Poll: Should you be able to get a refund on bad games?

[Absolution75]

You can't get a refund when you watch a shitty movie at a theater - its basically the same thing.

Go to metacritic and look at the average user score (not the reviewer score). That's usually a decent indication of if you should play the game or not.

 

[frozentundra123456]

PC gamer also gave Doom 3 a 98%. You should have cancelled many years ago. And we all know about Gamespots bullshit.

I talk to people here and read other forums. I get a pretty good idea of whats going on.

I probably would agree with you about PC Gamer. However, I do still enjoy reading it, and the subscription is cheap. It does seems in the last couple of years, they have had a lot of turnover, and anyone who lived through the golden age of pc gaming is gone. I probably will not renew my subscription after this one runs out.

 

[shortylickens]

I probably would agree with you about PC Gamer. However, I do still enjoy reading it, and the subscription is cheap. It does seems in the last couple of years, they have had a lot of turnover, and anyone who lived through the golden age of pc gaming is gone. I probably will not renew my subscription after this one runs out.

I cancelled after the bogus Doom3 review. My first hint at trouble should have been when the grognard gamer Trotter left them.
Nowadays I look to forums for honest reviews and Zero Punctuation for humor.

 

[mmntech]

Yeah. But even then we'd get people arguing that Mass Effect 3 is broken or things like that.

And the store should tell them to GTFO. One of the reasons I quit PC gaming in the mid-2000s was because so many games were being released that were crippled with bugs. The prevailing attitude at the time among a lot of companies was to use the end user as a beta tester. Bethesda still does this IMO.

Sure, there are patches. However, I still believe consumers should expect to be given a product that has no game breaking bugs at launch.

The reason software can't be returned is because publishers are afraid consumers will "burn and return." Tough torrents have made that notion obsolete.

 

[Via]

I probably would agree with you about PC Gamer. However, I do still enjoy reading it, and the subscription is cheap. It does seems in the last couple of years, they have had a lot of turnover, and anyone who lived through the golden age of pc gaming is gone. I probably will not renew my subscription after this one runs out.

Not renewing my subscription was a little tougher than I thought it would be. I've been reading the mag since I got into PC gaming, and i have fond memories of being a student and devouring every word of every issue before deciding what game to finally spend the $50 I had been saving for 3 months on. It ended up being a little like Bilbo dropping the ring in LotR.

But I only have to think back to some of their pathetic review scores of the last few years (probably starting with far Cry 2) to remember why it was time to end it.

 

[Martimus]

I cancelled after the bogus Doom3 review. My first hint at trouble should have been when the grognard gamer Trotter left them.
Nowadays I look to forums for honest reviews and Zero Punctuation for humor.

I thought Doom 3 captured the gameplay and feel of Doom pretty well. It is just that the rest of the FPSes had moved on from that. I still enjoyed it and have no issue with good reviews of it since it was very faithful to the gameplay of the original.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Not renewing my subscription was a little tougher than I thought it would be. I've been reading the mag since I got into PC gaming, and i have fond memories of being a student and devouring every word of every issue before deciding what game to finally spend the $50 I had been saving for 3 months on. It ended up being a little like Bilbo dropping the ring in LotR.

But I only have to think back to some of their pathetic review scores of the last few years (probably starting with far Cry 2) to remember why it was time to end it.

Someone paid a mint for that review. heh

 

[shortylickens]

http://www.gamestats.com/objects/951/951257/articles.html#reviews

94?

Bullshit!
See thats so obviously a sham I dont even know what kind of reader takes them seriously.

 

[shortylickens]

I like these guys:
http://www.game-over.com/review/gamereviews.php

They're brutal but honest.

Maybe too brutal. They gave Unreal 77%.

 

[georgec84]

No, but demos should be available for as many games as possible to allow people to make informed decisions about their gaming purchases.

 

[bmaverick]

Go rent the game first. If it's something worth while buy a good one in the CD/DVD case. If the game is a junk, move on. Life is too short to putz around looking at game reviews and joe's posting stupid stuff.

 

[coloumb]

In ye old days we could return PC games - from memory I think it had to be within 24 hours of purchase. However, you were treated like the worlds worst criminal if you tried to return a game because you could literally finish it overnight [I admit that I did this ONCE - can't recall which game, some RPG, that I finished and returned the next day.]

We could also rent PC games back then too...

If there isn't a demo - you can use other services to watch in game footage:

- Youtube videos
- Streaming [justin.tv]
- cloud gaming - onlive, gaikai, etc.

 

[imaheadcase]

If you went by reviews you would think that Black ops was the best game ever. It was terrible terrible game.

The problem with "pro" reviews, i say that loosely, is that they are opinionated like everyone else. Some reviewers will cry fowl that say bf3 single player was shit, so the game is shit. While others don't even review the singleplayer and focus on multiplayer and give it %100.

As for refunds..NO. So much info is out that you can make own judgement on if it is worth buying. If you are the type that must have a game on day 1 then you choose that option not the developer.

 

[Veliko]

If you went by reviews you would think that Black ops was the best game ever. It was terrible terrible game.

The problem with "pro" reviews, i say that loosely, is that they are opinionated like everyone else. Some reviewers will cry fowl that say bf3 single player was shit, so the game is shit. While others don't even review the singleplayer and focus on multiplayer and give it %100.

As for refunds..NO. So much info is out that you can make own judgement on if it is worth buying. If you are the type that must have a game on day 1 then you choose that option not the developer.

The developer/publisher chooses to put a faulty product out though. The fact that there is no direct comeback for them, as there would be for a physical product, is part of the problem.

 

[darkewaffle]

In a perfect world, maybe. But it'd be subject to too much abuse; I think the only legitimate exception should be made for games with genuine technical issues that prevent them being played.

We as consumers have more ways than ever to learn about, discuss, see in action, and often times even try games before we buy them these days. If anything I think that actually puts the onus on the buyer more than ever as we have these tools that weren't nearly so extensive even just 10-15 years ago when we were buying games armed with little more than the information gleaned from a poster or a glossy magazine ad.

 

[imaheadcase]

The developer/publisher chooses to put a faulty product out though. The fact that there is no direct comeback for them, as there would be for a physical product, is part of the problem.

Like i said, so many ways to see if a game is bad before YOU buy it.

 

[thespyder]

Reviews don't usually tell you much. BF3 got good reviews, but the multiplayer gameplay is just terrible. I feel like I got ripped off.

Then you either aren't reading the reviews properly, or you aren't reading the right reviews.

Do some research before you press that "Buy" button. Check out the forums for these games. Ask consumers here at Anandtech. And actually READ what is said.

Personally I avoid things like "9.5" or "6 out of 10" type information. this is highly subjective and depends largely on far to many factors to quantify here. but I read the reviews and I look for the types of things I want to see (or don't want to see) in a game. Read enough reviews on those subjects and you will get a feel for if you are going to like the game or not. Also, play the demos. For a while, they stopped making them. Now they are making a comeback.

But asking for a blanket safety net merely on the off chance that you might not thoroughly enjoy the game.... Isn't going to happen. And really speaks to a fundamental lack of understanding on how the world works.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I think that you should be able to return the games, within a reasonable amount of time.

I understand that such a return policy can be abused, but so can the return policy on nearly anything. I've met people that buy clothes and wear them out for the weekend and then return them the next Monday. So, this is really no different then any other product in that respect.

More importantly is that I feel that the gaming industry has been abusing the no return policy of games for far to long by releasing games that rely on blatantly false advertising, artificially generated hype, review bribery (or more commonly extortion), broken and draconian DRM, and publish-then-patch tricks.

By giving the consumers a more meaningful avenue to display their displeasure with individual titles their treatment I think we would see rapid improvements in the industry.

 

[thespyder]

I think that you should be able to return the games, within a reasonable amount of time.

I understand that such a return policy can be abused, but so can the return policy on nearly anything. I've met people that buy clothes and wear them out for the weekend and then return them the next Monday. So, this is really no different then any other product in that respect.

More importantly is that I feel that the gaming industry has been abusing the no return policy of games for far to long by releasing games that rely on blatantly false advertising, artificially generated hype, review bribery (or more commonly extortion), broken and draconian DRM, and publish-then-patch tricks.

By giving the consumers a more meaningful avenue to display their displeasure with individual titles their treatment I think we would see rapid improvements in the industry.

I am sorry, and with the greatest of respect. Wahhhh. Booo hooo. I had a bad day. can i take it back? Honestly, officer, i didn't mean to run that red light and kill those pedestrians. Can i take it back? Honestly, boss. I didn't mean to call you a boneheaded idiot in front of the entire company. Can i take it back?

I am all for consumer empowerment. 100% behind you on the consumers should have the power to make changes in the industry. And that the Publishers should learn that it is through our continued patronage that they get their pay check.

However, that doesn't mean that we as consumers should be allowed to get away with laziness. If I bought into some media hype and didn't do my research, then shame on ME, not on the marketer. Sure, truth in advertising. But if you have gotten through life this far and not seen that doesn't exist, i don't know what world you live in, but it isn't this one.

And if you know people who wear clothing out for the weekend and then take them back, that is just wrong on the face of it.

 

[PowerYoga]

No. Do your research. Unless your excuse is "it doesn't run on my computer" or "I changed my mind and didn't open the package yet", you don't get to return it.

 

[QuantumPion]

What the heck was wrong with Doom 3? I thought it was good...

 

[Via]

A lot of you haven't been gamers long enough to remember that we used to be able to return games, at a time whem the industry was much smaller than it was today.
I remember taking plenty of games back to Babbage's in the late 90s and exchaninging them for better games.

Did the ability to return crap games kill PC gaming sales? No - they kept growing. the increase in sales during the 90s was explosive despite this "industry-killing" return policy.

The gaming industry (or any essentially artistic industry) can never be at it's best when it concerns itself primarily with supporting tens of thousands of highly paid "executives" and hundreds of thousands of shareholders ahead of the people that actually make the games themselves.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I am sorry, and with the greatest of respect. Wahhhh. Booo hooo. I had a bad day. can i take it back? Honestly, officer, i didn't mean to run that red light and kill those pedestrians. Can i take it back? Honestly, boss. I didn't mean to call you a boneheaded idiot in front of the entire company. Can i take it back?

I am all for consumer empowerment. 100% behind you on the consumers should have the power to make changes in the industry. And that the Publishers should learn that it is through our continued patronage that they get their pay check.

However, that doesn't mean that we as consumers should be allowed to get away with laziness. If I bought into some media hype and didn't do my research, then shame on ME, not on the marketer. Sure, truth in advertising. But if you have gotten through life this far and not seen that doesn't exist, i don't know what world you live in, but it isn't this one.

And if you know people who wear clothing out for the weekend and then take them back, that is just wrong on the face of it.

Personally, I think that the large corporations have plenty of protections already in place to keep their nasty customers from abusing them. So, I say to them, Boo-fucking-hoo, you make a crappy game and people are going to return it. Wahhhh, you no longer can use cheap market control methods to manipulate and control the information until you have their money in hand and they have no recourse.

Dry the crocodile tears and man the fuck up. We are no longer talking about small groups of dedicated artists creating code in their basement out of a love of the technology. Games companies have billion dollar budgets, massive marketing campaigns, and teams of lawyers and lobbyists to manipulate the system to their advantage. They can work in the same market the rest of the world has to deal with, and that includes the ability for consumers to return crappy products that don’t live up to the hype you pumped into it.

 

[shortylickens]

A lot of you haven't been gamers long enough to remember that we used to be able to return games, at a time whem the industry was much smaller than it was today.
I remember taking plenty of games back to Babbage's in the late 90s and exchaninging them for better games.

Did the ability to return crap games kill PC gaming sales? No - they kept growing. the increase in sales during the 90s was explosive despite this "industry-killing" return policy.

The gaming industry (or any essentially artistic industry) can never be at it's best when it concerns itself primarily with supporting tens of thousands of highly paid "executives" and hundreds of thousands of shareholders ahead of the people that actually make the games themselves.

Ummm, back then none of us had CD burners and the internet wasnt fast enough to exchange 650 megs easily.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Ummm, back then none of us had CD burners and the internet wasnt fast enough to exchange 650 megs easily.

Horse Hockey! Games were on 3.25 floppies and we had BBS's that we used to transfer games. You could just pop a blank disk in the drive and copy the game disk to the blank one. Most computers came with two floppy drives for that very reason, pretty much the same reason that so many boom boxes had two cassette drives. It was as easy and as common as coping music cassettes.