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Some of you may have heard of an almost decade old video game called "Kingdom Come: Deliverence". It is a realistic RPG with no fantasy elements, developed by a Czech studio, and set in middle ages Czechia.
At its release its fidelity to history was widely praised by gamers. But gaming journalists attacked it for this very reason: fidelity to history meant that there was a paucity of Africans in the game. Despite gaming journalists forming united frons to smear the developers as racist, for not altering the racial demographics to please foreigners, the developers stood FIRMLY by their game.
Fast forward to a couple of months ago, and a sequel to KC:D is announced. Warhorse Studios says nothing eyebrow raising. Then a shock: screenshots appearing to show an African boasting about his land plenty, equality and knowledge, purporting to be from KC:D2 surfaces. There is widespread disbelief, the developers deny its authenticity, deboonkers find queerities in rendering. Matter is considered to be dubious at best.
Then a shock: a full admission from the man who so unfairly smeared, and who didn't buckle, that the game is in fact alters history to suit the tastes of 2025 American audiences.
Still the wages are low in Czechia, and loyalty of the marginalized and silenced peoples is worthless compared to fame the media can bestow upon you, and fortune gained from hiding the massive backtracks in marketing, so the game is already profitable.
Good tactics for a viking raider, but I'm not sure it will work out so great for a game studio. Given his past experience, the experience of all woke media in the past decade, and recent development in world politics, I thought Vavra of all people wouldn't swing this way, but here we are. I can only pitty the fools that still do preorders, can someone explain to me what consumers get out of them?
Indie-dev promotion in general, or a Paradox yearly update pass for a committed series.
I buy relatively few games anymore, and when I do more of them are Indie than not. Given the value of assured dollars today to such small companies, I shrug and view it as both a bit of charity and a bit of gambling. If I find I don't enjoy a game, it's a shame but I probably got more out of it than I would out of dinner and a movie out. But even if it fall through, I usually pre-bought because I enjoyed the premise, and even if that specific game didn't keep me hooked, I want the indie sphere in general to exist and keep considering such things. It's a bit like trying food at a small non-chain resteraunt: it may not end up good, but I want there to be a society that promotes such things, and I live in a society and all that.
Otherwise, my main gaming expense is the annual pass for whatever Paradox game I enjoy, with the pre-purchase being for all the DLC of the coming year. Paradox games are often both distinctive enough and long-term enough that I fully expect to play 100+ more hours regardless over the next year (even if 'just' 10 hours a month), and so the actual quality of specific DLC is less important than the general increase in refreshed novelty. In these cases, though, while I could buy each DLC separately upon review... the annual pass is a functional discount compared to buying each individually. Eventually a bigger sale discount would occur, but I'd generally need to wait a year for one year's DLC to go on sale the next year after the pass. At which point, I'd really rather not wait a year to play the mechanics that are being talked about in the hobby space.
Sure, that's a nice sentiment, and I threw my money at people in a similar manner a few times, but usually it's for "early access" or crowdfunding campaigns. Preorders seem like a weird medium for that, and it's even weirder when people do it for AAA games (not the case here, but I've seen many such cases).
And for AAA games, I'd generally agree. Unless the pre-order comes with something nice that I'd enjoy (and I'd consider 'free' cosmetic as valid as anything else), I'd usually not. If the pre-order bonus comes with, say, a bundled season pass for the first X DLC, then I'd consider it, based on my expectation of the developer in question. Some studios, sure- I expect to play that DLC. In others, not.
I'll give an example of the one of the last times I did it, which was... two years ago now?
Anyway- Book of Hours, which is a same-setting spinoff/sequel of Cultist Simulator. Cultist Simulator is a very esoteric game- it's very hard to even describe the game without spoiling some of the (occult) magic of the experience. But it was weird, I liked it as a great experience in world building from a very 'I don't know what's going on and have to piece it together' sense, and I was willing to engage the sequel.
I pre-bought the sequel at full price (~$25) solely because doing so might get any future DLC for free. It wasn't a guarantee there would be DLC, just that if you pre-bought the game, you'd get the free upgrade and get any future DLC for free.
Turns out, that did happen. There's a $15 dollar expansion. I also haven't played it (yet- maybe later this year). I also don't regret it, because I greatly enjoyed the quirky little game of being a librarian who opens rooms in a ruined occult library and [insert gibberish of explaining how the sun died and may yet be reborn because the new king of england is-].
On the flip side- once upon a time, I was big Bioware fan. I bought the third games of the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series because they were big culminating events. I didn't even mind that they were controversial- I just wanted to know how they ended, and learn it from myself, without the vibes from other people. No regrets. But of the recent Dragon Age 4 Veilguard, I had no hopes and was not disappointed that my non-preorder saved me several dozen gameplay hours. By the sounds of it, Bioware is an all-but-dead studio, and I'll just give it a little toast and move on while waiting for another Indie strategy game later.
(Menace, by the creators of Battle Brothers. An almost-indie studio that has put some solid strategy games that are rough and unreasonably fair. I probably will pre-buy, because a sci-fi positioning strategy game is my jam and I want to encourage.)
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