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Pity Purchases anyone?

Y

ymmv

Banned
Sometimes I feel like I got too involved in this whole gaming thing, and that's when I read about good games that sell poorly. I always feel sorry for the devs and in quite a number of cases I spend $10-15 on games I never wanted to purchase when they were released.

Case in point: Joe Danger 2. I never bought the first game despite the good reviews. Looked like fun, but not something I'd regularly play. A couple of days ago I came across an article about the poor sales of Joe Danger on Xbox Live (8000 downloads or so) and weak reception on the PS3 because of spurned Sony fans. So what do I do? Out of pity I purchase the game anyway because I hate to see good devs go broke...

Am I the only one (sometimes) buying games just to support worthy devs?
 
A

Aguirre

Member
funny-gif-Donald-Duck-Daisy-coin-begging.gif
 
B

Bradach

Member
i sometimes think like this too. i don't usually buy only for this reason but if i'm a bit on the fence it might turn into a sale.
 
H

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
Not ever.

Maybe if I had a lot more money, I'd budget some just for supporting games/devs I like in principle, but now that I think about it, that would be pretty lame compared to giving that money to actual important causes.
 
E

EGM1966

Member
I wouldn't say I "pity" purchase but I regularly put aside money to invest in smaller titles that seem good such as Joe Danger 2 or Flow or whatever. Although sometimes it does feel like developers go out of their way to appear awkward and shifting platforms of choice sure doesn't help.

My view is they should really, really focus on one platform and build an audience or work out budget/features that allow for cross-platform out of the box and go for the widest audience.
 
R

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
I've only ever done that if it was something I already wanted and was waiting for a price drop on but it sold like shit. Never have I bought something I wouldn't have already.
 
A

atomico

Member
Contra Uprising something or other (XBLA): I bought that horrible fake Contra just to support the brand name. But it was on sale :p

Several (if not all) Backbone XBLA arcade ports: Purchased them gladly, if only to respect the fact that they were the arcade games, and not the Genesis versions. Then again, I liked the game themselves, despite how crappy the emulation job was.

Out Run Live Arcade (XBLA) : It was just a stripped-down version of OR2, which I already had, but I have a soft spot for sega arcade shit. And blue blue skies.

Daytona USA (XBLA): Same as above.

Shadows of The Damned / Lollipop Chainsaw / Diabolical Pitch: Suda love + Killer 7 nostalgia
 
C

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
there are a lot of charity issues I find more deserving of my money than games that don't sell well
 
F

Famassu

Member
Joe Danger 2 was released for PS3? I liked the first game and I'm by no means a spurned fan. I just thought it was a Xbox 360 exclusive so I haven't been looking out for it since my 360 YLODded a few months ago. Will have to fix the situation ASAP.
 
K

Kenshin001

Member
ymmv said:
Sometimes I feel like I got to be involved in this whole gaming thing, and that's when I read about good games that sell poorly. I always feel sorry for the devs and in quite a number of cases I spend $10-15 on games I never wanted to purchase when they were released.

Case in point: Joe Danger 2. I never bought the first game despite the good reviews. Looked like fun, but not something I'd regularly play. A couple of days ago I came across an article about the poor sales of Joe Danger on Xbox Live (8000 downloads or so) and weak reception on the PS3 because of spurned Sony fans. So what do I do? Out of pity I purchase the game anyway because I hate to see good devs go broke...

Am I the only one (sometimes) buying games just to support worthy devs?
Click to expand...

Kind of. I bought a couple of games like Closure and Papo and Yo that not many other people seem to be interested in partly because I felt they are games that deserve to be supported but they are also games I thought worth trying.

Funnily enough I bought the first Joe Danger on PSN because I thought it deserved to be supported and played it for about an hour before losing interest. It was the game that made me realise just supporting an indie dev for the sake of it is dumb. The fact they dicked people around with their exclusivity BS just reinforced that.
 
P

Parallacs

Member
I played Tribes Ascend for about 20 hours comepletely for free.

Then the starter DLC pack was on a steam sale for $5 and I was like, okay this will be cool and I can support the developer.

I never played a single second more of Tribes after making that purchase.
 
S

survivor

Banned
I buy all my games when they are $30 or below so the developer's well being is the last thing on my mind when I buy games.

Does Humble Bundle count? I buy those even though most of the games they have are crap.
 
R

Retro_

Unconfirmed Member
Is this how indie humble bundles work?

I've bought games I was unsure about based on developer before and gotten burned a couple times,(Darksiders 2. Binary Domain) but never a game because I "feel sorry" for the devs

atomico said:
Contra Uprising something or other (XBLA): I bought that horrible fake Contra just to support the brand name. But it was on sale :p
Click to expand...

Gonna have to ask u to elaborate sir

Uprising was my top game in 2010

Tied with Shattered Soldier for best game in the franchise.(Uprising the best platformer SS best boss rush)
 
C

chiablo

Member
I bought War of the Roses when it was first available, I'd say it's a bad game and one I won't play more than a few hours of. I bought it because I wanted to support the developers of Mount and Blade.

But it turns out, it's the same publisher, but the M&B developers aren't even affiliated with it. Now I feel like a bad consumer.
 
S

StayDead

Member
I don't pity purchase. If anything I'm the opposite.

I will buy games for as cheap as possible. I'll get inide bundles for the minimum amount and I buy everything else in sales. :p
 
D

Dark Octave

Banned
Nope. I would never do that and I would never ask anyone to do that for me. Buy and/or positively review my product because you enjoy it, not because you know me or want to see me succeed.
 
S

Sgblues

Member
Yeah like everyone else, I buy and play what I want, unless I'm collecting to complete sets but at that point my cash wouldn't be supporting the devs anyway.
 
A

a Master Ninja

Member
The closest thing I've done to this is buy multiple copies of underrated games and give them to friends. I think I bought like 10 copies of Bayonetta (while it was on sale) and gave maybe 7 of them away here on GAF.
 
D

Dictator93

Member
Hard reset?
and nexuiz.

Felt bad these guys who tried had to do some sort of revival did not get what they deserved. Have yet to really play the games though. I miss shooting fleshy targets in hard reset. Should have been fleshy enemies
 
S

scorpscarx

Member
ymmv said:
Isn't that more or less the same thing?
Click to expand...

I do it sometimes but the only difference is I'm usually interested in said game as well as it being a bomba.

Like Enslaved, that game is awesome so I bought 2 copies at launch for full price, one for a friend.
 
R

RockmanWhore

Member
I tend to buy games that I know won't like crazy, just to support the devs. I should wait for the bomba price, but I can't take the responsability!

I don't buy a game I don't want to play though, I'm sorry for Joe Danger 2, but while I had fun with the first game, I didn't like it enough to finish, so buying a sequel...
 
S

syoaran

Member
Hmm, I've never bought anything out of pity - but I have turned a "will purchase in the future" to a "I'm there day1" out of support for the developer.
 
J

Jrpgfanatic

Member
If NISA, Atlus, Aksys, or XSEED are releasing something I'm interested in, I always preorder it to support them. Some may say those are charity purchases, but the way I look at it is I enjoy (most of) the games they release and I want them to keep doing what they're doing, so I'll vote with my dollars on the games I'm already interested in and put a little extra cash in their coffers so they can carry on. I know I'm only one guy, but I figure if enough people do the same it'll add up for them.

With that being said, I don't mindlessly buy everything from them. I've passed on:
NISA's Puzzle games, Badman series, That Bleach game, etc.
Atlus' Sherlock, Cursed Crusade, R-Type Command, Kenka Bancho, etc.
Aksys' Hakouoki, Bit Trip, Shifting world, etc.
XSEED's Valhalla Knights, Populous, Ivy the Kiwi etc.
 
H

honorless

We don't have "get out of jail free" cards, but if we did, she'd have one.
I felt bad when the Machinarium devs complained about how much the game got pirated, so I bought a copy.

...But to be completely honest, I wanted to play the game anyway and $5 was the right price for me, so I'd say it was only about 20% out of pity.

Edit: Oh and —
ymmv said:
...weak reception on the PS3 because of spurned Sony fans.
Click to expand...
— I really, really doubt this was the reason for poor PSN sales.
 
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