Yesterday, I used pretty deliberate language when asking you guys what you've been up to gamewise over the post-Christmas "drought." Seems anywhere you go these days, from the media to hardcore forums, many folks are waving the "nothing good is coming out" refrain as readily as we trotted out the "omg too much to play" campaign over Christmas.
But it sounds like SVGLers, at least, have had no such desert of entertainment in January, nor do you expect to have one in February. Or March, for that matter. I absolutely loved hearing about what you all were playing, if only for the sheer diversity in the comments. Many of you reported not yet having gotten through Fallout 3's 80-plus hours -- really? Oh goodness, what's wrong with you? Some of you have set specific goals to more thoroughly revisit titles you have already played, and still others of you are choosing installments from gaming's illustrious back catalog -- you know, real vintage stuff like Super Mario Galaxy.
And you guys are the ones who read video game blogs, one way of telling that you're possibly a bit more enthusiastic than the majority of video game consumers -- who, rarely reading video game blogs, probably have no idea that there is a "drought" going on.
67 percent of Call of Duty 4 players haven't gotten the sequel yet. And of those that did, half of them played CoD4 regularly right up until the launch of World at War -- an entire year. Interesting to keep in mind what the real world's like, you know? (Which is what motivated me to write this a couple months back.)
Oh, and if you're wondering where those numbers come from, social network GamerDNA's been working together with Gamasutra to do a series on player engagement with sequels. So far, we've looked at the Gears and Call of Duty franchises, comparing one against the other and also measuring whether the release of a sequel elicits a predictable response from owners of the prior games -- and whether DLC really serves to increase engangement in the long term (some interesting stats there for those that love charts. Charts!) Check 'em out.
20 comments:
The more I think about it, I realize the drought is at most two months long (December and January); if you look at the release schedule for the next month, there are plenty of interesting titles: FEAR 2, Flower, Street Fighter 4, Noby Noby Boy, Killzone 2, Star Ocean 4, Locoroco 2, Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?, and DLC for Fallout 3 and GTA 4.
So much for powering through my nigh-obscene backlog...
I for one welcome the drought, I have so much backlog to go through. I'm currently playing Fallout 3 finally, still have HL2: Ep 1 and 2 to go through from the Orange Box, borrowed the first Gears of War and will probably play through that at some point and I still have a ton more to finish in the tour mode of Rock Band 2.
Then there's the backlog that I never got around to, like my 1/4 finished gamesave of FFXII, and Odin Sphere that I hope to someday be able to finish.
And now Star Ocean 4 is right around the corner. I have a feeling my RPG days are numbered, just too much to play and so little time. Being married and working really cuts into gaming time. Haven't even had time to try the RE5 and Fear 2 demos.
I'm also glad for the short reprieve. My brother got me Super Metroid for the Virtual Console for Christmas, and I still haven't played it!
My gaming habits have been very weird the past couple weeks, I decided to break out Hellgate: London and Marvel Ultimate Alliance for another go-round. My stats, they need improving! I think I'm psyching myself up to dive back into the daunting task of Disgaea 3.
Nice new feature on Kotaku, btw. I saw the title and instantly knew it was yours ;)
I see the 'drought' as a great way to catch up on all the indie goodness, like DHSGIT, Mount & Blade and Uplink, which I never played the first time around.
Of course, there's always Left 4 Dead for when I crave some multiplayer action, and with the Scout update for TF2 on the horizon, I hardly think I'm going to be bored games-wise.
Drought? What drought? I've been playing Spelunky nonstop for almost a whole month.
Drought is such a silly word considering all the gaming goodness at our fingertips. I think our drought-ness is really just pointing towards our obsession with new-nes. But we are pretty new - all of us - all of this - this video game culture thingy. It stands to reason we'd be obsessed with the new.
To comment on yesterdays question, I'm playing a mogul sim called buying-every-property-in-Bowerstone. My son and I have gone back to Lego Batman after playing a bunch of LBP. Although I'm tempted to say "Mature rated be damned" and boot up Fable 2 just long enough to show him my sustained belching/farting skills. Sometimes you have to really reach to stay "cool" as a dad.
"Many of you reported not yet having gotten through Fallout 3's 80-plus hours -- really? Oh goodness, what's wrong with you?"
Old age? In all seriousness, considering the obscene hours poured into Oblivion and how stylish and generally polished Fallout 3 feels, I'm surprised myself. Partly it's knowing I won't be able to put it down once I start in earnest.
Oh, who am I kidding? I dun bad thing. I promise I'll do good, George. I can change! I are go Wasteland!
It's good to see things like this, especially with a project I'm working on with a few others. I spent just under 200 hours on Fallout 3 and that's probably going to double once I actually buy the damn game for my 360 (I initially Gameflyed it for my Ps3).
2009 is going to be one big year of perversely enjoying what I already have. I intend to mainly try and catch up on my RPGs while my annual MGS series playt-hrough will start sometime in spring most likely (I'm excited to try MG-MGS4 in rapid-fire succession now). I also have to find time dig into LBP, as I refuse to do any serious writing for that game until it's "legs start running".
I do intend to check out things like RE5 and Street Fighter 4, but 2009 really doesn't interest me all that much to be honest. 2008 was my year personally, and I'm still not done with it.
~sLs~
The reason people get scared there's a "drought" is because we're consumers. People love to spend, it's part of how we identify ourselves as a participant in the global economy (which is admittedly fucked right now) and socialise, in part.
But, all you need is one good game, something with enough substance to keep you enthralled, such as Fallout 3, and enough bonus features to pull you back for a replay.
I think I'd happily survive months owning only Skate 2 and Devil May Cry 4 because they've got so much to offer in the terms of replayability and new features.
Unfortunately, we're compelled to purchase and suffer withdrawal when we don't. Heck, now that I'm not buying games anymore I've diverted those funds to shoes. And believe me, I don't need any more shoes.
Thank Izanagi for Persona 4! I have no other games I wish to play in the near future, until No More Heroes 2. Travis Fieldgoal errr I mean Touchdown rocks my socks off, in a totally heterosexual way
Drought?
For the console lackeys maybe, but we PC types are expecting Dawn of War 2 in a couple of weeks (playing the demo/beta now) and Empire: Total War in March, which should keep us sated for a while.
To be concerned at a drought in game releases is to buy in to the whole 'must have the new game' culture that drives us to dismiss games older than 6 months.
I've just started Beyond Good and Evil, and I'm enjoying it so far (though I've only just got as far as getting the hovercraft powered up).
We have so many excellent games to play already. In fact I'd almost go as far as to suggest we don't need 2009 to produce anything spectacular - we can 'manage' on what is already in a very full back catalog. Mind you, there's a lot of stores and websites that would go out of business if we could collectively overcome our obsession with the new - perhaps this isn't a sensible suggestion in such economic times when governments are trying to encourage us to spend our way out of the recession. :-)
The drought doesn't actually mean "there are no games for me to play". It means "there are no games that I'm the first to play." Those of us who are complaining that it's 3 weeks until Street Fighter 4 are the kind of people who secretly love telling others, "Here's what I thought about this awesome game. You should buy it and play with me."
I've long held the opinion that there's a somewhat skewed idea of what this so called 'drought' actually is.
If there are 10 games I want to check out over the holiday period, they're most likely going to last me into February. The thing with many avid gamers is that once something is bought is no longer seems to count as new - even it was only a month or two ago.
Gaming journalists would describe the drought as a period where no big releases were hitting the street. For the average consumer, does that equate to 'nothing to buy or play'? Like you said "the majority of video game consumers...probably have no idea that there is a "drought" going on". They don't buy all of the big releases at once and sit then on a shelf like most of us do.
Even through the past two summer droughts, we had more than enough to hold us over until those golden months of autumn poured it's future backlog onto us.
After the chunk of change I dropped at University this month (textbooks, parking, etc), I welcome a lull in game releases. It allows me time to catch up in my backlog (as mentioned last time), but also to participate in things like the VGC.
I really enjoyed that I gamer column Leigh, I don't know how i missed that when it ran the first time.
I had a really similar set of experiences all within one game. World of Warcraft. I can't tell you how many times i've met WoW players who really seemed to live in a different world than the one I was in for a long time. They weren't even to the level cap yet, they didn't have a full set of gear or spreadsheets or any of the stuff that I assumed about WoW players from my raiding guild.
What I think is really alarming about this though is how inbridgeable the cultural divide amongst WoW players is. If you take a look at any blog post about progression on the WoW forums or WoWinsider there is almost no way of people from different spheres of WoW to talk to each other they all just scream and yell about how superior their group of players is.
I wonder if it's even possible to have a reasonable dialog between people at different points on the spectrum because those points on the spectrum color so much of their perception of everything that it really poisons much of the discussion to begin with.
This year has been rather unique in terms of Deluge versus Drought. The slew of games that came out during the Busy Season was very much online-focused, like L4D and Gears of War 2. And games like COD4 are still going strong thanks to an ingenious matchup system and fun and accessible multiplayer gameplay.
For those still interested in the PC realm (PC is not dead!), there were so many great games in 2008 that the work is cut out for them.
And the storm is coming back in February. No rest for the wicked, I guess.
Gotta go back to Valkyria Chronicles, now. Toodles!
Yeah, there's no drought of games to play, because games come out faster than people can play through them. There's only a drought of games for reviewers to review.
Its not so much a lack of games to review, its a lack of games which anyone would pay you to review.
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