PaigeFTW: What Makes You Buy A Game?
Selling a bunch of my old games a few weeks back made me realize how much more deliberate I have become in what I choose to buy these days.
Before, all that mattered was whether I thought I would enjoy the game. Ah, the arrogance of youth.
Leaving aside the blind, earnest loyalty I feel towards certain proven franchises (Final Fantasy, for instance, where I will buy anything, literally anything, that bears the name), I now find myself weighing the politics of each purchase.
Big, blockbuster series like Uncharted? Well, I can wait for a sale. Or just borrow it from someone. But something like Aksys Games’ hyper-indie otome games, like Amnesia: Memories or Norn9: Vars Commons? I gotta take a stand.
It seems silly to think that a single consumer has any kind of meaningful impact on the ground ocean of pop culture, but we do. We really do.
Why does Hollywood keep making the same silly, generic action films? Because people continue to show up with money in hand — until they don’t, as this summer’s crop of flops proves. And what happens when an indie film breaks out? It’s because more people than expected come through.
Nowadays, I find that preordering a game has become … a statement, of sorts. It’s not merely that I want to play a title; it’s that I want to utilize my power as a consumer to ensure that more such games continue to come out in the future.
Typically, less than 100,000 people will go out there and buy one of those cheesy, over-the-top otome romance games.
So it does make a difference if I go out there and am one of them, you know? If we want diversity, we need to prove it. And companies listen when your wallet is involved.
