Posted 06 June 2012 - 04:50 AM
No, no, see, I know a venture capitalist. He lives in a huge place in Cambridge (Mass) and drives a Bentley. And there have been times when he's thrown the dice, and he's lost, and lost big. If you're a venture capitalist, thats just part of the business - and there have been times when this fellow was dead broke. I, however, am neither a venture capitalist, or rich - just as I cannot afford to throw money at a casino and risk it, or the stock market, or a startup, I cannot afford to throw money at a game which, as far as I know, is vaporware. I dont gamble - cant gamble. And I've been playing computer games since Pong. What I've learned is that you put your trust in reputations - you want me to drop a pre-order on HL3? Done. The HL series has consistently shown inovation, attention to detail, quality, excellent writing, great voice actors - so yes, HL3 sight unseen. And because its Valve - who have also given us the Portal and CS series. When CS:GO was announced, it went on my wishlist - but heres the thing about beta - when I got the key for the beta and took a look at what they'd done to my belov'ed CounterStrike, it went from want to must have. Just the new modes alone would make it worth my while, and while its clearly a beta (eg: 'Hint text goes here' in the startup screen), its clear that all it needs is a bit of polish, and it'll be incredible.
I'm not going to spend a dime until I have proof this game is as much fun as MW mercs - or even the original MW. For all I know, this could be a Civ or it could be a Civ:Call to Power - one is aCiv, the other is not. So, they've called it Mechwarrior: Online, and they've got mechs you know from Battletech - but that doesnt make it Battletech - this game has no reputation for me to stake money on. This company? Never heard of 'em. They could turn out to be as fluffy and cuddly as Wargaming.net - where everything is on a need to know basis, and not a single one of you need to know. It could be as Nerf happy as WG, it could be 'lets completely alter every vehicle in the game each patch!' as WG. And I like World of Tanks. Still havent spent a dime on them, because I dont trust them.
Valve I trust - gonna buy CS:GO. Gonna get me the Civ V expansion - havent seen this good a Civ since the first one - played it, liked it, gonna bet the expansion is worth the money. Never played a Pirannah game - all I have is their entry in Wikipedia to go on, and even my 9 year old knows not to trust that.
-Don