As I read over the forums here, and at other websites, I’ve noticed the communities seem to think that releasing a sequel early could potentially split its audience in two. I can agree with this, but in my opinion there is already a split that far exceeds that of just releasing another product.
First off I’d like to point out that when people buy a game, they’ve paid for what’s on the disc, not what could come out later on. If you spend money (and let’s face it $60 is a hunk of change), your money went towards the costs of developing until that point in time. Of course, sometimes we get lucky as gamers and the developers/publishers sometimes give us more free stuff. Are they obligated to doing that? No. But this is off of my own topic; I’m here to speak about the split in the gaming audience.
There was a time before the internet. It was before games had constant bug fixes updates, it was before the infamous acronym DLC. You got what you paid for, and generally you were happy with that purchase. Of course there are exceptions to every rule. But generally speaking, you were naturally excited for when a new game would hit the shelves. Now we live in a generation where a game is usually updated right when you pop it into the machine. When I recently purchased a game on release day, the first thing I had to do was to wait for an update to download before I could play it.
The split is the most obvious one, generation gaps. Some of us started playing recently, and thus have developed some sort of mentality that when you buy a game you deserve more than what is on the disc. While others, some of whom have been playing games since the old Atari 2600 days don’t necessarily see things that way. They know that what they’ve bought is what they get, and anything extra is an added bonus. This argument, of course, doesn’t apply to everyone. Some gamers have valid reasons for anger towards a particular product being released to soon, but had that same product been released 15 years ago – the complaint wouldn’t have even existed, because you wouldn’t expect anything more than what you already paid for.
Gamers who started playing on the newer systems, and by “new” I mean anything with an internet connection, have gotten spoiled with their ‘self-entitlement’ of gaming. Feeling as if they are owed more than what they already paid for. Gamers of the older generations generally don’t see things that way. Now as I’ve said, 3 times already in this blog post, there are exceptions to every rule. But that’s why I say we’ve gotten spoiled as gamers. Constantly releasing DLC seems to do a great job of keeping people playing a game, but it’s also seemed to make people think that they deserve extra content.
I love when they release new map packs, or more extra content, but I don’t feel as if anyone is obligated to do so. When I gave my money to the company for a game, that’s what I got. I can accept that and be happy with it. Anything extra is great, but not mandatory.
So as I’ve said, in my most humble opinion, the gaming audience is split between generations. Some grew up not even knowing what an update was until recently, while others have grown to know a game is only as good as its first update.
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