How I Vote with My Wallet | Cold Take
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- čas přidán 19. 05. 2024
- This week on Cold Take, Frost shares his philosophy for how he purchases games.
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This video has just described me when it comes to AAA games I no longer feel that urge to buy day one and pre order is not even something in my vocabulary anymore except of course like this video said when it comes to fromsoftware I paid the elden ring dlc the day it was available and indie that are under $40 aud that I have been looking forward to. I'm still working on not buying games that are on crazy cheap sales like a game that is only $7 at 90% off is still hard to resist at times but no because my backlog is so big I am getting much better at just waiting as I have plenty to play already. Unfortunately my friend still buys assassin's creed games collectiors edition with the statue and everything as a pre order but I still say "cool bro" when he tells me because I remember being similar to that many years ago.
@@danielcalabrese5769 No studio/publisher is good enough for me to pre-order something from them.
If their earlier titles were so good, they should have enough money to survive a new release.
Should they be in hard need of money, they can go to the bank and get a loan.
There are games you can not buy any more. Like original baldurs gate 1 and 2. In some cases pirating is the only way to preserve games.
1) Never pre-order.
2) Treat kickstarters as a donation.
3) Do not buy day 1, or day 2, wait until the hype dust has settled.
4) Understand what you are buying, not what the marketing tells you that you are buying - READ THE TOS.
5) Understand your refund rights before buying.
This needs to be stickied on this thread. If you’re waiting for some mass boycott to force the gaming industry to change, then you’re going to be waiting a long time.
Working within the system and actually reading up on games is a good way to make smart decisions . Basically everything OP mentioned in their posts.
Also, you are buying the game as it is, not what it promises to be. (See: Early-access and betas)
Watch reviews from someone who has the same tastes as you.
I go one step further, I consider Early access a donation, and kickstarters casting cash into the void and hoping something comes back.
Consumers seem to really hate being informed unfortunately.
"I'm also not worried about being late to the conversation because, thankfully, I'm an introvert."
Amen brother, amen.
I feel seen, and I'm not on the schedule for social niceties, please leave
Honestly though. Once you get over FOMO your gaming options are so much better
I have a tendency to be an absolute late bloomer when it comes to discovering amazing content, but by that it’s much easier to focus on stuff that aged like fine wine and I get to see it for what it is, unbiased by hype in either direction.
Honestly it feels to me like FOMO is kinda going by the wayside. Like, most of my friends happen to have different interests so even when there's crossover it's treated like "Huh, cool that you're trying that thing I liked" rather than 'WHY HAVEN'T YOU DONE THIS YET??"
I’m not an introvert, but I’ve learned how to steer clear from conversations and spoilers of games that I don’t want spoiled and don’t mind buying them years down the line when they’re much cheaper. I recently got a new gaming rig and finally playing so many games I’ve missed out on all these years and got quite a backlog of older games going that’ll keep me busy for years, letting me wait for the “new” games to get both cheaper and hopefully better too since lots of AAA titles these days come out in a broken state and unfinished, so it’s nice to buy them once all the updates and DLC are done
Man am I glad Second Wind is going well. What a good ending
I'd hardly even call it an ending. It's a fantastic start to a new chapter
@@Petsinwinter2 This. But yeah, as an ancient veteran of The Escapist, I too was pretty surprised by the comeback. The Escapist has been going downhill for decades so I expected that it wouldn't be long for the site to shut down finally and the team members to also all go their separate ways, never to meet again. But here we are, with Frost nailing Cold Take after Cold Take and, of course, Yahtzee being as dependable as ever with the comedy. I need to check out some of SW's other content creators as well. And they need to start up another forum. Preferably without the BS of the overly restrictive and hypocritical rules of the past.
@@arnox4554 if you want my recommendation, JM8's been killing it with Design Delve
@@arnox4554it was recovering really well under Nick's leadership, for several years prior to the mass walkout and the formation of Second Wind. Most of this content was already airing by then.
Only a few of the longest running shows were affected by the changes, since our good guy EIC made sure the creator contracts allowed them to keep the rights to their work in the case of a catastrophe.
It doesn't sound like it, but if you weren't around when everything went down, thousands of us simultaneously turned the old services into a ghost town, and migrated to what would become SW, all at once in the course of a week. And, bunch of new folks jumped on for the ride as it hit it's critical mass.
I've, honestly, never seen anything like it first hand. It was very cool to be a small part of.
@@arnox4554 I was only subscribed to Escapist for Zero Punctuation so when Second Wind started I immediately jumped ship as I'm so happy I did and I'm glad to continue to support them.
As for other SW content I highly recommend Design Delve. Gives a fascinating and entertaining look behind the scenes when it comes to designing a video game. J is great with his little doggo and whilst it took him a few episodes for him to get into the grove he doesn't disappoint and alongside Cold Take with Frost and Fully Ramblomatic (and semi ramblomatic) with Yathzee it's some of my favourite content from SW.
"I shop, there for I am. I don't really buy that"
Alright, Mr. nothing, take my upvote. that was good.
"Piracy is almost always a service problem..." Gabe
I voted involuntarily when Blizz locked out my bnet account of 20+years. Impossible, outsourced tech support meant I didn't get it back. Then I had to take a hard look at what I was actually locked out of. After a few weeks of reflection, I realized the prison had just let me walk out Scott-free. Got into woodworking, tracing a saw blade along a pattern scratches many of the same itches as gaming.
You said it. Also nice to step back from a finished project. Great hobby. Just don't fall prey to the "you must use this tool brand or technique or you're not doing real woodworking." Feels very reminiscent of the attitude behind console wars. "My brand is better than yours... Because."
Make some sawdust!
i started playing WoW back then when it came out, was addicted for three whole months. never had smth like this with a game. then a bounced fee from my bank account. couldn't play for two weeks. and then when i could again....the addiction was gone 🤷
@@davidnorton9997 Seems like involving online communities in your hobby is just a quick way to ruin it for yourself regardless of what it is.
I like hiking and fishing, I stay far away from online communities for either of these. Any tips I could learn are immediately blocked by the extreme gatekeeping.
"Oh you are not fully decked out in Patagonia"
"Oh you only plan a 5 mile round trip you can fit into an afternoon, that's just a walk in the woods"
"Oh your fly rod didn't cost at least 400 usd, how are you even fishing that Walmart trash?"
Ironic I know, that I'm here on a gaming video.
As an added bonus, when you finish something in woodworking, that thing can serve a purpose. If you're going to do something repetitive, it may as well be productive in some way, and not just be a way to 'earn' imaginary things that will vanish whenever the servers go down.
I'm all for playing video games and enjoying grindy ones too, if you like... but they need to be _fun._ That's job one for any game.
The good ending we all deserve, but few have the fortune to find.
I'm gonna need a 3 hour video of Frost reading me bedtime stories, please and thank you. :)
"Every 2024 Cold Take" video?
With that voice, he would turn even the most colorful fairy tale into a noir detective story. And I'm all for it.
He should read The Raven like James Earl Jones did for The Simpsons
“Good night, moon”
German bedtime stories!
Wine is made by fermenting the sugars in grape juice into alcohol. Dry is when there are little to no sugars left in the drink. The sweeter, the more sugar present. The details get quite involved and result in different wines, though. Red, rose, white, etc. Even age plays a role in that younger wines tend to have a "sharper" flavor while aged gets more smooth.
My parents always told me if the wine tasted like alcoholic sugar, it was not dry. My default is red Zinfandel, so pretty dry as bones.
unless it's distilled spirits, in that case dry means that it dries out your mouth
Dry is not just absence of sugars, I'd argue it's also to do with a certain level of tanins
@@fabe61 both tannins/oils and alcohol content dries out the mouth
"Never cook with a wine you wouldn't drink." - NY Culinary Arts School trained chef in the one cooking class I took.
I make one exception to that rule - bottom-shelf Gekkeikan sake is great for cooking with, but I'd never drink it straight. Makes an OK cocktail though so maybe this is just half an exception.
Since I don't drink, that would mean I could never use wine, sake, mirin, shaoxing and so on for cooking.
I’m with Frost, I really haven’t ever cared about how pretty graphics are. As long as I’m having fun, I don’t care how a game looks.
I like pretty graphics. But pretty and hardware-intensive are very different things. Artstyle is more important than how many particles or lighting effects you can display on a single frame.
@@armelior4610 Seconding. A clear distinct Style can stand out way more than photorealistic graphics - it's like how Wolf Walkers stands out against Disney animation for it's own clear style, or Ghibli works against so many other anime. It makes them distinct as well as often aging better.
@@armelior4610 very good point.
Graphics as a seller really haven't felt like a selling point since like... 2007 when "Yeah but can it run Crysis" was a meme. It's kind of hilarious to go back over screenshots of graphical powerhouse games over 5 year intervals from 1993-now and see how little appreciable difference there's been in the last 5 years. I don't mean for this to sound like I am diminishing the hard work of game artists because it is absolutely incredible what is currently allowable in the visual fidelity department, but it's nothing like going from Doom (1993) to Unreal (1998) or Unreal (1998) to Doom 3 (2004).
Exactly. I just played through Eternights, and the graphics are nothing that special. In fact, there are points where they look pretty cheap. However, the game itself is very fun, and the writing and characters were so good that I was completely invested in their stories and relationships.
Anyone who says that graphics make a game is objectively wrong, and should be ignored.
Great Cold Take. I hope people take it to heart that brand loyalty is not going to lead to any kind of reward. You can be loyal to a brand, but that brand sure isn't going to be loyal to you
Putting in Stan when you start talking about parasocial relationships and the lack of emotion in buying/selling products ( 6:23 ) is an absolutely fantastic move. Props to the editor.
@2:44
"It's essentially paying the most I'll ever pay for a game in the worst state it's ever gonna be in."
Remember when game developers tried their damnest to clean a game of bugs before release *_PRECISELY_* so that they'd be bought day one, at their most expensive? I miss those days. I miss them so bad. 😞
This era has never existed lol, you'll find tons of fan patches for all kinds of games. Hit games from back in the day were honestly worse in some aspects. These days I don't find many games that just crash straight to desktop, but I have played many 2000 era games that would just crash to desktop every hour like the original kotor. Crunch and delivering games too early is basically what both kotor 2 and dragon age 2 experienced. Many of those games had bugged questlines as well, and those would never get fixed. Vampire the masquerade is spoken of fondly nowadays but it also suffered from that kindof issue.
@@studentt6064 Games have always had bugs, but I've been around since the early days of gaming and I can't remember almost any games on a cassette, cartridge, disk, or CD that had the kind of highly-visible playability issues that are fairly common in modern always-online games. Can you share your experience with old classic titles and major gameplay bugs? I know a few old games got recalled, but aside from that, were there really many you played back then that had issues on par with things we regularly see today like constant server disconnects, horrible lag and rubberbanding, desyncs, corrupt save files, server rollbacks, broken UIs, and soft locks?
"The graphics are hardly noticeable"
THANK YOU! Christ I wish the MARKETING scam of "but but but graphics/fps" would just die out.
I'd rather have PS4 looking games running at 60 fps at decent resolution than whatever we get now; "540p upscaled to 1080p / 30fps with dips". I wouldnt mind some end of PS3-era games either. Like hell, Last of us 1 came out on PS3 and I found it fine.
I'd make the argument that FPS is actually important, but the rest is accurate.
@@Some_Really_Random_Dude. In multiplayer, probably. I'm personally 100% in the "gimme 120FPS over 4k anyday" camp anyway though.
To me every competent game since 2007 looks pretty much alright
Things looking better isn’t a scam.
i don't vote with my wallet to take down the evils on the gaming world i vote to lift up the good games out there. the big AAA games can do whatever as long as i can have my smaller and better games
I have several friends who will say with 100% confidence that Yahtzee carried the company before, and is the reason why so many people followed the crew to Second Wind. Not an unfair statement in my book, but I will say that in the past six months, Frost has very much become an equal pillar to this channel. If you see this, I appreciate you sharing your view on things, and how you go about doing so. Thank you and good luck going forward!
He still eclipses everyone else in views, but they're catching up
The other company had horrible marketing, where they did not want to market their other videos.
My philosophy, which has saved me so much money over the past 5 years or so when I adopted it:
Ignore sales. Do not buy a game until you are about to play it. Don't do it. Not for that price. No, not even for a single dollar. Not even a Humble Bundle with 40 games for $12.
This means I bought Elden Ring at full price on launch day. This also means I bought Control 3 years after release for less than half price. Sometimes, a game I'm interested in ends up in a giveaway and I get it for absolutely nothing. But mainly, it means I haven't spent hundreds of dollars on games that I plan to play but just never get around to playing. And it means my money goes to games I actually play, not vaguely thrown into the void for games that had a neat trailer and a sharp sale.
A philosophy I can very much get behind. I once decided to finally organize my steam backlog after a far-too-long habit of pulling the trigger buying on-sale games with a "well how can I lose?" attitude. Two of the categories I made were called "poor purchase" and "will never finish" though perhaps those two are synonymous. After seeing how distressingly large those two categories got, I stopped my impulse buying. A $15 on-sale game that I will never play is a waste of $15. An $80 game that I sink hours into and leaves a smile on my face is $80 well spent.
I have a similar-ish rule, though I will buy things even if I won't play them immediately if they're less than ~£3. This was mostly because until recently I didn't have a PC able to play a chunk of newer games but I had recommendations from trusted friends - if a game went under a certain price I'd get it for then. And now I _do_ have a PC that can play them I am enjoying playing through the backlog - with the firm rule of _no more games til I've finished these ones._ Honestly, the rule is holding up better than my "No more books til you've finished your reading backlog" rule (no impulse purchases since I got the new PC during lockdown!), so I count that as a win!
I took on a pick 3 system after falling into that trap.
3 games a year, you purchase, you play, no more. Rest comes from the current library.
Frankly I'm amazed this is written like it's not more common.
Not a single game in my Steam library is one I bought and never played; most of the ones I never played are free, from giveaways, or additional games from a Humble Bundle that I didn't care for but did play the game I bought the bundle for (at a cheaper price than buying it alone).
Same. I used to buy stuff during Steam sales just because it was a good price and the game was supposed to be good, but eventually I realized I wasn't playing any of it. So for years now, I've followed the rule: If I'm not about to play it very soon, I don't buy it no matter how steep the discount is. It'll always go on sale again later, and maybe then I'll be ready to play it. If not... There is literally ALWAYS another sale.
“It really makes you appreciate the taste of glass, if nothing else.” That sentence, that whole post credits, with that voice, might be the closest I’ve ever felt to witnessing the Tom Wait’s of a gaming generation.
The last triple A game I bought was the Witcher 3 game of the year edition. Which was on 80% discount. I never felt a need to buy AAA games for full price.
Y'know, I like that you put so much emphasis on care for people, talking about how it doesn't make you a good person for yelling at other people for what they buy.
All hail the credit talkover!
The mention of the patient gamers subreddit makes me wonder if there's a similar community somewhere else, since I've gone effectively cold turkey on reddit use after their whole API fiasco about a year ago (not to mention all the other mistakes they've made since).
I don't know if it exists but try looking for the Discord server for the subreddit, as convoluted as that may sound.
@@LucaTheStar Ugh, I'd give up and use Reddit before I ever both with Discord
There's also the Lemmy instance for patient gamers. The posts are less frequent, but the users there do try to put a focus on more thoughtful discussion.
@@mjc0961 Oof. Just scribble permanent marker messages on the inside of the rest stop bathroom stalls like the rest of us.
In a very short time frame we went from Early Access games being risky purchases to now blatantly underbaked full releases which AAA studios stand behind with complete hubris. Money talks.
Honestly nowadays it feels safer to purchase an early access smaller title than a big triple A release
@@toob4858 Too true. It's a travesty, but it's the world we live in.
Stop buying games based on popularity and brand name.
Start buying games based on quality and enjoyment factor regardless if they were niche or not.
It's as simple as that.
Sometimes games are popular because of the quality, like factorio. Damn I'm so stoked for the space age update.
How do you know a game is enjoyable if you haven't bought and played it?
@@gamejtv Or check the "hype" around it to hear qualitative opinions from other people; The biggest catch with these ideas of "only buy the good ones".
@@gamejtv pirate it, or buy it and refund it if it fails the sniff test
@@gamejtv If you've seen gameplay of it, reviews of it, discussion around it, or it's already the kind of stuff you enjoy, then buy it. For instance: I enjoy rhythm games, so I buy rhythm games that have cool songs and fun mechanics; I don't like deck-building roguelikes, but gameplay, reviews, and discussions of Balatro made me confident it'd be extremely fun.
Glad you called out r/patientgamers! One of my favorite subreddits, and the very rare gaming forum where dissenting or unpopular takes get a fair chance, and where in-depth discussion of games feels encouraged.
Of course, now we can all blame Frost for the subreddit being ruined, since it was a pristine bastion before this shout out.
Total Biscuit reference at the start, you already know video is going to bang.
I was just watching some old TB reviews and reading all the comments, got really dusty in here for some reason.
@@thecaptain6520 I like when people announce that it's safe to ignore their opinion.
I'm not convinced that games age. If you're willing to meet them half way, rarely is a game's age the problem outside of compatibility.
"I want to bottle their joy and sell it in aerosol form"
Just really liked that line lol
"Why do you need a drink for these?" Brings up philosophy: " I see. Carry on."
I love how one minute Frost is rightfully calling me out on my broken relationship with video games and the next he's not only describing wine as Welch's Grape Juice that was let out in the car for too long (a relatable mood I can relate to and that Deltarune can too) but also just talking about wine in general in the end credits😆
If its tasting like Welch's, then it's definitely not dry wine lol they put way too much sugar in those things.
my uncle imparted upon me a great saying: "you can spend a lot of money saving money like that"
the wine epilogue was gold! “Makes you appreciate the taste of glass”
"How does one 'dry wine'?"
Frost over here asking the real questions.
I have never heard of wet wine either
@@icarue993 Its usually just called "fruity" wine. Dry wine just refers to the content of sugar. Less sugar = more dry. If the wine tastes like Welch's, then they really didn't ferment the wine enough.
On the chance that this is a genuine query, and I'm not misreading irony or sarcasm, when an alcoholic beverage is described as 'dry', it is referring to how complete the fermentation is. A dry wine, or dry beer is one that has had a large portion of the sugars fermented into alcohol, and has little residual sweetness or sugars. Depending on the specifics of the fermentation process, more or less sugar will be leftover, resulting in a different flavour profile.
When I make beer, I aim to have a large amount of residual sweetness, more commonly found in drinks like IPA, or stout. The other end of the spectrum is a crisp, dry lager.
8:54 - Rule #1... never drink cooking wine; it's not that type of wine. Rule #2... never cook with cooking wine anyway; cook with a wine you can stand to drink. Even better if you just buy two bottles; put one bottle in the dish, drink the second bottle with it.
you'd genuinely be better off cooking with water than cooking wine (though if you Really can't get your hands on Any kind of wine a good substitute is usually chicken broth with a splash of red wine vinegar)
Counterpoint: I don’t drink $3 wine straight out of a glass, I don’t waste $20 wine by mixing it with tomatoes and herbs. Marsala sauce without the marsala is just sauce. Shaoxing in a stir fry is irreplaceable, so is mirin, and I’d never sip either.
Cooking wine typically has a lot of salt in it, too.
There is an exception, Shaoxing cooking wine is basically an essential ingredient to good chinese-style cooking. And Mirin is more like a sake with added sugar, so that's common in Japanese cooking.
@@robtibbetts890
there's a major difference between shaoxing and mirin and what gets labeled as "cooking wine" in walmart
I enjoy Frost over here trying to figure out if he can make prison-toilet-cooking-wine cognac :)
"What gasses my flabber..." Holy shit.
*ghasts
"George R.R. Martin was looking for any reason to not keep writing Game of Thrones"
Speaking as a reader of said series, I felt that line. I've pretty much accepted that book series will never be done.
On the topic at hand, a lot of my buying habits mirror Frost's:
- No preorders (haven't since Mass Effect 3)
- Get best deal unless I explicitly trust the developer (Larian, Supergiant)
- Don't buy day 1...preferably wait for GOTY edition to save on DLC nonsense.
- No early access. I gave Larian and Supergiant love 2 points ago but I waited for their games to be out of early access before purchasing.
One thing I've really appreciated about the Second Wind crew is they're very good at understanding what makes a game interesting to different people, and conveying that information in a way that makes sense and helps people like me make choices about my purchases. The focus on smaller indie games is also fantastic, since I might not have heard about them without that bump.
Thanks to AAA publisher launching exclusive on Epic i no longer have to question if i want to buy on release. It'll be out on sale a year later for a quarter the launch price on a store i actually like
And ironed out to boot
Better yet, just avoid those games entirely. :P I think the only game I ever got after it launched exclusive there was Satisfactory, and I got that for super cheap, and only because they've continued improving it ever since.
The chance you're missing out on some truly great gem that's not available anywhere else is INSANELY small if they're making such a terrible, anti-consumer decision. There are plenty of other hits to play!
@@RaethFennec i bought Cyberpunk at launch and i liked it. Played 20 hours, got my money worth and now i can come back a few years later to experience it anew. Same for Starfield. Bought at launch. played for 200 or so hours and will be back once the DLCs are out and mods are going. It depends. I also buy early access / DLCs on launch for devs i want to support. Rimworld, Hades 2 and The Forest being some of these titles
*Slightly concerned Frost is getting into the cooking wine. Somewhat relieved that he's not breaking out the rubbing alcohol*
I bought Hades 2 the moment it became available on Steam for Early Access. I have no intentions of playing it until it's complete.
With Supergiant Games' performance over the years, I trust them with my money more than my bank and want them to have it as soon as possible so they can continue to make their products.
I would never dream of doing this for any other studio, other than a few select others that have a similar track record.
That's an interesting idea. I might try that. I've been burned by Early Access before, but it wasn't because the game failed to live up to my expectations in its complete state. It was because I played it early and ruined the experience I had when it was actually finished. So, buying early from a trusted company and playing later could be having my cake and eating it too.
Hell, I wasn't huge on Hades and probably didn't even come close to finishing it and even I'm considering picking up 2. It's far from my top game but that shit was clean.
That same logic probably was used to justify a pre-order of CP2077. If I had a decent gaming PC at the time I probably would have done so.
People said that about Project Red. No company is infallible.
@@NoName...... CDPR was unfortunately the victim of their own hype and timing. They announced Cyberpunk 2077 way too early, and realized that the game wasn't even close to finished by the time the original release date came around. So they delayed it like 4 times in various lengths but even so the game was very much unfinished by the time the actual release date rolled around. But people were now clamoring for the game, hype was at an all time high and CDPR was already being heavily criticized for delaying the game as much as they already had. So they were basically forced to release the game before it was ready and paid the price.
Most of that is on them. They got in over their head on a genre and scope of game they'd never tried before, set unrealistic expectations for both themselves on when they could complete it and for fans on what to actually expect from the game. But credit to them, they hunkered down and worked heavily on the game and now Cyberpunk is an incredible game I'd recommend to anyone.
I enjoy the general Cold Take, but the credit commentary at the end gave me a much-needed laugh.
Wow. I did not expect to be nudged to the core of my being, my soul one might say, to ask myself questions like:
- What absuse or trickery do I tolerate in my life?
- Where do I draw the line and say "No more" when faced with corporations that assume I'll buy and consume because that's my job in their eyes and their world they try to sell and promote.
Thank you. I needed this more than I knew.
You gained a new subscriber today, whatever that may mean to you.
It’s been my experience that deep conversations, of any kind, only happen between people who know each other well or in communities that have fostered a culture around that type of discussion. Seems that something about starting deep conversations feels too intimate to be done casually and/or makes people feel vulnerable.
I know people want those conversations because if I ignore every social instinct that I have and post my deep thoughts about a game on Discord to try to start a conversation, somebody will usually take me up on it.
We need to have the deep and "hard" talks more these days I agree.
Alot of times I rarely post on CZcams or post very deep discussions because most people I interact with "don't have time" or "tldr" nearly everything i post. And some point we need to "make time" for the hard discussions otherwise we get things like companies nickle and diming customers or people who honestly think "just don't buy it 4head" is the solution when it's way more complicated (and is simplifying the actual issue).
@@protoman111 It's not even that; most consumers know that they're being fucked. We don't need to have long, drawn-out discussions about how long and hard the dick is.
It's that games are art, and we rarely discuss them as anything more than a product. Having a discussion where you, y'know, have a conversation about the feelings that games bring out of you, how they're designed, whatever-- the idea of having that type of conversation makes a lot of people feel self-conscious.
@@protoman111 To be frank with you, a lot of the time when people want "deep conversations" they really just want to stand on their soap box and dish out surface level knowledge while arguing how you're wrong and they're right. I will gladly make time for hard discussions, but I need proof that people are actually there for discussion and actually have things to say and not just babble their dogshit opinions.
@@crushycrawfishy1765 That's fair. Though those are folks who don't want deep discussions: they want to hear themselves talk. Alot of people want to sound "smart" I generally don't interact with those people (as it's a waste of time).
Unfortunately alot of discussion these days (irl or online) is about "I am right you're wrong" vs actually the exchange of ideas with respect to another person's perspective. To be fair it's a damn-near easy stance to take and fall into (I am guilty of it myself but try to avoid it).
My experience is that the deeper conversations start with questions. You find the people willing you give you a chance on asking you a question, and you'll probably find someone who's interested in your opinion. Those are the opportunities for meaningful dialogue. But I know that for games I really, truly love, I absolutely enjoy engaging people on them to all ends. You find me someone who loves Caves of Qud and other traditional roguelikes, and I'll talk with them about it for hours. lol
About addictions I can't afford - gaming always struck me as an expensive hobby. But come to think of it - I haven't pirated a game in years. I buy only games that I'll enjoy, and if I don't like one, I can just refund it. And I found that I enjoy those games more, I return to them quite often too. I do not pre-order games and I have no intentions to.
An amazing and simple, yet thought provoking piece. Thank you for that.
And yes, graphics did not improved since 2017, it's just about stacking ray-tracing and upscaling on top of each other, and games instead of looking beautiful... look like covered in Vaseline.
I don't think I have pirated a game since I was a child who had no disposable income. As an adult, it's much more convenient to just buy the game. If there's a problem so glaring that I don't want to buy the game, it turns out I also don't want to pirate it either.
Gaming is one of the least expensive entertainment hobbies that exists. It's why it's become the largest entertainment industry in the world and surpassed even TV and movies. If you think about it, all the way back to Chess, Go, Mancala, or even the Royal Game of Ur, a small investment in a game set could produce endless hours of entertainment, competition, friendly rivalry, mental stimulation, and conversation.
I didn't get a PS4 until after the PS5 had been announced, and playing Horizon in 2021 still felt amazing when I got to it. I have no intentions of getting a PS5, but if I ever do, it will probably be around the same time in its lifespan. Games these days focus on the wrong things, there aren't enough good games to justify the cost of getting to play them, and that's the important thing to do: think about what you're actually paying for. Is it something you actually want, and if so, do you want it enough to justify the price tag? The first half of that, determining whether or not it's something you do in fact want, is I think the part a lot of people skip over these days. It's easy to let yourself be convinced you want something when you actually don't.
I don't know, I'm rambling now. But this video spoke to me. Hats off to you, sir.
6:16 “They already defined us in that End User License Agreement that no one ever reads; we are End Users. Let’s not make things personal.”
TRUTH!!!
If I had a dollar every time I've seen a AAA game go on sale for like 1/2 off with all the DLC like 6 months out from launch. I'd be financially solvent enough that I wouldn't be bitching about expensive video games.
I still stick to my guns of "if this company has displayed any sort of unethical behavior I will not buy from them." Unfortunately, this mindset has and will continue to keep me from enjoying things; from accepting that every industry has no clean sausage factory. When I take this to its logical conclusion I will likely go mad and die if starvation... but at least "I won."
Being human with infinite human needs just sucks.... so much.
There's no ethical consumption under capitalism
The silly asides at the end are one of the rare times I need to stick around once the meat a of a video is concluded. Thanks for being silly, Frost.
I am an ancient (by the standards of the Internet) member of Total Biscuit's old joke, House Biscuit. The house motto is We Do Not Preorder. It was the running joke but also an assertion - it's impossible to know if a game is good before it comes out and people get their hands on it. Don't preorder anything, no matter how hype it looks. Give it a few days after it comes out, at least.
1:20 It's the washing machine that takes most of your socks. Make sure to rotate the drum and look for any stuck to it. Wisdom earned from a summer job working in a laundromat and talking with the owner who fixed all the machines and knew what got lost where.
On my first years of being a PC gamer, I was very much squandering most of my money on sales and bundles, a full FOMO victim, what helped me stop (aside from a big economic scare), was a variation of your guidelines:
If I see a game on sale I have to ask myself these 3 questions:
1. Can I afford to buy it?
2. Do I really want to buy it?
3. Am I going to play it ASAP?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, then I simply don't buy it, it managed to finally put a stop to my gargantuan Steam Library and has let me spend the past few years finally beginning to clear my eternal backlog!
Same (except I pirate everything)
@@eneco3965 I rarely pirate anymore, if I see a game is good, I want to support it with my money.
The only times I will truly pirate is if the game is delisted and I never got to play it, or if it's a classic I used to play but lost the install disc and no way to buy it outside of getting virtually robbed by resellers looking to get rich quick.
I think not using social media is the main reason i dont feel any rush to buy games when they release. Im more than happy to keep playing through my backlog while keeping an eye on digital stores for sales on games I'd like to play
Never pre-order, never buy day 1, never purchase microtransactions, and never give money to companies that hate you.
@@thecaptain6520 Most companies are indifferent to you. A few have contempt for you, but it's rare that they genuinely hate you.
I bought Unicorn overlord day 1 and I don’t regret it at all. Vanillaware has my support.
This is my favorite take on the issues at hand. If I may be so bold, this changes the perspective from "the road to is lined with good intentions" into "Good intentions are no choice of their own."
I used to have a policy where I'd add neat-looking games to my steam wishlist and then buy them when they went on a high enough percentage sale. "Saved" a whole lot that way - until I realized I kind of wasn't really playing half or more of them. Just growing the backlog. These days, I ask myself the most important question before any purchase: "Do I feel like playing this game right now?"
Really helps with the backlog issue, and probably reduces my overall spending to boot.
This series is becoming my favorite content on the channel! And at first I only knew Fully Ramblomatic
The wine monologue at the end 👌
The ramble at the end about wine was a rather unexpected joy.
Come with me and sail the seven seas. Freedom never felt so good
“You’re either watching Sun Dance Pig Man - AirTrash Duet, or you’re doing literally anything other than watching Sun Dance Pig Man - AirTrash Duet.” - Socrates
"Socrates, are you high?" - Plato
“Voting your dollar” means people with more dollars get more votes…
And the people with the most money are usually the people who care the least about these things.
There are countless people who already preordered the 130$ editions of the upcoming Ubisoft games. It works both ways, and we just have to accept that there are numerous people that wanna spend big on things that are widely considered subpar gaming experiences.
Now you're getting it.
@@derigel7662 "Name a time where that has happened in gaming????"
Any game with microtransactions
Nearly every single mobile game
Such a great delivery! Your voice and the lines you come up with are just a perfect blend! A real pleasure to find something like that on CZcams :)
As a new viewer to Cold take I must say these are fast becoming my favourite videos on CZcams
that final wine rant really got me lol, excellent video as always.
Thank you for this post. I enjoy your work.
Wise man. Thanks for putting what i feel/think into words that i can now share.
Fantastic analysis. Appreciate the insight and I very much vibe with all these practices and ideas. GGs
It is good to have principles. I also think it's good to consolidate all the information about oneself as a gaming consumer in one readily accessible place. This was the year I started a spreadsheet where I log all game purchases. I know all the platforms do this themselves, but I feel there is power of volition to be gained from doing it oneself.
@@thecaptain6520 Thanks. Appreciate you saying that.
That outro bit makes me want to just hear Frost ramble about things now
Awesome video as always, Frost, but the twist at the end of the outro was great lmao
Loving these new outro rambles!
Love the banter during the credits. :)
I've been following most of these same guidelines myself for the past several years. Although one additional rule I have for myself is that I will not buy a game unless I am ready to sit down and play it RIGHT THEN. Yes, it sometimes means missing a sale price on something that I did eventually pick up. But it also means never buying something that I don't actually end up ever touching.
That too is a policy I've more or less adopted. I don't buy a game in expectation of playing it *later*, I buy it with the expectation I'll play it now or in the very very near future.
When you have a big enough backlog of purchases from before adopting said policy (or like retro games in general), then you have enough stuff to play if you do want to wait for a sale on a handful of specific games. Not to mention that having more than a single hobby helps. It kinda just works itself out.
"If your passion makes you hate another human being that way then maybe reconsider the thing you love"
I feel like this applies to so many gamers nowadays its sad
This is becoming my favorite Second Wind content.
Just another great video Frost. Thanks
Thank you for your work.
Cold Take, and Frost in general is one of the best things on the internet!
Brilliant. Great leadout. Top one Nice one
Really enjoyed the ramblings at the end there
God I love this man's brain. Keep 'em coming, the colder the sweeter
the writing in this one was flawless
The end of the video wine rant was the best!
I'm not a gamer. I haven't dedicated myself to a game for years and have no intention to get back into the hobby. But I'll be damned if I miss a cold take because the writing and perspective is brilliant and something I won't miss.
my favourite second wind show!
I love cold takes, it's crazy how much of this video I align with when it comes to purchases. I take my take look for the price carefully and check reviews let's play of the games. Too many times have I bought things I ended up not playing or even worse not enjoying but feeling the guilt that I had to finish them.
another banger, nice
Finally, a man who knows the rain cycle.
Man I really enjoy these
Cold take has became my favorite part of second wind.
The note about perceived relationships with studios is a great one. Something I noticed in the vitriol around Star Wars a few years ago... Franchises don't love you back. So don't hinge your identity on that love.
I have very similar policies. Honestly, with the market the way it is, it's not too hard to be a savvy consumer. I play video games almost every day, and yet I only pay full retail price for 1 AAA game a year. Everything else I either get on sale or try it through the Game Pass service or borrow it from a friend. I never pirate, and I sometimes even buy the games I love multiple times (like, buying both a physical and digital copy). But sadly, the market it geared largely towards day 1 sale numbers. So while my policies are good for my own wallet and mental health, they aren't actually an effective way of influencing the industry.
6:20 Now that's some solid background footage! Your biggest fan...
XD Frost humor still makes my day no matter how chaotic evil it goes XD
Great video!
Dang. I've never heard someone spit so many facts in just a few minutes. Subscribed.
Man I can't wait for the time there would be enough of these to make a sleep sound track.
Sebs says things without pause or accent and some things are easy to miss if you were doing dishes and got distracted for a moment.
“If your passion makes your hate another human being, it’s time to reconsider things you love”
Listen to it, hear it, comprehend it.