Patient Gaming

[Brian Boru]

Gadzooks, we don't have a thread to which we can direct the unfortunate! How… er, how unfortunate
We're all sorry about this—since PCG stands for Patient Clever Gamers, there's just no excuse for such an oversight

What is Patient Gaming?​

Not a genre or style of play, but rather an approach to acquiring games. PGs—ie Patient Gamers—do not buy on or near release… we leave that to the sadly unfortunate, for whom as said, this thread is a public service.

But to try and keep it general, I propose a PG is just someone who makes a conscious decision to wait for some period beyond release day.

Benefits of Patient Gaming​

Quality
♣ Bugs—they're fixed;
♦ Bugs—they're not fixed, and you know they won't be;
♥ Bugs—unofficial community patches are available, which fix a lot of the problems;
♠ Bugs—stop rewarding companies for releasing with bugs!
♣ Mods—if the devs made their game modifiable, there will be dozens to thousands of mods available, aimed at improving every sub-par aspect of the game.
♦ DRM—A lot of AAA titles once they become cheap have also lost their DRM service [ETA via @Frag Maniac]
♥ Replay—as a PG, I replay because I love the game… not because the release was a mess which has since improved.

"Most games I looked forward to this year were buggy, broken and had terrible servers/problems connecting for several days/weeks"—DXCHASE

Help
♣ Walkthrus, videos, articles, forum threads… loads of these available for the original game. Forums will also cater to the recent state of the game, with all kinds of workarounds and similar advice for unfixed bugs.
♦ Recent player reviews—some of excellent quality—so you can assess the current state of the game.

Cost
♣ Hardware has been crazy recently, with GPUs alone costing more than I've ever spent on a complete mid-range gaming PC build. You save many hundreds of dollars by not needing recent models—my 1060 GPU is currently 4 generations behind and will be at least 5 before I build again, while my i7-7 CPU is now 6 gens back, but I've been playing Far Cry 6 with great enjoyment of its beautiful world.

♦ If you're a weird player like me, the help mentioned above may not mean you'll enjoy the gameplay—I've bought many games which ended up 'not doing it' for me. That's not fun on a limited budget—buying very cheap means you can take the risk… without much risk.

♥ All major expansions and minor DLCs included in the Palladium-Plutonium-SuperDuperium-GotY versions of the game.
♠ Time. Time is a cost for many busy people, who have limited gaming time—don't waste it on poor experiences.
♣ All on sale for 50-90% off retail price!

General
♣ If you can train yourself to become a PG, then you can apply that to other areas of your life—after all, it's well known that 'patience is a virtue'. Pardon the signal.
♦ Relaxed, wide-ranging play—you avoid the subconscious urge to speed thru a game so you can brag or at least hold your own in the latest gamer chat topic. Go where you want, explore at leisure, play when you want… start over after you've got the hang of the mechanics and the lay of the land on Easy.

Downsides of Patient Gaming​

Spoilers
This probably mainly affects story-based games, but most games can be spoiled if you don't avoid coverage. Not an issue for me tho, I like to know a lot about a game before deciding it's worth my time—so it's a different personal consideration for every gamer.

MultiPlayer
Unless a game is a classic, the multiplayer scene will decrease over time and there will come a time when it's no longer practical, or maybe even the servers have been switched off. PG definitely works best for single-player gaming.

Hype, memes, chat
PG misses out on all the early community excitement and interaction—this can be a negative if your gaming motivation is mainly social, or of course a positive if you want a more considered view of a game before deciding to jump in.

Compatibility?
Probably not a concern for PC gaming on Windows, most old games work fine in Windows 10 or else work in 'Compatibility Mode'—eg I got 1995's original Command and Conquer to work easily 3-4 years ago. But it is a possible problem

Sources​

Forbes
Patient Gaming Will Save You Time And Money

GrownGaming
Patient Gamer: Is It Time to Actually Become One?

WhatNerd
What Is “Patient Gaming”? 5 Reasons to Be a Patient Gamer

Reddit
The 10 Levels of Patient Gamers
I love this post! And that sub-reddit has over ½ million PG members!!

 

[Colif]

Patient gaming sounds like something you do when you get sick

patient having 2 meanings is always fun - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patient

 

[Slasken]

Patient gaming sounds like something you do when you get sick

patient having 2 meanings is always fun - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patient

Fun fact: It comes from the Latin word, pati, actually, and means to bear or suffer. So both makes sense.

 

[Colif]

Brian's meaning makes sense. Waiting until games are patched to actually work should be what everyone does now... Maybe not wait a year but it might send a message if suddenly no one pre ordered anything or run out and buy it on 1st day/week its out.

They won't change otherwise. Games will just get worse over time. Find more ways to charge you for things that were part of game before.

 

[Sarafan]

Being a patient gamer is a good thing, but sometimes you don't have enough... patience to be one. I don't buy games on release dates frequently, but it happens. Two months ago I bought Baldur's Gate 3 and I'll probably suffer when playing the game on release date, but I just can't wait in this case. I also consider buying Diablo 4, Starfield, Stalker 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 add-on on their release dates... Huh, that's quite a list. Probably I won't buy all of them though, but the fact is the older I get, the less patience I have.

 

[Brian Boru]

Patient gaming sounds like something you do when you get sick

Yes indeed, ideally suited to RPG players.

I suppose the epitome of PG'ing is to buy Theme Hospital at a deep discount, and still charge it to your health insurance.

the older I get, the less patience I have

You need to start an Impatient Gaming movement—IGN = Impatient Gaming Noobs

 

[Sarafan]

You need to start an Impatient Gaming movement—IGN = Impatient Gaming Noobs

Not sure if that won't involve a ban on PC Gamer forums...

 

[Colif]

Blizzard generally don't release broken games... the engine works anyway... Bethesda meanwhile... its why I look forward to all the bug videos from that game but I doubt I buy it.

 

[ipman]

I think it probably also comes down to a number of factors.

Personality type, if you think that owning the latest game on release date and having the newest specs make you somehow COOL and fashionable, then great, but remember you're a gamer.

I did buy a couple of games early on at full price, just wanted to test out my new system with latest games, but I soon learnt the benefits of playing the long game.(detailed in OP).

I also play games 'patiently', I take my time, enjoy every aspect, don't rush to finish missions, quests or the game. I enjoy slowly gaining the inventory and skills and becoming adept at the gameplay itself.
I enjoy planning attacks and using stealth and traps/ambushes, pitting enemy against enemy.

So 'patient' to me means playing the long game when playing/buying games or tech or in life.

I get games at great value(even free, just started Death Stranding and Metro Last Light), without all the hyped prices and hulabaloo, or even the early dissappointment that puts some players off a game.

Plus I get the best value from my system and my games. Life's good.

 

[Sarafan]

Blizzard generally don't release broken games... the engine works anyway... Bethesda meanwhile... its why I look forward to all the bug videos from that game but I doubt I buy it.

That's true. If they manage to avoid server problems on release date somehow, the game should work quite fine. It's hard to expect something similar from Bethesda, so Starfield is a good candidate to not buying it on the release date. It might be the same with Stalker 2. Previous installments were bugged as hell when they were released. So that leaves me with Diablo 4 and CP2077 add-on. I doubt CDPR will repeat the failure from the release of base game. There will be some bugs probably, but not as much as in Starfield. I'm also considering to buy Palace of Ice DLC for Solasta, but I haven't finished the base game yet and Lost Valley DLC also had lots of bugs. So I'm currently undecided.

 

[Colif]

I should get No Man's Sky, it should almost be finished now. Wait a few years for it... looks too big now.

We need big games to fail at launch sometimes to make people stop believing hype, but not all the time. Some companies do it all the time and yet people forgive them... I don't know why. I would be amazed if Bethesda can release a game that isn't a buggy mess in some way, for the first few weeks. It would be a nice change.

Last Epoch got a 5gb patch today, one day it might be out of beta. Might play it again then.

Brian will be in a nursing home by time Star Citizen is released and out long enough for him to play it bug free.

 

[Zloth]

Speaking of Star Citizen - I paid for that over a decade before release. It's far enough back that inflation starts to become a consideration. Yes, I bought way before release, but when it does release, the going price of games will be at about $200, so it was a good investment!

The wish list is an incredibly important tool to the patient gamer. When the hype is gone, it's the only thing that's going to remind you that the game is even out there. Steam's wish list system is a really good one that will even notify you when your wished-for game is on sale. It only covers Steam sales, though. I wonder if there's a website that covers multiple platforms?

Looks like there's something called AllMyGames that might do it, but you have to sign up just to find out what it really does. Pah. Just let me pick my games, put my list in a cookie, then tell me what's on sale when I visit the website. Probably along with an advertisement to pay for bandwidth and central server that's tracking all the sales.

 

[mainer]

I'm a bit of both now, both PG (patient gamer) and IG (impatient gamer), it mostly depends upon the game, and what studio developed it.

I tend to have a compulsive-type personality (self diagnosis), and in the past I purchased most/many games on day one, or even preordered; driving out to the local Electonics Boutique to buy a game at release, or pickup a preorder. That even bled over into hardware purchases, like graphics cards. "I need it!" "I want it!" "SLI?, well I guess I need two graphics cards!"

But that modified over the years, as digital distribution (for games) became the primary purchase method and graphics cards became stupidly expensive. Also, getting burned a few times on games that disappointed, as well as getting older in years (At least getting older has some benefit other than having more hair in your ears.)

In the present day, there are still games that I will purchase day one, or even preorder. Single player RPGs from Bethesda (@Colif 's favorite developer ) like Starfield and any new Elder Scrolls or Fallout game. I know they'll be buggy. I know they'll have multiple patches down the road. I know that in 2 years down the road there will be a community patch and an increasing number of mods. I know the game(s) will be cheaper. That's great, but I'll still buy/play those games on release.

But with most (not all, but most) other games, I'll take a "wait and see" approach, waiting for reviews before I make the purchase. Maybe even waiting a year or more for a sale. Games from Bioware have unfortunately fallen into that category now with all the turbulent development that's affected the Mass Effect & Dagon Age games.

If you're a weird player like me,

Yes, we are. Though I think our weirdness characteristics may vary.

 

[Brian Boru]

I wonder if there's a website that covers multiple platforms?

I'm with IsThereAnyDeal.com <waitlist@isthereanydeal.com> which provides an excellent customizable service—here's an extract from their regular email, note options in last 2 lines.

Here's a sample of outlets they cover:

more hair in your ears

You probably know that's an evolutionary response to having people make noise near your ears—aka talking—for more than 2 decades. Brain has to protect itself from PLEBS—People Loosing Eternal BS—and hairs make an excellent filter.

AllMyGames

Seems to be abandoned.

weirdness characteristics may vary

Well, if they didn't, that would be… weird. Yeah.

 

[Slasken]

I usually wait for a sale, but there are some games that I will buy on day one.

I have a huge backlog of games, so lately I have just been playing through them and not buying much.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I think most people are a mixture of both?

There's almost always an interesting looking game coming out. I'll pick up smaller budget games on a bit of a whim if theyre 20, 30 or under at times. If the game has positive buzz from community and critics that I follow and piques my interest, even if I dont gel with it then it at least feels like I've at least supported something worthwhile.

Very rarely I pay full price for a AAAish game. Steam account history shows 6 games in the last 10 years I bought games for 49.99 or more.

 

[Colif]

Speaking of Star Citizen - I paid for that over a decade before release. It's far enough back that inflation starts to become a consideration. Yes, I bought way before release, but when it does release, the going price of games will be at about $200, so it was a good investment!

games that take over 12 years to be released don't have a good track record. Refer Duke Nukem Forever

I am not sure there is a game there and Mr Roberts didn't just make it up to fund his retirement.

 

[Brian Boru]

Steam account history shows 6 games in the last 10 years I bought games for 49.99 or more

Hmm, interesting—I only have one such, back in 2012:
Far Cry 3 - Deluxe - $59.99

My next dearest is 3 years ago, $44 for the complete Civ6 collection—which equated to 75% discount at the time.

I only have one near-release purchase, and that's $22 the day after release for Command and Conquer Remastered—I had followed the dev, checked day 1 player reviews, and wanted to lend my vote to getting later games in the series also remastered.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

From what I can tell I've only bought 3 games on release day on this Steam account which started in 2012: Elden Ring and Sekiro for sure. Bought Total War Warhammer 2 on release day, if not very soon after. None of those were broken with bugs at all, and I do check reviews to make sure things arent a disaster before I buy them even if I'm feeling all in.

Probably well into double digits for things I payed full price for all in all, if I'm really excited to play something I sometimes just grab it if its under 30ish. Smaller budget games dont tend to be as buggy in my experience, narrower scope makes things way easier to polish properly.

Guess I'm more impatient than patient overall

 

[Colif]

only 1 game in Steam History that was a pre order - Civ 6 at $USD 69.95
some stage in 2016 they started charging in AUD but its still most expensive game I have bought on Steam.

Average price of games I bought there is $USD20.00

I don't wait, I have bought a few in early access if they let me
Dorf Romantic
Last Epoch
Path of Exile (long ago)

I would have bought Pan'orama but had to be happy with free beta.

but I don't really play many AAA games so the price isn't so big.

 

[Brian Boru]

Note to all who are both a Patient and Impatient Gamer: Do you realize this makes you a

Spoiler

PIG

?

 

[Rolfil]

I'd say I'm reasonably patient. On the hardware front I gradually upgrade bits. I'm still running a Ryzen 5 1600X but upgraded my GTX 1060 to a 6700XT. But I don't expect to upgrade to a new GPU for at least 2-3 years.

For games it's about cost. With high inflation, rising food prices etc I can't justify paying £50-60 on a game unless I really do want to play it and I know it won't go down in price.

Wait a year to 18 months and you can pick up some real bargains. Far Cry 6 on Epic is £12.49 for the standard edition and £20.99 for the Gold Edition during their MEGA Sale.

I tend to use isthereanydeal to track games I'm interested in over longer periods of time.

For example Red Dead Redemption 2 is currently £19.80 on Games Planet UK but £16.07 on Games Planet US but still activates in the UK.

And then we have Epic free games and other F2P games. I have a huge backlog of games that I'll never get around to playing. Why buy new games when you already have a lot that you really should play

 

[Colif]

I'd say I'm reasonably patient. On the hardware front I gradually upgrade bits. I'm still running a Ryzen 5 1600X but upgraded my GTX 1060 to a 6700XT. But I don't expect to upgrade to a new GPU for at least 2-3 years.

depending on motherboard you could upgrade CPU as well, that would help GPU now.

I am thinking about doing same thing with my 3600xt, just have to stop thinking and actually buy new CPU... that is hard part.

I hardly buy any games so when I buy doesn't really make a major difference. I am not buying a new game every week/month or even year in some cases. My Steam history goes back to 2008 and there is a gap of 4 years between 2 of them. Between 2016 & 2020 I bought nothing on steam.
I prefer to find something good and play it a long time...
I know I bought 2 games on Battlenet as well - Diablo 3 & resurrected. I didn't wait very long for those 2. I haven't waited very long for a Diablo game yet

 

[mainer]

Note to all who are both a Patient and Impatient Gamer: Do you realize this makes you a

Spoiler

PIG

?

Monthly meeting of the Patient Impatient Gamers Club:

 

[Sarafan]

Just as I expected. Solasta Palace of Ice DLC is riddled with bugs. The developers already started patching it, but it appears that some of the bugs made into other campaigns as well... This means that the DLC goes on the patient gaming list for now.