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A gamer from a previous generation. I miss the 80s but couldn't live without the gadgets of today. I'm a developer by trade (business applications) and am playing around with XNA as a hobby (when I'm not playing games).
My gaming interests are wide starting from platformers and point and click adventures through to multiplayer FPSs and MMOs and many of the games inbetween.
Why do all the new genres have acronyms and the older genres tend to have long names? Young whippersnappers nowadays with their textspeak! ;)

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I just spotted another "pay what you want" Indie Bundle style site that allows you to split your purchase between the developers and a charity. This is the 4th or 5th indie bundle site I've seen recently and was just wondering what people make of it.

Personally I follow 2 bundle sales sites: Indie Royale and Humble Bundle. Any more than that and I cannot play the games fast enough. As it is I can't purchase every bundle of theirs and expect to finish every game, which is why I'm skipping this humble bundle. I have SMB and NightSky. I'd love Shank but would prefer it on Xbox so I think I'll just buy it there instead of spending that money on the bundle. At least I'm supporting the indie and more likely to actually play all my games.

Is anyone else having a game overload with all these sales? Are the bundles getting diluted by having so many or is more exposure a good thing?
Is more choice good or are we risking option paralysis where we don't know what to do so we do nothing?

Personally I think that more indies getting exposure is always good, but the bundles still need to be careful about maintaining a quality standard or risk the consumer having a bad experience and moving away from the indie purchases.

Any thoughts on the matter?

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ZPavelZ
ZPavelZ

"I scream, you scream, everybody talks Skyrim" :)
In fact, it is quite surprising for me how many bugs those recent BIG games have. I do remember someone stating this is a new form of DRM, when you actually have to patch your game right after purchase. Some of the reasons I could think of:
- the early game cracks would not work immediately on the patched verisons (thus in theory making life ot the pirates a bit harder);
- if I remember correctly (it has been a while since I bought and played a big AAA title), sometimes you might be required to "authorize" your copy to get the patch - again that should make life harder for pirates;
- the publisher invests lots of money and wants to get a return as soon as possible, thus rushing the development process;
- the AAA titles are more focused on "beauties" recently than gameplay (cool complex graphics, sound effects etc.). These "beauties" are both expensive and time-consuming;
- the big publishers feel secure enough that they can sell "anything" by making a big marketing effort.
But you are right. Just some small examples of pursuit for quality from indie developers: Torchlight II being delayed over and over for polishing, Trine 2 and Splot being released according to a "when it is ready schedule", Revenge of the Titans getting a 2.0 version with a totally reworked meta-game and lots of in-game changes. You can see (and feel) the care from indie developers. I guess this is what makes us, customers, care as well. On the other hand, indie developers usually do not have the power to compete with big games in terms of graphics/sound effects. So where do they try to outrun them? In gameplay, obviously.
Another excellent point you make is "wait for bugfixes, buy indies, get your game a bit later and enjoy both bug-free AAA and indie". I totally agree and also see no need to rush for a purchase just because of a massive marketing campaign.

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QuixoticRocket Creator
QuixoticRocket

I think a lot of the issues are caused by the publishers wanting to get a quick return as you say. You can tell the difference between a rushed game and one that has been polished within the first 10 minutes of playing, I don't know how they think people will roll over and accept it... except people DO seem to just take it. Many of these AAA, buggy games sell millions and people just put up with the bugs until they're eventually patched.

I'm really looking forward to Torchlight II (the first one was great) and I'm glad they're on a "when it's ready" release timeframe. As gamers we need to not be spoilt children. We should learn to wait for quality and not demand the latest game, right now! I'd rather wait a few more months for a perfect experience than have something now that is flawed.

It's not like there aren't enough games to keep us amused in the meantime.

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