day, is MY money, which also means they are not entitled to it.
This also leads me to another rant. I have absolutely zero problems with insuring good developers and publishers get their fair share for what they have offered me. I draw the line when they attempt to change the terms of what they're offering me after purchase, or they only offer half of what they promised me prior to purchase, or fail to support their product adequately poste launch, all the while, behaving in an arrogant and entitled fashion of their own, as if they're OWED my money, and my job is to simply fork over $60 for their piece mealed retreads, preorder it before anyone knows whether it's any good or not, and/or expect me to spend MORE money for support or worthless DLC after. At this point, I'm already turned off by both your business practices AND your attitude...so please, big publishers. Stop. I love what you do, but I don't love who you are. You want my money, you will meet MY expectations. I don't HAVE to meet yours.
This was more written as an open letter to major publishers.
