The Patient Gamer

When it comes to video games, we are always desperate but sometimes it can cost us.

Consider the classic situation where you pre-order a game because you’re eager to play it on day one. But, the moment it’s out, you’re met with glitches, crashing, no connectivity, etc.

Then add on a busy life with work, family and other responsibilities and it becomes harder to make time for gaming.

Sometimes I still preorder games if I’m really excited for them but it’s only by luck do I get to play them on the first day.

But it also depends on the game. If it’s really big game I will often wait several months to a year before I begin playing. Like Starfield has caught my attention but I still haven’t started it due to the possibility of bugs present.

One of my Mastodon followers and I were talking about crafting and grinding and we both got confused because they were talking about Starfield and I was referring to Subnautica.

I learned from them that apparently it is very easy for some gamers to cave in to playing something immediately once its out. But the consequences are, we subject ourselves to things like bugs.

I am sometimes subjective to be impatient like with Disney Dreamlight Valley but it seems with every other game I am willing to wait, even if it’s for more than a year for the devs to fix most of the problems before I start playing.

But with every other game I’m just like, I’ll wait. I don’t really experience FOMO with a lot of games like big RPGs, I’ll just get to them whenever that is.

I see the benefits of starting on day one. Maybe you get exclusive items or early access to certain features, but as always, the risk of dealing with more performance issues is higher as nowadays, games are never released flawlessly. Devs are always patching them, and it’s possible they don’t notice bugs until players get their hands on it.

I am also willing to be patient for the price to drop for any AAA game even if that takes years or someone is kind enough to gift it to me. Today those games start at $79.99. People are quick to fork that over if it’s say a Bethesda, Capcom, Ubisoft, or EA title because of how highly hyped it is. But to me, unless I’m extremely eager to play and absolutely can NOT wait because I’ve already fallen in love with a character, I will save my money until it’s on sale.

It’s no wonder by the time I do get to a game, most of the world has already played it by then but we shouldn’t judge people based on how soon they get into something. I never saw The Nightmare Before Christmas until now and now I’m obsessed. I didn’t lay my eyes on RDR until now either.

But until you fix your bugs and drop your prices I’m quite happy holding onto my money until then. I’ll be coming someday Starfield and you too, Elden Ring

👽Emily