First!

Was going to write a blog on the evils or DRM software, but while thinking about it in me head, I reached an interesting, separate state conclusion, so I'm going to blog about this instead.

Namely - what's all this fuss about being the first to own the latest technological device or software?

This happens frequently when something is truly hyped up. There were people standing outside for hours to get themselves an iPhone 4, and the same thing happened with the latest iProducts.


The problem with this, is that you could just be buying yourself something less than perfect. Shouldn't you at least wait until reviews come out which properly describe the product you're buying?


You could be disappointed, even if the earlier products were great. Lets take a proper example - DragonAge 2 came out last week.


Metacritic gives it an 84, with a 4.1 User Score
Its the top selling game in the UK at the moment, no doubt bolstered by pre-orders or people who lined up early. (To compare, Dragon Age Origins had a 91/8.3 score).


This sort of 'everyone buying at the beginning' is the norm in software (Hi there Zipf). However if you rush out and buy it before everyone else, there are additional problems with software:


1. Software has a tendancy to become cheaper as time goes by, so you're paying extra for nothing
2. The thing you rushed out and bought could be a load of crap, or less good than you would have expected from the trailer which had 0 gameplay in it.
3. The thing you bought could be buggy as 'ell. Yes this happens. Isn't that right Rockstar?
4. There is no real 'bonus' for you having played the game earlier. Sure you get some extra trigger-time if you're going to play online I guess.

(Added:) Just remembered something else. Some games are now even offering to give you the ability to beta test them if you pre-order or buy another game (DoW2:R and DNF respectively did that recently). This especially highlights the concerns up there. We are now so directed to wanting to play the game as soon as it comes out (or even earlier as is this case) - that we are offering to beta test the game for free (or rather you pay for that). Forget wanting stability, latest patches or whatever. Alright granted, in Beta most bugs would already have been cleared out - but really... Of course you will pay a price larger than those who buy it after a few weeks, so you don't get any discounts for helping them do their job.

Feel sort of silly now don't you? I'm only recently playing the Half-Life series because one of them was on sale a while ago. I didn't have to pay 60 euros to be one of the first to have this experience - because its still a fun experience now - and at least if it had any bugs in it, they're all patched by now.


The Llama