The Pledge (Do you finish every game you buy?)

Just glancing over at my shelf that contains my console games I have over 50 games. Some of them are sports games so I can't really count them as the sort of game one would finish. However, I would consider completing at least one season in a sports game to "count" as a game being finished. So including the sports games I would say I have finished exactly one of them. That would be Oblivion for the Xbox 360. Looking over at my PC collection reveals another ratio of finished to owned games that is rather sad. I should say that I don't trade in games for the most part. I stopped doing that some time back. I imagine the ratio would be a great deal worse if I still had the games I traded in over the years.

Am I spoiled? Maybe. Games aren't like movies and books in the sense that one fully expects to complete them when they are purchased. I do expect to enjoy them and if I don't like a game, I don't hesitate to return it. This works for console games for the most part, but not PC games. Stores refuse to take back PC games for fear of piracy. I don't blame them, but it makes me be a bit more discerning when purchasing a PC game. That might be part of the problem the PC gaming industry is facing lately. At the very worst, if I don't like a console game, I can trade it in if I am not able to return it for some reason.

In the past there may have been good reasons for people to not have finished a game. For one, it may be that the game was just too difficult to finish. I am thinking about Ghouls and Ghosts or games of its type. It could also be that a player gets to a certain point in a game and realizes that they just don't like it anymore, that it has become repetitive or too difficult to put in the time to finish. I remember playing some Lucasarts adventure games that had some parts that I thought were just impossible to solve. It turned out that with concerted effort and perseverance I was able to complete them. I can't think of any movie or book that I purchased that was too difficult to finish. Some of them I didn't like so I stopped reading them. These days video games have gotten a good deal easier. Their are pros and cons to this phenomenon. Players for the most part no longer have to worry about screwing themselves over so badly that they can't finish the game and need to restart. However, there can sometimes be so much hand holding that it makes your choices irrelevant or uninteresting.

There is no good excuse to not finishing a game these days. They are designed to be finished. High scores as a measure of skill are gone and games have many levels of difficulty so that they can be played all the way through at various difficulty levels. I guess the bottom line is that I have no excuse for not finishing the majority of the games I own. I purchased them in the first place because they have something about them that I like. I have played them enough to know that I don't want to return them. With that in mind I have made a pledge to myself. Over the summer, I am going to dedicate my game playing time to finishing games. I want to raise the ratio of completed to owned games by a big margin. I'll report back with my progress and give some thoughts about whether playing all the way through these games was worth it.

They looked into my soul...

... and came out with this. Seriously though, has anyone ever bought a collectors edition just for the shit inside while not being terribly interested in the game itself? I have no idea if the game is going to be good or not. I like that they are focusing on making combat more interesting, but I have no way of knowing if they will be successful. And yet, I want to buy the collector's edition. If they have some sort of open beta, I will report back on the game.

Age of Conan is readying for launch.

Age of Conan gets ready for launch
- Pre-order programs now available in all Western territories - Get three day head-start in Hyboria -

Durham, USA – April 16, 2008 – Funcom and Eidos announce that Age of Conan pre-order programs are now fully available in all major territories, including USA, Germany, France, Spain, UK, Oceania and the Nordic countries. Conan fans and MMO gamers are already raving about the incredible pre-order items, including the War Mammoth and Killer Rhino, and today Funcom ups the ante and confirms that everyone who pre-orders may access Hyboria several days prior to the retail launch.*

Ever since Funcom and Eidos started the first pre-orders in early 2008, the program has received great feedback. The exceptional Age of Conan Collector's Edition has topped the charts in numerous online retail chains for weeks, including being #1 on several all-format lists. The most eager fans are therefore urged to order their copy of the Collector's Edition immediately as it only comes in one print-run.

Funcom now also confirms an early access program which will give customers a chance of a head-start in Age of Conan. Funcom reveals that American, European and Oceanic players may enter Age of Conan as early as the 17th of May. Mere weeks away, early adopters can now live, fight and explore in Hyboria, as well as getting an essential head-start before the hordes invade.

"We are very pleased with the reception Age of Conan has had in retail and we naturally hope that the early interest and our early access programs will materialize in an eventual success," said Morten Larssen, VP Sales and Marketing of Funcom. "The positive indications are naturally an honor, but they also bring a great responsibility. As we prepare the roll-out, we know our servers will be put to the test. We therefore hope potential players will aid us by signaling their interest as soon as possible so we can scale our servers and services accordingly."

Age of Conan launches on the 20th of May and is consistently mentioned as one of the most anticipated PC games in development. It has received more than twenty-five magazine covers and more than fifteen major awards, including numerous "Best MMO of E3" awards and the "Best Online Game of Show" award at GC 2007. Age of Conan is a key title in Microsoft's Games for Windows line-up, as well as a showcase title for nVidia.

Visit www.ageofconan.com to join the thriving community or to sign up for the Beta

For a list of participating retailers or to get more information about the game, please visit www.ageofconan.com


* The early access program is only available with certain retailers. A participant list can be found on the official Age of Conan websites. The early access is entirely voluntary, and opens up on the 17th of May for Oceanic and North American gamers, and on the 20th of May for European gamers. Pre-loading of the client will commence in advance. You need to pay a nominal 5 USD / EUR fee to take advantage of the offer, which includes client download and 10 days of subscription. When the early access offer expires you must enter the physical retail box gamekey to continue playing.

Why buy new?

I don't think PC game makers want me to buy their games new. The system requirements in order to play new games in high detail with every setting maxed are always prohibitive. There may be a short window of opportunity when you first upgrade your PC (assuming you shell out at least 2k for it) when you can run the newest games with all settings maxed. What other industry is like this? Imagine buying a movie and having certain special effects missing or diminished in some way because your DVD player can't handle it. I doubt you would be inclined to buy those DVDs at full price. You would probably wait until you could play them without the quality being gimped. It's that way with PC games. It really always has been for the most part. The thing is, I refuse to do it anymore. If I can't run a game at full detail then I will not buy it until I have that capability. It might not be for a few years and in that time the price of the game will have dropped greatly. Take Oblivion for example. When it first came out, I bought it for both the PC and Xbox 360 because I am sick that way. I played it through on the 360 and I have over 140 hours invested in that version because it ran the way it was meant to run. On the PC, I couldn't run the game at any where near the same quality as on the 360. I have just now started to play it on PC having just upgraded. You can buy Oblivion for the PC now for 30 bucks. It runs perfectly smooth on my system now with all details maxed. All I really did was give Bethesda 20 extra dollars for the privilege to have the box sit on my desk for a couple years. One of the drawing points of the PC version is the fact that user created mods can give you a whole new experience and extend your play time with the game. That content takes a while to develop and sort out. By waiting until now to play the game, I have access to a matured mod database and I can run the game the way it was meant to run. For these and many other reasons, I won't be buying PC games unless I can run them they way they were meant to be run.