There’s no magazine on any instance that I see of such a community on the topic matter. To anyone not familiar, a patient gamer is someone who is immune to FOMO, doesn’t get caught up or tied up with current modern gaming. Someone who doesn’t care that they’ve beaten a game from 1996 and here it is 2024. Someone who doesn’t care that they’re still playing games 40, 20 or even 5 years ago on the present day.
I would personally say that I am. I don’t have a level of disposable income where I’m throwing down on buying games. I’ve spent 10 years between 2011 and 2021 wheeling and dealing on game sales. So much that I’ve piled on over 1,000+ games combined between GOG, Steam, Battle.net and Epic Games.
I do more often than not, play games from so long ago than I do modern games. I’m at a stage in my life where I am noticeably slowing down on gaming in general, I am also finding myself more comforted in what I play and I again can’t simply just keep buying newer games. I also don’t really care about buying newer games, the time of the present is rich with game sales all day, everyday.
There will always be a time later to buy a game that is ripened for a good sale. So I don’t have to worry at all.
I don’t buy a game solely because it’s the zeitgeist or whatever. A friend of mine routinely buys games that are “the new shiny” and then doesn’t finish them, or loses interest quickly. I usually wait for a sale, some patches, and/or the dlc to be bundled into a goty edition.
Some exceptions:
I bought elden ring near launch because I’m a big enjoyer of the genre, and my friend confirmed it was good. No regrets.
I bought bg3 shortly before it’s full access. I’d liked the other games larian did, and a friend told me it was good. No regrets.
Both of those were pretty light on DLC. No season pass or “goty” editions were likely.
I’m going to wait for the dragon age game to go on sale. I don’t really trust Bioware, and I don’t know if they plan to do a bunch of dlc that will get bundled up later.
I’ve been waiting for Lies of P to get cheap. The demo was just ok when I played it, but a friend tells me it’s phenomenal.
Right now I’m playing a MUD (aardwolf). It really distills some online RPG into the essence of “go kill some stuff to level up, get new skills, and kill bigger stuff”. It’s strangely satisfying.
It feels like a natural consequence of playing a lot of indie games; there’s too many little gems you just don’t hear much about on release, or which you end up only learning about because they end up bundled with something else you were being patient about.
Though I’m not even sure how I’d apply this label to traditional roguelikes, given how many are free, and how many more seem to be in a permanent state of development/‘early access’ (Caves of Qud is hitting 1.0 in a month does break my go-to example there though).
There’s definitely an appeal with some of the better AA and ‘AAA’ games too beyond financial reasons though, given the tendency for bigger studios to launch titles full of bugs these days. (I loved Cyberpunk when I played it a couple of months after release – was lucky to not experience many bugs at all on PC – but it’s so much easier to widely recommend it since it hit 2.0.
yes, for the most part. unless im REALLY interested in a game, i generally wait till i find it on 50%+ sale. the last game i bought on full price was hi-fi rush, and the last one before that would have been dmc5, if the rx580 i bought at the time didnt already have a code included
Yes and no. It depends on the games. Usually I wait for discounts now though. I don’t have time to play every game anyways so it saves me money to wait. Even during sales, I’ll stop and ask myself if I’ll play it soon. If I don’t think I will, I usually just wait
Excessively patient. I’ve noticed there’s basically a 50/50 chance of any game I find interesting showing up for free on Epic eventually, so I mean, fine, I’ll wait a couple of years to save $60. Why pay for something that’ll eventually be given to you, paid for by some vulture capitalist’s dragon horde?
I take some of their money, get a free game: win/win.
…at this point, I’m pretty sure my Epic games library is way bigger than my Steam library, simply from the 3-5 free games a month that Epic tosses at you, of which like 1/3rd are actually pretty good.
What’s getting annoying now is that they’ve been tossing in like packs for freemium games. Gross. That’s not a game, guys, that’s an attempt to get us to spend more money if we’re to like this EXP/Skin pack you’ve given away.
Yeah I’ve been noticing that. It’s probably a case of it being cheaper for them than games, but I’ve also noticed they’ve not yet done a cycle where it’s ONLY freemium stuff, at least.
Next week, for example, is an Apex skin and a game. If it was JUST the skin I’d probably be less gruntled, but as it is, I find it hard to get too upset that I’m only getting 1 free game instead of 2.
The only video game I play is Team Fortress 2, anywhere from 10 to 20 hours a week. So I guess I’m a patient gamer since my favorite game is over 6,000 days old.
I just bought the F.E.A.R bundle from steam a week ago or so, and beat the first game in the series 20 years after release. And other than a fan made .dll patch, it was great. Lacked some depth more modern titles have, but I also noticed how much effort was put into some details that were surprising for its age.
It’s easy to be patient when you have a backlog of games to go through. Paying full price for a game that still has Denuvo or other forms of DRM just isn’t worth it for me. That said, I’m very sad Fantasian will be released with Denuvo soon after years of languishing in Apple Arcade.
I think it’s fair to say I’m more patient than I was. Having kids has slowed me down on playing games constantly, but I’ve also drifted towards more indie games and away from big tentpole $60-$70 releases. Some games will be a day one purchase based on enjoying their past work(s), like Tactical Breach Wizards and Steamworld Heist 2, and the cost barrier ends up lower. The last time I went for the big AAA game on or close to launch was Hogwarts Legacy, and that was mostly for the wife since she loves all things Harry Potter.
With the sheer amount of games being released and being able to find just about anything you could want, there’s not really a need to be in on the hotness. There are plenty of games to enjoy while those other ones get cheaper and cheaper. The launch day excitement/rush of discovery is always nice though and I do wish there was some kind of a “book club but for games” where a group could go in and have a fresh experience with a game that’s already released.
While I admire the ideas behind patient gamers and think it probably works out really well for some people, I personally also enjoy participating in the zeitgeist from time to time. Playing Elden Ring on launch was fantastic - you really felt like you were exploring the world alongside everyone else as you’re finding Ashes and weapons that don’t even have wiki entries yet.
The thing is you don’t actually have to look at wiki entries or any media surrounding game hype really. I have virtually no spoilers on Elden ring and I still haven’t played it.
Yeah but it’s not really the same thing years later when most people are long finished with the game. Was the same with playing BG3 around release last year, participating in conversations with friends and strangers alike about discoveries in the game as it’s happening and everyone is talking about it and playing it at the same time. I’m sure similar things happened this year with Black Myth Wukong and Silent Hill 2 Remake to some extent, though I didn’t play those.
It’s not about spoilers so much as participating in the buzz and culture and community that only really occurs around release.
@Coelacanth @ndondo yeah the games are lower priced later because their value actually does decrease. I find myself simply never playing or purchasing games that I was going to wait for a price drop on. It’s kind of like watching a championship game from years ago. Even if you personally don’t know the outcome something is lost from not being in the right moment for it. This varies more with games but I think people undersell it.
I see your perspective. I think the difference with me is that I don’t value the cultural moment very much and more so care if the game is good aside from hype. The main exception being multiplayer games. Those mostly are active when they’re new.
I’d say I’m fairly patient. It does depend on the title and how it’s handled.
If I heard Tim Cain & Leonard Boyarsky was spearheading a new Fallout, I’d be hard pressed not to buy on release.
If, however, the game is exclusive in anyway, timed or otherwise, it’s instantly blacklisted and I refuse to buy it at all. (I have an array of chips on my shoulders, I know)
But other than that specific scenario, I can wait for a good sale, no problem.
I haven’t played Balder’s Gate 3 yet, so I’d say I’m patient.
I finished it 3 times, so I’d say I’m pretty patient.
Same! Waiting for it not to cost 80$ Canadian… If it goes on sale for half, I’ll buy it I guess
BG3 is self-published by Larian. Which sadly means you’re unlikely to see a 50% discount or above.
Well, at least not anytime in the near future.
It was 10% off at one point. So maybe 20% isn’t out of the question.
Guess I’ll really have to work for being patient… Or I’ll just break down and buy it anyway at some point.
Meh, of all the games… BG3 shouldn’t make you feel bad for buying. It’s one of the few games in recent memory that is worth the money in full, imo.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is still a bit of a recent game, even if it’s a year old. Normally games like it, take about 3 - 5 years before we start seeing drastic sales.
Now games that are over 10 years old and still being 10% off? Fuck out of here with that.
I don’t know what your point is, but yes, BG3 is still a recent game.
Therefor it’s unlikely we’ll see a higher discount anytime soon.
Maybe more significantly, it’s a recent game with rave reviews that’s still making Larian money without the use of mtx and/or dlc.
Aside, kinda expecting a lot of garbage D&D games since the endlessly greedy Hasbro has seen how much money it can make them. Doubt they’ll do anything other than miss the forest for the trees in their execution of that, though.
Witcher 3 was also self published, and it came down to 70% off after a few years.
Well, at least not anytime in the near future.
I think you underestimate how patient some of us can be… 😉
Not at all. And more power to you for that.
I’m just saying it’s gonna be a while yet. 😉
Oh yeah. I’m still regularly playing Skate 3 and making video clips from it. I mix it up though. I play tons of old console and PC games (Steam Deck), and occasionally get into a headspace where I dive back into retro games. N64, NES, Genesis/Master System, etc.
On the flip side, I’m playing Veilguard right now. I usually don’t buy games on release day, but I make exceptions. The other exception I made was Elden Ring and I have nearly 400 hours into that. No regrets.
I’d say, I’m primarily a very low volume gamer, so I don’t play a lot of games, and if I do, I don’t play them for long. And that certainly makes it easy to look at the news of a game releasing and to think, yeah, that’s probably neat, but if I’m buying another game then it’d be Undertale or Baba Is You or such, and it definitely doesn’t look as neat as those…
I have been enjoying the original console I designed and built myself running a raspberry pi 5 and a fully built and compiled retropie that can crank out some dolphin and redream with full 60fps. I have plenty 90s gaming I need to catch up on.
For everything moderately modern, I have a steam deck. If it doesn’t or cannot run on my retropie or my deck then I’ll wait till the next hardware refresh. If it takes half a decade, all the better.
Are you using your Deck only as a portable system or also with a monitor or TV? I’ve done this a few times, but not very often, mostly because I rarely see the need (but I have a PC as well, so my situation isn’t the same).
